"Me a Priest?"

Scripture Passage

1 Chronicles 5:18-26; 1 Chronicles 6:3; 1 Chronicles 6:49; 1 Chronicles 6:4-15; 1 Chronicles 7-8:28

Scripture Focus

Only Aaron and his descendants served as priests. (1 Chronicles 6:49 NLT)

Observation

I confess I don’t know where to latch on today. I don’t like genealogies—there’s little there that “feeds the soul” for me.   (I say that fully respecting these Scriptures as Holy Writ, and fully aware that someone more skilled and scholarly than I could likely make them come alive with wonder.) Still, I feel obliged to recognize these genealogies as the bulk of today’s reading and point out how necessary these were to a people exiled to a foreign land.

Israel was (and is) a people uniquely belonging to God. It was terribly significant that their linage be recorded and preserved. And God cared enough about each genealogical line and about His people as a whole to see that their family names and lineage were recorded and preserved as Scripture even when the nation ceased to exist as it’s own entity. Powerful is the love of God! I like it, as well, that they’re known by name, not just by number. All of this speaks to the watch-care and covering of our great God.

But my attention is primarily drawn to a distinction between Israel’s covenant with God and mine. 1 Chronicles 6:49 makes it clear—under Israel’s covenant—“Only Aaron and his descendants served as priests.” But about Jesus and those He’s redeemed, Revelation 5:9-10 makes this clear:

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9-10 NIV)

Under this new covenant Jesus instituted by His death and resurrection, I have a standing and calling that, previously, only one tribe within Israel ever knew—I’ve been made a priest. Indeed, collectively, we—the people of God—are being made priests. Not ordained to hold some man-made office within the institutional church, but ordained to be a people who offer ourselves before God and intercede for others.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5 NIV)

So, my fellow priest, what priestly opportunity will you be taking on today?

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