Published: March 21, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - The Parable of Leviticus 1 - Part 9 | Scripture: Leviticus 6:8-13
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in that it would be pleasing in your sight as your children gather before you and and open your word we ask that you would bless and nourish for we ask in Jesus name
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Jesus name amen seriously we we aren't going to be going to Leviticus 17 in this session if you are keeping track we're we're not nearly on a pace to to make it to
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Leviticus 17 before October uh so we're going to uh but we are actually getting into what we could call Leviticus um and that is the um the
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section running from chapter 6:8 through chapter 10 that actually deals with the priests and it's not really Leviticus it
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should be more ironicus um because as I mentioned last week we we tend to think of the Levites as a Priestly tribe they were not the only priests were those of
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the family of Aaron the Levites were Servants of the priests and of the Tabernacle but they were not permitted to uh to officiate in any way in the
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rituals and the sacrifices um they were not allowed the only time they ever really touched anything is when the Tabernacle moved it was there they were the moving they were you know four men
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in a truck or three men in a truck three Levites in a truck um is is what they were so when we look at again we have the this uh this standard uh marker then
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the Lord spoke to Moses saying and in chapter 6 up through verse 7 we've been dealing with the various
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offerings that began back in chapter one so the five offerings the uh the three General offerings the burnt offering uh the grain offering and the peace
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offering and then the two particular offerings sin offering and the guilt or trespass offering but we get to chapter 6: 7 and again a reminder um in the
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Hebrew Bible these seven verses are appended to chapter 5 and in the Hebrew Bible chapter 6 begins in our verse 8 which I think is more
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accurate because we read in verse 8 then the Lord said spoke to Moses saying command Aaron and his son okay verse 20 then or verse 19 then the
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Lord spoke to Moses saying this is the offering which Aaron and his sons are to present to the Lord verse 24 then the Lord spoke to Moses saying Speak to Aaron and his
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sons and then that goes on um through chapter 7: chapter 7: 21 and then in verses 22 and 23 of chapter 7 we have then the Lord spoke
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spoke to Moses saying speak to the sons of Israel okay so as I mentioned before if you go through and you highlight all the
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places where it says then the Lord spoke to Moses saying I think that will really help you have a a kind of a a global perspective of Leviticus you'll be able
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to see the the individual sections even though they may be themselves a part of a larger ho but you'll be able to see where uh Moses and and the Holy Spirit
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are directing our attention along the way and I think it divides it up in a in more manageable um pieces as well so in verse eight of
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chapter six we we do have a completely different audience and that is Aaron and his sons so that's why I said finally Leviticus I mean we're finally getting
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to the point where the priesthood is being directly addressed um and what we're dealing with here um and you see this a number of places you
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see it in verse 9 this is the law for the burnt offering verse 14 this is the law of the grain offering verse 25 this is the law of the sin
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offering verse 7 uh chapter 7 verse one this is the law of the guilt offering and then verse 11 of chapter 7 this is the law of the peace
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offering the word there is is Torah uh which literally just means instruction okay but we understand and I think um within the context
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of the pentet took Torah is more than just instruction okay it's it's um translated in this in the Greek
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actual mechanics of the priesthood itself up to this point the priests as I I've noted before the priests were really assistance except for the offerings where they took the blood Beyond the
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Veil most of what they were doing was kind of um uh administrative the the sacrifices were coming from the people and the actual killing of the animal was
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done by the one who was offering and the the uh priest was facilitating he would sprinkle the blood where it belonged he would arrange the
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animal on the altar as it was meant to be and then the portions that belong to the priests of course he would take aside and and withhold for the priesthood but it really didn't get into
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um what the priests were supposed to be doing what was important to the priesthood and this is section really more than anything in Leviticus numbers
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or Deuteronomy this section I'm sorry Exodus and numbers in Deuteronomy this section in Leviticus I think really gets to the heart of the meaning of
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priesthood and that's what we're going to be talking about over the next several weeks I want to point out some uh hermeneutical points um that the layout of the offerings you you might
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have noticed as I reviewed them they're not in the same order as we've seen them okay and so what we have here if we look at the the law of the
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offerings um in Leviticus 1 through uh 6 verse
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7 this is the order
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peace sin and sin and guilt sounds like the birds in uh Bleak House um so this then we're getting
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familiar with this offering but then we come to the law passage Leviticus
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actually grain okay sin guilt and
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finally peace so when we talk about the order by which the people and and I don't know that this was meant to tell
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us exactly how things happen happened because this is a dynamic um going on every day and some people are bringing burnt offerings and some people are bring bringing guilt offerings and so
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we're we're you know we you read the commentaries and they try to say this was always the first and H well yeah the day started with the lamb in the morning which was a burnt offering and the day
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ended with the Lamb of the evening it was a burnt offering so okay the burnt offering is the you know it's is the mother of all offerings that that's fairly obvious um but grain sin guilt
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trespass peace offering um there's really no way from the text in any of the pentat took to work out a a daily order of how these things were done
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because I don't think there was one so we're really looking at a logical order more than anything okay and that's what we need to understand as we read the penet took try not to read it as though
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it was some type of an instruction manual whereby you put this part in and then you attach that part and if you do it in the wrong order order you don't get the results that's not how it's presented and the fact that the
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different um places where we find the offerings enumerated and described are not consistent with one another has more to do with the purpose
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of that particular text than it does with any contradiction within okay um and if you think about it and under the the U influence of the D of the um uh
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documentary hypoth documentary hypoth is whereby all of this was not written by Moses but was brought together by by redactors editors who brought together
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different documents you would realize that they would be very concerned with making it making it consistent they would be more likely to harmonize it and put it in the same order okay to to make it
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seamless they didn't because that's not how it came to pass um and that whole that whole hypothesis is really quite it's quite unbelieving and it is also quite ridiculous on the face of it but
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the the fact that these different sections are even these two so closely together consecutive sections kind of mix up the order simply means that we're looking at it from a different
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perspective now we're now looking at it from the perspective of Aaron and his sons the Priestly family which is why smack in the middle we have their consecration offering uh which was M
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which was made every day uh it was a Gra offering and and so it's put right after the grain offering I think that's a reasonable place to put it but it's certainly not something that these
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people these are the Israelites they had nothing to do with that okay um but these offerings except for the burnt offering
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these offerings were food for the priests and that's really two things that we have that we can look at in this section as being kind of paradigmatic
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kind of the framework of what the priest what this is all about is and and they're really they're really um in terms of what you think of importance they they don't seem to to go
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together but they they're alliterative there was the fire on the Altar and there was the food for the priests that's what this is all
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about the fire on the Altar and the food for the for the priests but even within that there's a very important um uh
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variation and that is certain offerings were forbidden to the priests so any offering that the priest was making for himself was to be totally burned the
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consecration offering the burn offering was always totally burned that was by definition the Ola was to ascend okay any sin offering whereby the blood was
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taken behind the veil was was forbidden to the priests so that would be the sin of the high priest and the sin of the congregation because the blood of those
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two was taken through the veil into the holy place and so you know you you have this priesthood and that's that's kind of a a major major challenge for the
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church the early church frankly didn't not know what to do with the priesthood and so they essentially resurrected in and even
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within the Protestant denominations we do have priests we don't it's not just Roman Catholicism um but we do have priests in in the Anglican Church um and
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essentially priests in other denominations so I think two things I would like to set as goals uh for the next few sessions um
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one is the the main one is to understand as much as possible the
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possible the priesthood what did it mean what was its purpose and also the second one is to to ask the question because we
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we know that Jesus Christ is the Fulfillment of all the Covenant promises but as I've mentioned before we really have a hard time n drawing a line of uh
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prophetic to prophetic to fulfillment in the various offerings and the various Priestly functions we can't and people try you know and you read it
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in the commentaries where they'll get to the grain offering and they'll show how Jesus fulfills the grain offering okay now that's you know that sounds ridiculous but uh the stipulations of
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the grain offering are actually almost verbatim for the Roman Cath Catholic mass and we'll talk about that Lord willing next week so we see a lot of
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residual levitical and eronic uh activities and principles and rituals and Torah being brought in to the to the Christian church and very early I might
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add so this idea of a priesthood this idea of a cast CA within the Christian
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congregation that stood between Believers and God okay because fundamentally a priesthood is mediatorial and that's really a challenge for any Christian who wants to
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find a priesthood within Christianity is to understand it is a mediatorial office
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okay he said you would be justified by the law do not listen to the law right right what we're doing that's what we're doing do you not actually read what you say you know and teach okay so um are
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these things actually Messianic and I'm going to submit to you that most of them are
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not that really the the only not the only obviously Passover obviously Yom kapor the day of atonement our great high priest you know there are definitely ironic Priestly functions
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that Jesus took upon himself but the vast array of Priestly duties responsibilities activities and
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even clothing had more to do with the role of the priesthood and who was filling it than it had anything to do with the Messiah now I know that that can bother
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people because Luther taught us as you can find Jesus on every page of the Bible okay you there's every page of the Bible has something to do with Jesus uh in in a very indirect and tangential
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way yes but it's the direct connections that I think really challenge thinking Believers when you read in a commentary how you know again the grain offering
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somehow leads to Jesus and the author tells you how it is and you're like I don't see that have have you ever done that when you just somebody either preached or taught or he's like I don't
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see that it ends up being an easy too it ends up way of getting around what is a real like difficult thing to understand
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in the law or the prophets say oh it's about Jesus right well that's the preschool answer Jesus okay no matter what the question is Jesus um that's not
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really studying to show yourself approved honestly uh and and I think that we we have to challenge whether what we're dealing with is is not just because of our sinfulness and the fact
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that the the ironic priesthood was corrupt just as like the rest of Israel in fact Aaron um held the
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position as kind of Israel's Chief apostate and I'm talking about the rinic tradition because it was Aaron who produced the golden calf like you mentioned how the the
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garments you know sort of signified or identified priesthood identified priesthood priest yet you know Jesus no no and and
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Jesus didn't wear garments because uh Jesus wasn't a priest the priest in Jesus's day wore garments and those garments are very significant so when we read that when they are taking up the
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ashes the priest is wearing his sacred vestments but when he's taking out the ash he doesn't he changes you know so the
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garments say something and I think that's very important in even a Protestant setting one of the one of the earliest uh Protestant disagreements at least in the time of Calvin was about
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vestments it was called the vestment controversy and a particular Bishop in um England did not want to wear the vestments but the Continental reformers
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say hey it's a minor thing just go along and let go ahead don't make a wave okay don't make waves just go ahead wear the vestments no that's that that betrays a complete misunderstanding of priesthood
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the vestments were not optional okay they they signify something and so when you go to a church and the man up front is wearing some sort of clerical Garb
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he's making a statement okay now the guy that's up there dressed like a hobo he's making a statement too but it's a different statement okay there's there you know it's it's
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that has no foundation in Leviticus but the other absolutely does and the statement that it's making
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isn't a good one okay and and it has been the tendency of the church in all its various basan Robins flavors to set up a
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a ministerial mediatorial cast within the congregation some group of people people who will mediate between the congregation and God because the
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congregation says Moses you go up we'll stay here and then you come back and tell us what God says now we continue to do that so what we're learning here in
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this levitical section of Leviticus is not how Jesus fulfills these various offerings or how the ashes have anything to do with Jesus okay and
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there are those who say okay the ashes represent Jesus dying outside the camp all right no no they don't they represent the need for the fire on the
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altar to be perpetual and anybody who has a wood stove understands that you got to clean out the ashes so there's a there's a practical aspect of it but that PR practical aspect is vital to the
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purpose of the Altar and that is the continual Perpetual fire burning upon it and that's a role of the priesthood so they had a definite role and a definite
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purpose and the lack of that is again I've often commented on the the temple the second
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temple as having been recognized by the Jews as not fulfilled okay and that is a very
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important eschatological point when you're considering considering biblical eschatology ology which was the esy of the Old the Old Testament and so the second temple was
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built and then Herod embellished it made it one of the wonders of the of the ancient world but the Jews themselves did not believe it to be the the Abode
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of God uh and so one Jewish author writes um the Jewish rabbis enumerate five things wanting in the second temple which were found in the first the
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shikina or visible Glory the ark and The Mercy Seat in cherubim the spirit of Prophecy the uim and the thumim and finally the Holy Fire upon
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the Brazen altar we don't I think appreciate how Central that fire is to the entire altar
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ritual all of it and so that's what we're going to talk about tonight um so we have this uh you know we have this
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order and we're going to try to understand why the peace offering is last a very uh I don't know how to what word
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not really pedantic but um a very simple explanation is that the peace offering actually involves a whole bunch of types of offerings the heave offering the wave
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offering okay a and so maybe maybe Moses left it to last because it was going to be so long he wanted to get the you know the short ones out of the way I don't
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think that's quite it I think the you know Prim aasy the the idea of having the peace offering last is that you're you're not at peace with
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Yahweh until he has been fed okay and your sins and guilt have been atoned for okay now he has been fed
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is the burnt offering but it's also the grain offering which was the primary food of the priests so the priests stood to
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Israel the people as the representatives of God and so before the people could partake of the peace offering everything had to be good with yah and his priests
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so I think that's a reasonable explanation for and we'll get into it in more deta detail um what I found one of the reasons why I'm saying we we no chance we're getting to chapter
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17 is that as you dig into each of these they each are having as as I'm digging into them it's like wow this this really isn't just about how do I do
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this particular this particular offering for example and looking at the first one the burnt offering um this is the law for the burnt offering and and um really it's not
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about the burnt offering it's about the fire on the Altar and how it is to be kept burning perpetually so we we're going to focus
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on that some tonight um but you know you think you're you're you're going to read an instruction manual of how to cut the animal and how to arrange it on the Altar and whatnot no it's all about
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keeping that fire burning including the removal of the ashes and then to make it even more uh emphatic the passage about the taking up
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and the taking out of the ashes is in a chastic parallel chastic parallel structure which makes it actually the center of this par pericope so we're
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talking about the burnt offering and Moses is focusing on taking out the ashes because taking out the ashes was vital to keeping the fire burning okay
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and that's what the real issue is is keeping the fire burning okay U now the burnt offering is the one that's used I think in that because it's the one that is completely emulated on the
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altar so the law of the burnt offering is essentially telling the priest you got to keep that fire burning at all times it is perpetual and there's a
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reason for that and there's there's a great deal of symbol symbology or symbolism in that more so than even the burnt offering all right so let's talk a little bit though about the priesthood
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anybody have any questions so far any comments if I lost anybody
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Jenny yes I think so I think that's a uh the lampstands in Revelation where we're told that you know unless you repent unless you return to your first love I will come and take your lampstand now that's a change in in metaphor because
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the lampstand is not the Brazen altar okay but I think it's Associated I think it's Associated I don't think it's the direct interpretation but I think it's Associated because the the common
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denominator between the two is the holy spirit I think imagy Li I think imery
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wise lamp is of thece with fire in the sense that it is the presence of God in the heavenly and the altar is the
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presence of God on Earth so to say that the churches will have their bra and altars removed is inappropriate given that we that we have L
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have L serves I I think that's I think that's true that the lampstand because the lampstand uh I think symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit now we know from Romans 8 that he who doesn't have
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the Holy Spirit is not of Christ and that same for the church so we understand that in Revelation in the letters to the churches removal of the lampstand basically meant you ain't a
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church anymore okay I've remove kind of going back to Ezekiel and the glory of the Lord departing from the temple that's what that means that's kind of but the actual article of the Tabernacle
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Furnishings is a switch I think Aaron's got a good point a very valid point that the Brazen altar would be uh very inappropriate now that Christ Our
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Passover has been sacrificed our high priest has gone the veil is now torn and so the lampstand is is a more uh appropriate symbol but I think the the
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common denominator is fire and the common denominator there is the holy spirit so we're we're getting a little bit ahead but I I appreciate that because it gets our hopefully it gets our framework it's kind of like going on
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a journey it helps to know where you're going and and so that's kind of where we're going what is the significance of the fire the Perpetual fire that the Jews the rabbis understood was
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one of the things missing in the second temple those five things are each worthy of great study um and they're answered each one is answered by the work of
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Christ and of the Holy Spirit uh it's an excellent place to have a discussion with a with a Jew if they have any understanding of the temple significance in Judaism and they understand the rinic
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understanding that the second temple no matter how glorious Herod could make it was not God's home he was not dwelling there there were significant problems
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that would not allow them again this is why many of the as scenes simply left and went into the kumran cave area they
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just said that that's not the temple we're the temple um and and that now that we have so much of the Dead Seas Scrolls it just confirms that if the
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Messiah hadn't come by then he wasn't coming okay and so we know that he has so um let's talk a bit about the priesthood itself because now this is
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what we're dealing with here um so the priesthood we we understand the priesthood generally in terms of the tribe of
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tribe of Levi but as I've said before I want to make sure that we um uh parse the word correctly and understand that that out of the
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12 Levi was selected but Levi was not declared a priest Levi was selected as a standin for the first born of all of
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Israel and since the number didn't quite add up the difference was made up in shekels in an offering which helped provide the funding for the Tabernacle
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Exodus 19: Exodus 19: 3-6 and Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying thus you shall say to
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the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you will indeed obey my
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voice and keep my Covenant then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for the Earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and
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a holy nation so even within the Old Testament we've got a we've got what seems to be somewhat of a not a contradiction but but uh a conundrum in
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the terms in terms that the all all of
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Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and so Levis being separated out from the
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tribes does not immediately indicate a priesthood obviously it indicates that that Levi is not going to get an inheritance that Levi Belongs to the Lord but in the initial pulling out of Levi we we don't learn exactly what that
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role is that doesn't come until later and actually with the with the instructions of the Tabernacle um numbers 18 the Lord said to Aaron you shall have no inheritance in their land
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nor shall you have any portion among them I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel behold I have given the children of Levi all the ti in Israel as an inheritance
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in return for the work which they perform the work of the Tabernacle of meeting Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the Tabernacle of meeting lest they bear their sin and die
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but the Levites shall perform the work of the Tabernacle of meeting and they shall bear their iniquity it shall be a statute forever throughout your Generations that among the children of
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Israel they shall have no inheritance okay so so what happens here then is God sets up a
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tribe um that can approach God in the Tabernacle now this is very similar to what Aaron read on Sunday concern what what we've been learning concerning the
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the Israelites and their unwillingness to go to the mountain and God actually praised them for that and said oh that my people would have such a heart and to fear me and
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obey God of course knows their hearts and so he now essentially institutionalizes Sinai in that um Israel is not going to
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approach Yahweh Levi will but then we learn that Levi is not going to approach um Yahweh um Yahweh either because that's going to be now
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done by Aaron only and so what happens then is Aaron is pulled out and it is Aaron who now
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intercedes mediates for the children of Israel including the other Levites now the Levites will have other functions as you go through the history of Israel they will be the teachers among the
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tribes they're the ones that are supposed to expound the law as they live amongst the people people in their levitical cities um they're going to be in a sense judges um they're supposed to
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guide the people in judgment especially in the sanctuary cities they're going to be musicians okay in in the davidic uh Dynasty they're going to be separated out as different uh tribes of musicians
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to Worship the Lord but only Aaron approaches the Lord From The Altar on back only Aaron and his sons can be and
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can proceed okay and so when we think of priesthood once again we have to keep in mind um that it's not the Levites as a tribe it's Aaron as a
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family and not even Moses because he was his brother not his father or his son these are the sons of Aaron that's a major problem when we get to the time of
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the Exile and the return and then the time of the macbes and the hasoni dynasty between the Testaments these are
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it was in complete turmoil and absolute chaos there were serious factions within Judaism that did not get along with one another the only thing that United the Sadducees the herodians and the Pharisees was their Mutual hatred of
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Jesus but beyond that they didn't agree on anything okay so the ases the zealots the kumran community you know it was a
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um multifaceted and very diverse community in the second temple period and Paul himself was of one particular branch of that um hardly monolithic Judaism we've
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got a lot more information on first century Judaism than we ever had through the Dead Sea Scrolls through archaeology through finally discovering and reading
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Josephus okay we we know so much about that era now that it it's it's hard it's impossible for me to think that Paul just developed a new religion
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number one or that Juda Judaism was anything like a homogeneous religion it wasn't uh it it probably had as many denominations as
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denominations as protestantism okay so that's that's the world of the second temple and yet what I read earlier about the the understanding of the rabbis concerning
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what that Temple lacked showed that they did they were looking for something they were definitely looking for a restoration of the land and of the
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davidic dynasty that was that you know that's absolutely important but along with the restoration of the land was the purification and consecration of the temple and they didn't much care how it
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looked what they cared about was was the shikina there did God bring fire upon the altar because if he didn't it's not the right fire okay they had fire upon the altar
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but it wasn't the right fire because it wasn't Divine fire and that's what we're going to talk about when we talk about the Perpetual um Nation so Israel I think we can look at it kind
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of this of this way um the
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priesthood stood to Israel remember these um associations as Israel stood to the Heathen to the
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Deuteronomy 4 um surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me and you shall act according to them in the land which you go to possess therefore be careful to observe
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them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what
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great nation there is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him well that nearness we've been talking about now for weeks that
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nearness was the tabernacle so when Moses is saying this he's saying the near there it is Yahweh is there the fire on the altar
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originated from Yahweh the priesthood however so the people were as it were priests to the Nations but within the community itself
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and then there was the veil to the holy of holies behind which was the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim so there's three barriers between the average Israelite or even the average
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levite and Yahweh their God and yet the presence of the shikina the pillar of fire and of cloud and then when that
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eventually disappeared the fire on the Altar and the smoke that went up perpetually from that altar was the symbolic presence of Yahweh in the midst
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of his people and then his people were his presence in the midst of the
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world without taking issue with this hierarchy all the designation of Israel as a kingdom of priest comes pre the law or pre the giving of the law M and also
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the so that there is a development there there's a narrowing a narrowing yeah that's that's I agree with that wholly that and I guess that's what I
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was trying to say here there's a narrowing where things happen uh but the the irony is they do not attain they don't attain to it and what and and even more so not only do they not attain to
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it but God chooses the man who led them in their in their apostasy Aaron now there's something to that okay
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that okay so you know you're seeing that that God is constantly pointing to his own Grace he's not taking the I mean this
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would be an anachronism but it's like he's not taking the family of Boaz a highly respectable law-abiding Jew as far as we can tell no he's taking the family of
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Aaron who led Israel in apostasy and idolatry okay and he's like okay you're high priest
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high priest now I don't know whether that was punishment or blessing but um I don't know what Aaron thought about that but it's still somewhat ironic that this is the man that you chose um to become your your the intermediary between you and
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the people is the man who led the people in their first apostasy with the golden calf Josiah it's funny too because I think Jacob prophesized that
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Levi the C scattered there that's what happens yep fulfilling that prophecy they are scattered throughout um and and
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you know Jacob wasn't fond of Levi and Simeon because they were the ones who led the basically the subterfuge at Shak and circumcised all the shites and then killed them you know and um you know so
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there's I've always found that interesting but I I think the point is there is no way Aaron's going to wake up in the morning look in the mirror and say h I'm done this I mean there's no guildo lockart in in Aaron he's like wow
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okay I imagine his entire life after that incident with the calf um he was a very humble high priest uh we certainly I mean we do have the issue with Aaron
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and Miriam but that's earlier isn't it with the Rebellion against is that later it's in numbers but I don't know again the chronology is later it's later yeah he did yeah and you know I
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I do think sometimes we live too long um but God knows all right so two things I think come out of this um it comes out
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logically and hermeneutically and then we have to deal with it first of all as we look at the as the Christian Church okay so we have this singling out of a
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people that are a kingdom of priests and I would submit to you that they remain that with respect to the Nations that their obedience was to be a testimony
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because later we're going to find out that the that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the nation not just the priests and their Disobedience so I think that that
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witness is still the the kind of the fundamental responsibility of Israel whereas within Israel we've now narrowed that responsibility down to the the
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family of Aaron and even that is limited first to the males and then excluding any who had any physical defect so it's almost like Aaron becomes that perfect
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sacrifice without sacrifice without blemish before the Lord okay now we come to the Christian Church okay and we're also a kingdom of
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priests Peter calls us that using the same terminology and yet within that you do have a cast of shepherds
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okay so again I'm drawing an analogy here okay you've got the church and then you have what I'm going to call I'm going to call them the
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ministers which is a word meaning servants but it is it is a generic word that can Encompass the various different types that we've seen develop within
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Christianity okay but there is I think
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a segment of the Christian Community that bears a responsibility for The Souls of the community for they must give an account okay what do you do with that what what
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are these men are they priests see this I'm trying to to show where the historical development of the ministry within the Christian church
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has gone over the years there's first the recognition of a segment now we're we're not a hereditary one and never were although the Roman Catholic Church
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claims spiritual heredity from the apostles and the pope from Peter that wasn't early on that was later and protestantism has completely
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rejected that notion that for example uh the the pastor must be the son of the PRI Pastor or whatever but there is this class within the Christian Community
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that is called upon to teach to Shepherd to counsel and eventually to give an account for the souls entrusted to them that go ahead can say
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not Jesus is the one fills what the ironic priests did the ministers are the ones who serve in the temple if you will by caring stuff around yeah you know I'm not I'm not sure there you could make
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that argument um but but I think that would also that would tend to exclude the rest of the congregation who by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are each
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gifted to provide whatever joint and ligament so you you've got one thing going on in the new Testament in the New Covenant and that is we all have the spirit IND dwelling us so we have no
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need of a man to teach us because we have the anointing um the ministry within the church is to be carried by everyone according to their gifting and yet you still have the elders who are
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pastors okay and who are to guard and ultimately to give an account Aaron I think that was sort of the thrust of my point with with making sure to say that
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Israel not attain that understanding and there's there's a narrowing that happens there because Israel was designated to be a kingdom of priests and fell short
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of that no such falling short is laid at the feet of the people of God in their fulfillment so the idea of the of the elders and teachers of the church being
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of more of analogous to Levi and the full congregation being analogous to the full congregation undermines our role as a kingdom of priest I I think it I think
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it does okay but and and what I'm yeah I would agree with you that that that that I don't think that analogy quite holds because of the the fact that we are all
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all ministers in in God's Church in Christ's body we are the members and Paul's very clear I think that that none of us can can in any way absolve
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ourselves individually of responsibility because each one of us has been given at least a gift of the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit so that that's one thing but I guess what I'm teaching right now is more on
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the category of historical theology okay the reality of this Division and this narrowing naturally carried over into the Christian church and there was a
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sense of a need to interpret all right who are the priests okay and so I guess in one sense I'm saying historically this is kind of where we how we got where we got is by
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reading the Old Testament and and saying we need a priesthood not realizing that no we don't we still however we still do have
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a small segment of the overall congregation that is called to a higher judgment than the rest does anybody disagree with
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disagree with that I guess that was all I would say
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I yes responsible that is true um but I but I would say um these the uh the more consistent analogy of Levi under the New Covenant is going to
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be the congregation as a whole because the family of Aaron was a very very small percentage of the nation of Israel and the Cadre of shepherds is a
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very very small percentage of the Christian church now you know don't necessarily have to go on size but uh the writer of Hebrew says obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep
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watch over your souls now that's the shepherding function right there that's the poen which is the um the episcopos the presp the elders okay we see that
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elsewhere as those who will give an account let them do so this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you that's what I'm saying is that we still have this
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narrowing but it's not hereditary and it and I guess the the the thing that we're going to get to as we talk especially next week about the the food and the
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garments and garments and whatnot it's not mediatorial the fundamental function of
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a priesthood is explicitly denied to anyone but Jesus Christ there is one mediator between God and man Jesus Christ the
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righteous so what I I guess what I'm saying where the church has got it wrong and I frankly I think um this is one place where the anabaptist got its spot on and that is you you can
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have respected leaders and you must have otherwise we're A Flock wandering in the w ERS and open to all manner of attack
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okay so the the analogy of the flock remains from old to new and the the analogy of the shepherd and the function of the shepherd to both nourish and also
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defend That defend That Remains What is different is the mediatorship the mediatorial role that the priests once held has now been
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completely fulfilled in Jesus and and any denomination that takes any step whether symbolically or doctrinally toward a
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priesthood is denying the full and only medior mediatorship of Jesus Christ and usurping to that cast within the church
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the role that has been fulfilled and that's kind of blasphemy um it really is I guess if you you say anything against
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the honor and dignity of God that's Blas blasy and to say that I you know to say I'm a priest and I stand between you and
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God that's God that's blasphemy that that's not just a different ecclesiology and also to put on certain clothing that signifies nothing other
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than a distinction between you and the rest of the group that's not just an option okay when you understand the priesthood and what it was there for and then the fact
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that its fundamental role was to mediate you mediate you realize you can't go there you really can't go there so that's kind of the
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first thing that we're heading towards as we try to apply what we read in Leviticus to what we see in the church we're not denying that there is a class of of shepherds within the church and
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that God intended it to be so as we read in Paul's letters especially and in Hebrews there's no denying that and there's no denying that these men are called to a stricter judgment
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they they will have the elders will have to give an account for themselves and for the care of the flock entrusted to them that's a that's a double judgment
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that the vast majority of Believers will not experience we will all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done while in the flesh that's every one of us but
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then Mark and I go to a separate room okay I mean that's the flat Flatout truth is that we go into the chambers as it were and give an account for the
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sheering the flock entrusted to us but that's it we're not priests we don't carry the blood Beyond the Veil we you know and we we don't intercede or
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mediate I shouldn't say I shouldn't say uh not seed but we don't mediate between the congregants and God so um the second thing that we see here um again coming
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kind of from the this section is that this is where we do get I don't know where to put this um we get the concept of the
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principle we have this Torah of the offering in other words this is how you're going to do it now as I've often said the regulative
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principle is not uh detailed okay we there's just no way I think anybody can convince me that God's
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word has showed us exactly how many hymns to sing how long the sermon should be whether we should preach exegetically or topically okay whether should we should have a Sunday school class or what it doesn't it doesn't tell us these
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things it tells us the basics um but as we are under the New Covenant we have reached uh relative to Israel we have reached our reached our maturity then it's not expected that it
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should tell us everything and the fact that we have now been indwelt by the holy spirit means that we rely on his guidance and the word to do what is
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pleasing to God but where this section on the Levites and especially the
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consumes them and so the fundamental attitude of all who come before God is then kind of given a a an exclamation point When God
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says to Aaron or to Moses by those who come before me I shall be holy and that idea of holy becomes an essential part
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of the ironic priesthood but it's manifested and illustrated by that dramatic literally I guess sacrifice of naab and
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Abu okay now in the New Testament of course we have the example of of um ananas and ananas and saf again that's a little different
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because the circumstances there were they were free to do whatever they wanted with their own property right they didn't have to sell it and once they sold it they didn't have to bring
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all of the funds to the apostles Peter made that clear this is not an example of Communism it's an example of sin and lying to the Holy Spirit but what I
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think God is doing at the beginning of the church is like what he did at the beginning of Israel's relationship with God at the Tabernacle and that he's
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saying I'm not kidding here this this is not we're not playing at religion here when I tell the Aon ites this is how you do it and then you bring your own sensor
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and incense you're not going to do that and there'll be some other examples of that like usza reaching out to stabilize the ark was fundamentally because David
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who should have known better was trying to bring the ark into Jerusalem and he wasn't even using the Levites he's going about it all the
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wrong way okay there's that regul principle I think that's the the best understanding of the regulative principle is that is that statement by all who come before me I shall be
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holy which holy which means don't as Paul puts it don't bring will worship don't bring things that have the appearance of godliness and man-made religion but are powerless
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against the Flesh and they're very unpleasing to God Israel is going to fall into this as they bring even the offerings that God prescribes but they do it to mask their avarice their greed
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their oppression and all the things that were an Abomination to the Lord and so he sends them into Exile so um the regulative principle is here but I want
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I I think once again just like just like how the how the church went from Elders to eventually priests what we do with the regulative
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principle is that we go back to wanting to do exactly what the aites did now we don't offer up animal sacrifices but we
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do offer up for example the bloodless sacrifice of the mass the body and blood of Jesus Christ and how often is that
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now done do anybody know how often is the celebrated 24 hours every hour somewhere 24
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somewhere 24 Perpetual okay the priesthood is Perpetual Spurgeon called Catholicism Neo Judaism and I I don't think we understand just how right that that
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assessment is it is a resurrection of