God draws near when his people worship him correctly.
Leviticus 9:5-7 So the people presented all these things at the entrance of the Tabernacle, just as Moses had commanded. Then the whole community came forward and stood before the LORD.
6 And Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded you to do so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you." 7 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to purify yourself and the people. Then present the offerings of the people to purify them, making them right with the LORD, just as he has commanded."
We saw in the previous post that
the Priest
are supposed to be radically different people, holy, cleansed and anointed for
service. We learned that God's people today are supposed to be just as
radically different so that they can also serve God and the people around them. We should be like priest working under the leadership of our Great High Priest.
A seven day ordination ceremony was completed in that post and now in our scripture today it is time to begin on the eighth day. The eighth day is used in the Bible to suggest the
beginning of something new, a day of completion of a process having to do with
dedication, purification or cleansing.
It is a long process to become ceremonially clean, imagine going through the
same routine for seven days without anything miraculous happening, hopefully
the priest realized through this long process how incredibly far away we are
from God's standards and how serious he is about our holiness.
There must have been great anticipation as the priest finally begin their
work. The reason they told Pharaoh that they needed to leave Egypt was so that they could worship God but they had no idea that it would be delayed for so long and what would be involved.
They are probably thinking about the last time the glory of the Lord was
seen. God took the first step towards his people when the Tabernacle was
completed and now it is time for his people to draw near to him.
But they must have been a little nervous about this worship service, this seems to be the first worship service since the golden calf worship experience, when three thousand people died. God's people were quick to go back to the way of worship they learned from the Egyptians despite the miracles that God performed that proved that the Egyptian gods were no God at all.
God's Awesome Glory Revealed
Leviticus 9:22-24 After that, Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Then, after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down from the altar. 23 Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community. 24 Fire blazed forth from the LORD's presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground.
God's people listened to God when he told them how to worship and because they did they saw God's approval manifest among them. Back in the day, it was much easier to know when God accepts your offering, his pleasure was displayed in powerful ways that cannot be mistaken.
The people that God chose to be his own people have connected with him in a real and personal way. It is interesting that the awesome display of God's power somehow did not cause fear, this must be a sign that the people were forgiven of their sins and they knew they were in right standing with God.
The pagan nations around them had priests and sacrifices, but they didn’t have the glory of God.
-Warren Wiersbe Old Testament Commentary
If God's people performed these
rituals with the proper attitude then they would see the glory of God
and be assured that their God is real, he is loving and he is powerful to
protect them. This should have given them great courage when it comes time to enter the Promised Land.
God's word has made it clear that we need an intercessor to allow us to have an intimate relationship with our holy God. The picture of the High Priest in the Old Testament points to the ultimate fulfillment of the High Priest.
God's Perfect High Priest Revealed
Matthew 24:30-31 And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world-from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
The ultimate revelation of God's glory is on the way! Do you have a great High Priest that will allow you to experience this magnificent occasion with great joy or will you meet him in anguish? Are you set apart as one of his children so that you can be with him forever in the Promised Land?
My High Priest is also the holy sacrifice for my sins, he allowed himself to be brutally murdered to satisfy the holy justice of God so that I can have peace with God. Although I have not attained it yet, my position in Jesus is holy because the most holy sacrifice was made for me. (Deuteronomy 33:3, Revelation 1:6, 5:10)
Because of this, I am commanded to live a holy life, I am a priest serving under the Great High Priest to point others to God. I must be free from sin, holy and set apart so that I won't be disqualified to serve. (1 Peter 1:15-16, John 17:19, Titus 2:14)
My position as a royal priest was given to me so that I can be the connection between Heaven and Earth that points others to God's glory so that he will also be revealed to them. (1 Peter 2:5, 9-10)
RELATED ARTICLES
In the Beginning God Created a Priest (crossway.org)
Royal Priest Video Series (bibleproject.com)
