The Raising of The Kingly Priests (18)
We have been dwelling on
the priesthood of Job before the more specialised one of Moses’. In our
meditations, we have been considering the significances of the precious stones
of the breastplate of the high priest. The 9th precious stone is
amethyst.
Issachar: the amethyst-gem character
Reading Exodus 28; 19: the third row And a ligure, an agate and an
amethyst.
An amethyst, according
to Pliny – cited by Vine – has a colour that approaches wine, but not exactly.
The word itself means not drunken. It was said to possess, says Vine, a
remedial virtue against drunkenness. It is also the character of the priestly
king as represented in the breastplate.
Amethyst – not drunken.
Amethyst means not drunken.
Aaron lost his two sons, Nadab and Abihu, in
the same day when they had their first high priestly function before God. It
was their first and last for they died in the presence of the Holy God. That
first attempt would also served as their initiation into the highest level of
responsibility before the Lord of glory. It was quite a drama of the highest order,
but tragic. God had visibly demonstrated his divine approval of the people by
causing fire to come down from his presence to consume the offerings on the
altar. Everyone was still basking in the euphoria of the manifestation when
Nadab and Abihu, perhaps tipsy from wine, took either of them his censer, and
put fire therein, and put incense thereon,
and offer a strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not . And
there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the
Lord(Leveticus: 10: 1 -2). As earlier
pointed out, this tragedy took place when the people were still partaking of
the glory of the presence of the Lord. This certainly impresses it on us that
we are not to do God’s work by man’s wisdom, even when we are sincere. It must
be done according to specifications by the Holy Spirit. What can make us do
God’s things by the wisdom of man is our being drunk with wine; it is our being
too familiar with the Holy Spirit as to be able to anticipate and preempt His
next actions based on our earlier experiences of Him. Yet, the Holy Spirit is
dynamic and His wind-way cannot be predicted.
But what makes us think that
drunkenness must have been the cause of God’s anger? What is a strange offer of fire before God? The 8th
and 9th verse of Leveticus, chapter 10 give us a clue. And the Lord spake to Aaron, saying, Do not
drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when thou go to the
tabernacle of congregation, lest ye die… It could be that those two sons
were under the influence of wine or strong drink.
Amethyst means not drunken. Wine represents all things that tickle the buds and the palates of
our souls. It may be natural wine taken into excesses. It however goes beyond
that. It is that thing that intoxicates us and adds the sinful edges of pride.
It may be power, temporal and spiritual.
It may be our natural or spiritual gifts. It may not exclude our blessings even
when they are from God. It may even be our ministerial callings. It may be our
being riveted to the glorious but past moves of God. In fact any thing that
make a man too presumptuous and familiar with God thereby knowing how to do it
and still clinging to what God said yesterday which may have just been become a
past tense this morning. Some renown ministers of the gospel are so drunken
with the old wine of the Lord’s manifestations of himself in miracles, signs
and wonders that if for any reason the wine comes in trickles or stops, they
will substitute with human wisdom and ingenuity. Some are so drunken with the
anointing that if God turns 180 degrees from that point, they will never know.
Again, some are drunken with casting out of demons which they call the ministry
of deliverance, some with making people materially rich which they say is the
reason for salvation and faith in Christ; some are filled with wine of healing
diseases and removing afflictions which they say no-body has any right to bear
after being saved by Christ.; there is the wine of how to build mega churches
which they say is the prove of the anointing; there is the wine of killing
one’s enemies by prayer which they say is another degree of deliverance
ministry… wine, wine and wine. Anything – experience or faith – that breeds
contempt for the new thing God is doing is wine and strong drink. May we point
out that the above is not an attempt to criticise or run down ministries nor are
we trying to say we are putting some ministers of God right; it is a mere call
for us all to learn more and more to give due preeminence to Christ and His
Spirit.
Amethyst means not drunken. The only drink we are permitted to drink all the time is the Holy
Ghost. And be not drunk with wine
wherein in excess; but be filled with the spirit (Ephasian 5: 18). That is
the best thing to do. Even if your being filled with him intoxicates you it is
for the best; you cannot misbehave in God’s presence. For example you can be so
filled that you are intoxicated and you forget the things of this world. In the
days of old, some young people were so filled with him that they left the
pursuit of academic excellence; some girls were so drunk in the spirit that
they forgot and never thought of marriage and ended up becoming what those out
there call old maid. Some believers were so drunken with the Holy Spirit that
they failed to make a lot of money. These and many more may be condemned today
because of the actions they took. Perhaps. But, it does seem to me that they
actually earned God’s commendation. God knows how to make it up for his
children. I hasten to correct any wrong impression I may have created here. All
the examples given here do not mean that the sign of being filled with the
Spirit is to go against all natural expressions of life. Being filled does not
say you should not be intellectually sound or be recluse, or be a dullard, or
be an old maid, or be poor – think of it; it is not a negative reaction to
everything natural.
Amethyst means not drunken.
It stands for Issachar. This gem compared with wine’s colour is part of
Christ’s nature. He was filled with the Spirit. …for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him (John 3: 34b). No
one is ever so filled like Him; nor did he suffer any intoxication of any
influence or any other wine or strong drink. He was so accurate, living his
life per time with the Holy Spirit. This is the character the Lord works and
ministers to the priestly kings he is raising today. It means we learn to walk
perfectly in the Spirit; we will be so filled and drunken with him that we
cannot fall for any other strange wine.
The Holy Spirit, the wine from heaven, is the delight of the Father, sent by
the Son.
Be Being Filled With The Spirit
We must be filled with the Spirit.
The imperative means that we may slip off if care is not taken. As a matter of
fact, the command is that we should be continually filled. The literal sense of
that verse is that we should be being
filled. It sounds awkward in construction, but that phrase expresses the
continuous idea of being filled , not once or many times,but at every moment.
It is that important. This is the possibility-character the Lord is weaving
into the garments of our souls.
Amethyst represents Issachar. Reuben,
the first son of the not-so-much-loved Leah, on a day returned from the field
with mandrake - a root that was believed
had the virtue to make a woman conceive. The beloved Rachel wanted the roots.
Leah struck a deal with her sister: “Rachel, this is for you if you allow our
husband to love me today.” The deal struck and that night Leah had the husband
with her and she conceived and gave birth to her fifth son. and she ululated,
“this is as a result of my contract with my sister, my co-wife.” Genesis 30,
verse18 continues the story: And Leah
said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband:
and she called his name Issachar. The Hebrew word means reward, or
compensation, or wages for a work done. You see this amethyst-gem character
priestly king is the reward God has been waiting for; He has been longing and
He is still longing for it. What has He not done to obtain this reward! And He
has been doing this because of His eternal and endless love. just as Leah spent
all her days to woo the love and trust
of her husband. “…even as Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with washing of the water by the word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or any such thing; but that it should be holy
and without blemish.” (Ephasisans :5: 25) Again, in another epistle, the Holy
Spirit writes, For as much as ye know that ye were no redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with precious
blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1: 23).
And she called his name Issachar. Issachar means reward. This is
clearly seen in God’s relation to his elect. The word translated Issachar is
from the Hebrew word Sakar and occurs first in the bible
at Genesis 15, verse 1:… Fear not Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding
great reward (sakar). The Elect is the Sakar of the Lord. Let us find out
what the Lord meant by this statement to Abram
Abram had recently engaged five
kings in a battle, had defeated them all and retrieved his nephew Lot. He had
also met and been blessed by the great personage in history whose priesthood
became a pattern or an order. This personage was no other than Melchizedek.
Apart from the fact that his lineage was not recorded or known, he was the
first recorded to be both a king and the ‘priest of the Most High God.’ He was
both a priest and and king of Salem or of peace and of righteousness. He was a
Cananite and was called the king of righteousness. Abram had recently met this
kind of anti-type of Christ and had been blessed of him as hinted before. Now,
Abram’s feet were still on the earth; his faith still gravitated towards the
earth. He still felt agitated for not having a son to inherit him. How easy to
be sucked into the culture of our time! Only the Lord escaped this tradition
received from our forefathers. Abram was not different from the beliefs and
practices of his age. In Yoruba culture for example, a man or woman who does not have a child is said to
be accursed; he or she, says the tradition, does not have any reason for coming
to the world.! Abram was passing through the clouds of depression when ‘the
word of the Lord’ came to him…in a vision.
Abram reminded God that he had not yet been blessed with a heir. What
God would have Abram know was that He, God, was the exceeding reward of His
elected; He was the purpose of life.. This is also echoed in a Yoruba chorus
freely translated as I have got a thing
greater than joy/ I have got a thing greater than joy/ he that has Jesus has
everything/ he that has Jesus, it is him that has everything. When Abram
walked with God knowing that he was God’s reward of an eternal labour, he soon
became Abraham, father of many nations for God soon gave him Isaac. Now, that
was where God wanted to have him. The journey was still far. In his later day’s
non-faltered walk with God, when he had become unbound from the earth, his eyes
shifted heaven-wards. He was finally weaned from the childish life of
bless-me-God. He commenced looking for a
city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. But now they desired a better country, that
is an heavenly: wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. The
pronoun, they, refers to the people, including Abraham, who walked with
God by faith.
There were a lot of thing the
New Testament reveals to us about Abraham’s genuine experiences. For example,
as he walked more with God, he had a glimpse into the days of Christ and
rejoiced. Christ testifies: Abraham saw
my days and he was glad. Can any one beat that – to see the great thoughts
of God afar! Abraham was not brought under any intoxicating influences even
when he received the miracle of the birth of Isaac. No he was not drunken with
any wine; but there was always the renewing of the mind of his spirit. As one
who met with God’s kingly priest called Melchizedek and who was blessed of him,
he did not settle down with that experience. This gave him more impetus to seek
more of God and be full of Him. This was why the voice of God keeps coming back
to him in visions. If any man had reason to settle down and be intoxicated with
wine of victories, Abraham was it. God gave him victory over five kings more
practised in warfare than him; he had supernatural intervention in the
conception and birth of his son Isaac; he discussed face to face with the Lord
who went in to destroy Sodom; Lot had instruction not to look back as he
escaped the destruction, but Abraham looked towards Sodom and saw the smoke of
the ruin that was of the ashes of Sodom. All these and more show that though he
enjoyed unwield experiences with God, he
never settled down and vegetated on them as many of us will wont to do today;
nor did he become too familiar with God as to know what to do at any time. That
ancient testimony of Christ is worth repeating and urgently too in our days.
This is amethyst – not drunken with wine but be being filled with the Spirit.
Issachar is amethyst. It signifies the gem-character of our High Priest who has gone
ahead of us. In his earthly walk, Jesus was always in the Spirit, perfectly so.
One day he visited the pool of Bethesda where he healed only one impotent man –
one man in the midst of what the bible describes as ‘a great multitude of
impotent folk, of blind,halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.’
He certainly had the anointing to heal all, but he would not be drunken with
that. He would rather hear and know what the Holy Spirit would do. What
attracted Him to that man only ‘which had infirmity for thirty eight years’?
Could it be the longevity of the man’s health challenge? Regardless, but the Lord acted by the impulse of the Holy
Spirit and after that he left the scene. Then, another example. Peter and John,
after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, were at the Temple’s
Beautiful gate when suddenly Peter turned, under anointing, to the lame man
always laid there and healed him. Now that man was also there when the Lord was
around and he was not healed then. This was the amethyst life of our Lord – not
drunken, not intoxicated as to know more than the Spirit at any time; not
drunken to act on impulse of passions and emotions.
Issachar is amethyst. Issachar was the fifth son of Leah. The number five denotes grace.
The grace of God is the greatest face ever beheld in the Word of God. Grace
means the favour of God. It speaks of that ministration from the Lord that
carries one through any situations of life. It starts with undeserved favour of
God in salvation… It can also mean that under this influence, there is an ease
of accomplishment which the English calls being fortuitous; it may be
endowment of certain abilities which are inexplicable. For example the ability
to make wealth or the ability to sail through difficult problems. Grace has so
many facets. One of them is an oxymoron in reality: ability supplied to go
through difficulties and sufferings for the reason of His special purpose. The
Lord said to Paul concerning his difficulties and sufferings: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my
strength is made perfect in weakness. How can strength be made perfect in
weakness? That question is for the Lord. But it is evident that no man can have
understanding of this unless he has similar dealings from God. It is also clear
that everyone of God’s children to kingly priesthood must, at one time or the
other,come to know this statement of the Lord through experiences. These
dealings of God may be, as in the case of Paul, to prevent us from being drunk
with the wine of experiences of heavenly encounters, angelic or some
superlative revelations from God.
I once had an opportunity to counsel a young man who practically turned
the table against me; I became the counsellee and he, the counsellor. The
reason being that as he began to share his experiences of angelic encounters
and those unusual visitations from God, I did not only feel intimidated but
knew he was drunken with wine of his personal experiences. What needed I to do
but to listen to running and splashing of wine and clinking of glass cups! As
the commentary ran on I had to excuse myself. It seemed clear to me that the
Lord would soon intervene and remove that wine from the young man; and this is
by the way of grace-enabled-sufferings. And he will be able to sing like Paul: Most gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9
- 10).
Amethyst is Issachar. It is the precious gem-character of the kingly priests God is
raising. And hath made us kings and
priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Father, we want to thank you
for your every blessing. Thank you for the former and the latter rains which
you have been ministering to your church. Thank you for the feasts with which
you have feted us in the recent past and the journey to the feast of
Tabernacles. Every day we are coming to
this awareness that there is a need to rest assure on you, to depend on you
alone and not run only with just a little of yourself you have revealed. Father
we pray that we shall not be intoxicated with your gifts, your anointing, your
fellowship and revelations but we shall be sober and vigilant so that the enemy
will not take advantage of us. And Lord, when and if we begin to be carried
away with your excess of revelations, may we obtain mercy as Paul did; may your
wisdom prevail and deal with us for our safety and salvation. Thank you our
Father.
