Leviticus 10-12
For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
Leviticus 11:45
This command (or promise!) for the people of Israel to “be holy, for I am holy” is given (in one form or another) five times in Leviticus. (See Lev. 11:44, 11:45, 19:2, 20:7, 20:26.) It is also repeated specifically for priests in Lev. 21:8. God’s desire for holiness in His people pervades this book, and it lies at the core of today’s reading.
The priests have a responsibility to be particularly holy, set apart from the common people, but Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, step out of line and do their own thing, offering “unauthorized” (or “strange” or “profane”) fire before the LORD. (I am not exactly sure what that means, but I am quite sure that it is not just an “honest mistake”.) The LORD makes an example of them, and they pay for their unholy action with their lives. The LORD says, “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.”
Holiness is not just for the priests, though. God wants the entire nation to be distinctive, set apart from all the nations around them — just as He is set apart from all else. Israel is to behave differently, and that distinctiveness is to run through practically every aspect of life. We see that in the regulations for the “clean” and the “unclean”, emphasizing over and over again that God draws distinctions.
We are similarly called to holiness. We are not to be conformed to the world around us, continuing to do things our own way. As Saint Peter tells us:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
I Peter 1:14-16
So what does that look like for us? Are we to take on the Kosher dietary laws? Are we to consider new mothers to be “unclean”? And all the rest? No, but perhaps we need to think long and hard about our lives, and as we move through the Scriptures we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how we need to change so that we might indeed be “set apart” from the world. One thing is sure: holiness is not an option. As God’s children we are all called to be holy. And the reason for us is the same as it was for Israel: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”