New Priesthood

DEVOTION

PROPHESIES AND FULFILLMENTS CONCERNING CHRIST

NEW PREISTHOOD

Zech 3:8-10

8 "'Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. 10 "'In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the LORD Almighty."

NIV

In the original language it says. “I am going to bring my servant the Messiah”. Here this translation uses the word branch, but then Jesus said that he was vine and we are the branches. Yet there is no question that he is the stone, the precious cornerstone which the entire church is built upon. He is the foundation to all things in this life and the life to come. Who else but Jesus could remove the sin of the world in a single day? But let’s also look at the scripture which fulfills this prophecy concerning Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-10

4 As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."   7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," 8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

NIV

Jesus has established a new priesthood, a royal nation, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. All throughout the Old Testament it appears everything is speaking of the children of Israel.  Aaron and the tribe of Levi were designated as the tribe of priests. Everything regarding the Tabernacle was in the charge of Levi. There were no other priests other than from the tribe of Levi. Yet of course we know Jesus came through the line of Judah. He is the Lion of Judah. He established a whole new priesthood, not from the tribe of Levi, but from those who accept him as the Christ, the Messiah, and the one who takes away the sin of the world in a single day. As the Lord spoke through the prophet Zechariah regarding in the day you will invite your neighbor to sit under his vine and the fig tree, the Lord also spoke through Peter that we are to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. This declaring is to whom? It has to be to our neighbors. Why would we only declare his praises to each other, which is other believers? We have been made into the temple of God. We have been made into a holy nation of people belonging to God. We have been made into a royal priesthood, to but serve the Lord and to be the priests who represent God to the people. We are the living stones, a brilliant shining building standing out in the darkness of this world, bringing the light of Christ to men. Yes, he is a stumbling block to some, mostly the Israelites, but also to some who cannot or will not come out of their darkness. They make themselves stumble, for they are blind. But that does not excuse us from shining brightly into the darkness. We are still this holy nation, this royal priesthood, called to his service in all things related to the temple. That would mean our own lives as well as the lives of all others. Jesus established all this new priesthood and because we are in Christ then we are his. Let us live as the priests he has made us.