Scripture Reading: Exo. 19:1-6; 1 Pet. 2:5-9; Rev. 1:6; 22:3-4; Phil. 4:18; Rom. 12:1; Heb. 2:10; 4:16; 5:1; 6:19; 7:18-25; 8:1, 3; 9:7-8, 24; 10:19-22; 12:22; 13:14-15; Acts 13:1-2
In the book of Genesis we see God's creation of man for the realization of His purpose and man's failure regarding that purpose. Then we see God moving to recover what was lost in man. First, we see Him seeking an individual. After securing this individual, we see Him seeking and securing a family. For the discipline of His people and the realization of His purpose, God took that family into Egypt. He took a household into Egypt, but He brought a nation out of Egypt.
Why did God go to such effort over such a prolonged period — a period of about 2000 years — to secure this people? He Himself made His purpose known: "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself...ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests" (Exo. 19:4-6). God's purpose in redeeming His people is to obtain priests. This was why He said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go that they may serve me."
God chose Abel, and Abel brought an offering. He chose Noah, and Noah built an altar and offered offerings. Then God called out a whole nation for Himself, and He clearly made known to them His purpose in their redemption: that they might be "a kingdom of priests." Because of a breakdown on their part, only a section of the people ultimately became priests. However, it was God's original purpose that the whole nation should be priests. God's thought for Israel and for the church is one — a universal priesthood! What God could not secure in Israel He is going to secure in the church.
The book of Hebrews is specially devoted to the subject of the priesthood; it reveals that the primary matter in relation to the priesthood is entering into the presence of God (4:16; 6:19; 7:19, 25; 8:1; 9:7-8, 24; 10:19-22; 12:22). We find few commands in the book of Hebrews. Its greatest command is to enter into God's presence. The all-inclusive ministry of the children of God is to enter into the presence of God and never go out. God brought Israel out of bondage and bade them enter into the land which He had set before them. He also has brought us out so that He might bring us in. The sum total of God's purpose is to bring us into His own presence. Opening the way was costly because it had to be opened by the shed blood of the Lamb of God. Now our ministry is in the Holy of Holies within the veil.
Every child of God is called to be a priest, and every priest exists for the specific purpose of offering gifts and sacrifices (Heb. 5:1; 8:3). Is there then no work in which the children of God can engage? Yes, for if priests offer "gifts and sacrifices," it is obvious that they require things to offer. In order to obtain these things, they must work. The trouble with many Christians is that their work is an end in itself; it is just work as work. The vital matter is not whether we are engaged in this or that work, but whether or not our work is on the ground of our priesthood. Many of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt were shepherds, but that was not their calling; they were called to be priests. Many of them were craftsmen, but that was not their calling; they were called to be priests. A person might want to offer a sheep because he was a shepherd or offer his handicraft because he was a craftsman, but God cannot accept offerings on this ground. He can accept them only on the ground of the priesthood. The question is not what work we are doing, but whether or not we are doing the work as priests.
In Old Testament days the prophets were esteemed above the priests, but God's thought was not to have a kingdom of prophets. He wanted a kingdom of priests. Just as in the days of the Old Testament, the prophetic ministry is valued far above the priestly ministry in the New Testament age. But God's purpose for His people is the priesthood. He wants a universal, not a limited, priesthood. Acts 13:1-2 speaks of the "prophets and teachers" that "were ministering to the Lord." These men were prophets and teachers, but their prophecy and teaching were "unto the Lord." It was based on the priesthood. If we are not priests, we will never be prophets and teachers. Our priestly ministry determines the quality of all our other ministry. The value of all the work we do is estimated by the priestly element in it. God's original purpose for all the Israelites was that they would pass by way of the altar into the presence of God. This is the priesthood.
Priestly ministry is the basis of all ministry to God. There is no ministry to Him apart from the altar. It was the altar that distinguished Abel from Cain. Abel had an altar that was stained by blood. In Noah's history we see the altar again, as well as in Abraham's history. Wherever we find a man chosen of God, we will inevitably find an altar to God.
While God was dealing with individuals, the altar was used only occasionally. However, after He secured a people for Himself, the altar ceased to be intermittent and became permanent. Abraham built more than one altar; so did Isaac and Jacob. But when Israel was constituted a people, the tabernacle was set up and the altar was permanently established there. Sacrifices were no longer at intervals but continuous; the altar was no longer a personal matter but a corporate matter.
God's thought in building the church is to have a place for the exercise of the priesthood. In Ephesians 2 we are told that He is building up His saints into a holy temple so that He might have a habitation for Himself. This is from God's side. In 1 Peter 2:5 we see that from man's side a spiritual house is being built so that spiritual sacrifices might be offered by a holy priesthood. The book of Hebrews shows us an eternal priesthood, and the expression of that eternal priesthood is a perpetual altar with perpetual sacrifices. The existence of the church is for priestly ministry. If this is lacking, the foundation of the church is gone. God wants a perpetual priestly ministry, expressed by a perpetual altar and perpetual sacrifices. The altar must never be empty. God's demand is that the fire on the altar should never go out. The church does not exist merely for service or even for warfare, but for the offering of sacrifices to God. The church's calling is to priestly ministry, and the object of priestly ministry is to offer sacrifices. If the church fails in this, she fails in everything.
First Peter 2:5 does not say that the church is "built up as a spiritual house to offer up spiritual sacrifices," but that the church is "being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices." The priesthood offers the sacrifices. The church is not just a place where sacrifices are offered, but a place where the priesthood is established. It is not a matter of the offering of many isolated offerings but the institution of a permanent priestly ministry. In the Old Testament days an ordinary Israelite could easily count the occasions on which he presented sacrifices at the altar; but a priest could never count the number of the offerings he offered. It was not an occasional occurrence for him; it was a ceaseless matter. His offering could not be recounted as isolated acts; it constituted his whole ministry. He lived for this and for nothing else. His life consisted in the offering of sacrifices. God's expectation of His people is not just for occasional or even frequent sacrifices. His priesthood is a perpetual priesthood. Many Christians have a definite date on their calendar that marks their consecration; some have several dates when they offered themselves in a special way to God as the result of revival meetings, etc. But this is far from God's thought for His people. He is not looking for separate, sacrificial acts, but for a life that is a perpetual sacrifice. The vocation of the church is the priesthood, and since the vocation of the church is the priesthood, the work of the church consists in the offering up of sacrifices. This is the all-inclusive ministry of the church. If we are priests, then our only occupation in life is to offer gifts and sacrifices. But it is a "holy priesthood" that offers up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God. There is no satisfaction in the heart of God when His people offer up sacrifices if they in themselves are not a priestly people.
We are not primarily called to be workers; we are primarily called to be priests. Work provides much that builds man up, interests him, and satisfies the flesh. But priestly ministry is an altogether different matter. It contributes nothing to man; rather, it takes everything from him. When we finish a piece of work, there often follows a sense of success that ministers satisfaction to the flesh, but we reap no satisfaction for ourselves when we offer sacrifices to God. We are just left with empty hands. When we have offered an offering to God, it is gone.
God accepts no work that is not a sacrifice, that is not wholly offered up to Him. The question is not: "What have I done?" Rather, the question is: "Has what I have done been done as an offering to God? Has it passed out of my hands into His?" If what we have done has not passed over to the other side, it is not priestly ministry and it is outside the realm of the church's vocation. If what we have done has not passed over to the other side, then we have not passed over to the other side either, because the offerer goes with the offering. If our offering ascends to God, we will ascend with it. When we retire to bed at night, we should not ask, "How much have I done today?" Rather, we should ask, "Of what I have done, how much has been a spiritual sacrifice?" How often can we look up to the Lord at the end of the day and say, "Lord, may I put this into Your hands?"
