A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

 

 

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, ⁶ and has made us kings  and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

Revelation 1: 5-6

 

 

I have just returned home after a short holiday in the Forest of Dean in the lovely, green hills of the west of England. Leaving the lush, fertile fields and  leafy forests of England, with its mild and well-watered climate, I couldn't help but wonder why God did not choose that blessed land in which to establish his holy people. Flying into Tel Aviv at sunset, with the shimmering heat haze mixing with the pollution to cast a golden glow across the brown, sere summer landscape the contrast could not have been greater. And yet it was good to be home. In my absence high summer has settled upon the land. School is out, many have flown abroad to visit relatives and find relief from the stresses of life in Jerusalem, the tourists braving the heat are few, the Ramadan fast lies on the Muslim population, and the city has a certain air of somnolence about it. All seems peaceful but, of course, this is just an illusion (and a bit of wishful thinking), for the tensions in the city are no less in reality. Terror attacks continue on an almost daily basis, Iran continues to play games with the West while building up its nuclear and military potential, and funding and supplying arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, our sworn-enemies to the north and south. The Islamic State creeps inexorably closer through Syria and Egypt, and its toxic ideology gains ground in the hope-starved youth of the region, even within our own borders. With so many threats around and within our little nation, any semblance of peace can be nothing more than the lull before the storm.

 

And I am reminded of the fact that we, who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) have a calling, one we don't think about very much, and that is the calling of a priest. Evangelical Christians shy away from ideas of a priesthood, so we tend to ignore or be unaware of this calling, yet John writing to the churches of Asia, as recorded for all of us in the Book of Revelation describes us as a 'kingdom of priests' (or in some versions, kings and priests) (see quotation above).  It is true that we as believers do not need priests to act as intermediaries between us and God, as in former times. At the moment when Yeshua died on the cross, the veil of partition between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, where the ordinary priests served, was rent from top to bottom, something only God could have done  (Matthew 27:51). This proclaimed the fact that we, as ordinary priests, now have direct access to God by the Holy Spirit in Yeshua. We no longer need priests to intercede for us, and we have a Great High Priest, Yeshua, who has offered the only true sacrifice for our sins, his own blood, and who intercedes for us continuously in heaven. The wall between the Holy Place and the Outer Courtyard, the place of the common people,  was not destroyed however. Those who are not of the priesthood, those who as yet are unsaved, still do not have access to God. They still need priests to act as intermediaries and intercessors.

Plan of the Mosaic Tabernacle
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The Tabernacle of Moses is long gone and the Aaronic priesthood, and the sacrificial system were destroyed two thousand years ago when the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. These things have never been restored to this day. So how is it we are described as a kingdom of priests? In what way are we to function as priests today?

 

There is much I could say about the Aaronic Priesthood and the Tabernacle, its design and its symbolism. The writer to the Hebrews described the Mosaic Tabernacle as the 'copy and shadow' of the 'heavenly things' (Hebrews 8:5). Every aspect of the Tabernacle was designed and spelled out in detail by the LORD himself, and is full of deep symbolism and relevance for us today. The Tabernacle foreshadows the Kingdom of God in its fullness under the High Priesthood of Yeshua (Hebrews 9). The other day I was reading in the book of Exodus chapter 28 God's instructions to Moses about the garments of the High Priest.

 

Some things stood out for me as I read this passage;

They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine linen, ⁶ and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked... (verses 5 and 6)

 Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: ¹⁰ six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth. ¹¹ With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold. ¹² And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial. (verses 9-12)

 You shall make the breastplate of judgment. Artistically woven according to the workmanship of the ephod you shall make it: of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, you shall make it... (verse 15)

 And the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name; they shall be according to the twelve tribes.... (verse 21)

  So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the Lord continually. ³⁰ And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually. (verses 29-30).

http://www.messianic-torah-truth-seeker.org/Torah/Kohen/kohen-garments.jpg

Thus it was whenever the High Priest donned his ceremonial garments he bore before God the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, once on his shoulders as a memorial before God, and once on the breastplate of judgment, close to his heart. So too today, our Great High Priest, Yeshua, still bears the names of the tribes of Israel on his shoulders and close to his heart as He intercedes on our behalf, and we too, the kingdom of priests, need to do the same.

This is the calling of intercession. There are some who have a special callings and gifting as intercessors, but we are all called to intercede for Israel, and indeed for all the Gentile nations as well, for their salvation.

This week I also read these words in Psalm 147,

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds...

 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³ For He has strengthened the bars of your gates;
He has blessed your children within you.
¹⁴ He makes peace in your borders,
And fills you with the finest wheat...

 

 

He sends out His command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
¹⁶ He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes;
¹⁷ He casts out His hail like morsels;
Who can stand before His cold?
¹⁸ He sends out His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹ He declares His word to Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any nation;

And as for His judgments, they have not known them.

Praise the Lord!

 God's word is swift and powerful, and nothing can stand against it.  He declared his Word to Israel, to her prophets and priests, and the Word, Yeshua, came to Israel. The LORD has not dealt so with any other nation. Furthermore, He has not yet finished with Israel. He is even in our day gathering her outcasts back to the Holy Land,  and binding up their wounds. One day He will reveal Himself to them in Yeshua, the Messiah. We need to be participants in God's work in our day. We need to be interceding in prayer faithfully for the people of Israel, together with all the Gentiles, who are as yet unsaved. When Yeshua comes again, and this may be very soon, He will be revealed in glory as the Messiah, and all the peoples of the Earth will weep before him., even 'those who pierced him',

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

Revelation 1: 7 

 

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