I. PRIESTLY MINISTRY

    B. Historical Overview

The first priest mentioned in the Old Testament is Melchizedek - “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High…”
Genesis 14:18 (NIV).

He was neither preceded or succeeded; Jesus was after the order of Melchizedek (eternal) and none would follow Him, for he is the Great High Priest (Hebrews 10).

Since Melchizedek had no predecessor, after Israel came out of Egypt, a new priesthood needed to be established; God unfolded His plan to Moses...

Exodus 19:3-6 - “And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.”

God desired ALL of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, if they would obey and keep the covenant! But Israel broke those conditions, worshiping another god, a golden calf; “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”… Exodus 20:3

The plan for the Aaronic priesthood and tabernacle was given to Moses just prior to him coming back from the mount to deal with the idolatry of the people. Where God had intended for all of Israel to minister as priests because of the people’s disobedience and breaking of the covenant they never became priests:

“Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.” Exodus 32:26

It was only the Levites who took a stand for God and were allowed to fulfill certain functions in the Tabernacle; but the MINISTRY of the priesthood became exclusive to Aaron (High Priest) and his sons. For hundreds of years it was only the PRIESTS that could actually minister to God. Studying the priesthood through the Old Testament, we see that the LEVITES began to take on more and more responsibility, finally coming to the place of priestly ministry through ZADOK in the time of Solomon; but the Old Testament priesthood only represented temporary atonement and limited access to God’s presence.

To summarize, it is apparent that Israel never met up to God’s expectations in ministering to Him. Melchizedek, Aaron, and all of the high priests that followed were only figures of what Jesus Christ fulfilled; for through the shedding of His blood, he perfected the priesthood, and through Him, we can minister in the manifest presence of God. So through Christ, we are all made priests!!

It is important that we understand the complete work that Christ has done, becoming our “Great High Priest”:

• CHRIST AS PRIEST, APPOINTED OF GOD - HEBREWS 5:5
• CONSECRATED WITH OATH - HEBREWS 7:20-22
• CHRIST IS SINLESS - HEBREWS 7:26
• UNCHANGEABLE PRIESTHOOD - HEBREWS 7:23,24 (not passed on)
• HIS OFFERING PERFECT AND COMPLETE - HEBREWS 9:25-28; 10:12
• HIS INTERCESSION PERPETUAL - HEBREWS 7:25
• PERFECT MEDIATOR - HEBREWS 1,2

To add to the thought that we studied in John 4, we know that it is BY the SPIRIT that we worship. Now we see that it is also through Jesus, our Great High Priest, that we minister in worship unto the Father. Through Jesus the desire of the Father to have a nation of priests can be fulfilled; now we can FUNCTION as priests!

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