And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
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March 20, 2008:Traditions | Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. |
| December 29, 2007:New Year's 2008 | ||
| November 3, 2007:How To Be Successful in Christian Ministry | ||
| October 23, 2007:Salmon |
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| The Roots of Our Royal Priesthood William H. Haller |
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Following on with our Old Testament Survey, and concentrating on the covenants that God made with individuals and groups in the Old Testament, we move from Noah, to Abraham, and now to the people of Israel through Moses. Subsequent to the time of Abraham, the Israelites had ended up in bondage to the Egyptian people. Moses was raised up by God to be a leader of the Israelites and take His people out of that bondage under Pharaoh.
After the people had left, they eventually ended up at Mt. Sinai (a.k.a. Mt. Horeb), where God had first spoken with Moses and told him to lead the people. Here, God made another covenant with the descendants of Abraham as a whole.
Like the covenant with Abraham, this covenant was conditional. In it, God said that if the people would obey God's voice and keep His covenants, then the people would be a peculiar treasure unto God above all people. They would be a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.
Most of the people around the Israelites were ruled by strong leaders. Sometimes these were kings and sometimes pharaohs or other generally hereditary rulers. The priests served at the pleasure of the political establishment. Sometimes they had more power and influence, but generally the kings were in charge of what happened with the people.
When God set up the laws and rules that the Israelites were to live under, He rejected this plan. He set up the priests to be the leaders of the people. They would lead in worship, religious matters, and would also be the conduit through which God directed what His people did. There were to be no kings over Israel in God's divine plan. It is true that in later times the people rebelled against this idea and asked God to set up kings over them just as the surrounding people had, but from the beginning this was not so. The priests were to do everything.
What were the priests responsible for?
With the direction of God, the priests had many responsibilities. The were the interface between God and His people. Originally, Moses was the primary link, and tried to settle all of the affairs of the people. His father in law asked him to inquire of God to see if he could appoint a series of other worthy men over groups of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 Israelites to take some of the weight off of Moses' shoulders and judge the lesser matters through these people, bringing only the more grave matters before Moses. This was acceptable to God and so it was.
Through the interface with Moses and other high priests over time, God directed the people's walk. He said where to camp, what foods were permissible to eat, what they could drink, when to move camp, what sacrifices to make to Him and how often, when, where, and frequently how to attack, and all other aspects of their lives. The priests duties included:
Later, once the land of Canaan was conquered, he divided the lands by lot amongst the people.
The people were to be holy before the Lord, unlike the idolatrous people around them. They agreed to this in the covenant that they made with God. They didn't always do a good job of this, and sometimes they did a very bad job of this, but that was their job to fill.
We often think of the Old Testament as having 10 commandments. Dake lists 2,713 commands that formed the body of the Law of Moses. This was a lot of rules and regulations to live under and is one reason there were so many offerings that were scheduled throughout the year. When the people agreed to follow the law of Moses, they were really agreeing to follow quite a body of law. It was far more than just the ten commandments and is probably one reason why they were at Mt. Sinai for so long as God laid down the laws to Moses.
The theocracy that God established was to be a testimony to the people around Israel. After the campaign that the Israelites engaged in to defeat the inhabitants of Canaan, there was a fear that was on many of the people around them. In fact, even when Israel was being beaten due to one of their backsliding events and the ark of the covenant was stolen, many of the cities around them didn't want the ark of the covenant to enter their gates. They were afraid of what happened to other cities where it had resided.
Even today, several military leaders in the nations surrounding Israel have developed a renewed healthy respect due to various battles that they have lost against Israel. The majority of them may have rejected Christ as the Messiah, but they still have a special spot in God's heart, nonetheless. They are still the people that He covenanted with thousands of years ago. God never forgets any of His promises.
The New Testament says we are to be a Royal Priesthood, taking the place of the Levites in the Old Testament. We are all to fill that role. There isn't a separate support tribe as the Levites were, with a group of those people actually doing the work. For our generation, we are all to be priests. The Levites ministered to the other tribes of Israel who were to serve as examples to the rest of the world. Today, we are to serve God as priests directly to be examples to the whole world. The Israelites only had direct influence on nearby tribes. We are distributed throughout the world and should be having an influence wherever people are gathered together as a people.
We don't have the same exact duties as the Levites and priests of the Old Testament, but there are parallels that apply to us as well. The animal sacrifices, anointing oil, and firstfruits offerings are history. Christ paid the sacrifice for our sins on Calvary so they have no equivalent purpose for us today.
Many denominations still pronounce benedictions. Here, the closing benediction is taken from Numbers 6:22-27 - "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." Not all denominations are this formal to have a quoted benediction each service, but there is a lot of blessing of the people still going on today.
We still teach God's law and God's way to the people. Some denominations are not as strong as others in trying to keep a strong sense of right and wrong before the people. Some have drifted far over into accepting anything and everything and saying it is OK. But many are still founded on the truth in the Bible. That is what we are responsible for teaching and carrying forward to each new generation. We aren't responsible for teaching the easy philosophies of the people around use. We are responsible for being lights to the world, preaching the truth, and only the truth as found in the Bible. Christians are largely responsible for the continued distribution of Bibles. If it weren't for us buying them (and hopefully reading and studying them), there wouldn't be another Bible printed and God's word that has been faithfully maintained for thousands of years would be hidden away on bookshelves and gradually thrown out and covered up like the Dead Sea scrolls..
In the Old Testament, the clothing of the priests was made by them and was pretty fancy. It marked them as someone set apart. In most instances, however, the clothing could only be worn when they were going about specific duties related to their ministry. Christians today don't have a commanded attire to wear to worship. Oh, some denominations like the Catholics place great value in the priestly garments. Most other old-line denominations have carried at least some level of the pomp of the Catholic church with them. The farther away from Catholicism you get, the less pomp and ceremony there is.
What about us? We are priests full time. There are no special times that we are supposed to put on special garments - we need to be ready to do battle against the enemy at all times. As Paul wrote in Ephesians...
6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.The battles of many of the Israelites were directly against armed neighbors. They battled with armies against those who would destroy them. Our battles are not against flesh and blood. Our battles are against evil forces in high places, against the evil spirits and demons who wish to destroy the work of Christ. The special attire that we are to wear is not made by man. It is fashioned by God. What is fashioned by man will not stand against the forces of darkness. We need the protection that God's armor provides.
6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
6:20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Most churches don't have eternal flames anymore. Some do light candles for services and keep a link to the past of the tabernacles going in that sense. But we have an eternal flame that lives inside us now. At the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out to equip us to service. In that instance, tongues as of flame were visibly present during the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This flame that was given 2,000 years ago has had some times of great dimming over the intervening centuries. The dark ages were dark for a lot of reasons. In the last century, the Spirit has been made manifest again in various denominations. God doesn't have a favorite denomination. All Christians are equal in His sight. He would love to work through His people again wherever they are gathered together and in whatever denomination they have chosen to congregate. He wants to fill up all believers today just as the disciples were in the early church as recorded in the New Testament.
We still have services in churches, and they are overseen by us - the priests of this generation. We usually don't have to strike the church and move it somewhere else at God's bidding, but missionaries and special groups that tour certainly do move from place to place. We don't necessarily supervise tithing, but it is still a practice among some Christians. Our churches would be a lot healthier if everyone practiced it scrupulously - we could do much more to reach the world and help the suffering.
We still sing and make joyful noises to God. Of course, there is an avalanche of other music out there that isn't Christian, but we still are giving our voices and instruments to God's work. The priests of old were commanded to look for particular diseases and to isolate those people from the rest of the people. Sometimes something happened that would cause God to use the priests to perform ceremonies that would heal the people. For today, God set out a plan for healing His people through us today via the gift of healing and miracles through the Holy Spirit and through the laying on of hands and prayer for the sick by the elders of the church. We've fallen down here. We should all seek the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit so we could be used of God in whatever fashion He wants. If all Christians were at the level of the disciples, the burden on any one person would not be great. When only a few have answered God's call to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and even fewer have sought the Gifts of the Spirit, the burden is heavy on a few.
We really don't have devoted or dedicated things as much today. Perhaps we should, but we don't, so valuing those things doesn't happen as often. About the closest thing we have to that is if someone gives something to a church as tangible property instead of intangible property. In those cases, they need a valuation for tax purposes.
Finally, the priests were called to be leaders and judges for the people. Of all the things where we aren't living up to the type of the priests of the Old Testament, this is where we probably fail the most today. Too often we are voting for the lesser of two evils. Just being a Christian does not necessarily make you a good politician, because few Christians today listen to what God tells them to do, let alone do it when He does tell them something. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and listening all the time to God's voice. Some of the Christians who are in this category have a broad enough experience in leading companies or working in government offices to be electable. These people need to step up to the plate and get involved in local and state politics.
Other Christians need to let God groom them for office and let Him help them as He sees fit. They may not be electable to a high office immediately, but could start at lower offices like school boards. The atheists and agnostics don't have any problem running for these offices because they want to stamp out all traces of God in our civilization. Don't be afraid to get involved. If we continue to vote for the best of two really bad choices, the country will inexorably slip further and further into the pit.
I can't stress how important it is to get out and vote in each and every election. I don't know how it is in all parts of the country, but Wyoming is heavily Republican. Whichever Republican candidate wins the primary election, is usually elected to most major offices. If someone needs taken out of office, you have to get out and vote in the primary, because once they have won the primary, they will almost certainly win the general election.
Finally, we are called to be a holy people, just as the Israelites were. In Leviticus, the command to the people was "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.". In 1 Peter 1:15-16, this is repeated to us: "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." Living a holy life is not easy. God never said it was. Some days I have good days in this respect. Some days I don't. But I do believe it is possible to be what God wants us to be. He doesn't give commands to His people that He doesn't expect them to obey or to be able to fulfill. Be strong. If you fail today or tomorrow, try to make the next day a little better. Seek the Holy Spirit's help and God will provide strength to do what you should do.
We need to be priests for this country and the world. We need to be lights. We cannot be lights that are only displayed under the bushel basket of the walls of a church. We must be lights 24x7x365 wherever and whenever He calls us to shine. Be the holy priesthood that He wants us to be so that in that day when He returns for His people, He can be pleased with the things we have done through Him.
We aren't saved through works - we are saved by grace. But the works are what will expand His kingdom. Start doing the work that He has called you to do.
