A Holy Priesthood

For sixteen years the temple had been silent, sacrifices stopped, worship suspended. Judah followed an evil king, Ahaz. He led them away from the Almighty and into idolatry. He led them to defeat and discouragement.

“But Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem… And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place… And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord…” (2 Chronicles 28:27-29:2) One of Hezekiah’s first acts as king was to round up the Levites and priests so they could clean up the temple. Ahab had brought elements of the false gods into the temple.

The priests and Levites had to purify themselves, and purify everything in the temple. This was what God had appointed them to do. The rest of Judah couldn’t worship God in the temple – nor would God enter the temple – unless this was done.

Once things had been purified, their job wasn’t finished. They had to make sacrifices for the people – lots of sacrifices. “They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats” (2 Chron. 29:21). With these sacrifices complete, the people came and worshiped the Almighty.

But the job of the Levites and priests wasn’t over. They had to help the people restore their relationship with God. There were more

sacrifices. “The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep.” Wow! This was some tough work.

Obviously, if these men had been doing their jobs over the past sixteen years, this wouldn’t have been such a big ordeal, but they hadn’t. They had gotten lazy. They hadn’t been worshiping other gods, just going through life – eating, drinking, buying and selling – but not doing their job.

What about you? God has called us to be “a kingdom of priests” and “a holy priesthood” (Rev. 5:10; 1 Peter 2:5). Have you been going through life, or have you been maintaining the purity of God’s temple…your body? Have you been busy sacrificing so others can come and worship our glorious God? Have you been sacrificing so others can restore their relationship with the Father?

Priests stood between the people and God, working to bring them together. Without their work, there would have been disaster for the people. It was a tough job.

It still is. Almost five billion people in our world are moving, each day, closer to disaster – an eternal separation from God…in hell. Your Father has appointed you to stand between, to move them towards Him. If you saw someone drowning in a swimming pool, would you:

 sacrifice the time it would take to pull them out?
 sacrifice the discomfort of jumping in a cold pool with your good clothes on?
 sacrifice your own safety, knowing they could pull you under if you weren’t careful?

Or, would you stand sadly at the edge, wishing there was someone to help? You are that someone. Make the sacrifice. Jump in.