The Raising of the Kingly Priests (11)
Reading:
Job 1:
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting 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 have cursed God in their
hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Reading:
Exodus 28:
17And thou shall set in it setting of stones, even four rows of stones:
the first row shall be a sardius, a
topaz and a carbuncle: this shall be the
first row.
Revelation: 1:
6 And hath made us kings and
priests unto his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
We are continuing our meditation
on the book of Job.
We go aside to examine the
thoughts of God on the kingly priests He is raising today. This will not be too
much an aside-on-stage as we reflect on the fifth verse of the first chapter of
the book. This is because Job had the spiritual and the prophetic makings and
trappings of a priestly king in his days. Only the priest could approach God;
the one who could pacify His ire concerning the daily abomination of man. The
priest was it that Job longed for and called the daysman or umpire who could lay hand both on man and God. He was
the only one who could ensure the righteous rights of God on earth; he knew the
heart of God and could bring it to the heart.
The Significance of the Priestly
Garments
The priest wears specially made
garments which signify the divine characters. These holy garments set him apart from all other person for they reflect
what God looks like. He is very special to his Father as Joseph was so special to
his father who made for him beautiful multicolour garments; they were the
garments meant only for the son of the king. The priestly garments mean the
spiritual growth into the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, into the approval of a
son. We talk of the garments of the fullness of Christ which fit only sons,
matured sons; these have the rights to display these garments like Joseph had
and was always showing off in them. The
materials of these garments are abundantly provided and wrought by the Holy
Spirit.
In our last meditations, we pondered
over the breastplate, its ephod and the precious stones set into it and the
first row of the setting: sardius, topaz and carbuncle. We meditated on sardius
as Reuben: the red colour gem or ruby. Today, we shall be helped by the Holy
Spirit to reflect on Topaz which represents Simeon.
Topaz: The Gem Character Of Simeon.
Topaz, according to Vine’s
Complete Expository Dictionary, is yellow in colour though other colours of it
exist. It is as hard as diamond and has the power of double refraction.
Precious stone like this has the power to refract light at certain angles
through them that brings out lights of beautiful colours. It means that when
topaz is in the path of white light, it brings out, after refractive process, a
monochromatic yellow, very beautiful. This
gives the light its own distinctive characters. The white light is reflective
of the word of God and when it goes through this gem of a man, another
beautiful light comes out. The word of God when well processed in his priest
comes out with amazing fidelity; there is fidelity of refracted light to bring
out certain colour of distinct characters. When this is achieved there is a speedy
execution of the Father’s heartbeat and thoughts.
Leah said in Genesis 29, verse 33: “Because
the Lord hath heard that I was hated,
he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.” Simeon means hearing. One would expect the woman’s
statement of joy to be “Because the Lord hath seen that I was hated,…” but, no, she said that the Lord had heard
that she was hated. It means that with God, there is a seeing in hearing. And there is also an edge of hearing in seeing;
in the hearing of God is the seeing from God’s perspective, seeing like God and
able to give sound judgment or conclusion on any matter. This is like the
science of the waves. After this and that experiments, the scientists have been
able to ‘see’ the structure and behaviour of waves and have been enabled to
subject everything concerning waves to mathematical judgment (modelling) based on what they ‘see.’
The priest 'sees' in what he hears from God, more beautifully than all other.
Topaz is Simeon. We mean Topaz is used to represent Simeon.
Simeon means hearing. Leah believed that God identified with her in an
unenviable condition of existing among a family in which she was not much
loved. Now, she knew, God had ‘seen-heard’ her state. Who should know this
estate more than God Himself! He created man for the purpose of eternal love
and fellowship. And this was only possible if man could ‘see-hear’ Him soundly.
He is still much concerned today that this condition is yet to be perfected.
This is the reason He typified this desire with topaz: ears that not only hear but
also see. In refraction, there is a way the path of light is bend to bring
another phenomenon. This knowledge has been used by scientists and
technologists to achieve many optical effects. So is the word of God is being
directed to produce the effect of sonship in the individual through whom this
sound of the knowledge of God has become the desired light of His word.
God is
raising priestly kings who in reality are sons with divinely provided acute
hearing power. This is clearly spelt out in the enacted thought of God
concerning His priests at the consecration for the old priests. In the 29th
chapter of Exodus, Aaron and his sons washed themselves at the gate of the
tabernacle. They would lay their hands on the bull of sin offering as they
confessed their sins and the bull would be killed. Then they did the same to
the ram of consecration. Here is what is done with the blood of the ram of
consecration, 20th verse of the book: then shall thou kill the ram and take his blood, and put it upon the
tip of the right ear of Aaron and upon the tips of his sons, and upon the thumb
of their right hand and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle
the altar round about. This is the ram of consecration. The blood on right
toe, right thumb and right ear reveals the God’s blood-bought man. Therefore, the
right toe means walk aright; the thumb of the right hand, means to handle
aright and the tip of the right ear means hear aright. The priests of God have
acquired hearing prowess, far beyond the ordinary.
Topaz is Simeon; it means hearing. Tip of the right ear. This priest has been so
taken over by the joy of the sound of the will and word of God that he leaps at
the hearing of the sound of His voice. He not only hears the sound of God’s
voice, but literally sees the word. Revelation, 1,verse 12: And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. There are many
ways of hearing. With God, there is only one that is right. There are so many
voices; there is the voice of God. Whosoever
that heareth these sayings of mine and does them is, said the Lord, like one who dug hard and laid the
foundation of his house. The Lord further vouched for such house that no
vehemence of any storm could make it collapse because it has been laid on good
foundation. The word of God is the good foundation. Every one that is of the truth,
again said the Lord, heareth my voice.
Now how do
we cultivate the hearing power? It is by
the hearing of faith. As we continue
to abide in His presence the voice of the Father will become more clear and
recognisable to us. We easily drown the voice of God in the voices of our
reasoning. It is, for example, good and cool thing to go for the soundly
economical spouse; it stands within reason to gun for the more attractive
sister (Leah and Rachel). It is reasonable to migrate from the poor south to
the more economically buoyant northern hemisphere to preach the gospel. It
sounds good as God’s voice to establish a Christian ministry in the mega-cities
or any of the Western nations. We are not criticising these moves nor are we
passing judgment. They are just examples, in our meditation, of what we have
seen men do as the voice of God.
Hearing of faith more often does not flow in
the direction of smartness and acute power of reasoning. Once upon a time, my
friend and Christian brother, Bishop Tom
Oluwadele was in dire financial strait. A brother sent some US dollars to him
in the nick of time. The money had hardly been cleared from the bank when he
heard that he should give part of it to a brother X who once fellowshiped with
him in his assembly. My friend’s reaction should be experienced rather than
imagined. He literally argued with God. But he had to obey thinking that he
would not be able to locate the house of the brother. Unfortunately, the Holy
Spirit came into the matter and, against his will, he found the house. He
sneaked through the door left ajar with the sound of agonising weeping and
sighing emanating from it. Brother X was so taken up with his weeping-sighing
prayer that he was not aware of another presence with him in the room. The
prayer ended, he got up and got startled as well to see somebody in the house.
The moment of truth had come and the visiting minister of the gospel had to
give the money as directed. When the weeping brother learned that he had become
so much richer than he was yesterday, he asked what would be the equivalent of
the dollars in local currency. It was just the amount he needed and was crying to
God for to pay his house rent and to get something to eat. That voice of God to
the Bishop came like a thought from himself. Priesthood is about hearing
accurately from the Father and do His bidding on earth.
Seven times did the Lord
admonish His people in the book of Revelation, “He that hath ear let him
hear what the spirit is saying to the church.” Let us learn the hearing of faith from the
Lord Jesus, “…as I hear, I judge and my
judgment is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of him that sent
me.” For good ears, the priest must
have been completely lost in the will of the Father. As we seek more to please
Him and do His will, His voice comes more clearly to us. Then we will find it
difficult to go wrong. This means we must have God’s word abiding in us; we
must continue in His words to do them.
Father, if there is anything our hearts hunger and thirst for, it is to
know your will and pursue it. We pray that we will be filled with the knowledge
of your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Like the hart panteth
after the water brook, panteth our hearts after you, O Lord. We pray that we
might walk worthy of you, Lord, unto all pleasing. We receive the grace to
increase in the knowledge of you. Thank you, dear Lord.
d mathew 7: 24
John 18: 37
Galasians 3: 2
Revelation 2 - 3
John 5: 30
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