Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.” Exodus 19:5-6 NLT
Previously, I spoke of the Messiah storyline in the Bible. Before that, although I did not use the term “storyline” we talked about theme of “temple.” Here is another of those themes that, while not as pervasive as the other two, does appear at key places, and is one more unifying factor in the whole.
As the above passage says, God’s goal for his people, conveyed to them at the foot of Mt. Sinai, is that they belong to him exclusively, sharing his character (holy), and that their function will be to serve him and be intermediaries between him and the world (priests).
During the early history of Israel, the Israelites did not really get this. They wanted to be indistinguishable from the world, just as we so often wish to be. So they wanted to have a king and be a kingdom, and they thought that is what “kingdom of God” meant. It was only after they were destroyed as a nation, beginning at Samaria in 722 BC and concluding at Jerusalem in 586 BC that they were forced to ask, “What is it to be the kingdom of God?” If they didn’t have a king, or independence, or an army, how could they be a kingdom? Isaiah called them back to the ancient vision, “You can be the priests of the living God, the King!” (Isa 61:6)
Peter showed how that was precisely the function of Christians in the next step of God’s world-saving enterprise (1 Pet 2:5, 9) and it is echoed in Hebrew 13:15 “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.” We Christians have the same calling that God first unfolded at Sinai.
Finally, in the fulfillment of all things our function will be perfectly realized. So John praises Jesus: “He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.” (1:6) We are to be God’s holy priests (see also Rev 5:10 and 20:6).
Called To Be Transformed 