A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

“Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, Whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.  But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:1-3).

 

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9, 10).

 

My wife and I had the opportunity to attend a local presentation of Handel’s Messiah a year ago.  It had been a number of years since we saw it last and were excited to go.  One of the choruses that I think is especially powerful is the one that quotes the Prophet Malachi who said, “…and He shall purify the sons of Levi.”  I was moved greatly as the vocalists sang this line over and over.  The truth of it washed over me as I considered how God wants to purify His Priesthood so that they, in turn, “…may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”    

 

Just who are the sons of Levi, and how do these lines of scripture apply to modern day Christians?  According to St. Peter, those who are God’s children are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, and a peculiar people (a purchased possession belonging to God alone).  God separated the early Jewish priests and asked them to dedicate their lives in service and praise to Him.  We, too, have been called to serve God and be witnesses of His glory to the unbelieving world around us.  It is up to us to show the virtue and praiseworthiness of Him Who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  Our call is one of separation, service, and praise.  This is a sobering responsibility, and one that should not be taken lightly.  God intends to have a holy, righteous, and pure people who will serve and honor Him, and He has taken the task of purifying them upon Himself.  He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap. He sits as a Refiner and Purifier of His people, but who may endure the day of His coming, the Prophet asks? 

 

In the Old Testament, God chose one tribe from the twelve tribes of Israel to serve in the priesthood.  That tribe was Levi.  The name in Hebrew means “attached, joined, or united.”  Ideally, this is how the priests of the Lord should live: attached to God spiritually, and joined to, or united with, Christ.  God did not originally intend for the priesthood to be a select number of individuals who would be representative of the nation of Israel, however.  He didn’t want only a representative priesthood: He wanted a Kingdom of Priests who would honor and serve Him.  He wanted every Israelite to be a priest.  God had told Moses while he was with Him on Mt. Sinai to speak to the Israelites and tell them, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.  Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.  These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:3-6).

 

This was God’s intention, but it wasn’t what happened.  While God was in the very act of delivering the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Jews had grown impatient waiting for Moses to return, and were planning to select someone to lead them back to the bondage of Egypt.  They had cast a Golden Calf and said, “These be thy god’s, O Israel, which brought thee up from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4).  When Moses returned, they were all naked, dancing and reveling in their “freedom” before the Golden Calf.  God would have destroyed them then and there had Moses not interceded for them beforehand.  As it was, Moses was so frustrated that he threw down the stone tablets containing the Commandments and broke them in pieces. 

 

On that day, Moses stood in the gap and said, “Who is on God’s side?” (Exodus 32:26).  Of all the Twelve Tribes, only the Levites responded and stood with Moses (and with God).  It isn’t clear from the account whether or not the Levites had participated in the idolatrous activities or not.  Aaron was part of the tribe of Levi, and he certainly was involved.  Jewish scholars teach that the Levites did not join with their brethren in their transgressions and that Aaron was only trying to buy time until Moses returned by casting the Golden Calf and by proposing a day to worship it.  Regardless, whether they had transgressed with the rest or had kept themselves clean of this sin, when Moses called for every man to decide whose side they were on, the Levites sided with God immediately. 

 

The decision for us today is no less critical and no less direct.  Some 40 years later, Joshua issued a very similar challenge to the Israelites when he said, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15).  Jesus, also, taught, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon [treasure or riches].” (Matthew 6:24).  God demands that we choose one side or the other.  We will either serve God, or we will serve sin, the world, and the devil.  Many think that they can straddle the fence and sneak into heaven by the skin of their teeth.  They are going to wake up on judgment day and be shocked to hear the Master say, “I know you not, ye workers of iniquity.”

 

Even those who have turned from God and chosen to walk in sin can be redeemed if they will just turn from their wicked ways and choose to serve, honor, and follow the Lord the rest of their lives.  Because the Levites were willing to stand with the LORD on that day, God selected them to serve Him as priests before His people. 

 

In this account, we find many types and shadows which give us an idea of what God is looking for in His priests.  First of all, it is essential that they be quick to repent.  Until you and I can openly acknowledge our sins to God, we will remain in bondage in our hearts.  We will be ready to return to the world and its amusements when the going gets rough or the Lord’s timeline doesn’t fit our own.  The Israelites had been delivered from slavery in dramatic fashion; but in their hearts, they were still held captive to Egypt.  Many Christians have also been delivered from the bondage of the world, but are quickly drawn back again when the cares of life assail them.  Like Lot’s wife, they can’t resist looking back longingly at what they have left behind.  God is looking for priests who are quick to embrace God’s will over their own, and who will set their face like a flint to follow wherever Christ leads them. 

 

Secondly, the Levites were ready to do judgment on God’s behalf when asked to do so.  They were ready to slay every brother, companion, and neighbor if need be in order to defend God’s holiness.  This foreshadows the words of Jesus when He told His followers, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26).  In order to be faithful priests to God, we must be willing to despise every evil influence, regardless of its source, whether it comes from friends, family, neighbors, or even from our own hearts.  We must hate the influence of the flesh, but love the people themselves, understanding that we were once so influenced by the evil one also.  

 

When the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land under Joshua, and the land began to be divided among the various tribes, the children of Levi received no inheritance or parcel of land like the other tribes did.  God told them that He Himself would be their inheritance and would be their lot.  We have also been called to forsake this world in order to follow after our Master and Lord.  This call to priesthood is not just for the pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and singers.  God has called all of us to this holy service.  He has filled us with His Holy Spirit to direct us in the ways in which He wants us to go.  Our life is no longer our own, but it belongs to Him Who has ransomed us with His own blood.  We cannot say that Jesus pilots our ship if we won’t step aside and let Him have the wheel!

 

In 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses three and four, Paul writes, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.”  Sanctification simply refers to something (or someone) that has been set aside for a special use or purpose.  Like the golden vessels that were crafted and placed in the Jewish Temple.  They were to be used strictly for the service of God and not for everyday, casual use.  When Belshazzar, the King of Babylon, decided to bring out the gold and silver vessels that had once been in the Temple in Jerusalem, and use them to drink wine from during one of his feasts, God did not approve, and brought judgment on him.  (Daniel 5).  The priests and Levites in the Old Testament were considered to be set aside for God in this manner.  Their lives were sanctified for God’s special purpose.  Their lives were no longer their own, but God’s.  Similarly, we are purchased possessions, set aside for God’s particular use.

 

The priests had many tasks in the Old Testament.  The maintenance of the temple was their sole responsibility.  Before there was a permanent temple, the priests would set up and tear down the Tabernacle of the Congregation in the wilderness.  The males of each Levite family had their assigned tasks to do, and it was specifically their charge and no one else’s.  In the Body of Christ, we each have a charge that has been given specifically to us, and no one else.  It is our ministry, our gifts, and our service.  I’m not talking about tasks that we may help out with in a church building (for God does not dwell in temples made with hands).  It isn’t mowing the grass, sweeping the carpets, or polishing the pulpit that is going to build up the Church of the Living God which is the Body of Christ.  Yes, if we have church buildings, they must be maintained.  God bless every dear soul who takes those jobs upon themselves and does them as unto the Lord; they will not lose their reward.  God’s Church, however, is invisible, and spiritual.  It requires those who are spiritual to do what the Spirit directs them to do in order to build up the universal House of God.  When God finally released Israel from their Babylonian captivity to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, He chided them for being more interested in maintaining their own homes than for completing God’s House.  Today, God’s people have been so distracted by all of their houses of worship that they have failed to recognize that God’s House needs completing.  “Is it time for you — you! To dwell in your covered houses, And this house [God’s Temple] to lie waste?” (Haggai 1:4 YLT). 

 

It was also the job of the priests to offer the daily sacrifices, burn the incense, light the lamps, and replace the showbread in the Holy Place regularly with fresh loaves.  All of these tasks correspond to the various spiritual gifts that God has bestowed on each of His children.  Presenting ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices according to Romans 12:1, offering up our daily prayers as a sweet incense to our God, letting our light shine brightly to the world and not hiding it under a bushel, displaying the Word of God (our bread from heaven) always in our lives as a continual offering to the Lord – in all of these ways and so many, many more, we do service to the House of God and build up Christ’s Body on earth.  As Peter writes, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5). 

 

It was the priests’ responsibility to teach the law to the people, and to answer questions that they had concerning its’ requirements.  Paul tells us that we are to study the Word in order to show ourselves approved to God.  We are all required to be able to teach the basics of the Word to those who may ask us about this hope we have in Christ.  As Paul says, “…the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:24, 25).  We never know when an opportunity may arise where someone wants to know about our walk, or about what God thinks about this or that.  At work, at the grocery store, at the bank, or anywhere – we must be ready to speak what the Lord has put in our hearts.  “Instant in season, out of season,” Paul tells us.  In other words, when we feel like it, or not; whether we are prepared for it, or not.  These are our opportunities to show forth God’s praises and His virtues to a dying world.

 

Most importantly, it was up to the priests to bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord whenever it required moving.  If anyone else even touched the Ark, they instantly died.  The Ark represented the presence of Almighty God among His people and was, therefore, very holy.  Those who touched the Ark touched God’s holy presence and needed to be holy themselves.  This is why the priests went through certain cleansing and sanctification rituals, and were forbidden to touch any unclean thing.  It was to ensure that they were clean before God before doing service to Him and His people.  “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.” (Isaiah 52:11 NKJV). 

 

In reading the Old Testament accounts of God’s dealing with the Israelites and other nations, it’s good to keep in mind that the LORD was dealing with a carnal, fleshly people who were bound by the lusts of their flesh and the weakness of their own resolve.  They were a people living under the Law and the Old Covenant.  Their best efforts to keep their part of the Covenant were futile.  The first man and the first woman had chosen this route by eating from the wrong tree in the Garden of Eden.  After that, mankind’s story was one of repeated disobedience and sin.  Only a few found grace because they discovered that faith and love were the fulfilling of the Law and not their own moral strength and will power.

 

God’s dealings with His people under the Old Covenant may seem severe and harsh to our delicate sensibilities today, but it is because we do not understand the serious nature of the warfare between the forces of righteousness and evil.  The stakes couldn’t be higher.  Satan, God’s archrival, is bent on destroying mankind.  He was in the Garden of Eden in the beginning working to deceive Adam and Eve, and seduce them into making decisions that would be life altering and earth changing for the worse.  Anyone who has lived long enough to witness even the last few decades of history can easily recognize that the world is on a downward trajectory that can only ultimately end in destruction unless the LORD intervenes. Israel saw the acts of God, but, too often, they failed to understand His ways.

 

Christ, our great High Priest, came to introduce a New Covenant to every human being.  According to the New Covenant, God promised to write His laws on the tables of our hearts instead of on cold tables of stone.  He promised to pour out His Spirit and His grace upon all those who would believe in the salvation that is in His Son Jesus Christ.  According to this New Covenant we are all called to be priests to the LORD and a holy, righteous nation.  The promises go beyond just the Jews, but include every tribe and every kingdom.  We have become a chosen generation! 

 

In light of this glorious call, God wants His priesthood to be pure and holy.  Therefore, He will purge them like silver and gold is purged: in the intense heat of adversity.  His furnace is the day to day afflictions and temptations that are common to every living soul.  The LORD doesn’t send them, but He allows them as opportunities for our faith and patience to grow.  “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10).  We are all called to be sons of Levi, and, therefore, we are all going to be purified by fire.  Remember the words of John the Baptist who said, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.  Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable.” (Luke 3:16, 17).

 

Those who love the truth will not balk at the Lord’s purging, but will be thankful for His correction.  They understand that it is making them more like their heavenly Father.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2, 3). 

 

Remember, the ultimate purpose of God’s purifying is so that His priests – we who represent Him to the world – may offer to Him “an offering in righteousness.”  God has been blasphemed for far too long by unbelievers because of the hypocritical example that His children have set before them.  It is time for us to rise up and practice what we say we believe.  It is time for us to take a side.  Who is on God’s side?!