Failure of a Priesthood?

(A Lesson from the Old Testament and Hebrews)

by Steve Bastin

The history of man recorded in the Bible is fascinating.  It fascinates me because the people that I read about are people like me.  They are people who make the same mistakes over and over again.  Reading the history of the Christian religion is like reading the Bible.  The mistakes that were made by Israel are the mistakes that have been made by the followers of Jesus.

At Mt. Sinai, God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses.  Those were not the only commandments Moses received.  There were hundreds of others.

Among the commandments were instructions about the priesthood for Israel.  Moses’ brother, Aaron, was to be the first high priest and his sons were also to serve as priests.

Two of those sons were Nadab and Abihu.  Among their duties was the daily burning of incense on the altar inside the tabernacle.  God’s instructions gave them the necessary information for compounding the incense and the instructions included the fire to be used for burning.  The fire was to be obtained from the altar that stood outside the sacred tabernacle.

Everything was fine until the day that Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.”  Fire went out from the Lord and consumed the two priests.  This was the beginning of a long line of failures for those chosen to be priests in Israel.

Another example of the failure of the priesthood in Israel comes from the time of Samuel.  Eli was the high priest at the time.  His sons assisted him as priests.  They are described as “worthless men.”  They seized the offerings that the people brought to God.  They “lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.”

While Eli asked them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people?” they were not restrained in the evil by their father.

A man of God was sent to Eli.  Among other things that Eli was told, the man of God said, “This will be the sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas:  on the same day both of them will die.  But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always.”

So, God brought Samuel to the priesthood to replace the unfaithful Eli and his sons.  Yet later we read about Samuel, “His Sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”

Moses told the people to “come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office” and inquire of them.  “You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.  According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.”

These priests whom God had chosen failed in their responsibility to teach, as well as their responsibility to be upright and righteous men.  We know this because it is written, later, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

The priests not only failed to live righteous lives, they failed to teach the law of God to the people.  The result was increasing chaos and ungodliness in the land of Israel.

This is not intended to be an indictment of all the priests that served under the law of Moses.  It is intended to show the failures of that priesthood, that system, and point to the change that was brought about under the New Covenant of Jesus.

Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, makes mention of the priests under the law of Moses and draws a contrast between them and Jesus, God’s new high priest.

Further, we learn in that same letter to the Hebrews, the law was changed.  Under the law of Moses, Jesus could not be a priest because he was not from the tribe of Levi.  The Old Covenant was set aside as obsolete (the word in Hebrews 8) and the New Covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus became the covenant between God and His people.

The failed priesthood of the Old Testament was replaced with the superior priesthood of Jesus.  Thus far, so good.

How then is it possible that religions that call themselves “Christian” can return to the Old Testament concept of a priesthood of men?  How can the failures of the past, corrected by God in a new system inaugurated by the blood of Jesus, be brought back into the world, replacing God’s new system?

Paul says, “Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction.”  We are supposed to have learned from the past, from the writings found in the Old Testament.  One of those lessons concerns the failure of men in acting as mediators with God.  Men fail.  Jesus does not fail.

Again, this is not intended to be an indictment of every man who serves as a priest.  It is an attempt to show from the New Testament that God has put in  place a better system for bringing men to God.  It is a system that does not depend upon the intercession of men for others, but a system that depends upon Jesus.

Wherever churches have restricted “priestly” duties, such as baptism and communion, to only such persons as the hierarchy has certified, there you have a reproduction of the Old Testament system of priesthood.

When access to God’s grace is restricted to men who are fallible, God’s system of grace given through Jesus Christ alone, is circumvented.  It is confined and kept from those whom God has called into fellowship with Himself through His only begotten Son.

Perhaps some would insist that this is only a minor detail.  Yet there are many souls who have been put in jeopardy because of the scandals of those who occupy “priestly” positions.  Whether it be a pastor, priest or reverend, the scandal is just as severe.

When positions of power are created, they attract people who are interested in exercising power.  Jesus demanded that his disciples be equal and none possess power over others.  Listen to what he said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Priests, pastors, reverends and such exercising a “priestly” function over individual congregations and groups of congregations is not Jesus’ plan.  He is the high priest and everyone else occupies a position under him with no intervening priesthood.

Human reasoning suggests that it is necessary to exercise control in order to keep a movement on track.  The reasoning suggests that everything will rage out of control if there is not a strong hand at the leadership helm.

Yet, history tells us that it has always been the leadership that has led the movement astray.  Paul warned the elders of the church at Ephesus, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

The Old Testament teaches us that a religious system that elevates one class of men over another is doomed to failure.  It will fail to live righteously.  And, it will fail in its duty to instruct the people according to God’s law.

Let us rejoice that God calls us out of darkness to be His people, saved by the blood of Jesus and having direct access to the throne of grace in heaven through that same Jesus.  You need Jesus, not a priest.