Haggai speaks, first of all, not to the people, but to the governor and the high priest. “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest” (Hag. 1:1). Then after speaking to the governor and the high priest, he speaks to the people (Hag. 1:13; 2:2).
Why is it necessary to mention that Haggai speaks first to the governor and to the high priest? Because for the building up of the house of God there is the need of the kingship and the priesthood. The priesthood is the ministry that brings the people into the presence of God and helps them to contact God, be saturated, and even occupied by God. In the building up of the house of God, there is the need of such a ministry. We do need this kind of saturation, fellowship, and oneness with God for the building up of the local churches. We do not need the knowledge of the teachings, but we do need the saturation, the oneness, the fellowship, and the living contact with God. This is not the ministry of teaching, but the ministry of the priesthood, and this ministry will help us to be real priests. We all must learn to contact the Lord and be saturated with the Lord. This is the first need for the building up of the local churches.
Then there is the need of the kingship. The kingship is simply the headship of Christ, the divine authority. In the local churches, the government is not like that of the world. In the world there are different types of governments. Some are run by the people, and some are run by a dictator. But the government in the local churches is neither by the people nor by a dictatorship. In the local churches the government must be the divine authority which is the headship of Christ, the kingship with divine authority.
The normal situation in a local church is that of an adequate priesthood and kingship. This means we all know how to contact the Lord, how to have living fellowship with the Lord, how to be saturated with the Lord, and how to be occupied with the Lord. And we all know how to submit ourselves to the leadership of Christ, that is, to recognize the divine authority among the Lord’s people in the local churches. If we have these two things, what a wonderful situation that will be!
I believe that many of us read the last article written by Dr. A. W. Tozer before he died. In this message he pointed out that in today’s Christianity, the headship of Christ is completely renounced. He said that in all the church services, conventions, and conferences, the headship of Christ is not recognized. This is why there is the confusion and divisions with the many different kinds of opinions. Because the headship of Christ has not been recognized by His people, there is no divine authority among the Christians; there is only confusion and division. Everyone does whatever is right in his own eyes. There is no kingship.
In the local churches we are all under the kingship and headship of Christ. If I must say something, I must say it under the kingship and headship of my Lord. If it is not under His ruling, His authority, I should not say anything. Whatever I say and do must be under the headship of Christ. Nothing rules over me except His headship. I recognize the kingship of Christ in the local churches.
In the summer of 1966, we covered the matter of the priesthood and the kingship quite thoroughly. All of these messages have been published in The Stream (from Vol. 5, No. 4 through Vol. 6, No. 4). For the building up of the house of God we need the priesthood and the kingship.
I feel that I must repeat some of these things again, because they simply are not in our human concept. For the raising up of the tabernacle, Moses represented the divine authority, and the high priest, Aaron, represented the priesthood. It was under these two ministries that the tabernacle was raised up. For the building of the temple, king David fought the battle to bring in peace. Then king Solomon represented the divine authority and the high priest represented the priesthood. Under these two, the temple was built up. Now in the recovery of the building of the temple, there are Zerubbabel the governor, representing the kingship, and Joshua the high priest, representing the priesthood. It is only under these two ministries that the recovery of the building of the temple is possible.
Today, for the Lord’s recovery in the local churches, we still need these two ministries. I am so grateful to the Lord that here in the churches, we have seen the priesthood and the kingship. The brothers and sisters know how to contact the Lord and to have a living fellowship with the Lord day by day. This is why we have the morning watch with all the pray-reading-it is simply to contact the Lord, to have a living fellowship with the Lord, and even to be saturated, permeated, and possessed by the Lord that we may really be one with Him in spirit. And it is by this that we all have come to recognize the authority of God, the headship of Christ. No human hand is ruling over us. There is no human control, but we do have the divine authority among us. The brothers and sisters are moving and acting under the headship of Christ. If you were to ask me who are the ones who take care of the churches, I would say I just do not know how to answer. What I mean is that we do not have the maneuvering of any human hand, but we do have a government, a divine government, a government under the headship of Christ. This is the kingship.
When someone asks how we have our meetings, how we start our meetings, and who takes the lead in our meetings, it is really difficult for me to answer. For the building up of the house of the Lord, we have the ministry of the priesthood as well as the ministry of the kingship.
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