In our first edition, we learned about the two parameter types of God for honoring His Priestly Program. We were introduced to the following diagram that shows the 3 basic applications of God’s priestly concept, and the two distinct parameters or frameworks for the applications:
In this edition, we will expound on how God had consistently maintained the 3 basic applications for his priestly program whether by the framework of Faith or the Law.
The Priestly Order
To see a pattern with the priestly concept of God, it was with the parameter of Faith that God began to unveil His Priestly Program for the Church. In Genesis 14:18-23, the introduction of Melchizedek as the priest of the Most-High God was the first scriptural indication that God had a priestly concept in His program for the Church. The priestly concept in this case is about the administration of God’s priestly requirements that has to do with the sanctification and the consecration of His people.
Thus, with the parameter of Faith, God will introduce in Melchizedek the significance of the priestly order as an application for fulfilling the priestly requirement in His dealing with Abraham. So that with Abraham, there was a priestly order for fulfilling the priestly requirement, which was the order of Melchizedek.
When God came to deal with the nation Israel, He will use the parameter of the Law. Yet, with the Law as His framework, the basic application of the priestly order was also featured for the fulfilling of the priestly requirement in His dealings with the nation Israel. However, instead of the order of Melchizedek that pertained to the parameter of Faith, it was the order of Aaron (Hebrew 7:11) that served as the standard of the priestly order with the Law.
Remarkably, the basic application of the priestly order is also brought into function in fulfilling the priestly requirement in His dealing with the Church. With Jesus Christ now the High Priest of God over the Church, the framework is reverted to the parameter of Faith (Galatians 5:6). And Christ’s priestly order is also after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-17). So that for both the parameter of Faith and the Law, the application of the priestly order remained in place. What changed was the standards/the frameworks of the application, without disannulling the application itself.
The Sacrifice of Lambs
With the framework of Faith, the application regarding the sacrifice of lambs for fulfilling the priestly requirement was benchmarked in God’s dealings with Abraham. It was in Abraham under the framework of Faith, that Christ as the Lamb of God was prophetically hinted; “And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,” (Genesis 22:8). And indeed, for the sacrifice of Isaac that he was commanded by God to offer, God himself provided the lamb for it (Genesis 22:8-13).
With the framework of the Law, the application concerning the sacrifice of lambs for fulfilling the priestly requirement was also in full function in God’s dealings with the nation Israel. Once every year, the people of Israel will bring a lamb or a goat without blemish and it will be slaughtered, and the blood of the lamb will be sprinkled over them for the atonement of their sins. The inefficacy of the sacrifices of these lambs and goats by the Law to meet the full requirement of the priestly concept of God is well elaborated in Hebrews 10.
Thus, with the parameter of Faith in God’s dealings with the Church, Christ Himself is offered as the Lamb of God, a fulfillment of Abraham’s prophetic hint in Genesis 22:8. Christ Himself will take His own blood as the High Priest of God to present it before God, the Father in the heavenly tabernacle for the atonement of the sins of the world. So that all who will believe in Him as the Son of God will have their sins forgiven and will be justified before God, by their faith in Him.
Again, with the sacrifice of lambs and goats, the change in the frameworks and standards do not alter it as an application for meeting the priestly requirements of God in His relationship with His people – Abraham, the nation Israel, and the Church.
In our next edition, we will expound on Church Tithing as the third basic application that God set up as a requirement for His Priestly Program; to establish truth about God in relation to fostering the legitimacy for church tithing today.
>>>the writer is the President of Church Tithing Institute. www.churchtithing.org
