A Royal Priesthood
God is a covenant keeping God. He has chosen to reveal his character (and ours) primarily through covenant relationships. This is why covenants form the backbone of the Bible’s story and why understanding how they relate to each other and to Christ is essential to correctly understanding Scripture.
It all begins with God’s covenant with Adam (see Hos 6:7) which is reestablished with Noah after the great flood (Gen 6:18). Every human is a party to the “Adamic” covenant by virtue of our mutual forefather. The Abrahamic covenant follows (Gen. 15) carrying forward the hope of God’s promised “Seed” and the righteousness that comes by faith to all who would ever trust in him. As Paul teaches: “it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7).
400 years later, God initiates the Mosaic Covenant with the subset of Abraham’s physical descendants—the descendants of Jacob/Israel — through whom the Messiah would descend. The Mosaic Covenant formed the basis for God’s relationship with the nation of Israel:
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19: 5-6a).
The Mosaic covenant was characterized by law and sacrifice. The Law revealed both the holy nature of God and the sinful nature of men. The priesthood and sacrificial system enabled this perfectly holy God to dwell among a sinful people. God chose Aaron and his sons to serve as priests (Ex 29:44-45). But, within days of the covenant’s ratification, Israel, with Aaron the priest, violated its law (Ex. 23:7-8, 32:1-10). They formed and worshiped an idol; God’s wrath was kindled; and everything changed that day for the tribe of Levi:
“And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, ‘Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.’ And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.”’ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, ‘Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day’” (Ex. 32: 25-29).
And just like that, the Levites found themselves ordained for ministry. In Numbers, God spelled out the work he had in store for them:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel.’” (3:5-9).
The Levites’ job was to guard the holiness of Aaron’s priesthood, but they also served another role; they took the place of all the firstborn of Israel:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the Lord” (Num 3: 11-13).
On the night of the Passover, God had spared Israel’s firstborn from death. In the act of sparing them, he had set them apart as his special possession. But, in response to the unfaithfulness of Israel, and in recognition of the zeal of the Levites, God chose the Levites for this service in the place of the firstborn of every family in Israel. Many years later, God would make another promise regarding this covenantal relationship:
“Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me” (Jer. 33: 20-22).
God’s covenant with the Levites was as binding as his promise to David. This leads us to the inevitable questions: What about God’s promise? Is there going to be a new temple and a restored priesthood? The answer to that, along with the rest of God’s promises is YES! Because, to quote the apostle Paul: “all the promises of God find their Yes in him [Christ]” (2 Cor. 1:20). “It is not as though the word of God has failed” (Rom 9:6). All the promises and Old Testament types point to Christ and find their fulfillment in him. Christ is the ultimate firstborn (Col. 1:15-20). He is the ultimate priest (Heb. 4:14-16), the ultimate sacrifice (Heb. 10:1-18), and the cornerstone of the ultimate temple (Jn 2:18-22).
And, as if that weren’t enough, Christians, because we are in Christ, we are the new temple (2 Co 6:16-18). We are the restored priesthood (1 Pt 2:5). God has chosen us to participate in the fulfillment of his Old Testament promises. We are “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:23). “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29). We are now “. . . members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19- 22). That’s right all of us who are in Christ—Jew and Gentile alike—are now “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Pt.2:9).
