Measure: Priests

	Ezekiel watches as a messenger from God measures the sanctuary.  Attention is then given to measuring the altar, the sacrifice and the entrance.  Don't forget that measuring in prophecy means to compare God's pattern with man's obedience.  It also involves indicating boundaries.
	"And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves," God communicates in Ezekiel 44:8-10, "but you have set {foreigners} to keep charge of My sanctuary.  ...No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.  But the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity."
	"But the Levitical priests," the passage continues in verses 15-23, "the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood... They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge. And it shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house.  Linen turbans shall be on their heads, and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with {anything which makes them} sweat.  And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments that they may not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.  Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not let their locks grow long; they shall only trim {the hair of} their heads. Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court.  And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman but shall take virgins from the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.  Moreover, they shall teach My people {the difference} between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean."
	God has ordered a measuring of the sanctuary, the altar, the sacrifice and the doorway.  Now He is requiring a measurement of the priests.  As we note from this passage and others, there are at least five aspects of the priesthood which should be measured against God's pattern.  These include the priests' qualifications, duties, lives, clothing and inheritance.
	Of course, our interest is not so much in the Levitical priesthood as in the fact that these patterns existed.  After all, if God expected Old Testament priests to conform to a certain pattern, we should anticipate that God has specific expectations for New Testament priests.  This becomes even more important when we realize that all Christians are priests under the new law.
	"And He has made us {to be} a kingdom," Revelation 1:6 points out, "priests to His God and Father; to Him {be} the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
	So all Christians are priests.  Does God, then, have a  pattern for their qualifications, duties, lives, clothing and inheritance?
	"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven;" Jesus instructs in Matthew 7:21-24, "but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'  Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock."
	A person is not a priest just because he claims to be.  Only those who obey are qualified.  And who establishes these qualifications?
	"You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood," we note from 1 Peter 2:5, "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
	The holy priesthood is built up by God.  The stones don't make the decisions.  The builder does.  God establishes the requirements.  Only those who fit His pattern become priests.  Does God have a pattern for the duties of His priests?
	"And coming to Him as to a living stone," we read from verse 4 of this same passage in 1 Peter chapter 2, "rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For {this} is contained in Scripture: 'Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner {stone}, and he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed.'  This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner {stone,}' and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this {doom} they were also appointed.  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for {God's} own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.  Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe {them,} glorify God in the day of visitation."
	Yes, God has a pattern for the duties of His priests.  And, as we see from the last verses of this Scripture, He also has certain expectations about their lives.
	"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars," John reports in Revelation 21:8, "their part {will be} in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
	"And this {do,} knowing the time," Paul warns in Romans 13:11-14, "that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to {its} lusts."
	God has a pattern for His priests.  He has requirements for their qualifications, duties and lives.

	God has a pattern for His priests.  He has requirements for their qualifications, duties and lives.  We read from Romans 13:14 that we must put on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Does this give any insight into God's pattern for the clothing of His priests?
	"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ," Paul states in Galatians 3:27.
	A priest must be clothed with Christ.  This takes place when that person is immersed into Jesus.  God is the One who has established this pattern for the priest's clothing.
	"Therefore, take up the full armor of God," Paul instructs in Ephesians 6:13-17, "that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil {one.}  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
	The Christian priest is dressed in the spiritual armor of God.
	"But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments;" Jesus expresses in Revelation 3:4-5, "and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.  He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels."
	A person becomes clothed in Christ through baptism.  The Christian priest puts on the armor of God.  And God's priest is clothed in an unsoiled, white garment.
	God has a pattern for the qualifications, duties, lives and dress of His priests.  Is there a pattern, too, for the inheritance which awaits these priests?
	"And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them," God promises Old Testament priests in Ezekiel 44:28-30, "{that} I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel-- I am their possession.  They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.  And the first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house."
	"Grace to you and peace," John writes in Revelation 1:4-6, "from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us {to be} a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him {be} the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
	God's priests receive release from their sins.
	"Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything," Paul explains in Galatians 4:1-7, "but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.  So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.  But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."
	God's priests receive adoption and redemption.
	"And in the daytime (for there shall be no night there) its gates shall never be closed;" John discloses in Revelation 21:25 through chapter 22, verse 4," and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve {kinds of} fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name {shall be} on their foreheads."
	The inheritance of the Christian priest includes salvation, adoption, redemption and eternal life.  Wouldn't it be great to receive this inheritance?  We can if we conform to God's pattern for His priests' qualifications, duties, lives and clothing.  We can if we will obey the Truth and be set free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."