Gooding, David: 1 - What Does it Mean to be a Priest?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, sir, for your gracious and kindly and encouraging welcome. And let me say what a pleasure it is to me to see such an earnest assembly of people all gathered to study the word of God and expecting to hear his voice in that word. Our topic tonight, as we have said, is what it means to be a priest, and our study is to be based on the first book of Samuel and its early chapters. The book of Samuel at least begins in that disturbed period of Israel's history, when hitherto they had been ruled by judges and by elders of each tribe, but were now in moral and spiritual confusion in a period that eventually led, uh, to the changeover from rule by judges to rule by kings. Now, the book of first Samuel is especially interesting because it reminds us of the two things that marked ancient Israel. Israel was marked by its monotheism, its belief in the one true God. It was also marked by its messianism. Its idea of a king that was anointed by God to be the king of his people. An idea that lived on in spite of the failure of the kings, and lies behind, of course, the coming of our blessed Lord Jesus, of the seed of David, the anointed servant of God, anointed to be king. So Israel was marked by these two things, by monotheism, belief in the one true God. And it went back, of course, to Abraham. Because by the time of Abraham, the nations at large had lost their grip on the reality that there is but one true God, and they had gone off in the deification of the forces of nature and worshipped the sun god and the moon god and the god of fertility and the god of, uh, wind and wave and ocean strength. Israel was marked, uniquely marked, from the time of Abram onwards by its belief in the one true God. And that relationship between them and the one true God was summed up in the covenant that God made with them when they left Egypt and were on their way to their promised land. And God came down on Mount Sinai and proposed to them a covenant. He was to be their God, and they were to be his people. And that sacred covenant between them, that they were to have no other God but the one true God, that covenant and the documents relating to it were housed in the Ark of the Lord that normally lived in the most holy place in the tabernacle. It marked this special emphasis in Israel, faith in the one true God. There were the documents in the Ark. And the early chapters of First Samuel are going to tell us that Israel lost that very ark. And it was carried off by God's permission, by the Gentile Philistines. That was a shocking thing to happen, wasn't it? Since it housed the terms of their very relationship with God. The end of First uh Samuel is going to tell us of another serious thing. Israel was marked by, uh, its messianism, the belief that the king was anointed by God. And at the end of First uh Samuel, they lost their Messiah. God's anointed, who was a, a destined to be king. They lost him to the Gentiles. You may decide now that it's a sorry book. It isn't all that sad, because in both instances it's going to tell us of the revivals that happened, how the ark eventually came back to Israel and began the long process of revival. And if not First Samuel, then Second Samuel will tell us how that the mess- messianic king that they had driven out to the Gentiles came back at last and was acknowledged king in Israel. You say, why ever did God allow the ark to be taken? Since it carried the documents that outlined Israel's special relationship to the one true God. Why did God allow the Philistines to come and capture it? The answer to that question is because of the gross failure of the priesthood in Israel, and, uh, the, uh, consequences of that failure was that for the time being, Israel lost the ark of God's covenant. Now, if we're going to talk about the gross failure of Israel's priesthood, perhaps we ought to start by considering what the priests should have been and what priesthood in Israel meant. So let me begin to read with you now from the book of Exodus and chapter nineteen to start with. Here is God instituting priesthood in Israel and telling them why he did it and what it meant, and supremely what it meant to him, and not merely what it meant to them. We read then from Exodus chapter nineteen and verse 3. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and I, how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Let's pause at that juncture and seek God's help to understand the colossal things that are here being said. This is what I want you to tell Israel, says God to Moses. You have seen what I've done and what I've done to the Egyptians, the plagues and the judgments that I brought on Egypt, and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. What for? The first answer is for God's benefit. Says, God, please let them understand this, that if only they will keep my covenant, they shall be a specially treasured possession for me. What redemption meant to God. You see, says God, impress it on their minds, that all the earth is mine, and all its hundred and one nations are mine. What I propose to you is that you shall be a unique, special treasure to me, a peculiar possession. Now, you might find that a difficult concept. Did this not God not make the whole universe? He's not hard up for things, not God isn't. You wait till you get to heaven and see the furniture thereof. He's not hard up and see the oil paintings, only they'll be alive and real people, will the oil paintings in heaven, you'll see. And the galaxies he has, and the millions of human beings. How could that God be given anything more? And count anything a spectacular and unique treasure. It'll be difficult for them to get hold of it, says God, but Moses, do your best, man. This is what you are to tell them, and make them sense it and feel it. And you shall be a kingdom of priests to me. That's what you'll be to me. How could a creature have a, a, a more important or significant task or calling to entertain the very heart of Almighty God and mean something to him. You shall be a kingdom of priests, and what is more, you shall be a holy nation set aside for God. The last book in the New Testament, Malachi, tells us another thing about the priests. Malachi chapter two and verse seven reads, the priest's lips should keep knowledge. The priests were not only there to minister to God. The priests had an other duty to speak to the people about God. And Israel as a whole had a duty to do that, to stand in the world for the one true God and to tell people the knowledge of the one true God. That is the significance of Israel's priesthood as God intended it. There is a lovely verse or two in the prophecy of Jeremiah. It's chapter two, if you care to take the refer- reference. And the metaphor is not mine. It is the metaphor that God uses to describe the time when God went courting. Now, I know that is a, that is a, a sign of a behavior that comes across certain gentlemen at certain times in their existence, and I'm told it's a very delightful occupation, you see. But this is a description of when God went courting. He never forgot it. He says like this, go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the Lord, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, the first fruits of his increase. Moving passage that, isn't it? Just remember who we're talking about. The almighty and eternal God, creator of heaven and earth, this universe and any other universes there might be. And how he came down, courting a people, and came down to the arid wilderness of Sinai, courting Israel. I remember, says God, now through Jeremiah, in times when the nation had largely forgotten him. I remember those early days when you responded to my overtures and you went after me in the wilderness. The love, the first love of the redeemed. I remember it, says God, to this day I remember it, and what it meant. As does, of course, the Lord Jesus, when he has to say to the church in, uh, in Ephesus, many good points about you, but this I have against you, you have left your first love. You say, what's that got to do with us anyway? All this about Israel being priests, what on earth has that got to do with us? Well, I needn't remind you that First Peter and chapter two tells us, in words taken from the book of Exodus, that we too are chosen by God to be a kingdom of priests. You'll see. Uh, unto whom coming, that is unto Christ, a living stone rejected indeed of men, but with God elect treasures, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And again, and later, in verse nine, but you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellences of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Our function as priests, to be there to minister in the first place to God, and in the second place to be a teaching priesthood that tell out the wonderful virtues of God to those around us. So now we come to consider the failure of Israel's priests, as recorded in First Samuel chapter two. Let's turn to First Samuel chapter two, shall we, and read the sorry verses. First Cham- Chap- uh, Samuel Samuel chapter two and verse twelve. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. In our modern terms, they weren't converted, you know. They weren't saved by a priest. They knew not the Lord. And what is more, and the custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the flesh was, uh, seething. He came with a flesh hook of three teeth. The flesh hook, that is, had three teeth, three prongs. He came with it in his hand, and he struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the flesh hook brought up, the priest took. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Indeed, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came and said to the man that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priests, for he will not have, uh, raw flesh of thee, uh, pardon, he will not have cooked flesh of thee, but raw. And if the man said unto him, but surely they will burn the fat, uh, immediately, and then take as much as thy soul desireth, then he would say, no, but thou shalt give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force. And the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men abhorred the offering of the Lord. Let's ponder and try to take it in. It was the fact that when the Israelites brought their sacrifice, certain parts of certain sacrifices were, by God's grace, given to the priests. But of course, the whole thing was surrounded by careful rules and directions. First of all, the fat had to be burned, all the fat, always burned. And then some offerings, the whole animal was offered. The priest got nothing but the skin, the hide of the bullock. In others, of course, they got a good portion, the peace offerings. Uh, uh, however, first of all, the sacrifice had to be completed for God. That's what priests were, chosen to be priests, to minister for God. As someone has put it, God first, my neighbor second, myself Last. last. Judge the enormity of the practice of these priests. When anybody came to offer a sacrifice, and now it was being processed and a- and sieved, or whatever it had to be, the priest would come with a three-pronged fork and stick it into the meat and take it for himself. The idea of the three prongs was what one prong didn't get, the others got. And if the offerer said, oh, but wait a minute, surely you will burn the fat first and God's part first. Nonsense, said the priest. You give it to me right now. Don't give it. I shall take it by force. What do you think I'm a priest for? Making his own satisfaction, his own enjoyment, his own profit. The primary thing. I repeat, he was meant to get profit. But primary profit? That should have been for God. A subsequent verse tells us their outlandish behavior. There were women who came to serve the tabernacle, its practical things. Even tabernacles had to be dusted, you know. And these young men took them and had sexual relations with them. Ponder what it meant as priests first, what God got out of it. And I feel I must first talk to myself. I don't know about you. I have to have to ask myself, why do I come to meetings of the Christian church? To get something for myself? Or is my prime service to give to God? I sometimes hear people complain, oh, well, I don't go anymore because I don't get anything out of that. I see, well, that's a sad thing. More pertinent question, the prior question is, what did I bring to God? What did God get out of my presence there. Whose fault was it? When we read Samuel, we shall find there came, so we're told in chapter two and verse twenty seven onwards, there came a man of God to the father of the two, of the priests. The priests were named Hophni and Phineas. Their father was Eli. And the man of God blamed not just the young men, he blamed their father. You let them do what they like. You have valued and honored your sons above me, says God. And you can see it in the, the, uh, criticism that Eli made of Hophni and Phineas, his sons, you say, he said, I hear very bad things about you, Hophi, and you, Phiney, you know you oughtn't to, to do such like things, really. Why didn't he boot them out of the priesthood? Yes. You've honored your sons above me, says God. And I want to remind you, Eli, uh, you see, I will honor and remember those who serve me, but they who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. You mustn't be surprised when you subsequently read the disaster that came upon Israel as a result of the failure of the priests. The Philistines came up to battle, and on the first occasion they beat the Israelites very severely. And so the Israelites, uh, thought, what shall we do? And then they had an idea. Why not, they said, bring the ark out of the tabernacle, and we'll bring it into the battle lines, and it will save us. But then, you know, it, no it ever saved anybody. There's only one savior, and that is the Lord himself. No it saves anybody. And we're told that as the ark came into the midst of the ranks of the soldiers, Hophni and Phineas were there. You can see what's going to happen now, can't you? They regarded that ox, that ark as a magical box. What with all their immoral goings on, with all their outstanding selfishness and disregard of God. Well, God allowed the ark to be taken by the Philistines. That's how they regarded it, just as a box with charms in it. Well, God would disabuse them of the idea. It didn't save them. We are not saved, you know, by formulae. We're saved by the living God and the living Savior. That's what save. So the ark of God was taken. When the ark got into the heathen temples, of course, God then did some miracles to impress upon the Philistines how real was the God whose ark that was, and we haven't time now to think about them. I want now to put the other side of the story. There came a revival. And it's interesting to notice that since the trouble had come because Eli honored his sons above God. The revival began when three females left their sons to God. But let me, uh, explain what otherwise will be very enigmatic. There were three leaders of this revival. I'm not going to suggest that the revival was almost instantaneous. It wasn't. A subsequent chapter tells us that the time was very long when people have gone down the slope of carelessness and, uh, uh, uninterest in God and defying his laws and principles, then revival can be a long time coming, sometimes so long that it has to allow for a whole generation to pass away and a new generation to come on the scene. But the first secret of the revival lay with a woman called Hannah. Wonderful soul. Her husband was a certain Elkanah, and he was quite religious and went up to the festivals to the tabernacle every time he should. Now he had, uh, two wives. The one's name was Peninnah, and the other was Hannah, do you see? Now I'm not recommending that state of affairs. In fact, it was a bit, uh, unpleasant, really, particularly for Hannah, because, you see, Peninnah had children and Hannah had no children. And you know, the competition it set, set up. Can you imagine, uh, Elkanah and Peninnah and Hannah, they're going up to the feast, and here come their relatives, long lost relatives, up from Galilee or somewhere, or who knows, they might have been American, uh, Jews coming back from Rome or somewhere like that, you see. Anyway, the relatives would say, oh wow, yes, uh, and whose are these children? They're mine, says Pinay, you say, mine. Oh yes, how many have you got? Oh, I've got this many. Uh, and what about Hannah's children? Oh, Hannah doesn't have any children, poor thing, we say. Why would you rub it in? And Hannah, liked any woman, like any woman, longed for children, of course. It's a very hard thing when we have longings that nature itself has put within us, and then fulfilling them becomes impossible. That's a very big burden to bear, is it not? And as for Elkanah, he was a fatuous husband, wasn't he? And when Hannah was down in the mouth because she had no children, oh, says Howard Carter, why are you bothered about that? Am I not better to you than half a dozen sons? Poor man. I tell you what it did for Hannah. It made her think, what is the purpose of having children. Why would I want children? Just to satisfy the urges of nature? Or is there more to it? She decided there was more to it. Of course, she still wanted a child. But she took it to the Lord, and she said, Lord, I would like a child. You know I'd like a child. But Lord, I've been thinking, and if you could give me a child, I could then devote him to your service in the tabernacle and begin to counter the disreputable behavior of Eli's sons. I ask a big question. Why would you want to be married, if you're not already? Just for the sake of being married? It's a marvelous gift, isn't it? Or would it be in your heart to say, I would like to be married? Yes, and to have a family. But if that could serve the Lord's purposes, it would give it infinite significance. Why would you want to be an architect, gentlemen, or an accountant, or a mechanic. Just to make money? Or is that part of your priesthood? That though it be the way that you make, earn your food and clothes, it also in your mind is of some way I could serve the Lord and make my occupation serve his interests. What does it mean in practical life to be a priest? Mm-hmm. And of course, our experience of life helps us with Holy Scripture, doesn't it? I have a little thing I do, you know, hmm, exposing my ignorance to get help. And if I find myself in the company of lawyers or solicitors, I say, you know, I have difficulty with parts of Exodus, all about these laws and commands and things. Can you tell me what the i- idea is behind these laws? Uh, the jurisprudence of it, so to speak. Do you know, I'm still waiting for an answer from the Christian lawyers and solicitors, you see. I doubtless they have an answer, or they will have an answer one day. But they say to me, ah, but you see, those laws are all past, they're not, we're in the Christian dispensation. And I say, yes, I know that, do you see? But, um, I do believe Exodus is the word of God. Uh, do you believe the Exodus is the word of God and that God himself spoke these laws? You do? Well, you're interested in them, aren't you? From a lawyer's point of view. Well, they will be one of these days, apparently, yes. In other words, life makes... life lived for God, then turns round and makes it easier for us to understand God. Anyway, I must hurry. And uh, uh, uh, do see. Hannah decided, yes, she still wanted a child, but now she saw the possibility if the Lord gave her a child, it could become significant for God and his kingdom. And so she eventually had the child Samuel. She waited till he was weaned, which in those days would have been about four years old. She took him up, four years old, to the tabernacle and left him. Phew, what a sacrifice that was. How it tugged at her heart. Hannah and her son. Acting like a true priest, wasn't she? Then there was another woman. You'll read of her in a subsequent chapter, chapter four. She was the wife of Phineas. And she was with child and was about to give birth. Then the messenger came in from the battlefield to announce that the ark of God had been taken, Eli was now dead, and Phineas and Hophni were slain in battle. And in those moments, perhaps the birth precipitated by the bad news, she gave birth to a man child. And the women said, oh, courage up. Yes, it's not all bad, you know. You've got a son. But she said, when the Ark of God is taken, the glory has departed, i ka bos, the glory is gone. She refused to be comforted and went home to heaven. You say, that's pessimism, isn't it? Well, I don't know. Uh, of course, you're never likely to be in this situation, but suppose in your particular church group things weren't going well, and I say to you, how are things? You say, well, miserable really, and hopeless and difficult, and I don't know. And then you add, but still we had a lovely hus- ho- holiday, my husband and I, in i- i- in uh uh Spain, you know. Oh, we saw some beautiful things and and, and, and yes, I hope you did have a good holiday. And that made up for it, did it? Could anything compensate us if the things of God with us were not going as they should? What is our sense of values? And finally, the third path of, of revival came when the Philistines got, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, distressed at having the ark among them and what God's judgments on them were for having the ark among them, and they decided, uh, on an experiment. For when the ark had been brought into the temple of Dagon, for instance, the Philistine temple of Dagon, old Dagon fell off his perch, do you know? And that isn't good if your god falls down, is it? I mean to say. Uh, they got together, did the Philistines, and they were pretty brawny, and uh, uh, some of them had brains, did you see? And they put their brawn and their brains together and said, what do you do if your god falls over? Well, you heave him up, of course, and put him back in his place. Yes. Well, then, uh, the next day he fell over again and cut his head off and his hands off. Hopeless, wasn't it? But what was this ark? And was it the God of Israel now that did this thing to their God, their idol? Well, they said they would, uh, have an experiment to, and that would solve the thing, you see. So they got two milk kine, that is cows that had their calves, and now, of course, their udders were full of milk. Milk kind. They got them, and they shut up their calves at home, in a barn somewhere, and they attached the cows to a cart, and they put the ark on the cart, and they said, now we'll see if this God is real, Israel's God is real. For to take a cow like that in that state away from its calves, it would, uh, be a tremendous force that would have to overcome the instinct of nature to make those cows leave their calves. Only the Hebrew, with sublime sim- simplicity, calls them their sons. Sons. Well, anyway, that's what the Philistines did. They put the cows in the cart, and they put the ark in the cart, and then they let them go. Is there a God whose power exceeds the power of natural instinct? And the cows went down the road. It wasn't that they didn't feel it. They lowed as they went, lowing as they went. But they took the Ark of God back and left their sons behind. When they got to the other end, the people of Beth Shemesh took the Ark, they cut up the cart to make the wood for a sacrifice, and they took the two animals and cut them to pieces and offered them in sacrifice to God. You say, poor old cows. Yes? They left their sons by a power that is beyond human instinct, and ended up on an altar in sacrifice to God. And when my heart is full of natural instinct, it's not a bad thing, is it? I'm not to be inhuman. The call of God might call me to go beyond what is my selfish interest. Why is it not? And give myself to God. Indeed, as I read it, the injunction for us all in the end of chapter twelve of Romans is this: I beseech you, my brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. It was the beginning of the way of revival from the horrible moral tangle and spiritual disaster that Eli had allowed his sons to produce in In Israel. Israel, when these three groups of women took their sons and in their way put God before their sons. God speak to us through his word.