PRIESTLY SERVICE
[p. 180] PRIESTLY SERVICE
2 Timothy 2:1,2; Ezra 7:1-6; Ezra 7:10; Nehemiah 8:1-6; Nehemiah 8:8-18
In reading these scriptures I do not intend to go into detail, but I wish to speak a little of priesthood. I desire to point out how essential it is at the present time, if the testimony of Christ is to be preserved and continued; and I have for this reason read a passage in Paul’s epistle to Timothy, which places Timothy in a position of trust, and, as so placed, he is necessarily regarded as a priest. Timothy had been in captivity, but was released. “Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty”, Hebrews 13: 23, There is, perhaps, more said of Timothy personally than of any other servant in the New Testament apart from the apostles. He receives remarkable mention in the Scriptures. He appears, as many of you know, at a period when he was greatly needed. Barnabas had failed Paul, and on the occasion of Paul’s mission to Europe as recorded in Acts 16, Timothy appears. His genealogy is given spiritually; he was the son, it says, of a believing woman, not only of one who had believed, but of a woman characterised by faith; his mother was such. In the second letter to Timothy, the apostle reminds him of that, and also that his grandmother was one in whom unfeigned faith dwelt. Furthermore, the Spirit of God tells us of him, that he is designated by Paul as his true child in faith, his beloved child, so that he has spiritually, in that way, a very remarkable parentage. I would emphasise it, he had a believing mother, and a believing grandmother, and an apostle as a father spiritually; and as such he comes into a position of trust in the house of God. He is a custodian of the good deposit entrusted; that is to say, of the truth in regard to God and in regard to [p. 181] Christ. He is, as one may say, the trustee for. Paul’s doctrine; Now, that is saying a good deal, but it is not saying more than Scripture predicates of this remarkable young man, for such he was yet, even when this second letter was written to him from Rome. I am not ignoring the fact that the Holy Spirit is the power to maintain things for God here, but I am speaking of the position that Scripture accords to this remarkable young man.
He is, as I remarked already, also referred to as a brother. The writer to the Hebrews does not speak of him as his son, but as a brother. “Know ye”, he says, “that our brother Timothy is set at liberty”. And so being free, he is now available, as one may say, in the service of the truth, and is constituted a trustee, so that he should pass on, what he had learned from Paul, to faithful men. Indeed, the passage is somewhat like the last will and testament of a man. Timothy is to administer; he is delegated by the apostle to entrust to faithful men what he himself had heard of Paul in the presence of many witnesses. You will understand I am not ignoring the fact that the Holy Spirit is here to maintain the truth. I am speaking for the moment of a servant. Timothy has to administer the truth, and he is to commit to faithful men what he had heard from. Paul.
Having said this about Timothy, I must press on to Ezra, hoping to refer to him again for a moment at the end. I want to show you how the Old Testament aids us in the understanding of the New. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in the Old Testament, fill a place similar to that of Paul’s second epistle to Timothy in the New Testament. I wish to show how priesthood appears in these books; how it is, so to speak, true to itself in Ezra. I want to dwell on this, by the Lord’s help. In the first instance, I have selected a passage in Ezra 7 which gives us his genealogy.
[p. 182] It is as if the Spirit of God would set this man before us, as one unquestionably qualified to fill the office with which he was entrusted, and on which he was about to enter. At this juncture I would call your attention to one peculiarity in these books of Ezra and Nehemiah, that in them the principle of genealogy is emphasised. A genealogical register is set down as of the very greatest importance in these two books. Ezra, I apprehend, is the great genealogical chronicler of the Old Testament, and I would ask you to note that whilst he is the priest and his genealogy is incontrovertibly established, he is also said to be a scribe, and a ready one. Now in saying that he is a scribe, one would be careful to point out that he was in no sense a journalist; he was in no way occupied with the narration of the events of the time; he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; he was efficient in that. I mention this in view of the great value of writing in our time.
It is a remarkable thing that in the second letter to Timothy, books are specially mentioned, and they were brought to Paul; he says, “especially the parchments”. And so Ezra was a ready scribe in the law of the Lord. I would suggest that the conditions in his day required writing. The saints were scattered. They had not all returned to Jerusalem. And the true priest of God would concern himself about every saint of God. Let us not be narrow in our affections. It is essential to be narrow, in a sense, in our fellowship, as another has said, ‘Keep our hearts large, but our feet in the narrow path’. In that relation I would remark that Ezra, in his wonderful prayer to Jehovah, when confessing the sins of the people, says, “there hath been favour from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place ... ... and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem”. (Ezra 9: 8, 9)
[p. 183] These were what I might call the available things in his day. There was a remnant available, a nail in the holy place of God was available; and a wall about Jerusalem was available. But then all the saints of God were not available, but Ezra would embrace them all in his affections; so Paul says in writing his letter to Timothy, “The Lord knoweth them that are his”. It may not be within our scope to test the genealogy of everybody, but the Lord knows everyone’s genealogy. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his”. This is a great comfort. There are many, alas! who are not available to us, but there are those who are, and it is for us to value what is available, and to make the most of it. Those three things are available, according to Ezra’s prayer. A remnant of the people of God; thank God for the few or for the many: the larger the number the better, provided they are genuinely the people of God. Then access to the holy place of God; and then, finally, a wall. These things are to be cherished. They are the available things at the present time. The question is, Am I using what is available? a remnant of the people of God, access to God, a nail in the holy place of God; a sure footing there through the blood of Jesus! As the writer to the Hebrews says: “Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart”, Hebrews 10: 19 - 22. And then there is a wall in Jerusalem. It may be called exclusivism, but it is: a priestly feature. It is that which the priest delights in. It involves the security and the protection of the people of God from error or defilement. Fellowship is available within.
Now to return to Ezra’s genealogy. He is a true [p. 184] son of Aaron as verses 1 to 5 of Ezra 7 show; there is no question about that. In saying that, I am not losing sight of the fact, that priesthood belongs to all believers; it involves being kindred to Christ. Now while your genealogy may be indisputably established, what about your heart? What about your resolve of heart? I will just read you again a verse from Ezra 7: “for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord”. Now this is what Ezra did, he “prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments;” Ezra 7: 10. I invite your attention to that word. How many of us are preparing our hearts to seek the law of the Lord? You understand what the law means for us here; it includes the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. It is the revealed will of God, and the revealed mind of God. We have to distinguish between these. The will of God is His commandment; the mind of God is His word. You must have both. There are those, it may be, who go in for the word, but forget the commandment; and those who go, in for the commandment and forget the word, but we need both. What about your resolve of heart as regards the law, the revealed will and mind of God?
Now, in referring to priesthood, I would introduce for a moment a thought in regard to the priests’ garments and the priests’ food. These are two important features. Scripture speaks of the food that is suitable for priesthood, and also the garments which the priests should wear. I cannot enlarge upon these two features of priesthood, as the time is short, but I would refer to them for a moment. Firstly, as to priestly food, in the book of Leviticus we are instructed as to the food which a priest should eat, He is to have a part in the sin-offering, and he is specially to feed on the meat-offering. In Ezra’s confession we see the reality of a priest eating the [p. 185] sin-offering. I put these things before you. What is it that we eat? The general thought of eating and being clothed is, I suppose, as commonplace as any thought in the world; but on the other hand there are no more important considerations in the whole world than food and clothing. The Lord said, “these things do the nations of the world seek after”, Luke 12: 30. But, when you apply it spiritually, how great must be their importance! What about the food that you eat? As recovered, so to speak, as brought back to the light of the assembly, what about the sin-offering? If you look through Ezra 9, you will find that he accepted the awful condition of the people and confessed it, as having his part in it; he ate the sin-offering, in that sense.
It is a serious consideration as to the conditions in which we find ourselves. Am I attributing the ruin and the failure of the assembly to other people, or am I, as a true priest of God, eating the sin-offering, owning my share and part in the ruin? If I am to have a constitution that is suitable to priesthood, I must eat the sin-offering, and I must eat it in the holy place; that is, take it up in relation to the sanctuary of God; Leviticus 6: 26. And then, if I am to be a man like Christ in the midst of my brethren, how is that to be brought about? I must eat the meat-offering; Leviticus 2:10. The food of the sin-offering marks me off as a man that judges sin. I judge sin in myself, I do not judge it in others alone, and I am marked by that judgment. It is not that I am attributing it to others, though I may be called upon to judge it in others, but I am to judge it as a priest. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted”, Galatians 6: 1. For this I must feed on the sin-offering, but further, if I am to move about in the midst of my brethren as a heavenly [p. 186] man, as Christ was here, how can that be brought about? I must eat the meat-offering. These are the two great features in the book of Leviticus in regard to the priests’ food. I would commend this to your consideration as most essential at the present time. Am I eating priestly food? And, Am I wearing priestly garments? Food is for sustainment; garments are for warmth and appearance.
If you look at Nehemiah 7: 70, you will find that he provided a great many priests’ coats. That indicated that Nehemiah, in returning to Jerusalem, thought of the priests. He had in his mind how essential they should be to the recovery and the maintenance of the remnant in Jerusalem. And so, too, the Psalmist says, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness”, Psalm 132: 9. How about that clothing, dear brother? How about your associations, your business relations? Re-adjustment, to use a well-known term, applies constantly to the Christian. I have to revise my relations constantly. As I get a little bit more light, I have to make my relations fit in with that. Hence, if I am to be clothed with righteousness, I must be concerned and exercised about my relations in every circle and sphere, in my family, in my business, and in all my social connections. All these, and more besides, are involved in the idea of the clothes I wear. They must not be put on only for the meeting. I do not know of any scripture that speaks of a priest wearing the clothes of a common person. He was always marked off and distinguished by his priestly garments. They were to be clothed with garments “for glory and for beauty” as they came to serve in the inner sanctuary; but, generally, the priest was to be distinguished by wearing vestments made according to divine instructions. Having food and clothing, one is set up in spiritual independence. I use that word advisedly; I doubt very much if any one of us [p. 187] is of much value in the things of God unless he arrives at spiritual independence. I do not mean independence of God; but that one has found the means, and is now prepared to take up his service in connection with the house of God.
I just touch for a moment on Nehemiah 8, because in it we see the priest in the exercise of his functions in days of weakness. Firstly it says, “and all the people gathered themselves together as one man”. I greatly love the assemblages of God’s people, especially when they come together themselves. Note here, it is “the people gathered themselves together”. This was not by a trumpet. In Numbers 10 the assembly was brought together by the blast of the trumpet. There, in figure, it was a question of the authority of Christ, and I MUST come. It is imperative. The claims of Christ demand it. But then there are opportunities which are left to ourselves, and our spirituality is tested as to whether we avail ourselves of them; and so here it says, “And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the watergate”. That was a good place to assemble. There was a goodly company too, forty-two thousand came with an addition of about seven thousand servants and attendants. There would be therefore approximately fifty thousand people; Nehemiah 7: 66, 67. I do not say that they were all there, but if I read the passage literally, they were, as chapter 8 verse 1 says. In other words, there was a large company in Jerusalem on that particular day, and the priest was available; they spoke to Ezra the scribe. The people wanted a priest, and so Ezra mounted the pulpit of wood, as it is called, and read the book of the law. It was a long meeting, a much longer meeting than any meeting we hold, it lasted from morning until mid-day.
I want you to note particularly, that this is the movement of the people; the people wanted it.
[p. 188] God was working in them, and that is what one prays for, the work of God in His people. “And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel”. What a state in the people! They wanted to hear the encouraging book of the law read, not only the law of Moses, but that which the Lord commanded for all His people. That is what they wanted. One has great encouragement in reading the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, as showing what may come about among the people of God through the exercise of one or two men. It goes on to say, “Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the watergate, from the morning until mid-day, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law”, Ezra 8: 2, 3. That is a fine picture. It was an occasion in which the priest was available and he shines. I bring this before you, so that, in the exercise of your hearts, there may be a resolve to seek the law of God, and to teach the law of God to His people. These are resolves of heart that the Spirit of God would produce in us, and make effective in us.
I shall just run through the chapter for a moment. In verse 6 we read, “And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground”. They were entirely at one with the worship of the priest. They had come together to hear the law, and now they are led in priestly energy to bless God. They commit themselves to the worship of God; and then it is recorded in verse 8, “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading”. I believe, that the Lord at this present time would emphasise the meaning of Scripture. We are not half alive to the treasures we have in the holy writings; what treasures lie in these blessed pages! The priests and the Levites gave the sense; that is what I would call general public ministry.
And then in verse 13 it says, “And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law”. I apprehend that this is special. There are those, who, as priests and Levites, responsible persons, would come together in dependence upon the Lord and in recognition of the Spirit, in order to find out the word, the mind of God in the Scriptures. In beginning to search: they find something they had not expected. One has often met with brethren, over the Scriptures, and found unexpected things. It was no question of the needs of one’s soul being met, or of light to relieve one’s soul. No, it was like Mary sitting at the Lord’s feet; she had no soul needs then; it says, she “sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word”, (Luke 10: 39) she was listening to what He was saying. So in Ezra’s day these came together. “And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths”. I believe that the Holy Spirit, at the present time, if the saints have the heart for it, would lead us into the very highest and most blessed thoughts of God. I take it that the feast of tabernacles represents that, in the Old Testament. It was the highest and most blessed privilege accorded to the people of God. It was one of the three great feasts of the Lord. In Ezra’s time, those coming together on the second day, for [p. 190] special inquiry as to the words of the law, found this remarkable record, and they put into practice the privilege that was for Israel. So it says, “they kept the feast seven days”, “and there was very great gladness”. I have run over Ezra’s service in this brief way, in order to show how, in recovery, priesthood reappears and becomes available to the people of God; and it brings to light the mind of God, and the privileges which He accords to His people. I have connected it with Timothy, because he is the typical servant for the last days, and his service was priestly. He is a brother set free, and one who, as I said, is made the custodian of the truth as delivered to him, as having learned it of Paul, and he was to commit it to faithful men.
Now, I would just make a remark about Paul. I believe that, from the time he was sent out, his ministry has been the test of the people of God. I am convinced of this. When Paul came to Europe, to Philippi, it is said that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend to the things spoken by Paul. And I believe that is what the Spirit of God would do at the present time. He would open our hearts to the things spoken by Paul. Now, Timothy is mentioned for the first time, in that chapter, Acts 16, when Paul first visited Europe. He appears there, and he becomes a true companion, and child of Paul; so that he knew Paul’s doctrine, his manner of life, and he learned things from Paul. Paul says, “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”, 2 Timothy 2: 2. I commend Paul’s doctrine to you, and would take it home to myself, as the special feature for the time. There are those who have exercises about getting things from the Lord, but what are we doing with what we have received? The word is, “Hold that fast which thou hast”, Revelation 3: 11. That is the word [p. 191] for us. We have had wonderful things handed down to us. It is for us, in the spirit of priesthood, to treasure these things, and to pass them on to others, and pass them on without being tarnished by the mind of the flesh. May the Lord help us in this, There are just these few points which I would bring to your notice; the genealogy of the priest; the food; the clothing; the responsibility of the priest, and the trust with which he is entrusted of the Lord.