PRIESTS AND LEVITES
PRIESTS AND LEVITES
... I have been deeply interested in studying Christianity. I think we have learned salvation and relationship, but very little of intimacy or the essential distinction between us — the bride of Christ — and His earthly subjects. I begin with the gospel; if you preach the antitype of the two goats (Leviticus 16), you would preach a very full gospel — eternal redemption in the presence of God and all your sins carried away into the land of forgetfulness, entitled to the possession of every good thing on earth. Add the bullock to the gospel and then you are on Christian ground. I must leave it to yourself to describe the difference. As a rule, the measure and nature of the acceptance which the bullock ensures is not known. Now if there be a defect in the gospel, there must be a defect, only more glaringly, in every other stage. If we knew that our special privilege and right were to accompany our Aaron into the holy place to enjoy our portion there, and that being of the priestly company we were precluded from an earthly portion, nothing earthly would divert us from it. Nothing diverted the sons of Aaron from their holy and peculiar calling. Their service was within the veil. Now- the Christian is first a priest before he is a Levite; though many prefer the Levitical service to the priestly. Christendom has lost or surrendered the priestly, and the pious are satisfied with the Levitical — service to man. There are the two classes — those who go to war and those [p. 11] who abide by the stuff. See 1 Samuel 30: 24. The first take the spoil, but they must divide equally with those who do not go to the war. Apparently there would be no difference between them, but there is a great moral difference. Say the spoil is 1,000 head, each class gets 500; but the first gives only one out of the 500 to the priests. The other class (who remained by the stuff) gives one out of fifty, ten times as much, and never rises higher than the Levites. Priestly service is Godward; Levitical is manward; very useful and very active, but with very little personal intercourse with the Lord. The Lord prefers your company to any and every service you could render. The attempt is to be a Levite before you know that you are a priest. I believe this is impossible: the Levites were given to the priests. You must descend: Every good and perfect gift cometh down ... One may say, as to snares that entrap us, ‘Why does the Lord allow it?’ He allows it to prove to me (see Ezekiel 14: 4) that I have an idol in my heart, and He lets me have it as Lot got the green fields or as Jacob got Shalem. You may try to conceal it, but the Lord sees it, and He lets you have it, and after a time, if you are true to Him, you are very glad to surrender it. It is not at all unlikely but that you may, after you have been freed from one lust, be ensnared by another.