SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 21
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The Lord assigns a special role to the priests. They represent God among the people. In this role, they must be seen as “set apart”, different, holy. As God is perfect and holy, they must represent as much as possible that perfection and holiness. This was not because they were better than the others, but because their role demanded that they represent the better way. The reason for this was so that they could be holy, set apart, different.
In this way, the priest represents Jesus. Jesus prayed, ‘For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.’ [John 17:19] To sanctify is to set apart, to make holy. He was perfect, He was sinless, we was fully devoted to God and His will… to the point of death. His death was more than symbolic, it was the real thing. His perfect life, His perfect sacrifice, led to the perfect victory over sin, death and hell. Because He set Himself apart perfectly for the Lord, those who trust in Him are also set apart for the Lord.
Now by faith in Jesus, we are like priests, representatives of God, set apart to sanctify the world. As Jesus was sent into the world to save it, now we are sent into the world to save it through Jesus. ‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’ [John 17:18] We have the same job as Jesus, we have the same job as the priest – to be set apart from sin, to be set apart for God, to be set apart for serving Him in the world.
How many of us have lost this sense of purpose, this sense of mission. For many, being a ‘christian’ means being saved from sin and secured for heaven. But what is often forgotten is that we are also set apart for mission, for a purpose in this world. To represent God in the world!
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. [John 17:15-16] Our goal is not to escape the world, but to be a set apart people in the world. Not of the world, but definitely in it! Set apart to serve, like the priests, like Jesus.
Today I am going to write on my hand, ‘set apart for service!’
PRAYER:
Lord, I admit that too often I am living for the world, and for myself. Help me to live in the world for You. Help me to remember my calling!
Be holy for I am holy says the Lord our God also to us today. As the priests were set apart for service then, we too are set apart for service this day. In Christ Jesus, we are prophets, priests and kings. By the great commission, Jesus Christ has sent us into the world, to be His people, set apart to do His work. How am I holy to wholely do His work this day? What characteristics, what identity, sets me apart from the world? And the first thing that jumps to my mind is living for Jesus. I am not my own, but bought by a price to serve Him. The JOY of the Lord God is my strength. May others truly see that JOY in me —JesusOthersYourself — in that order living for Him this day w/holy unto Him.
Jehovah is my Light,
And my Salvation near;
Who shall my soul affright,
Or cause my heart to fear?
While God my strength, my life sustains,
Secure from fear my soul remains.