HEBREW WORD STUDY – ASHES AND FAT – DESHEN  דשן Daleth Shin Nun

Leviticus 6:10-11: “And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. (11) And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place.

Leviticus 6:20: “This [is] the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night.”

There are a number of Hebraic laws which the Jewish sages call a kok.  A kok is something that doesn’t make any sense. There seems to be no reason behind it but they are commanded to do so they do it.  For instance, washing one’s hands and washing their eating utensils in hot water made no sense to ancient man.  They had no concept of microbes, little living creatures that you cannot see that can grow inside the food you eat and make you sick.  People laughed at such an ideas all the way of to 1860 when Louis Pasteur proved that diseases were caused by these unseen microscopic creatures.  All of a sudden some of the kosher laws started to make sense. 

In these verses are other koks that are left to us to determine the reason behind the laws.  Sometimes the reasons are more for spiritual health rather than physical. I suspect that is the case with the old boy assigned to cleaning up the ashes from the altar.  You see, much of the animal that is sacrificed is consumed on the altar. Sometimes the entire animal is consumed sometimes only a portion is consumed and the rest is left for the priest for food and that which is not edible is waste or trash. The priest could not own land and therefore could not raise animals or grow crops so they depended upon the offerings and the sacrifices for food, which was God’s provision.  The remainder which was not consumable were just the ashes.  

Actually, the word in Hebrew for ashes is deshen which means both ashes and fat. It is the useless left overs after the animal is sacrificed. Leviticus 7:23 forbids the eating of animal fat. Hence it had to be discarded by a priest. Not just any  priest but one from the line of Aaron, the line where the High Priest is drawn.  We find in Leviticus 6:10-11 that this priest, possible future high priest, was assigned to remove this deshen.  However, curiously, he was to put on fine linen, clean garments and remove ceremonially a portion of the deshen and lay it by the altar.  Then he was to change clothes and clean up the altar and carry that deshen to the outside of the tabernacle for disposal. In other words, the same priest who is honored with the performance of the sacred ceremonial task of removing the deshen to be placed by the altar, is almost immediate demoted to that of a janitor who changes from his priestly robe and puts on his Dockers and performs janitorial duties. This is odd because there were a number of non-Levites who had devoted their lives to serving in the temple to perform these mundane or humble janitorial acts. We do not know what the reason for the ceremonial removal of the deshen was for and is considered a kok.  However, there may be a very apparent spiritual picture here.

In Leviticus 6:20 we have another unusual Hebraic law. The high priest is given a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour, that is flour used for making bread for himself and his family. That comes to only about three pounds of flour which is considered a pauper’s portion. In other words, he and his family were only allowed to eat no more than the poorest of the people of Israel. Yet, we learn in the Mishnah, that it is the obligation of the priest to make the high priest the richest man in Israel. So, the high priest is the richest man in Israel but he is forced to eat like the poorest in Israel.  That is considered another kok. Unless, you read the letters of the Apostle Paul. For you see, as a Christian, we believe that Jesus is now our High Priest and Paul tells us in II Corinthians 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

Of course, the Jews do not see this as a picture of Christ, but they do see a lesson in this that is very valuable to us as believers.  For you see the role of removing the ashes went to a Levitical priest in the line of Aaron which was a very prestigious position.  This would be one who is in line to be the High Priest once his father passes away. So here we have a future high priest performing the task of a simple janitor.  The high priest himself is a rich man, but he can only eat like a poor man.  This is a very clear picture and lesson for anyone who aspires for a leadership role in the church.  

Jesus explained it best to His disciples who would one day be great church leaders: Mark 9:35: “And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, [the same] shall be last of all, and servant of all.”  I was in a church one time where they had no janitor and members of the congregation did janitorial duties.  One day an announcement from the pulpit came for volunteers to clean the restrooms in the church.  The announcer declared: “It would be a shame if the pastor had to clean the rest rooms?”  Everyone laughed at such a ridiculous notion.  Why their pastor, their leader, this man of God reduced to cleaning rest rooms, what an absurd thought.  

Let me put it this way, if you are a pastor and you believe that your congregation should follow the Hebraic laws of tithing, then you should also be cleaning toilets and doing the janitorial work and then sitting down eating a dinner that the poorest in your congregation eat.  Even if your congregation made you rich you would not be allowed to live like you were rich.

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