PRIESTLY ENERGY
[p. 345] PRIESTLY ENERGY
When I thought of speaking this evening, this scripture in Leviticus came before my mind; and thinking it over, it occurred to me that it would be helpful to speak a little about the great subject of priesthood; not that one has the thought of speaking, in any way fully on such a great subject, but I would rather centre my remarks on the energy which I believe should mark those that are priests. When I say those that are priests, I am not excluding any saint on earth, for everyone who has the Holy Spirit and who is justified by the grace of God, is a priest. But one has to admit that there are those who are not in the exercise of their great functions. When the Spirit of God speaks, or rather when the saints themselves speak, in celebrating the Lord’s triumph, they say, “who ... ... has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”. (Revelation 1: 6) They appreciate the great privilege that belongs to them; they speak of it appreciatively. It should read, not simply kings and priests, but a kingdom, priests, to His God - to Christ’s God - and Father. Those who speak in this way in the opening of Revelation speak appreciatively; they are not only in the good of the kingdom, but are a kingdom; they are not in bondage to the elements of evil, and those who speak appreciatively of being priests to God are not asleep; they are exercising their great functions before God.
I want to speak of the energy of priesthood, but first of all I would say a little as to this chapter in Leviticus which presents the subject to us so fully and formally. It is a chapter by itself in the book, and it comes in, as those of us know who have studied Leviticus, after the law governing the offerings,
[p. 346] as if the Spirit would imply that the saints who are accustomed in a spiritual way to present offerings to God will appreciate the great subject of priesthood presented by itself. If I am not accustomed to come into the tabernacle with my offerings, I shall not have much interest in the priests. I may hear of them and read of them; but to become acquainted with them one needs to come up with his offerings to the door of the court. There you will meet them. Directly you draw near, you will meet Aaron and his son.
You will observe that throughout the law governing the offerings, Aaron’s sons figure more than Aaron does, so that drawing near with the offerings you become acquainted with Aaron’s sons, and with Aaron himself, for he is there too. He is the great priest, as is said of Christ, “having a great priest over the house of God”. (Hebrews 10: 21) He is on our side, and as we draw near we see Him there for us. But we find, as we come often, so to speak; that is, as we habituate ourselves to the sanctuary court, that He is more than Priest for us; He is a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. The more you apprehend Christ in that light, the more enlarged you become, and I do seek for enlargement in myself.
One has to admit the narrowness of the saints; as the apostle says, “Ye are not straitened in us, ye are straitened in your own affections”. (2 Corinthians 6: 12) So he says, “Be ye also enlarged”. True enlargement is in the apprehension of Christ as He is; not only as Priest to us, but as Priest set down in heaven in regard to the whole realm of divine interests. There is nothing in the whole realm of divine interests that does not come under the providence of Christ; He is minister in regard of all, but particularly now in regard of the saints. He is concerned in regard of every saint on earth; well then, am I regarding [p. 347] them all? The more you apprehend that great place, the more you will seek to be like John leaning on the Lord’s bosom. The nearer you get to the High Priest, the more you discover that all the saints are there, all are in His heart. Therefore, I must have them on my heart. It does not say all the sons of Aaron had a breastplate; only he had; but one can understand how the sons of Aaron would become accustomed to the names, as they saw their father with his robe; how they would become accustomed to the names inscribed on the breastplate. So the nearer you get to the Lord, the more the saints are in your heart; you think of them.
Now as you draw near with your offering, you are prepared for the eighth chapter. I commend that to you. I think the book of Leviticus is a book of the greatest importance. I am greatly afraid of the Old Testament becoming undervalued: we must be on our guard about that. I have been remarking about the householder bringing out of his treasure things new and old. The new and the old are in the treasure. The ministry of the new, throwing its light on all, enables you to value all the more the old things, for the old things spoke of Christ. The Holy Spirit was engaged with Christ when He wrote this chapter, and He wrote it for us. Have we a treasure? I apprehend that every Christian has in his heart a compartment so to speak, in which he ever preserves intact the things that he regards as his own birth-right. Do not tell me that you have them in the Bible; it is what you have in your soul that counts, hence the importance of being instructed in these things. Then you will bring forth the things new, bright, as it were, from heaven, brought down here by the Holy Spirit, but the old things are also bright, not in the least tarnished by age, but in all their original lustre, written down by the Spirit of God, speaking even as the new, about Christ.
[p. 348] So this book speaks to our hearts as regards what offerings we bring as left to ourselves. In the book of Exodus it was laid upon the hearts of the people to bring certain things which wore necessary for the tabernacle; they were specified, and they were freewill offerings. The heart being moved Godward would bring the things that are requisite for God’s dwelling-place. All the different materials were to be brought, and they were brought for God, till there was more than enough. That is the book of Exodus. All is set out according to God; there was nothing wanting. The book of Leviticus is the answer to God, the answer to the divine requirements. Christianity is full measure, everything consistent with the divine work. The book of Exodus is typical of the establishment of Christianity in the Person of Christ. There is nothing left; there is a treasure there, the perfection of the tabernacle. All was anointed with oil: all pervaded by the Spirit, and God comes in as well, so that the Lord fills the whole sphere. If we are able by the Spirit to transfer these material things to the spiritual sphere, it will be blessing to our souls. The book of Exodus is the triumph of God.
Now when you come to Leviticus, it is the truth presented from our side, and I may remark here as to a point of distinction as regards Numbers. Numbers contemplates the people’s position, so it is said in Numbers, “And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt”. (Numbers 1: 1) The Spirit of God is occupied in Numbers with the public position, and the testimony, and the order of the camp in that position, hence you have military arrangements. It is the public position of the saints, God dwelling in their midst, and the order that marks them. It is in that book that [p. 349] Balaam is compelled to speak of the beauty and the order that marked the children of Israel.
Now Leviticus does not speak about that, because it is a question of man’s approach to God, and geographical position has nothing to do with that; it is a spiritual conception. We have to be spiritual to understand any part of Scripture, but especially a book which contemplates our drawing near to God like Leviticus. You must not think of geographical position when it is a question of approach to God. The woman of Samaria said to the Lord, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship”. The Lord says, “... ... neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem”;(John 4: 20, 21) it is not a question of material geography. It is a question of spirituality, because God is a Spirit, and as we draw near to God we must divest our minds of materialism and geography and be according to the nature of God. Hence God explains throughout this book that He is holy, and if we approach His sanctuary we must be holy. “Be ye holy, for I am holy”. (1 Peter 1: 16) God is holy, and it must ever be a question of adjustment on our part to draw near to God. I do not wish to deter you: I wish to impress upon you the need of being holy; thus God would encourage you to draw near to Him. “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest ... ... by a new and living way ... ..”. (Hebrews 10: 19) I commend these two words to you: the new way and the living way.
The leading systems of Christendom have gone back to the old way, which is discarded. There is no life in them, whereas Christianity involves a new way and a living way. Christ has dedicated this way for us through the veil; that is to say, His flesh. How precious that is; by dying He has opened up the new way, hence it says, Having a great Priest, let us draw near. How? With a true heart. God is concerned about your heart, “and with full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”. (verse 22) That is how the Christian is encouraged to draw near. The opening chapters of Leviticus speak of the priest drawing near, but with a heart full of Christ; and then if you do draw near you will want to know all about Christ. You say, He fills my heart, but God says, He will fill my universe. God is going to fill the universe with Christ. What a blessed fact that is to see, that the whole universe is going to be occupied and officiated in by One who has the sympathy and intelligence of a Priest. That is Leviticus 8.
So Moses is enjoined to bring Aaron and his sons, for they are viewed all together; you are to view them all together according to the dignity of their position in relation to the universe, for the tabernacle is a type of the universe in a spiritual sense, a representation of things in the heavens. These are material things, but in Hebrews it says a greater and more perfect tabernacle. The tabernacle is first anointed, then the Priest. That implied that this great spiritual system took form in the ministry of Christ; the Lord has brought into evidence the mind and thoughts of God. He has unfolded the divine thought; all these thoughts have been put together; they can he linked up with one another, but where? In the minds of God’s people. The tabernacle was not reared up, strictly speaking, until the Holy Spirit came, but the thing itself was set forth in the life of the Lord. John says that if all the things that Jesus did were written, the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Do you think that any thought of Christ will be lost? I do not; they are too precious. If the hairs of my head are all numbered, every word that Christ uttered is precious to God, and nothing [p. 351] shall be lost; all these thoughts have been taken up by the Spirit and put together in the minds and affections of the people of God. All ministry is to that end, that what Christ has unfolded in His ministry should be brought into and kept in the hearts of God’s people, so that the whole mind of God should come out in a concrete form. All these blessed thoughts were expressed in the ministry of Christ.
The heavens and the earth will pass away; the material things may go, but the word of Christ speaks of what is spiritual and eternal. In the eternal state the tabernacle of God shall be with men, in relation to all these wonderful things. The Lord speaks of Mary sitting at His feet; she was receiving into her soul these wonderful thoughts. The Holy Spirit set her up later in relation to all the love of Christ. The tabernacle is anointed in every part of it, and then it says that Aaron was anointed as well. How definitely it is stated in regard of Aaron: he is anointed here without blood; it speaks of the Lord’s personal right. It is as if God said of Christ, now that He appears in baptism as identified with the repentant remnant, ‘I have found One in whom is My delight’, and God anoints Him in relation to all the divine thoughts, signifying that personally He was able to give effect to them and maintain them all, and for this He had no need to die. God could commit Himself formally and definitely to one Man only without dying, and that Man was Christ. The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, and abode upon Him. In the consciousness of that anointing He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. (Luke 4: 18) He would be here a Priest in relation to all the divine thoughts.
In the second part of the chapter Aaron’s sons are brought in, and with Aaron they are all presented to God, their hands filled with the excellence of Christ. That is how we come in before God. We [p. 352] often speak about being empty, but the divine thought is that we should be filled, filled with Christ. As typified in the realm of creation, the bullock is the very largest sin offering for Aaron and his sons, then you have the burnt offering, then the ram of consecration. The ram typified maturity. It was God’s thought that His people, viewed as priests, should be mature spiritually. I am not saying that you are not a priest, but the question is, Have you maturity? Have I reached spiritual manhood? The great aim in ministry is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We are to be children in regard to evil, but grown men in our minds. So the priests come in, their hands filled with that which speaks of maturity in its excellence. The apostle said to the Corinthians, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual”, and yet they had the Spirit. A babe cannot walk; priesthood involves maturity, being full-grown men, no longer babes. They were to remain at the door of the tabernacle day and night for seven days. Who but men could do that? People that take up the things of God with their heart are marked by constancy and endurance. Christianity calls for endurance. Look at the Lord Himself; when the sun was setting He was engaged in healing the sick; when it was day He was working; then you find Him all night in prayer to God. Look at the dignity of it. Think of being anointed along with Christ. How one would go in for it; sacrifice everything for it, for nothing can be compared with such service. I am not speaking of levitical service, but of priestly service, which comes first. This chapter deals with priestly service and shows the priest anointed to take up all the thoughts of God so his ear, hand, and foot are all brought under the power of the Spirit.
Now turn for a moment to Acts; I only want to show how perfectly the energy of priesthood is [p. 353] portrayed in Paul and Silas. It appeared in the most adverse circumstances conceivable. They were thrust into the inner prison by an experienced gaoler, who knew how to do these things, and their feet made fast in the stocks; nothing is omitted to make their position irksome beyond expression. Now we are not in such circumstances. It may be that one is called to suffer in measure, but not like this. It is a shame even to speak of one’s trials when you think of Paul’s, who followed so closely in his Master’s steps. At midnight, at the hour when flesh would seek its rest, they prayed, and sang praises unto God. Out of weakness they waxed strong, for they were men of weakness, men whose feet were fast in the stocks; they prayed; that is a privilege of the Christian, to draw near to God. They were like their Master, who prayed in Gethsemane; they prayed, and in prayer sang praises unto God. The prison at Philippi was converted into a temple in which men turned to God in prayer and in praise. I mention it because it illustrates the energy of a priest. The prisoners were listening to them. What a changed prison it became; from the dull monotony of human suffering into a sphere of holy praise to God. That is priestly energy; it is a triumph over the most adverse circumstances.
Will anyone say that Christianity is not a triumph? Let us not concede the thought for a moment; it is a triumph. The presence of the Holy Spirit in men down here brings about an answer to the heart of God. Do we, like those spoken of in the Psalms, stand by night in the house of the Lord? I bring it forward because there is need at this time for spiritual energy. One has often spoken about the Levite as one having always to be in energy. The age of the priest is not given; the point with the priest is holiness and intelligence. What I said would prove that he has to be in spiritual energy Godward. Paul [p. 354] and Silas answer to that spiritually; they prayed and praised at midnight. Let us never give up the thought of prayer and praise. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. It is an outlet, an outlet to God.
May God bless His word to us, that we may have grace for spiritual things.
Pages 355 - 398. “Spiritual Education”, Belfast, July 1919. (Volume 43)