Leviticus 21. This chapter contains the regulations for the conduct of priests. YHVH’s standards were high, and a priest could easily be disqualified from service for failing to measure up.

YHVH demands higher standards of righteousness, obedience and holiness for those in leadership over his people. The higher up in leadership one desires to go, the more one’s walk must characterize service, self-deprecation and holiness. (See 1 Tim 3:1–13; Tit 1:5–9.) Standards of holiness rise as one attains a deeper and more intimate relationship with YHVH.

Yeshua condemned the religious leaders of his day for not practicing what they preached (i.e., hypocrisy), for living lives of pretense and show (he called such ones “whited sepulchers full of dead man’s bones”), and for greediness and pride. Check your walk in these areas. Do you want to “go places” with YHVH in service to him and his people? Are you willing to pay the price? The sacrifices necessary to be Yeshua’s bondservant comes at a high price (especially for the flesh), but the spiritual rewards are priceless!