Priestly Job Description
The center of the priestly job description is fellowship with the Lord, having fun with his hospitality and safety, residing in his home. Could we by no means assume that our obedience is the essence of life in Christ. Lavish meals, satisfaction, peace, and pleasure are the lot of God’s monks. It could possibly be no different approach after we are invited to reside on the junction of heaven and earth. But life is busy at this assembly place. There may be a lot to do. Our identification as monks is accompanied by a significant mission. Boredom shouldn’t be an possibility.
For the early monks, there have been the weak, the orphaned, the widows, and the poor to look after and to encourage others to do the identical—to lend with an open hand, to be beneficiant as we now have been proven generosity (Deut. 15:1–18). There have been additionally wars and conflicts, and other people needed to be ready for battle:
Once you draw close to to the battle, the priest shall come ahead and converse to the individuals and say to them, “Hear, O Israel, as we speak you might be drawing close to for battle towards your enemies: let not your coronary heart faint. Don’t worry or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to struggle for you towards your enemies to provide the victory.” (Deut. 20:2–4)
These early descriptions of the priestly mission have been all the time pointing towards one thing extra and somebody extra. The mission converges on Jesus, the true excessive priest, and from him our job description explodes with new that means. For instance, we nonetheless look after the poor, needy, and burdened, however with maturity comes an consciousness that we too are poor and needy (2 Cor. 12:1–10), and our look after others turns into infused with compassion (Heb. 5:1–3). Likewise, we proceed to be warriors who encourage different warriors, however now we see the true enemy and his most deadly methods (Eph. 6:10–18). So we flip towards our main struggle. We stand agency towards something in us that harbors satanic sympathies. We wage warfare towards our personal self-serving needs (discover how they inevitably splinter relationships and mimic Devil’s murderous methods), and we assist one another in that struggle. These particulars are seen in three totally different features of the monks’ job description. Every expresses our identification and objective, and every will be expressed with infinite selection.
This meditative and devotional guide traces iterations of the priestly job description all through the Bible, serving to believers uncover their identification as royal monks who have been created to attract close to to God.
1. Fill the earth with smart, discerning royal monks.
This filling is a worldwide part of the job description. It started, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). God had unfurled a canvas, and human beings have been the painters commissioned to develop it. It left a lot to creativity and creativeness.
As with the remainder of God’s animate creation, akin to crops and animals, individuals have been to populate the earth. We’re priestly offspring, and we hope for a a lot bigger household. The God who provides life provides us the potential to mimic him by giving life. We do that by having youngsters. However what units us other than the subhuman kingdom is that we are able to invite youngsters to observe Jesus and be instructed into life at its fullest, and we are able to invite the world to be born into a brand new household. Jesus commissioned us in a approach that captured the true that means of this authentic mandate:
Go subsequently and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them within the identify of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, educating them to watch all that I’ve commanded you. (Matt. 28:19–20)
The job of subduing the earth continues unabated from the unique fee. We’re stewards of earth. However the souls of humanity have turn out to be our main stewardship. Our goal is for baptisms, which signifies God’s cleaning of us, however, much more, baptism signifies that we determine with and belong to him. We now have been introduced again into his household, and on this household, we develop in Christ, train about Christ, and discern what is correct and good.
Samuel was clear about this side of the priestly job, even when the individuals he served rebelled towards the Lord:
As for me, far be it from me that I ought to sin towards the Lord by ceasing to hope for you, and I’ll instruct you within the good and the proper approach (1 Sam. 12:23; cf. Deut. 33:10).
Monks name youngsters, neighbors, and the world to attract close to to Jesus.
2. Take care of the peace and purity of the believing neighborhood.
Such caring is a localized side of our priestly fee. The job of monks is to guard and preserve God’s home. When Adam and Eve failed within the authentic testing grounds of Eden, God designated cherubim to guard his sanctuary. Within the subsequent section of redemptive historical past, cherubim gave method to monks. People have been being restored. The monks have been those who saved guard (Num. 18:3–4; Deut. 18:7). They got a considerable guide with exact route. There was to be little or no ad-libbing. As an alternative, they have been skilled at discerning the methods of God. But even with this detailed route, monks failed and ran headlong into the idolatries that they have been commissioned to protect towards.
Because it turned out, their failure was written into the guide. The blood of animals pointed to the necessity for a greater sacrifice, and the human coronary heart’s instinctive bent towards independence pointed towards the necessity for a brand new coronary heart, not only a rehabilitated one. Solely when Jesus turned the excessive priest and sacrifice and tabernacle did the royal priesthood turn out to be the church. But the church, too, has its struggles. We now have divisions, false lecturers, and sinfully favored preachers in addition to all the opposite sins identified to humanity.
Our identification as monks is accompanied by a significant mission.
The apostle Paul protected the peace and purity of the church buildings with nice zeal:
Do you not know that you’re God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anybody destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you might be that temple. (1 Cor. 3:16–17)
On this passage, he makes use of the picture of the church as temple reasonably than the person as temple, and he guards the church by protesting the cult of persona and favoritism within the church. When he wrote concerning the Lord’s Supper, he turned his consideration to distinctions between wealthy and poor the place the wealthy obtained most popular remedy. This might not be in God’s temple, he wrote. Tensions and division have been to be reconciled earlier than the priestly meal (1 Cor. 11:17–33). Then his pastoral letter shifted photos from the church as God’s temple to the church as physique of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–30), which is much more intimate than tabernacle language.
For us, because of this we’re vigilant about any hints of favoritism or strained relationships, first in our personal hearts and relationships, then in others.
- Can we pursue some individuals in our church however not others?
- Can we keep away from those that are totally different from us?
- Does anybody have one thing towards us?
- Have we gossiped about others within the church?
These questions aren’t merely our makes an attempt to do the proper factor. They’re options of our priestly humanity, and our attentiveness to them is our objective and calling.
3. Replicate the Lord (Ex. 34:33; Ps. 34:5).
A extra private method to envision this side of the priestly job description is to consider Moses, who mirrored God’s greatness and holiness. Moses wished above all else to witness the glory of God. Because the Lord got here shut, he revealed part of his glory to Moses. Moses, in flip, actually mirrored the brightness of God. As God is gentle, so Moses mirrored that gentle:
When Moses got here down from Mount Sinai, with the 2 tablets of the testimony in his hand as he got here down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the pores and skin of his face shone as a result of he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all of the individuals of Israel noticed Moses, and behold, the pores and skin of his face shone, and so they have been afraid to return close to him. (Ex. 34:29–30)
This story is unparalleled within the Outdated Testomony. Solely right here will we witness somebody’s countenance change as a result of she or he was near the Lord. It’s, nevertheless, a priestly story. Moses represented the individuals and was invited to attract close to. When he drew close to, he took on a attribute of the one he beheld. Clothes can mirror the Lord; faces, too, can mirror him. The story can be picked up once more within the New Testomony, and it is going to be even higher (2 Cor. 3:12–18).
This text is tailored from Created to Draw Near: Our Life as God’s Royal Priests by Edward T. Welch.
