50% ME, 50% GOD 🤷

Until the worship of the golden calf when Moses had gone up to meet the Lord on Mt. Sinai, the Levites were regular men, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. In Exodus 32:26-29, the Lord separated them from the rest of the Israel. Scripture does not expressly tell us why, but Jewish history has it that it was because they were the only tribe that did not bow to the calf. So God entrusted them with everything sacred regarding the Temple, and reserved the sacred role of priesthood to the Levites.

The implication of this ‘setting aside’ was that the Levites had to live a certain lifestyle. They were forbidden from drinking too much wine, from marrying certain women, and even from owning land because ‘the Lord Himself is their inheritance’ [Deuteronomy 18:1-2]. Of these priests, one was chosen as the High Priest who had access to the Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement to place the blood of the sacrifice on the Ark of the Covenant on behalf of the people of Israel.

Jesus was of the tribe of Judah. He literally had nothing to do with priesthood, in accordance with the Law of Moses. Hebrews 7:1 [GNT] says “Our Lord belonged to a different tribe, and no member of his tribe ever served as a priest. It is well known that he was born a member of the tribe of Judah; and Moses did not mention this tribe when he spoke of priests.” Jesus was a priest in the order of Melchizedek, to whom Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils while Levi was still in his [Abraham’s] loins. 😆

Verse 23 continues by saying, ‘there is another difference: there were many of those other priests, because they died and could not continue their work. But Jesus lives on forever, and his work as priest does not pass on to someone else.’ He is the eternal High priest, who has made an eternal sacrifice once and for all.

HERE’S WHERE YOU COME IN:

You do not belong to the tribe of Levi. You do not have a great great great great great-grandfather called Melchizedek.

But you are a priest! 👑

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, wrote to God’s elect and announced to them: you are chosen, set apart [like the Levites], you are a royal priesthood [even more than the Levites], you are holy, you are God’s special possession – 1 Peter 2:9.

The Levites were entrusted with the physical items of the temple, but you have been entrusted as a believer with the mysteries/secrets of the Kingdom of heaven [Matthew 13:11], with the mystery/secret of the good news about Jesus Christ which has been kept a secret for a long time [Romans 16:25], with the mystery of godliness [1 Timothy 3:16], with the mystery/secret of life after earth [1 Corinthians 15:51], with the mystery of His will [Ephesians 1:9], to be a overseer of the secrets/mysteries of God [1 Corinthians 4:1].

You have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation [2 Corinthians 5:18], with the judgment of angels [1 Corinthians 6:2], with reigning and ruling with Christ if you endure [ 2 Timothy 2:12], and to be a partaker of the glory to be revealed through the sufferings of Christ [1 Peter 4:13].

You have been entrusted with far more than the Levites were entrusted with; and like the Levites, such entitlement requires a certain lifestyle.

Paul says to the church in Corinth, ‘Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?’ [1 Corinthians 6:3]

There is a type of communication that should never proceed from your mouth as a people set apart. Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth [Ephesians 4:29]. There is a type of humour that should be far from you as a people set apart. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you [Ephesians 5:4]. There is a kind of music that you should not listen to as a people set apart. There are movies that should not form part of your collection as a people set apart. In a culture that forces the title of ‘Pastor’ on people who strive to live a life strictly by scripture, there is the tendency to believe that only ministers of God on the pulpit are called to a life of consecration. That’s a lie from the pit under the deepest pit of hell.

You are a people set apart, entrusted with the secrets of God! An inheritor of everything God owns! Royalty! 👑

It’s a life that’s 100% God and 0% you. No other deal cuts it. ‘The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that’ [Galatians 2:20 (MSG)]. What’s beautiful is that you were picked from the filth and disgust of dining with pigs and sleeping in dung and re-clothed with the choicest robe, sandals and ring of sonship and heirship and authority [Luke 15]. The consciousness of such a gift should excite a natural desire to live the way the Giver of the gift lives. 

‘And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd [waawu 😂]. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore [🤢🤒!]. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! [my Lord!! 🤯] My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to Him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance [are you listening??? 🤔], everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life— a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you [listeennn!!!😩]’-Ephesians 4:17-28 [MSG].