The Priesthood (Exodus): Many people wrestle with the questions of purpose and significance, wondering, “Do I matter?” The ministry of the priests and Levites of ancient Israel might seem very disconnected from modern life. However, their ministry — representing the people to God and God and his will to the people — reveals a pattern that still applies today. As we follow Jesus, our Great High Priest, we are invited to join him in his priestly ministry. And what could be more significant than that? Recorded on Feb 2, 2025, on Exodus 28-30 by Pastor David Parks.
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This message is part of our Exodus series called Journey to Freedom. Exodus is a story of liberation — of God working to rescue and redeem a people for himself, freeing them from slavery and leading them to the land he promised to the family of Abraham and Sarah. Exodus is also a picture of the gospel and the Christian life. In Christ, we, too, are freed from captivity to sin and death and led through the wilderness of life by God’s Word and Presence as we make our way to the Promised Land of the world to come. Join us as we make this journey to find true and lasting freedom.
Sermon Transcript
So, almost all year, we’ve been working through the book of Exodus in a sermon series called Journey to Freedom. And Exodus is a story of liberation, of God rescuing and redeeming a people for himself. Yahweh God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, led them through the desert wilderness by his word and his Presence, and brought them to Mount Sinai to enter into a covenant relationship with them. God had promised their ancestor, Abraham, to give them the land of Canaan, known as the Promised Land. However, as we saw, the Israelites struggled and grumbled through a series of battles and tests in the desert, but Yahweh proved faithful and good time and again. God’s great, big beating heart behind this whole Exodus project was to have a real relationship with people — people who were separated from a holy God by their sin — but people who were still greatly loved and precious to God. Now, the first half of Exodus is mostly narrative/story, while the second half includes mostly commands and instructions from God given through the prophet Moses while the people remained camped at Mount Sinai. This is a real challenge from a preaching perspective. Our typical preaching style is expository, meaning the point of the text is the point of the sermon, and we work through one main passage to uncover that point and try to apply it to our lives. But, frankly, this style doesn’t work quite as well when you have three chapters of legal code or instructions on the materials of the Tabernacle. So we’ve included several topical sermons here in the second half of Exodus — sermons on the Law, Tabernacle, Priesthood, and Sabbath. Today, we’ll consider the significance of the role of the Priests in ancient Israel, how Jesus became our Great High Priest of the New Covenant, and also how this ancient priesthood relates to us today. “Does it?” you might wonder. Yes. Absolutely. As a pastor, I regularly meet with people who have spiritual questions or struggles. And one of the most frequent topics of conversation is something like, “What is God’s will for my life?” But oftentimes, as we dig into that question, it’s really a question of purpose and significance. The question under the question of “What is God’s will for my life?” is something like, “Do I matter?” Have you ever wrestled with a question like that? Would it make any difference if I was here or not? That can be a very uncomfortable question, especially if things in your life haven’t worked out how you thought they would/should. But as Christian people, we must resist looking at our circumstances to determine our significance. Significance often comes from purpose, and our purpose can only come from our Creator. But, as we’ll see today, we have incredible purpose/significance as we learn to be a kingdom of priests. If you have your Bible/app, please open it to Exodus 28:1.
Exodus 28:1–5 (NIV), “1 “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. 2 Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. 3 Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. 4 These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. 5 Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.” If you remember, Moses would spend 40 days on Mount Sinai in God’s presence, receiving these instructions and commands. And God told Moses that his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons were to serve as priests of Yahweh. Other peoples/kingdoms at this time had priests, just as other peoples/kingdoms had legal codes. But Yahweh’s priests would function in a unique way because he was unique. He was the only true and living God. And just as God had given specific instructions for the building of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and so forth, so he gave specific instructions for his priests, for their clothing and the work of their ministry. Now, we won’t go through all the instructions, but they show how much God cares about these things. He isn’t far off and removed from our lives. He is near. He wants to have a real relationship with us. And just like a close friend would have opinions about the details of our lives, so all the more, the God who made us and sustains our every breath. The costly materials used in their priestly garments communicate the importance of their work and the value of God himself. You don’t just stroll into the Tabernacle into the presence of God unthinkingly or sloppily. It was God’s will that they would “Make sacred garments…to give [Aaron] dignity and honor.” and skilled craftsmen would do this work. The rest of chapter 28 describes the details of the ephod (something like an ornamental apron or vest), the breastpiece with twelve precious stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, the robes, turbans, and such. One of my favorite details is there was to be a golden plate on their turbans engraved with the message “Holy to the Lord.” Who are the priests? They are holy to the Lord. They are set apart for the Lord’s use. But it wasn’t just fancy clothing that would set them apart. If they were to minister in the Lord’s holy presence, something needed to be done about their sin, too.
Exodus 29:1–9 (NIV), “1 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brushed with olive oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. 6 Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred emblem to the turban. 7 Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. 8 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics 9 and fasten caps on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons. The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance. “Then you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.” To finish the consecration process, they needed to be washed and dressed in priestly garments, they were to be anointed with oil (a sign that God had chosen them for this task), and then sacrifices were to be made for their sins. We’ll get to the sacrifices in a minute, but first, I’d like to consider the statement in v. 9, that “The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance.“ Moses and Aaron were both of the tribe of Levi out of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Lord said that only Aaron’s lineage were the ones who could serve as priests (and only one as the high priest), but all the Levites were involved in the work of the priesthood. They were the only tribe that didn’t get an allotment of land in the Promised Land because the eleven other tribes were to provide for their needs as they did the work of facilitating worship. The Lord was to be their inheritance. This lasting ordinance continued for well over a thousand years up to the time of Jesus when God formed the new covenant in Christ. We’ll skip some of the instructions for the sacrifice and jump down to v. 35.
Exodus 29:35–46 (NIV), “35 “Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. 36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37 For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy. 38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord. 42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. 44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” This is God’s word. So, the consecration ceremony for the priesthood was to last a whole week. And it was clear that the priests needed forgiveness for sins just like any other Israelite. But then, here and elsewhere, God provided instructions for their ministry once this consecration process was complete. The priests were to work in the tabernacle/temple, and some of their responsibilities included offering sacrifices on behalf of the people, interceding for the people in prayer, facilitating the national festivals God commanded, teaching the people God’s word, blessing the people, and more. This ministry could be summed up as representing the people before God and God and his will to the people. Again, only Aaron’s lineage could serve as priests, but the rest of the Levites were to assist the priests in this work. The Levites would be responsible for maintaining and transporting all the articles and furniture of the Tabernacle, leading the musical portion of their worship, serving as guards, and doing many administrative tasks around the ministry of the Tabernacle and later for the temple in Jerusalem. But God made it clear that if the priests and Levites served in this mediating way of representing the people to God and God to the people, “Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.” We’ve been asking the question: How can a holy God live in the midst of sinful people? Was that even possible? Here, we see that it took the whole sacrificial system, the Law, the priesthood, and the Tabernacle to make that work. But even with all these systems in place, only Aaron (and the other high priests after him) could enter the holy of holies, the most holy place in the Tabernacle, the concentrated place of God’s glorious presence. And even then, the high priest could only get that close to God’s presence once a year on the Day of Atonement. So even in the best-case scenario, the holiness of God was still something of a threat to God’s people. There’s a Jewish tradition that the high priest would tie a rope to his ankle when entering the holy of holies so that if he died because of some error in atoning for his sin, then the other priests could pull out the body without entering, and possibly dying themselves. This isn’t a Biblical instruction and probably wasn’t actually practiced, but it speaks to what was seen as a real risk in encountering the living God. But what if it wasn’t the best-case scenario? What would happen if the priests and Levites were unfaithful to their calling? Would the people forget God? Would anyone be left to offer sacrifices and intercede in prayer for forgiveness and mercy? This is exactly the sad situation that would come generations later. For whole generations, God’s word was ignored or completely lost and forgotten. During the time of the exile, many priests were condemned by God through the prophets as being totally corrupt. They were described as shepherds who ate their sheep instead of tending to the needs of their sheep with the care and concern their God and their calling required. As a result, God said that he would have to shepherd his people himself. This is why when Jesus came, he described himself as the Good Shepherd. Jesus was the Son of God sent from heaven, and he came to fulfill the promise of the mediating work of the priesthood. He came to be the Good Shepherd to the sheep of God’s people. The priestly work of Jesus is one of the great themes of the letter to the Hebrews in the NT. The author, speaking of Jesus, writes in Hebrews 7:26–27 (NIV), “26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Different than the other high priests, Jesus was without sin. He was perfectly holy. He didn’t need a sacrifice to be forgiven but instead offered himself on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world once and for all. After his death and resurrection and ascension back into heaven, Jesus continued his priestly work all the way up to today. Jesus continues to intercede (pray) for us today. He instructs us and sanctifies us by his word in the power of the Holy Spirit. He continues to represent us to God the Father in heaven and the Father to us. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and with it, the whole sacrificial system of the old covenant. But we have the new covenant, offered through Jesus, our great high priest, who ministers in the true holy of holies, in the throne room of heaven itself. But how much better is it to have Jesus as our Great High Priest? Because of our union with Jesus, we can boldly approach God’s throne. We can not only stand in the presence of God — we are welcomed as his children. He’s no longer a threat. But the priestly work doesn’t end with Jesus. He’s our great high priest, but remember what God wanted out of his covenant people? Back in chapter 19, God said his people would be his treasured possession. And that they would be for him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In 1 Peter 2, Peter writes that in Christ, “…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” God’s desire for a kingdom of priests is now found here in the church. And not just the pastors and ministry leaders, but every Christian is responsible for carrying out this priestly work in all of life. Parents, when you read your kids a bible story and pray with them before bed, you are doing the work of a new covenant priest. When you pray for a friend or coworker, you are doing the work of a new covenant priest. When you share your faith with someone, when you serve, when you give, when you are careful to obey the commands of Christ, you are doing the work of a new covenant priest. Do you want to know your purpose? It’s this: to join your great high priest in the good work he is doing here in this broken world. And represent people to God and God and his will to people. You don’t have to wear the turban, but imagine the golden sign on your forehead. You are holy to the lord. Nothing is more significant in all the world. And every single one of us, rich and poor, great and small, is called into this ministry. How much do you matter? You are a priest in the house of God. Let us pray.