Holy Living: A Kingdom of Priests

Holiness

Holiness has two distinct parts to it — that is, to be both ‘separate from’, but also ‘dedicated to’. We explored this idea in a previous issue of the Press On Journal.¹ The challenge that we grappled with was to balance the ‘separation from’ the unclean, with ‘dedication to’ loving our neighbor who may be unclean. To be in the world, but to not be of the world. Not in a ‘holier than thou’ way — like the chief priests and the scribes and Pharisees who passed by on the other side of the road.

Because the issue is that when your religion of separation prevents you from loving your neighbor, then you need to change your religion. We need to be more like Jesus, the friend of publicans and sinners — both touching and teaching. We must be both the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.

So, then, how can we be priests like Jesus, after the order of Melchizedek, and bring out bread and wine to those who are fighting the daily battle, and who are necessarily bloodied and wounded.

The Old Testament Priesthood

This idea of our priesthood, unsurprisingly, has its origins in the early chapters of Genesis. We have a garden that is a temple, because God chooses to dwell there with man. In the same way that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, God chose to dwell with man in the Garden of Eden. And in this Garden temple was the first priest, a priest who was instructed to ‘dress and keep’ the garden. And those same two Hebrew words abadandshama are then also used of the priests and Levites in Numbers and Deuteronomy. Adam’s role as a priest was to ‘serve and obey’ in the Garden in the same way that the Levitical priests were to ‘serve and obey’ in the temple.

However, the priesthood God envisaged was not limited to the Levites only. In Exodus 19, God makes a covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai and says to them through Moses,

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Ex 19:5,6)

Note that he doesn’t say “a kingdom with priests,” referring to the Levites, but rather “a kingdom of priests.” The entire nation of Israel were to be God’s priesthood to the nations around about them — a demonstration to the world of holy living in the presence of God, and a living example of how people abiding by God’s laws live in harmony with one another and care for one another. They were a nation who found that — by relying on God in the wilderness — he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little, had no lack. (Ex 16:18)

Spiritual Leadership

If we look at the priests and the Levites as examples of holy living (as they should have been), 2 Chronicles 31 provides us with a useful list of priestly activities, where the writer records that,

Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service. The priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord(2Chron 31:2)

The responsibilities of the priests were to serve the Lord and to serve one another. To make offerings to the Lord and offerings of themselves to the people. To minister to the Lord and minister to the people. And to give thanks and praise to God — all activities that we can relate to in our priesthood today. Malachi 2 also tells us in a well-known passage that,

The lips of a priest should preserve knowledge and people should seek instruction from his mouth because he is the messenger of Yahweh of the heavenly armies. (Mal 2:7)

Preserving knowledge and giving godly instruction are also spiritual priestly responsibilities that we are familiar with.

Righteous Judgement and Justice

But in addition to the spiritual responsibilities of the priest, they also had humanitarian responsibilities as well, that we often overlook. Their roles weren’t only about service in the temple, but also extended beyond that to practical matters of social justice, in terms of righteous judgement and justice for the weak, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized members of society — those known in the Bible as the poor, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

Specifically, Numbers 35 tells us that they were responsible for overseeing the Cities of Refuge so that cases of accidental manslaughter would not be avenged. They acted as judges of the people to uphold the Law, and to administer justice to the oppressed. They were to inquire of the Lord for His judgment — after the Urim and the Thummim — in leading the people and following His Law.

In addition, Deuteronomy 26 says they were responsible for the collection of the tithes of all the produce, and then the distribution of that produce — not only to the Levites, but also, again, to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow dwelling among them. They were directly responsible for taking care of the poor in their community. And the poor knew to look to them for provision.

I think we are all pretty comfortable with the spiritual duties of our priesthood, but it is these humanitarian responsibilities of social justice and provision for the poor that we are perhaps less eager to embrace. The things that fit comfortably with the traditions of our religion are fine, but the things that require us to get our hands dirty, and to deprive ourselves, are often uncomfortably set to one side.

Ezra is a great example of a priest involved in both the spiritual activities of his role, but also the practical humanitarian aspects of Israelite society. We read that Ezra set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach its statutes and rules in Israel. And so he brought the Law before the assembly and he read from it in the presence of the men and the women, and caused them to understand it. Great priestly activities: reading God’s word and Bible study.

And then we tend to leave it at that.

But his work very clearly didn’t stop there. Ezra, with Nehemiah, was then instrumental in praying for the people and making a covenant in writing to do the following practical things:

• to separate themselves as a holy people;

• to not trade on the Sabbath day;

• to release all debts of the poor in the seventh year;

• to bring in the first fruits and tithes from the people;

• to not neglect the house of God (that is, the family of God);

• to sing praises and songs of thanksgiving; and

• to fulfill their duty of distribution to their brothers.

God doesn’t care how much we read and study the word if it doesn’t then have a practical application in us being holy people — people who release the debts of the poor, people who don’t neglect the family of God, and people who distribute to their brothers. This is a critical aspect of the role of priests in the Old Testament.

Our Priesthood

But what do we find in the New Testament? The apostle Peter picks up on this priestly theme in chapter two of his first epistle when he says,

You yourselves, like lively stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices. (1Pe 2:5)

He says that in verse 5, and then in verse 9, quoting from Exodus 19, he says,

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1Pe 2:9)

So if we are priests — a royal priesthood — when did we become priests? Paul explains that it was at our baptism, just like with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in 2 Corinthians 1 that God has anointed us with the Holy Spirit. And as a result of this anointing, we are His royal priesthood.

And then, ultimately, we find the fulfillment of this Royal priesthood in Revelation, where John describes Jesus in chapter 1 as *he who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Rev 1:5,6) *

And then again, when the saints sing a new song to the lamb saying,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain, and by your blood you have ransomed people to God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Rev 5:9,10)

This is our ultimate hope: to live and reign with him. However, our role as priests has already commenced. We are a holy priesthood already — not we will be in the future. And so we should follow the example of our leader, our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ Priesthood

Peter says in Acts 10 that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He was anointed as a king-priest — the Messiah — not after the order of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek who brought out bread and wine to the hungry and wounded. And so we read that Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel — the good news of the kingdom — and healing every disease and every affliction. He ate with the publicans and sinners, he touched the lepers, he spoke to the gentile women, he healed Roman servants, he forgave the prostitutes, and he had dinner with tax collectors. He loved the disenfranchised and pariahs of society because the good news of the kingdom of God was specifically for them. And as a result of that, all the people thronged around him so that he didn’t even have time to eat.

I think it is worth pondering why we never have that same problem — of being thronged by the crowds. Is it perhaps because we are only offering them half the package of our priesthood? Spiritual food to those who in fact go to bed hungry and cold. You see, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. The priesthood of Jesus includes both care and knowledge.

In contrast to Jesus were the Pharisees who simply could not understand this non-Levitical priesthood. And they said to Jesus’ disciples in Matthew 9, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘Those who are well, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’

The tabernacle of his ministry was in the hospitals of society, the shelters and refuges for the weak and homeless.

And then Jesus quoted to them from Hosea 6, and said, Go and learn what this means. ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ And if we go and learn as Jesus instructed and look at this verse in context, we will read, What shall I do with you, O Ephraim and Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud. Like the dew that goes early away. [...] For I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus is saying that religious rituals without mercy is like dew that evaporates when the heat is on. Spiritual love of God without humanitarian love of our neighbor is like the mist that burns off when the day becomes hot. This was a different kind of priesthood to the one that the Pharisees were used to seeing from the Sadducees in the temple worship.

Nazarite Priesthood

However, even under the Law that the Pharisees were familiar with, it wasn’t only the descendants of Aaron who could engage in priestly activities. The Law also made special provision for anyone who was willing to take on the role of a priest, so as not to limit this privilege to the Levites only. Numbers 6 tells us about the vow of the Nazarite.

And God said to Moses, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of the Nazarite, he shall separate himself unto the Lord, and make himself holy.’ ” (Num 6:1-2)

This special vow of separation gives us a great insight into what God thinks is special. This word ‘special’ is the same word used of miracles when referring to the marvelous or wondrous works of God. And so, in God’s eyes, the vow of the Nazarite is as close to performing a miracle as a human being can come. The Nazarite vow is a wonderfully marvelous, special vow that a man or woman can take — by consecrating their lives in dedicated service to the Lord.

What did this life of the Nazarite involve? Well, there were five particular conditions associated with being a Nazarite:

• No wine or strong drink or vinegar or grape juice or grapes or raisins or grape seeds or grape skins, anything associated with the vine.

• No razor was to come on the head, so you had to let your hair grow long.

• No going near a dead body, even for family, to make yourself unclean.

• Being holy to the Lord all the days of your separation.

• And not eating anything unclean.

Now, you should have noticed that there are very clear and strong parallels in the Nazarite vow’sholiness code to those of the Levitical priesthood. They are almost identical in many respects. Being a Nazarite is essentially a priesthood for non-Levites who wish to serve the Lord, both male and female. A potential example of this behaviour is in Luke 2, where Anna, a prophetess of the tribe of Asher — not Levi — was a widow of 84 years who did not depart from the temple, serving God with fasting and prayers night and day. And so Jewish tradition has it that the Nazarites served as priests to the unclean people who were outside the camp — where the Levites were not permitted to minister, because of their holiness vows.

The spiritual application of this, for ourselves, is that this is our calling as non-Levitical priests of God: to take on this special Nazarite vow — a vow of service, a vow of holiness. To be holy outside the camp, where the lepers and the poor of society found themselves.

Melchizedek Nazarites

So what does a holy Nazarite priesthood after the order of Melchizedek look like for us today? Well, there are multiple aspects to it, as you would expect. We must bring offerings by presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God in accordance with Romans 12:1. We must abstain from all unclean things, by abstaining from all appearance of evil (1Thess 5). We must be mediators to join the people to God like the name Levi implies. We belong to God and are not our own (1Cor 6), because we have been bought with a price like the Levites were with the half shekel of the sanctuary (Num 3). This priestly office is a gift of service, like the gift of service of the Levites (Num 18). And we have no part or lot or inheritance among the people, because God is our lot and our inheritance (also Num 18). We must care for the people in the Cities of Refuge (Num 35). And we feed the poor with our tithes (Deut 26). We must lift up our voices in singing with joy to the Lord (2Chron 31). And we must cause them to understand the reading of God’s word and teach the people, like they did in Nehemiah 8. All the same priestly elements that we associate with the Levites in the Old Testament are still applicable for us today.

Priests in the Churches

Now, we don’t have a separate priesthood, like the other churches that have continued the model of a kingdom with priests. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t a kingdom of priests. Think of the characteristics of today’s priests in the churches and see if we can’t readily identify with them as well.

They are members of a special ordained order of people. And so are we. They are readily identifiable as belonging to the church. And so should we be. They are responsible for a flock of people and are trained to help them. And so are we. They have a close relationship with God and need to pray for the people. So do we. They have a good knowledge of the Scriptures and are able to teach. And so are we. They have a full-time commitment to serving God and the church. And so should we.

So why do we shy away from calling ourselves priests? Is it because of the churches? Isn’t this priestly role exactly what we should be like? Theirs might be a paid ministry, but it is nevertheless the same calling as ours — the following of our great High Priest.

There are some very famous church priests who have played active roles in society in our world that we probably do not think we can, or maybe even should, relate to. For example, Desmond Tutu was a South African priest known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist against racism. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American priest and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American civil rights movement, also against racism. These two priests brought about social reform for their oppressed people with incredible courage and conviction of what was just and right for society.

They were activists for social justice.

We probably think that this has got nothing to do with our priesthood, but how is what they did for their people, any different from what Esther did for her people? I don’t think it is different at all. In fact, it’s exactly the same. The issue is that we choose not to relate to them — or in fact, to Esther — as relevant examples for ourselves. But, you see, Esther is a type of Christ. And if we follow Jesus, then we should be looking to her as an example to emulate in standing up for the oppressed.

There is, however, an additional hurdle that we need to overcome — which is our classification of social justice as politics. And, thus, not our problem. Esther tried that approach with Mordecai and he would have none of it when he said to her in chapter 4, Who knows, if you have come to the throne for such a time as this. Every single one of us has been positioned by God to speak for His people when they have no voice, and when their blood cries out from the ground to Him.

It is interesting that we are quick to say, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) when it comes to matter of military service. But somehow we find it a rather inconvenient quote for matters of social justice which is, in fact, the more accurate context of that verse. We don’t want to die ourselves, but we appear willing for others to do so, while we look on and pass by on the other side of the road.

And so we come back to the statement from the previous article on Holy Living Today, that when your religion prevents you from loving your neighbor, you need to change your religion. I think we fundamentally need to change our religion on this issue, because it is clearly preventing us from loving our neighbor.

Let Us Go Forth

So, to summarize our priesthood briefly, what is a Melchizedek Nazarite? It is a wondrously special vow of separation to the Lord by a person consecrating their life in dedicated service. It is a priesthood option for non-Levites who wish to serve the Lord, both male and female. It is a royal priesthood forever after the order of Melchizedek, bringing out bread and wine to the hungry and wounded. It is a priesthood for serving the unclean people outside the camp. It is a priesthood of holy Nazarites who touched the unclean as the salt of the earth. It is a priesthood in service to the pariahs of society who are marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed. This is our priesthood after the order of Melchizedek and in the way of the Nazarite.

It is certainly not easy. It is against our natural inclinations to get dirty and sticky and bloody and sweaty. And so it will take dedication and prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit working through us, to be more like our champion High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s close with a passage from the writer to the Hebrews, who is clearly describing our priesthood in chapter 13, when he says,

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle (that is the Levites) have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. (Heb 13:10-13)

And then he describes the sacrifices that we must bring.

Therefore, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to our God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Heb 13:15-16)

These are the sacrifices of the holy Nazarite priesthood: to do good and to share. With such sacrifices, God is well pleased. These are the neglected humanitarian aspects of our priesthood: to bring social justice to the oppressed, and to bring the tithes of all our produce for the poor. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests to our God. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp to do good and to share. Amen.