Episode4
THE
FEAST AND THE PRIEST
Reading: Job 1:
5 And it was so, when the days of their
feasts were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in
the morning, and offered burnt offerings according
to the number of them all: for
Job said, It may be that my sons may
have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
”…Job sent and sanctified them…
offered burnt offerings to the number of them all.. ” In His High priestly
prayer, the Lord Jesus said, And for
their sakes I sanctified myself, that they must be sanctified through the
truth. The Truth constitutes the plummet and the line in the hands of the
believers to make the right decisions. The heart of the Father longs for our
cleansing, our sanctification, our salvation. As we go about our daily
activities, plans, desires, feasting, regardless of how the Father feels and,
in the independence of our minds, over-stretching this feast to the
illegitimate degree of a nature lacking in divine constituents, He is there
still, through the High Priest, to sanctify and to savour the offering who is
the Lord Himself. The Father delights in us and watches over us to see that we obtain
the promise – who is Himself – even if in our agitation to partake of the feast
we trample down His righteousness. We have been so carried away by this feast –
unruly children that we are – that we veer off the path of life. There is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God. They are all together become unprofitable….
Yet the blood of the Lord Jesus ministers from the Mercy Seat. The blood speaks of things that pertains to
higher life of the calling of God, calling us away from being children and
teaching us to exercise restrains in the feast.
Some of us, in
fact, a great deal of us have actually opted out of the life of God, though we
know not; some have been initiated into some other spirits other than the Holy
Spirit. We are become adepts at spiritual manoeuvres, doing deliverance,
commanding in the name of Jesus, millions, cars, houses and other status-giving
paraphernalia. Yet the heart of the Father is not done with sanctification.
Jesus is to us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
The reason for is that we may be reconciled to Him no matter how pathetic our
situations. Job sent and sanctified his children and offered burnt offerings.
This was because he was a priest; just as Jesus Christ is our High Priest and
the Apostle of what we profess – that is, children of God, born from above and
into the church of the Living God, His Living body, Christ Himself being the
head who is raising her to His fullness.
“…for Job said, May be that my sons
have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts…” Our perverting the gospel is
cursing God. Preaching with the ulterior of gain is cursing God in our hearts.
“…cursed God…” In this feast, we do sin
and do curse God in our hearts.. many of us have perverted the gospel; many
preach the gospel out of envy. Some are into preaching ostensibly to enlarge
the coast of the kingdom of God. Really? Why are we quick to hear God call us to full
time ministry nowadays while in the old time men always fasted, prayed and waited
patiently on God to be sure that what they heard was just not a personal
lustful desire. What will actually be found if the light of God is shone into
our hearts? In some cases, the revelation will be of hearts that answer to
preaching as a vocation, a mean of living; in others, the attraction to
preaching is the instant celebrity stature it gives if the individual as a
gifted orator and speaker. Friend, we do not really know our hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it? It will take God showing us our hearts for us
to acknowledge the deep evil and cursing there. If the Lord had taken the
people of Israel all the way from Egypt and dropped them at the doorsteps of
Canaan, these people who did everything possible to counter the plans of God
would have shouted that they loved Him. But God made them pass through the
difficult terrains of life in order to reveal themselves to themselves. It is
time we allowed God to reveal ourselves to us; it is time we asked that He
should deal with all our depths and judge and purify.
A pastor appears before a panel of
elders of his assembly, alleged not only of extra-marital affairs, but of
impregnating the sister concerned. He did not deny the allegations but
justified himself. “I told,” began the pastor,” my wife to go modern in her
hair-do, she refused, sticking to the
old anti-modern doctrine and I found someone else who, though a good Christian,
pleased and impressed me in her dressing and hair-do. I loved her.” How, asked the panel, could he do this without the fear
of God. The disciplinary action taken against him was to remove him from the
pastor’s office. Walking out , he spoke over his shoulders at the elders, “That
is okay. Keep your pastor’s office. That is the worse you can do.”
“…cursed God in their hearts…”
We are about to find a point of resting this rather lengthy meditation, but we
end on a note of serious warning from the word of God. Before then, let us say
this with all sense of fear and responsibility: we do not intend to scare anybody
nor do we say with finality that if, in this feast we have sinned or cursed,
there is no hope of reconciliation or restoration to place in the heart of the
Father. We certainly know better than that. The High Priest of our profession
is not tire in continually reconciling us to His Father and to Himself. All we
need to do is to lay our hands on Him slain for us from the beginning of the
world. Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an
unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. In this
feast, suddenly coming to a place where we know or feel we know more than what
God says and put little by the blood of the covenant is not only a sin, but a
cursing in the heart; disregarding the Lord and disdaining and declaiming the
Spirit of grace that has been given to us for the easy facilitation of our
salvation is cursing in our hearts. For a pastor to preach the saving power of
the blood of the Lord today and turn round and declaim the same blood tomorrow
is trampling upon the Spirit of grace. This is cursing in the heart. But if
such can turn back to Him, he can be sure of the ministry of the High Priest.
Father thank You for our High
Priest, who being the brightness of Your glory, the express image of Your image,
has purged us of our sins and sat on the right hand of majesty on high. He is
the one that has obtained a more excellent name than angels – and this by
inheritance. Only to Him you said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee… let the angels of God worship Him. Thank You, Father for the dynamics of
this covenant instituted by His blood and thank You for the Spirit of grace. We
trust we shall not be found among those who will be found to d despise to the Spirit
of grace nor shall be in the league of them that crucify the Lord the second
time. Thank you, Lord, for counting us worthy
John 17: 9
Rom. 3: 12
1Cor. 1: 30
Jer.17: 9
Heb.10: 29
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