Impartial God!
God shows no partiality!
In Lev 21:16–24, we read,
GOD spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron, None of your descendants, in any generation to come, who has a defect of any kind may present as an offering the food of his God. That means anyone who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed, crippled in foot or hand, hunchbacked or dwarfed, who has anything wrong with his eyes, who has running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to offer gifts to GOD; he has a defect and so must not offer the food of his God. He may eat the food of his God, both the most holy and the holy, but because of his defect he must not go near the curtain or approach the Altar. It would desecrate my Sanctuary. I am GOD who makes them holy.”
This passage would make God to be on the wrong. God makes the lame, the blind, disfigured, and deformed and then disqualifies them from offering food to God in his temple. How can such people be sidelined for no fault of theirs? Where is justice?
The above questions should not be questions on why is God unjust but rather it is highlighting man’s plight. You might ask how so. Firstly, God wants to show that inorder to serve him or be his servant, man should reflect Gods character of holiness. Anything less than holy is not in line with God’s character. Just as it is in heaven, if God is to be approached on earth, it should also reflect the same. There should be something to denote that God is not ordinary. He is different from creation. Hence in order to translate this distinction of God, he lays down a framework for worship — who can appear before Him in offering sacrifice, who can appear before Him to offer prayer, who should be involved in the matters of singing, gatekeeping, vessal cleaning etc. Who can enter the holy of holies. Who can enter the inner court, outer court. Which tribe can participate in the activities of the temple (Not every tribe could take on the responsibility of being a priest but only those from the tribe (or lineage) of Levi).
Man cannot on his own terms approach God. God is unapproachable because of the guilt of Adam. In Adam everyone sinned. Hence the whole of mankind is condemned.
But God wishes to commune with mankind and hence He prepares a people for himself (more like teach a set of people how to conduct themselves as children of God but takes more than a training of sorts. It requires a transformational mind and life which God has to instill). While doing that He (God) lays down dos and donts. It might sound unfortunate and unjust but it just reflects the impossibility of mankind to appear before God on His terms.
Hence if certain people are allowed to serve God it is purely His mercy. Also on the contrary the lesser fortunate — the crippled, the lame, women, the gentile (ie. not of the people prepared for Himself) were not left out. Though it appeared for many millenia they were the outcast, God in His mercy had a provision that they might appropriate to be found favourable in God’s eye. This provision is through the death and sacrifice of Jesus. God has now made it possible for all people of all nations, races, color, gender to have a communion with God like how Moses were friends with God or like Enoch who walked with God and was no more. (See the medium story Good news to understand this provision from God)
