In the previous two messages we saw that God’s intention is that every believer should be a priest of the gospel carrying out the complete work of the priesthood of the gospel for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy. Being the priests of God is a major subject throughout the entire Bible. First, in creation God created man in His image and according to His likeness that man might express Him. Second, God gave the created man the authority over all things that man might represent Him. Third, God created man with a spirit as the organ to receive and contact Him, and fourth, God put the created man in front of the tree of life that through it man might receive God as his life. If man had remained in the situation arranged by God, everything would have been perfect and there would have been no offering of sacrifices, nor would there have been a need for it. However, because man fell into sin, there was a need for God’s redemption. After that time, man could approach God and serve God only through the offering of sacrifices.
Hence, Abel, the second generation of mankind, began to offer sacrifices to God, and through the offering of sacrifices he fellowshipped with God (Gen. 4:4). After the flood destroyed the world, Noah came out of the ark and built an altar on the new earth to offer sacrifices to God (8:20). Later, Abraham was called by God to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and, upon his arrival in the land of Canaan promised by God to him, he also built an altar to offer sacrifices to God (12:1-8). Then, according to God’s command, he offered his only begotten son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to God, and God provided a ram as the substitute for Isaac. That ram was a type of the Christ who was to come (22:13).
Abel, Noah, and Abraham offered sacrifices to God as individuals according to their need before God, not according to an established arrangement. We may say that they all were priests, and Abel was the first priest in the Bible. However, at their time God had not instituted the priesthood, so we can say that they were merely individual, unofficial priests. When Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, were delivered out of Egypt and arrived at Mount Sinai, they were instructed by God through Moses to build the tabernacle according to the heavenly pattern. From that time onward, God came to the children of Israel through the tabernacle for them to contact, enjoy, and receive Him; they also could approach God and serve God through the tabernacle. For this reason, God established the institution of the priesthood. From then on, there were priests among God’s people, not individual, unofficial priests but corporate, God-ordained priests.
The one thing that was the most necessary for a priest in serving God was to offer sacrifices. Under God’s ordination, those who served as priests could approach God, and they also took care of the needs of His people. They constantly carried God’s people into His presence to seek His heart’s intent. Through the Urim and Thummin they received revelation from God and brought the divine revelation to God’s people. They became a group of people who were very intimate with God, who brought God to His people and brought His people into His presence. They were an indispensable link between God and His chosen and redeemed people.
Although such an institution of the priesthood in the Old Testament was ordained and confirmed by God, it remained merely a type, not the reality that God intended to obtain and attain. Therefore, God arranged for Christ to become flesh that He might fulfill all the types and turn them into reality. The New Testament shows us that God’s doings are marvelous. In the Old Testament age of the types, the last of the priests was Zachariah. In his old age he had no child; furthermore, his wife was barren and advanced in years. He petitioned God to give him a son to succeed him as priest. At that time God was going to have a turn of dispensations from a dispensation of types and vanity to a dispensation of reality and practicality. Therefore, God answered his prayer and gave him a son, who was called John (Luke 1:5-14).
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