Biblical Zionism
II. The Reprobation of the Corrupted Levitical Priesthood
Kingdom Age rule is also the subject matter of Isaiah
chapter twenty-nine to which we must add the context of Malachi chapter two, so
we can understand what Paul is saying in Romans chapter eleven. Notice,
as we look at Malachi chapter two, that God’s communication is specifically directed
toward the corrupted and defiled Levitical priesthood. This is important in that God was setting
aside this Mosaic Covenant priesthood.
God is also putting the Mosaic Covenant on Sabbath (Hosea 2:11) until the beginning of the Kingdom Age. At the beginning of the Kingdom Age, Christ will
rule on earth as Prophet, Priest, and King through a new priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, not
Levi. All Church Age believers become
this new priesthood.
“1 And now, O ye
priests, this commandment {mitsvah; precept or governing principle} is for you. 2 If ye will not hear, and if ye
will not lay it to heart, to give {or bring; it was the responsibility of the priesthood to preserve the
Law in order to maintain the sanctity of God’s Name, which revealed His holy
character} glory unto my name, saith
the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse {literally; a defiling execration, see Zechariah 3:3 where the word “filthy” regarding the garment of the
High Priest Joshua is literally “excrement covered garments”} upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea,
I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will corrupt {chide or rebuke} your seed {most
probably refers to their progeny; the priesthood was passed down to male
children of priests}, and spread dung {excrement;
the priest were responsible for preparing the sacrifices; they were to take
extreme care in the slaughter of the animals in not defiling the sacrifices by
carelessness in spilling the contents of the intestines upon the meat or
mingling it with the blood} upon
your faces {so everyone could see
their defilement}, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one
shall take you away with it {the
entrails, intestines, and the contents of the intestines, were to be carefully
separated from the sacrifice and burned outside the camp; Lev. 8:17 &
16:27; therefore God is stating that He will cast away the priesthood, i.e., ‘without
the camp,’ with these defiled parts of the animal in that they were equally
defiled} (Malachi 2:1-4)
These “solemn feasts” (Malachi 2:3)
were intended to offer pure worship and adoration of God, but they had become
the means merely to supply the priests with meat. Thousands of oxen and sheep were
sacrificed. “. . . they {the people} shall give unto the priest
the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw {the stomach; considered a delicacy} (Deuteronomy 18:3). The priests became careless in the slaughter
of the animals and the cleaning of the entrails thereby defiling themselves
with the filth of the animals’ waste.
It is easy to become careless when
repetition is involved. This is
certainly true when it comes to water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as
ordinances of the church. They can
quickly become just repetitive rituals with little meaning absent of any real
cognizance of God or what He is doing in our lives. This is true of other interactions with God
as well. Prayer becomes word spoken to
the ceiling. Singing becomes focused on
the sound of the music and how pleasant and entertaining it is to us, rather
than worship and praise of God. We
become more concerned with how music is to our ears rather than what it is to
God’s ears.
It is easy to
become careless in our approach to God.
We begin to give more consideration to convenience in our coming before
God than to conviction. There is little
or no consideration that entering into the worship of God is to enter the
presence of God and thereby to “stand upon holy ground” wherever that worship
happens. People forget that to become careless is the outcome of caring less. Becoming careless is an easy thing to slip
into when worshiping an invisible God.
When the sacrosanctity of God is kept in focus, carefulness in worship,
service, and prayer will remain centered upon the awesomeness of the One we
worship
.
This carelessness
was the source of the fall of the Levitical priesthood. This carelessness was evident when the
priests faces became covered with the waste of the sacrificed animals. How many would eat in a restaurant where the
chefs and servers were covered with excrement?
Yet, this is the picture before us in the careless preparation of the
sacrifices to be offered to God. How
guilty are we of similar carelessness in our preparation of our own hearts,
minds, and bodies for worship? Can we
speak about and discuss worship without consideration of the One being
worshiped?
The message of
Malachi chapter two is to the descendants of Levi as a priesthood representing
God to the people and the people to God.
Do we see the corruption of this representation in these first three
verses of chapter two? God saw the
children of Israel represented in the carelessly defiled excrement covered
priests. The children of Israel saw God
represented in the carelessly defiled excrement covered priests. Instead of white garments of pure linen, the
children of Israel’s image of purity and holiness in the worship of God became
a stinking slaughter house full of filth and wretchedness. Why would the priests think it was
appropriate to allow this corruption to represent God to the people? Secondly, why would the people allow this
corruption to go on, whereby the filth covered priests were representing what
they were like to God?
Why did God
choose the family of Levi to be the priests of Israel? Malachi 2:4-6 tells us that Levi’s worship of
God was birthed from pure reverence/awe/fear of God. No one will ever worship God properly if he
does not reverence and fear God properly.
Somewhere in the generations of Levi’s descendants, they became commonly
familiar with God and lost their fear of God.
When worshipping an invisible God, it is easy to begin to see all the
things we do as mere formalities and responsibilities.
“4 And ye shall know that I have sent this
commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of
hosts. 5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear
wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was
not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many
away from iniquity” (Malachi 2:4-6).
These few verses describe the central qualification
for God’s choice of Levi as the High Priest of Israel. These few verses describe the primary
characteristic of a heart prepared to worship God and serve him – AWE!
When we begin to see all that we do in worship as mere formalities and
responsibilities, worship of the Person of God will soon become the worship of
the ideology of God. When we retain the
understanding of the anthropomorphisms (use
of human physical characteristics and attributes to explain how God experiences
His creation) of Scripture that God is a Person with eyes that see all,
ears that hear all, a mind that knows all, and a heart that loves and feels, we
are humbled before His awesome presence wherein we tremble before Him.
“30
And when forty years were expired {to
humble Moses}, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an
angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it,
he wondered at the sight {curiosity}:
and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him {to inform}, 32 Saying,
I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. 33
Then said the Lord to him, Put off
thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground”
(Acts 7:30-33).
In most part, Moses’ knowledge of the God of Israel was
nothing more than stories and rumors.
For hundreds of years, while the children of Israel were enslaved in
Egypt, these historic stories about God were all they had to sustain their
faith. God had not given the inspired
Books of the Law to Moses yet. There
were very few personal encounters with God by anyone during those hundreds of
years of captivity. Faith that the
promises of God to Abraham were given by a real and genuine Being called
Jehovah was all that held the children together. Although the children of Israel believed in
this Being named Jehovah, they knew little about Him except what they had
learned from these historical reminiscences of their elders, none of which were
any longer personally familiar with what took place. Unfortunately, this reality is what is common
to all people who have no personal experiences with God of their own. Most people become dependent upon the testimonies
of those who have genuine faith and who have had personal experiences of God’s
grace. Most people will spend much time
talking about faith while living without having any experiential knowledge of a
God’s operations in their lives.
The prophecy and rebuke of the Levitical priests of
the Mosaic Covenant Malachi chapter two are very sobering truths. The statements to the Levitical priests of
Malachi chapter two are even more sobering considering the warnings to the
Melchisedecan priesthood of the New Covenant in Romans chapter eleven. The Melchisedecan priesthood of the New
Covenant consists of every “born again” believer of the Church Age. The warning is about being faithful to the
obligations wherein the Levitical priesthood failed. These obligations are spelled out in no
uncertain terms in Malachi 2:7-9.
“7
For the priest’s lips should keep
knowledge, and they {the children of
Israel} should seek the law at his
mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 8
But ye {priests} are departed out of the way {‘the way’ is salvation as a gift through the way of faith in the
Abrahamic Covenant; the responsibilities of the priesthood as described in
verse 7}; ye have caused many to
stumble {falter or fall} at the law; ye have corrupted {destroyed or ruined} the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also
made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not
kept my ways, but have been partial {see
Lev. 19:15; the priests were not to be uneven in their application of the Law
to give preferences to gain political or personal favors; God declares this to
be injustice, not justice} in the law” (Malachi 2:7-9).
“The way” of faith in the Gospel of
the Abrahamic Covenant was an ongoing problem in the understanding of the Jews
after the Levitical priesthood had corrupted it. Even the disciples struggled with this truth
requiring Jesus pointedly explain it to them.
“1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye
believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many
mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there
ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know
not whither thou goest; and how can we know
the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me” (John 14:1-6).
Christ is
explaining that the Abrahamic Covenant was an immutable promise from God. Christ is explaining that the Messiah would
completely satisfy God’s wrath upon sin (“propitiate” God) and would gift God’s
righteous to the believing sinner (justification) through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. Salvation by faith in the
Messiah’s propitiation of God and His justification of the believing sinner is
“the way” of faith. Therefore, Jesus is
“the way.” The ministry of every
believer-priest is the PRESERVATION and EXPLANATION of “the way.”
Therefore, the
first failure of the Levitical priesthood was in failing to preserve and
explain the promise of salvation as a gift of grace given through faith in the
Promised One and what He would accomplish in His death, burial, and
resurrection. Therefore, the warning to
Church Age believer-priests is to be very careful with the Gospel and what
defines saving faith (Romans 10:1-13).
Secondly, the
Levitical priests failed in the administration of the Law by compromising its
judgments. This second level of failure
corrupted the sanctification and separation from worldliness of the children of
Israel.
“10 Have we not all one father? hath not
one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother,
by profaning the covenant of our fathers {the
Mosaic Covenant through unjust, partial, prejudicial judgments in judicial
matters thereby corrupting the sanctification of the children of Israel}? 11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is
committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of
the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12 The LORD will
cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the
tabernacles of Jacob, and him {the
priests} that offereth an offering
unto the LORD of hosts {for those
described in verse 11 and who bring an offering without accompanying repentance
from that which is described}” (Malachi 2:10-12).
Preferential treatment is prejudicial treatment. The great corruption of prejudice is that injustice
is its progeny. Injustice creates
bitterness and mistrust. Prejudicial
injustice is one of the quickest ways to destroy a government and bring about
revolution. The Levitical priesthood
became corrupt and was known for prejudicial judgments, bribes, graft, double
standards.
Israel was not a secular government. Israel was supposed to be a Theocratic
government where the king of Israel and the priesthood of Israel ruled in the
place of God over God’s people. The Law
was God’s instrument of governance administrated primarily by the High Priest
and his circuit of the priests and their courts of justice in every city
throughout the country. This will be
established perfectly in the Kingdom Age with a new Melchisedecan priesthood of
glorified, sinless, selfless, believer-priests ruling under Christ with a “rod
of iron.” The “rod of iron” metaphor
does not mean that mercy and forgiveness will not be available to the repentant
sinner, but that the truth, the law, and justice will not bend to any level of
prejudice by the judging priests.
The level of the
corruption of the priesthood, addressed in Malachi 2:10-12, was simply their
viewing every breach of the Law as an opportunity to capitalize on someone’s
failure by using the failure to enrich and promote themselves through bribes
and graft. Isaiah chapter fifty-nine
describes God’s view of the all-encompassing outcome of the despicable corruption
of “judgment” and justice.
“9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for
light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. 10
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes:
we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead
men. 11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is
none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. 12 For
our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us:
for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we
know them; 13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and
departing away from our God, speaking
oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of
falsehood. 14 And
judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is
fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth
faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the
LORD saw it, and it displeased
him that there was no judgment” (Isaiah 59:9-15).
There is a false
repentance that weeps before God because God’s blessings have been withdrawn
and His protection removed. However,
there is no turning from the corruption that brought about these consequences
in the first place. There is no
repentance if there is no turning from the sin and failure. A chance of heart and a change of mind about the
sin is not Biblical repentance if there is no turning from the sin.
“13 And
this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with
weeping, and with crying out {the priest
could not repent for someone else or offer an acceptable offering for someone
else if that person has not genuinely turned from his sinful acts},
insomuch that he {the LORD} regardeth
not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore {Why does God not accept the priest’s sacrifices}? Because the LORD
hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy
covenant. 15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of
the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take
heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
youth. 16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth
putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD
of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously {The priests were to be the models of
righteousness before the people. Their
failure to be just with their own wives brought about a false dichotomy that
gave permission to the people to do the same. Therefore,
not only did the people of Israel need to repent for their failures regarding
God’s commandments, but the priesthood had a higher culpability because it was
their failures that gave permission for the injustice.} 17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say,
Wherein have we wearied him?
When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD,
and he {the LORD} delighteth in them;
or, Where is the God of judgment {pragmatically
determining what is right and wrong by the fact that God did not immediately
and apparently judge wrong doing when, in fact, God had delegated the
responsibility to judge wrong doing to the priesthood}” (Malachi 2:13-17)?
These transitional issues regarding the
priesthood of all believers during the Church Age impacts almost every
post-salvation doctrine regarding the believer’s life, formal church
membership, the emphasis of water baptism, personal sanctification,
congregational polity, and the accountability of each believer in his priestly
responsibility to maintain purity and holiness in the “body” through church discipline. The priesthood of Israel was “cut off” for
failure in these responsibilities and the warning of Romans chapter eleven is
that Church Age believers are subject to the same judgment of God should they
fail in their moral responsibilities to their corporate and vocational election
(Ephesians 4:1-32).
“10
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in
parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not
given. 12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall
have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath. 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they
seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Esaias {Isaiah 29:9-16}, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:10-15)
Year
after year and century after century God patiently sent prophets to call the
priesthood of Israel and the rebellious children of Israel to repentance from
their ongoing apostasy. Like Noah, who
preached righteousness for one-hundred and twenty years while he built the Ark,
the lost apostates of the world would no longer hear the voice of God in God’s
prophet. Although Noah proclaimed for
one-hundred and twenty years what God was going to do, when the flood began,
they “knew not.” Why did they not know?
They “knew not” because, “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive” (Matthew 13:14). The point is that there comes a time when a person’s
heart becomes so closed in unbelief to what God says, that such a person hears
without hearing and sees without seeing.
“38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39
And knew not until the flood came, and
took them all away; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:38-39).
Apostasy
within Christianity is as prevalent as it was in the days of Noah. Professing Christians intermarry with
heathens and raise heathen children who live in rebellion and unbelief. Their hearts grow so hardened to the truths
of God that they are angered at the very mention of righteousness. This is the judge me not generation.
They will not hear about God’s definition of sin, nor its
consequences. These souls reject the God
of the Bible and therefore refuse to hear or heed His warnings. Hearing
they will not hear and seeing they will not see.
Someone once told me they did not like the God I
preached. They believed in a god of love
who would never send anyone to hell. The
point is that such a god does not exist anywhere except in that person’s mind,
because that god is manufactured in that person’s mind.
THEIR
MANUFACTURED god DOES NOT EXIST!
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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