The priesthood was an inherited privilege, the sons of Aaron
were the priests. What amounts to the
diaconate was also an inherited privilege.
The sons of the tribe of Levi were those who provided temple services,
assisting the priests in worship and maintenance of the temple. These belong to the priests and to the Lord
who takes them for His service as a tithe of sorts of the people. The people were to be a kingdom of priests
serving the Lord but the Aaronic priesthood and the Levites served the Lord by
serving the people. There should not
have been nor should there be an idea of religious hierarchy in the sense that
some are more important to the Lord. If
we are all priests then some simply have different roles and different
parishes. Some serve the household of
God while others serve Him in other ways but all alike are servants.
Jesus isn’t like Moses and Elijah, He is altogether
different. If Peter knew Jesus was the
Son of God, he didn’t get the distinction between Jesus and these men. Jesus was a man but He was more than a
man. He was both the Son of David and
the Son of God at the same time. The
reality of His person is revealed here in that the glory of God, the Shekinah
glory which we see in Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8 when the tabernacle and temple
are dedicated and inhabited by the Lord.
That same glory shines forth from every fiber of Jesus’ being and the
voice proclaims that Jesus is the one to whom they are to listen, everything
else is understood through Him. In the
new creation we see this vision as Jesus as the lamp through which the glory of
the Lord shines. We don’t reject Moses
and Elijah, we understand them in light of Jesus.
Those who are confusing the Galatians are those who have
essentially refused to accept the pre-eminence of Jesus. They see Him as addition to the existing
structure rather than its fulfillment.
They have not seen Him fully transfigured, they still place Him
alongside Moses and Elijah. Circumcision
of the flesh was superseded by the circumcision of the heart as promised in
Jeremiah and other prophets and as fulfilled at Pentecost and since in the
giving of the Spirit. Do we put our
trust solely and completely in Jesus or are we still thinking like these? Do you know that your salvation is through
grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone?
If you lack that certainty it may be that you’re still thinking about
being good enough. You aren’t but He is.
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