PRIESTHOOD

^[p. 383] PRIESTHOOD

Isaiah 61: 10; Exodus 21: 1 - 6; Exodus 28: 1 - 3

From these scriptures it is intended to speak about priesthood. It is stated in Scripture that the prophets were holy men, that is, that they were priests, priests unto God. Two of them at least were official priests, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but undoubtedly they were all priests characteristically, the word having in mind the service of God, those who come near to Him.

This passage in Isaiah 61 is referred to and spoken of by the Spirit as if the idea of priesthood was understood and not at all unfamiliar or unused. It is here said of the bridegroom that he “decketh himself with the priestly turban”. The idea is to attach to all christians, for Peter says that we are “a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 2: 5. So we are regarded, that is to say, christians characteristically, as identified with the priesthood and qualified to exercise priesthood, and we are called priests, not only a holy priesthood but a royal priesthood.

This leads me to Exodus, so that the thought in mind may be clear. Aaron was not designated a priest immediately, nor were his sons, showing that it is not a common idea as applicable to christians; it is an idea that is to be developed into what is characteristic of us. Aaron, although brought into the service with his brother, being three years older than his brother, is not immediately called a priest. This is significant. He is called a prophet, showing that prophetic ministry may not be just up to the mark of priesthood. Aaron was called a prophet before he was called a priest. As regards his sons, they were called priests in relation to him. They were called priests because they were his sons, and this is intelligible in its antitypical sense,

^[p. 384] because our priesthood, that is christian priesthood, stands in relation to Christ, and involves our family relations with Christ. Thus it is an exalted position.

Whilst Aaron was not called a priest immediately, yet the idea was there in Israel, the persons being nameless, as if the service of God must have something of the kind. So we have the thought of priesthood in Exodus 19, “the priests also, who come near to Jehovah”, but they are nameless. That would indicate that the true thought of the priest was hardly there, except in the sense that there must be something like it in the service. Israel was already regarded as a people; they had come out of Egypt, they were to be a holy priesthood to God, that is, in a national sense, but that is hardly up to what we are speaking of.

As I said, Aaron is not called a priest until he is typically equal to it. What is needful in this great function is love. Priesthood is hardly intelligible without love. So before Aaron is called priest, before his sons are called priests, the Hebrew bondman comes into evidence-the Hebrew bondman, for there is really only One in the sense in which we are speaking of it, and it relates thus to the Lord Jesus, who is our Priest. He is our Priest, and He is our great Priest, and our High Priest. All that can be said of priesthood is said of Him. So the idea of priesthood is connected with Aaron in Exodus 28. Before this a great deal is said about Aaron, much more about Moses, and more particularly that they served. They both belong to a system before Aaron is called a priest. God said to Moses, “I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet” (Exodus 7: 1), as if God would come down to our level, yet retaining His infinite holiness and dignity, for He comes down in Christ. It is said, “Who humbleth himself to look on the heavens and on the earth”, Psalm 113: 6. He comes down to our level, that is, in the sense of making Himself intelligible to us; for, if ^[p. 385] God is pleased to come into a system, and He is, then He would make Himself intelligible to men in that system. So He says to Moses, “I have made thee God to Pharaoh”. One is touched that the Lord should even extend His thoughts to man’s intelligence, and this must be shown if the gospel is to be understood. To those who are unconverted it can be very little understood, but it must be understood by man if it is to reach him. God gave to man an intelligence to understand something of Himself. So it is that God granted to Adam the privilege of naming the cattle. The cattle are named by Adam; hence it is that Adam is given to know that he has the means of at least understanding something of God. The gospel is announced to men; it is announced to all creation, not only creatures but all creation, so it is within the range of all and all are responsible. Hence the idea of a system in Exodus in view of God’s taking out a people, and He names the people He has taken out, His son, a very precious thought; “Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exodus 4: 23. The priesthood was in mind, and sonship was in mind, and Pharaoh was to understand that sonship was in mind. God said, ‘If you do not let My son go, I will slay your son’. It was perfectly intelligible to Pharaoh that God meant that. He had only a short time to prove that his son would be slain.

God is spreading abroad His knowledge, as Paul says, that His knowledge should be made known through him in every place. “For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish: to the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life”, 2 Corinthians 2: 15, 16. It is fraught with love and mercy too, for God went as far as to spare some of the cattle of Pharaoh’s people and some of the cereals and some of the vegetables, for the position is marked by mercy. If God is to be known in mercy He is to be known by ^[p. 386] persons who thoroughly understand, and these persons are in the system and under the system and operating together. The system must be maintained and that system rests in the thought of the assembly, the great idea in the assembly being, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”, 1 Corinthians 10: 17. So, as I said, the system was there in Egypt in the presence of Pharaoh, and God says of Pharaoh,’He is going down to the river tomorrow, you go and stand in front of him’. That is how God treated Pharaoh, face to face, in his presence. So we are called upon to be open and transparent and fair with everyone, especially the powers that be. But Pharaoh was to understand that God had rights in Egypt, particularly that He had His people there and He would go to the length of setting up a system so that His people might be delivered out of Egypt, a holy people, a separate people, a people suitable to Himself, as He says, “a kingly priesthood, a holy nation”.

So the thought is extended before it became applicable to the royal priesthood, that is, Aaron and his sons. The thought was there that God should have a people and a priesthood, persons specially near to Him too. Presently all will be near to Him. In our own case God has borne us on eagles’ wings and brought us to Himself. We need not fear the idea of the air. God is using it as He is using water, and intelligent people would accept that and see what God affords. But I am speaking now of the power by which we are brought to Him. The power is in God Himself, only He uses the figure of wings of eagles. “I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. All this was before Aaron was designated priest.

Then we have this thought of love, which is the attractive thought, as I hope all here recognise. It is certainly attractive to me, the love of God and how it is expressed in others, for “Love is of God, and every ^[p. 387] one that loves has been begotten of God, and knows God”, 1 John 4: 7. So this matter is found in one who is a slave, for that is what the man is in chapter 21; he was a Hebrew slave. The idea of love was there, so that we are not to assume it is beyond us, for it is placed in the very lowliest person, a person most accessible. He speaks of it in a threefold way. He plainly says, “I love”. “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. Then he suffers in that. It is hardly right to speak about love unless we bring in the idea of suffering. Love is a great suffering power in man. So this servant, this slave, says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. We are now, dear brethren, alongside the Lord Jesus.

I wish to extend the idea of priesthood to every one of us. Love is the power of it, and hence it is not spoken of in Aaron and his sons until chapter 28. Chapter 29 also deals with it. Other scriptures deal with it at length, and particularly 1 Corinthians 13, which is a description of love, not in the persons but in the thing abstractly. We are not to be afraid of the abstract idea, for God would reduce things to the abstract idea so that we should understand it applies to ourselves. Even if we are not noteworthy, by the Spirit of God there is something there of God in us. New birth is taken account of by itself in Scripture, and carries with it the idea of birth, although the word in John 3 is “from above”, born from above. So the abstract idea in us becomes very intelligible and very applicable. The thing that is involved in the birth carries with it all its qualities, and if we are not born anew we are nothing, we are not christians at all. We may as well face this, because it is the great fundamental principle of God’s work in men, never applying to any others than men. The Lord says, “Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God”, John 3: 3. That shows there ^[p. 388] is very little to be taken in by the natural man, although we are still responsible. Though not born anew, man is still responsible and, having heard the gospel preached, will go to the lake of fire if he does not believe. The Lord says, “Except any one be born anew”; his intelligence is reduced to a minimum. The person is responsible, his eyes are opened and his feelings become touched and he is conscious of what is of God. Even if he is sitting in the company of christians, though not a christian, he is conscious he is near to God. “God is indeed amongst you”,

1 Corinthians 14: 25. Hence a person amongst christians is near to God. His people are set in the very midst, so that man might know God is near to them. “He is not far from each one of us”, Acts 17: 27. How much more so when a person is set down in the midst of the Lord’s people! So new birth is possible, and, if any feelings arise as amongst the Lord’s people, new feelings that you have not had before, there is some warmth. There is evidence that you are born anew. It is not your heart, or your mind, but your self that is born anew, the whole being.

Paul says he has laid the foundation of a great structure, that is, the greatest order of people, christians called priests, holy priests and royal priests. They are holy, in the sense of being capable of drawing near to God, having to do with Him, speaking about Him; and royal in a public way to “set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”, 1 Peter 2: 9.

I am earnest to bring this point in, so that we may see how priesthood is set. Its setting is love. It is a question of God. We have to trace love to God.

“God is love”, we are told. So it is that Aaron is reserved, as if God would say, ‘I will set a prophet near to Pharaoh, My prophet to your king. I will place in his hands the means of reaching him. It will be only himself to blame if he is not reached’.

^[p. 389] So the system was set up before him in Moses, who was to be “God to Pharaoh”. Is he God? No, he is not deified, he is a creature, but the idea of God may extend down to persons who are judges, persons who form judgments, and in the sense that Moses was God to Pharaoh, he certainly was one who could judge Pharaoh. He says, “I will see thy face again no more!”.

Exodus 10: 29. He went out in a glowing anger (chapter 11: 8), showing the authority he had as representing what God is. The devil said to Adam and Eve, “Ye will be as God”, Genesis 3: 5. That is not the idea of God we are speaking of now; it is sons and representatives, christians in this world indwelt by the Spirit of God. That does not deify them, but makes them representative of God. God said to Moses, “What is that in thy hand?”. It was a staff, what he would use in following after the sheep. God says, ‘That is what I am going to use’. “The staff that is in my hand”, He says (Exodus 7: 17). Moses was so representative of God that the very rod that he had in his hand was said to be in the hand of Jehovah. How serious it was for Pharaoh! Pharaoh and his horsemen were destroyed.

Now I want to speak of Aaron’s wonderful garments. I suppose no such garments were found anywhere in any setting as the garments of Aaron and his sons. The turban, I believe, denoted the intelligence, the remarkable authority connected with Aaron. Moral authority is linked up with priesthood, and that must be connected with intelligence. God has given us power to know, and the authority that goes with knowledge, the knowledge of God, the knowledge that develops in connection with the Spirit of God. There are no persons comparable to christians. “We have the mind of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 2: 16. It is the thinking faculty, speaking reverently, of the Lord Jesus, and hence the great moral authority that attaches to us, and the great moral dignity to exercise ^[p. 390] us in our service. The bridegroom in Isaiah “decketh himself with the priestly turban”. I suppose there is only one. It belonged to a certain class. This bridegroom decks himself, adorns himself. We have immediately the bride as well, Christ and the assembly, because He is the One who decks Himself with the priestly turban. There was something peculiar about Aaron’s head-dress, with the lace of blue over it. I am attempting to extend the passage in Isaiah to show there is designation in it to Christ. “As a bridegroom decketh himself with the priestly turban, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels”. We may read Christ and the assembly into it. We belong to the assembly and there are garments suitable to the bride. She comes “down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”, Revelation 21:2.

So the garments of Exodus 28 are full of glory. I leave it with you, so that we may all absorb the idea of priesthood. Much enters into it, and God waited for the time till Aaron would be fit for it. So it is with all things; the time arrives when we enter into it. We have the idea of priesthood now, Christ in heaven, the High Priest, the Spirit of God on earth.

The Spirit on earth is equal to the Priest above. The position is impregnable. It is a question of Christ above. He has to do with the forgiveness of sins, but the Spirit brings about a state suitable. “As he is, we also are in this world”, 1 John 4: 17. These are wonderful things. They are worth all our closest attention, so that we might see how the matter stands now in view of our translation. We are to be translated from our present position, from a potential position into a position where everything is royal. We are to be transformed into the likeness of His body of glory, that is what Paul says (Philippians 3: 21). John says, “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3: 2.