Quick...something. I'm still processing this so i thought i'd throw it out here.
So last night in a Bible study w/ West Side CC, we were talking about priesthood. We focused on Numbers 18, Leviticus 4 & 16, and about 1 Peter 2.
Numbers 18 talks about God choosing the Levites for the priesthood--
Numbers 18:1-7
Duties of Priests and Levites 1 The LORD said to Aaron, "You, your sons and your father's family are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the priesthood. 2 Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the Tent of the Testimony. 3 They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. 4 They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the Tent of Meeting—all the work at the Tent—and no one else may come near where you are.
5 "You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. 6 I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting. 7 But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death...."
It goes on to talk about the different responsibilities of the priesthood and how much importance God placed on this.
Then, jumping over to 1 Peter:
1 Peter 2
1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."[a] 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,[b]"[c] 8and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall."[d] They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
This led to some really great discussion about the priesthood and how it relates to us. With a Bible college graduate to guide discussion (this is SO helpful when trying to understand Old Testament anything), we started talking about how the priests of the old testament were the people "closest" to God. They were the only ones able to go inside the curtain (although they had to burn incense in front of the mercy seat in order to do so) and they were the ones who performed the rituals of sacrafice in the tabernacle.
Now, we are a priesthood as well, and we're saved. Meaning we no longer have to sacrifice animals. However, we are called to offer spiritual sacrafices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Do I take this seriously? I am wondering if I really understand what Peter is saying when he says that God sees us as a royal priesthood. I wonder if we really understand what responsibility goes along with this. What would change if we viewed ourselves as priests as God has viewed them (us)?
maybe more later? who knows...
cya!
(hello to those of you in Minnesota and Florida...love and miss you guys!)
-dave
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Priests were God's representatives to people.
We are God's representatives to people.
It looks to me like the phrase "royal priesthood" may be a sort of symbolism when referring to the people as a collection of believers. It's drawing a similarity between the nature of the church and the nature of the priest line of the Jews.
I know there is a tendency to look at the individual aspect of everything sometimes, but I encourage you to look at the collective aspect of this Scripture. The main focus seems to be on the collection of a believers being like a priesthood, so it might be more relevant to look at it as a collective manner first.
I can see here where a very literal interpretation would say that we are all ordained priests, but I see more to it than that.
That's a really good point Drew. It's really easy to focus on the individual rather than the overall health of the Body. I'm most certainly guilty of it not only in word but in deed.
I guess I was just really struck that Peter would refer to us as "priests." I think I saw it as an individual and a collective thing and that the two couldn't be seperated. You made a great point that this references not only us, as Christians living in year 2006, but the line of priests. I think Peter hits on that especially when he talks about the spiritual house. I think you made a good point by refering to us as a Body and how we are all connected, regardless of the time in which we live. It's so true because Peter references us as a "people," speaking the truth that we are all connected and are all part of this thing.
I was struck that as a body, we are still called to our individual duties, and perhaps we don't collectively understand what that meant to Peter's audience. Peter's audience would not only have understand your reference to the line of priests, but they also would have understood the "spiritual sacrafices" in the context in which Peter must have used the word. Our group on Thursday had a great discussion in which we really wrestled through what old testament "sacrafices" were and how detailed God's commands were for the different kinds. I was coming off that discussion, so my mind was focused more on God's commands to the line of priests and how much importance He placed on them.
I was glad that you focused my thoughts a little more on the passage as a whole. You, Drew, have an amazing gift for chewing on scriptural words, ideas and topics. I tend to chew too quickly sometimes.
I was glad that you, Matt, kind of boiled it down a bit for me because I there are times when I tend to get too caught up in sounding good rather than finding truth. Matt, you have an amazing gift for simplifying the things we try to complicate.
thanks to both of you!
how did i miss this post?
how did i miss this post?
i don't know
i still don't know :)
I know how he missed it.
I don't know anymore.
Post a Comment