2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Today, we will finish our examination of M.G. Kline’s “By Oath Consigned,” a text with some wonderful insights on covenants and the related Scriptures. Any group with shared values and pursuits needs leadership. God certainly is the Supreme Leader, but there is also a need for human leaders which He recognizes. That is why He made the Priestly Covenant, beginning with setting Aaron (the brother of Moses) and his sons apart as the first high priests of the Jews [EX 29: 4-9]. The Jews were God’s chosen people set apart to worship only Him, and He knew that He wanted their human leaders to be directed by Himself, particularly those who would lead worship and the conduct of spiritual life. Sadly, God also knew that there would be a certain number of people who would disobey Him, a situation which would need His discipline obediently carried out.
God set out strict rules for priests which you can read about in LV 10: 8-20. We know that not every priest always lived up to these rules from both the story of Aaron’s disobedience in the golden bull incident in EX 32: 1-35, the burning of unholy fire by Aaron's son, Nadab and Abihu, resulting in their deaths LV 10: 1-7, and the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, & Abiram in NU 16: 1-50. I personally have been blessed by the assertion of several pastors in my life that they acknowledge they are held to a higher standard of God’s expectations for them and their willingness to live up to them. I have also seen the results of more than one pastor who has not lived up to those Godly ideals. Because spiritual leaders impact many people, they are particularly vulnerable to the adversary’s misdeeds and must remain always faithful and vigilant. We all need to remember that God has equipped us to be victorious in spiritual warfare and even delineates the tools for this in EPH 6: 10-18.
M.G. Kline relates a story from NU 25 which reveals the need for a priest to be courageously obedient to God. NU 25: 1-4, “When the Israelites were camped at Acacia Valley, the men began to have sexual intercourse with the Moabite women who were there. These women invited them to sacrificial feasts where the god of Moab was worshipped. The Israelites ate the food and worshipped the god, Baal of Peor. So the Lord was angry and said to Moses, ‘Take all the leaders of Israel and, in obedience to Me, execute them in broad daylight, and then I will no longer be angry with the people.” What a difficult situation this disobedience placed on Moses and the other priests! God allowed an epidemic to spread amongst the people, killing some of them. NU 25: 7-9, “When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up and left the assembly. He took a spear, followed the man and women into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them. In this way, the epidemic that was destroying Israel was stopped, but it had already killed twenty-four thousand people.” NU 10-13, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Because of what Phinehas has done, I am no longer angry with the people of Israel. He refused to tolerate the worship of any god but Me, and that is why I did not destroy them in My anger. So tell him that I am making a covenant with him that is valid for all time to come. He and his descendants are permanently established as priests, because he did not tolerate any rivals to Me and brought about forgiveness for the people’s sin.’”
Displaying courage of faith in difficult situations is a must for any God-directed leader. In fact, I believe that it is a must for any believer, whether a leader or not. We certainly saw that kind of courage in Joshua’s leadership in the adjudication of Achan and his men when they disobeyed God’s command to kill all the Canaanites [JS 6: 16-17, 20-21; JS 7]. As we can see from the story of the people of Israel at Peor, courage of faith is rewarded, and disobedience can often have dire consequences. In this case, the reward for Phinehas’ courage of faith was for God to no longer be angry with the people and for the epidemic to be stopped.
The Priestly Covenant of NU 25: 12-13, the Davidic Covenant of 2 SAM 7: 12-13, and the New Covenant prophesied in JER 31: 31-34 are all administrative aspects of the Covenant of Grace. The latter reaches its climax in the death of Christ on the cross as a propitiation for the sins of mankind. Rather than to make this simply an academic study, we must meditate on how knowing about the importance of God’s covenants with us should impact our individual lives. When we see the relationship of one covenant to another and the pattern of how and why these covenants were made, we can begin to appreciate the extraordinary love that our Father has for each of us. With the Priestly covenant, God establishes spiritual leaders delegating specific tasks in the leadership of worship to these priests. In the stories about the Jewish priests mentioned here, God is once again reminding us of our need to worship only Him, to acknowledge there are consequences for disobedience, and that He will reward courage of faith. These are reminders each of needs in our everyday life. Our Lord loves us and is a responsible Parent and Steward for us.
PRAYER: O Lord, in Your infinite wisdom, You have delegated authority for leadership under You for specific duties. One kind is human leadership of worship, which led You to make the Priestly Covenant. It was always Your hope that the leaders You chose would be obedient and show courage of faith. Sadly, they didn’t and don’t always do this. Yet, there have been many in this service who have and do. The stories You have given us in the Scriptures mentioned here contain many wonderful lessons for us, ones that apply to our lives today. You have given those lessons because You love us so much and want as many of us as possible to trust You and be obedient to You. We do not need to be priests to benefit from the lessons here or to see the importance of being willing to demonstrate courage of faith, even when in difficult situations. Repeatedly, You make the point that we are not to worship any other god but You. We acknowledge that and understand that Baal is by far not the only idol people have worshipped. Our idols today may be more subtle like materialism, greed, jealousy, addictions and the like; but, they are idols nevertheless. All of the covenants You have made with us are related to Your heartfelt desire for us to be perfected so that we can enjoy eternal life with You. We acknowledge Your profound love for us and humbly approach You to offer our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will begin looking at how we are united with God when we make covenants with Him. What God does for us is absolutely amazing when we obey Him and keep our covenants with Him. Seeing how doing this betters our lives and the lives of those around us allows us to know God’s power to bless us and bring us into His work. When we take the time to watch God at work in those around us and in our own lives, we can begin to get some approximation of the depth of his love. There isn’t a single one of us that should ever have to miss out on the blessings that obedient faith can give. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn