“For the lips of the priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.” Malachi 2:7
“But 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. ” 1 Peter 2:9
Malachi 2:7 got me thinking. A priest’s job, among much else, was to preserve knowledge because he was God’s messenger, and he was to live a holy example as people sought him as God’s representative for instruction. The priest also had direct access to God, when all the proper protocol was performed. What got me thinking was the correlation we ought to see between Malachi 2:7 and 1 Peter 2:9. This reminds us of the importance of a priest and the expectation of God’s people now.
Do we really consider ourselves a special remnant, a group set apart and a people called to preserve His knowledge and declare His praises? As Christ-followers we are a people challenged to live differently. Accepting Christ as our Savior isn’t the only objective. Accepting Christ is the beginning and living a life being sanctified and making more disciples while proclaiming His praises is what God envisions for us.
We are chosen for a reason. God doesn’t just save us to let us sit on a shelf and be a trinket. He saves us to be His witness throughout the world. He wants us to shine the light of Christ in the darkness. He could do that without us, but He has chosen us to partake in His mission.
Some priests had the privilege of going into God’s very presence. This was so that they could mediate between God and His people. As Christ-followers with a better covenant, we can approach God ourselves, something that was unheard of and punishable by death in the old covenant. We aren’t worthy by ourselves to approach God, but by Jesus’ sacrifice, we have been given His righteousness and His ability to come before the presence of our mighty and holy God, with need for any other mediator besides our blessed Jesus.
Peter tells us that Israel was the original holy nation, yet through the unifying gift of Jesus, we can all share that title. With that title comes expectations of living differently. This struck me as I wondered just how effective are we at living differently than the world. Each lover of Christ will not look cookie-cutter identical, but there should be a marked characteristic of holiness, purity, and light about the way we live that shouts, I am not living for this world. As God’s special possession do we find solace, security, and challenge in that to live as something more?
Knowing that we belong to God ought to inspire us to think and act in ways that point to Him and honor Him not just once in a while, but always. Do we realize we are not our own? Do we take God’s Word at face value and determine to live according to it — all of it?
It seems to me that we might have lost sight of the holiness of God. God cannot look at unholiness. We see this in the Levitical law, we see it in the psalms, we see it when He looked away from Jesus on the cross. As people chosen to be preservers of knowledge, and messengers of the Lord Almighty, we are looked to for insight, instruction, and truth, and we need to draw some lines in the sand.
Lines in the sand go back thousands of years. These lines demonstrate the limit of where we are not willing to cross. Surely all of us could benefit by re-assessing our lines and re-defining them. As the ambassadors of Christ, it is our duty to instruct others in the way everlasting. My spirit is grieved by what I see in the world. I shudder to imagine what our holy and righteous Creator thinks when He looks down.
Being non-confrontational I struggle to know how to call people to God’s heart without coming off as holier-than-thou because I too stumble, fall, and mess up. Perhaps this is where the line in the sand helps. Perhaps by keeping those lines well-define, and visible to all we can live as a light without passing judgment and the Spirit of Truth will open opportunites over time to speak truth.
God doesn’t delight in those that shrink back, but He also doesn’t approve of those that burn bridges either. Wisdom and patience are key. It’s not our place to judge, but it is our duty to instruct in love.
Consider this: what if we left others to their merry ways, and in the end they heard, away from me you evil doers, when they thought their ways were satisfactory.
Will you join me in praying on how to re-define the lines Christ-followers must maintain and determine to listen to the Spirit on how to proceed? We have to stop fooling ourselves into thinking the easy life of self-pleasure is acceptable. We are called to live for so much more. This is not our home and the pleasures of this world are not acceptable to the Holy One who redeems us for His good purposes.
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Judith Cooley teaches Language Arts and Drama. Follow her Facebook page @pondervotional for more encouragement.
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