PRIESTHOOD IN MALACHI
[p. 361] PRIESTHOOD IN MALACHI
Malachi 2: 4 - 8; Malachi 3: 16 - 18; Luke 2: 36 - 38
JT We should look at priesthood as it appears in Malachi. Malachi is written in remnant times and may help many of us as living in similar times. The subject of priesthood is very extensive and occupies more than one-third of the instruction relative to the tabernacle system as found in chapters 25 to 31 of Exodus. This shows its importance, and the subject is carried through to Malachi to its highest features.
The general condition at this time among the captives who had returned from Babylon was very low. The introduction of the subject of priesthood is of great significance, as showing to us what had been in Levi but what had at that time ceased to be normal in the priests, with the result that the service of God had degenerated.
Still there were those who feared the Lord and where the fear of the Lord is there is life. It says they “spake often one to another” and this is the best evidence of right conditions.
Ques Would the evidence today of right conditions be speaking one to another?
JT Our regard for one another is the best evidence of our love.
Ques What is the main thought of a priest?
JT Exodus 28 brings in the priesthood: Aaron is to minister to the Lord in the priest’s office. God says to Moses, “Take thou unto thee Aaron, thy brother”. This would direct Moses back to earlier days when at Horeb God said to him, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?”. Now Moses is in the place of authority, so that the priest is brother to the one invested: Moses is viewed as a type of Christ in that relation. Here in Malachi we have a reference to Levi: “My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name”.
While he serves Jehovah in the office of a priest, in Malachi it is more the care and ministry to the saints. Speaking often one to another is more than in the meeting.
Ques Would it take in the question of confidence?
JT Yes, you cannot love the brethren if you have no confidence in them. What transpires between the meetings is the test.
Ques A priest would be of great value at a moment like this when things were on the wane. Do you think priestly conduct should mark us while we speak often one with another?
JT Yes, that is where we are tested. The Lord knows what is going on in my heart; the test is how I treat my brethren. I cannot love them if I cannot respect them. One great feature of the priest in Malachi is to bring out the fear of the Lord.
Ques Would our speech be considering His name?
JT Our lack of power in speaking of His name should be humbling. Aaron is rightly a typical priest he had the heart of a brother. He was a man of experience before he is mentioned in Scripture. God said of him, “He can speak well”. The test of our speaking is what God thinks of it.
Ques The law of truth was in his mouth.
JT Doubtless it was. That is a fact that comes out here.
Ques “They ... spake often one to another”; would that be the outcome of fearing the Lord?
JT Speaking one to another would show priestly instincts. The principal thing before them is His name.
Ques Was it because of the remnant character of the day that they [p. 363] spake often one to another?
JT Yes, those that spake often one to another were few.
Rem As we are in remnant days it is more urgent upon us that we should have priestly characteristics.
JT Jehovah tells us He loves us. They, in Malachi’s day, challenged that. God said to them, “I have loved you”. Think of the love He lavishes on them and yet they challenge this remark. Esau was Jacob’s brother but he was not a brother like Aaron. They are all like Esau, a brother nominally but without the essentials. There are many who bear the name of brethren, but where are their affections? God says of Esau, ‘Was he not Jacob’s brother; yet I hated him?’. God would call attention to the nominal brother, He is taking account of the one who is wanting in affections. In spite of Jacob’s way God loved him.
Ques Is a similar thought connected with the two on the way to Emmaus? The Lord heard and restored them.
JT They were wayward, but they do not represent those in Malachi. They were unbelieving.
Rem It is a great thing to fear the Lord like those in Malachi.
JT Quite.
Rem Anna knew those who feared the Lord.
JT Instructions are given for those who fear the Lord so that the future generations may get help.
Anna had the true features of a priest. She, and those with her, would have read Malachi with relish. Speaking one to another we discover where the need is.
Rem The word of God would come through another.
JT Things come up and we learn. It is the Philadelphian order; brotherly love answers to that. They kept the Lord’s name.
Ques If we saw the characteristics of a priest in a brother we would communicate with him?
JT Certainly.
[p. 364] Rem It is a fine thought, that of a priest being a brother.
JT “Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one”; the appeal there is to brotherly sensibilities. We are enjoined to make straight paths for our feet. You are an example to others. See a man go forward in spiritual power and you follow him.
Rem Where there is the brotherly element we will be found speaking one to another.
JT We should bring in His name. God values very much those that bring in His name and what care He expends on them! God regards such as His jewels, and spares them “as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”, showing that the activities of God are to Himself. “They should seek the law at his mouth”: attention is called to the mouth of a spiritual person. How perfectly this is seen in the Lord! God is pleased with any right speaking to one another. Chapter 4 brings out the law of Moses. God has the whole dispensation in view: remembrance of the law of Moses is not for ourselves only but for all Israel.
Ques Is the priestly service open to the sisters as well as to the brothers?
JT Yes. Anna departed not from the temple night or day, serving God with fastings and prayers. You can see how the sisters come in. The idea is the assembly in its public character, composed of men and women. In fact Luke 8 includes children too.
Now in the assembly no one is to appear before God empty, but as filled with the Spirit, which implies a priestly condition. Fulness and spiritual power is suggested in chapter 4. Speaking one to another is the first thought and then order comes. Priestly state is to be found in sisters, as in Rebecca. We do not look for what is spiritual only in brothers but in every one. There should be a reservoir of it, so to speak, in the assembly.
[p. 365] Rem In loving one another we may love one more than another, but when divine nature is brought in there is no partiality.
JT It is a great advantage to get out of your class.
For instance, “Not many noble, are called”; the brother of low degree is to rejoice in his exaltation, the rich in his humiliation; each leaves his class. Certain characteristics mark me as a natural man. I must get rid of them to be a help to my brethren. In speaking often one to another, rich and poor soon leave their classes. The apostle suggests to Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother. He was out of his class by the power of God. If you remain in your class you will hamper your spirit. There are no distinctions in the death of Christ.
Rem Anna suggests the way spiritually.
JT Certainly. She was in it. She had the greatest opportunity and did not miss it; she was accustomed to be in the temple, and “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption”.