Over twenty years ago, I was ordained by our denominational leaders as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Honestly, I wasn’t particularly seeking ordination but because I had fulfilled all the educational and spiritual requirements according to leaders, and was already doing what the Lord called me to for our churches, I accepted their invitation to be ordained at our local church. It was a busy time for me in national ministry but a day was set aside for the ceremony of ordination. Our two daughters had planned a reception afterward with the ladies of our local church where my husband was pastor. The date for this event landed on my birthday which added to this special memory. Yes, there was cake!
The service was particularly special because the college students I was mentoring for leadership at the time came to be a part of the service. My loving husband affirmed me in the service. A good friend in ministry, a nationally known speaker to youth and their leaders, came to give the sermon of challenge and encouragement for me and others in attendance.
When they laid their hands on me; I could feel the Presence of the Lord; His yoke bearing down on my shoulders as the sacred seriousness of my commitment to Him became known and celebrated that day. This was a holy moment that capped many other holy moments of coming to Jesus for the first time as a child, learning from my mentors what it means to follow Jesus, working as a Youth worker volunteer all my life, taking God’s ways into public classrooms, then answering God’s call to go, tell, and teach others the Good News of His redemption full time. The work God have given me to be and do was not to pastor a local church, although I certainly was a helpmate to my husband as pastor; but to help the congregations of local churches see their role in the Body of Christ, and with God’s guidance and help train them to be who God created them to be before doing anything. “Be the church” was the mantra of mentorship given to me.
But on the “eighth day” …the real work began. After a week of preparation for the event; we came together for Sunday afternoon’s ordination that publicly declared who I was in Christ. The next day, “the eighth day” so to speak, Monday morning after, I received a phone call from a pastor of a church in another state that would rock my world and challenge all I hold dear in Jesus.
I knew the church and the pastor vaguely. He presented a proposal to me that would take me from traveling often to churches and mission fields to settling down in one church to help them organize a strategy for real discipleship of the congregation from infant to senior adults. I was enticed with all that was presented; but said I must pray with my husband first. We did exactly that and sought the advice of our mentors. This move would mean reducing our income in half as Randy would leave his pastorate. I was promised the same salary as I had before, but like other “promises” that didn’t really happen. But God provided where He guides as always. We tapped in our teachers’ pensions to help us make it work. Our faith in God never wavered. But we had questions!
The move was challenging, the work expected of me was far beyond what any human could attain. The dysfunctional staff was challenging to work alongside. I learned quickly that “all was not as it seems” with evil lurking among leaders whose goal was to satisfy their pride while holding tightly to their power and position. This working situation was new to me. But God was with me and led me on through the high waters of turmoil. God stayed close to me through some great challenges and difficulties as we taught the “why” of ministry in our lessons, counseling and mentoring. Randy helped me as I had helped him in his pastorates. We made many friends who we still relate with today.
This is a part of my life story that I do not tell often but when this passage was read this morning, God brought to my mind the reason for being ceremoniously “ordained as set apart for ministry” in front of the congregation of His People. Being ordained means that God puts HIS HAND on us who said yes to Him in obedience because of our love for Him. We are consecrated by God to be His Hands and Feet as we extend holy hands on the shoulders of those in need of comfort, compassion, redemption, love, mercy, and grace as only God through Jesus can give. As shepherds, we are driven by The Shepherd who trained his followers to teach others what He had taught to them. As we join God in HIS WORK, we are commanded to teach His ways and demonstrate His love as we train others to do the same as Jesus taught His guys!
Moses is given specific, detailed instructions for the atonement of sins for all God’s People. Now, as God commanded, Moses’ trained brother, Aaron and his sons, will for the first time do exactly what God said through Moses. Observe how every detail was performed with diligence and holiness to God who is Holy.
Leviticus 9
The Priests Begin Their Ministry
On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the Lord. 3 Then say to the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb—both a year old and without defect—for a burnt offering, 4 and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the Lord, together with a grain offering mixed with olive oil. For today the Lord will appear to you.’”
5 They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the Lord. 6 Then Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.”
7 Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.”
8 So Aaron came to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. 9 His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 10 On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering, as the Lord commanded Moses; 11 the flesh and the hide he burned up outside the camp.
12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar. 13 They handed him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14 He washed the internal organs and the legs and burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.
15 Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took the goat for the people’s sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it for a sin offering as he did with the first one.
16 He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the prescribed way. 17 He also brought the grain offering, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.
18 He slaughtered the ox and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar. 19 But the fat portions of the ox and the ram—the fat tail, the layer of fat, the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver— 20 these they laid on the breasts, and then Aaron burned the fat on the altar. 21 Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before the Lord as a wave offering, as Moses commanded.
22 Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down.
23 Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND TO GOD?
On the eight day; after all the celebrations on Sunday, the real work of God in us begins. What God begins—He finishes! When Monday mornings dawn; be ready for God to take us with Him on life’s adventurous journey that will teach us and build our faith in Him far beyond what we ever dreamed or imagined!
God so loved His “created in His image people” through all generations. His chosen imperfect people will need a way to cover their sins and the sins of the ordained priests. So, God gave detailed, laborious instructions that must adhered to so that sins are atoned (or covered over). Moses is the Trainer of the priests who do exactly what God as commanded them to do. We applaud their efforts out in the wilderness desert as they journey with God!
Consider this: God’s ultimate plan of the sacrifice of His Son, sent to earth as a perfect human, born of a virgin, raised by a devote Jewish father who listened to God, was already in His mind; but it is not yet time. The prophets told of Jesus, the Messiah, the One who would save them, but God’s people will have to wait patiently for this event to come. But He did come—as promised!
Jesus came and moved into the neighborhood of humanity oppressed by the world and religion. Jesus demonstrated the love of God in every detail of His life. Jesus willingly and humbly laid down His life to take the place of the punishment our sin deserved. Jesus died to save us from our sins, removing our sins forever. Jesus is the One and Only way to God, our Father. By believing in God’s Son means believing that our repented sins are indeed forgiven forever. We must live as a humbly grateful, redeemed people!
No more animal sacrifices or rituals of religion are required or necessary to be redeemed from the bondage and guilt of sin because of Jesus! God’s bonus is a new life given to live that is forever!
Repenting of our sins to Jesus is mandatory for salvation; giving our lives to Him daily is the beginning of eternal life lived on God’s terms to build our faith. Jesus gave His life so we could have Life forever. And that’s not all! God not only provided the Way back to Him through Jesus, His Son but gave us the Gift of His Holy Spirit to live within us to guide us to Truth daily!
“All have sinned”, says Paul, the Apostle and mentor to young leaders. But all who repent to Jesus of our sins become an immediate member of His royal priesthood who are commanded by God, with the authority and power Jesus had, to tell others of the Way to God! We no longer must be related to the priestly line of Aaron to join God in His work of saving the world! All who believe and follow Jesus in truth are “set apart” from the world to go into the world to show Jesus’s love and tell the Way to His saving grace.
Listen to God. You’ve been on His mind since the beginning—Let that sink in…
Lord,
I offer my life to you again this morning as an offering—all of it, flaws, and all. Use my life so others may see Your glory at work and come to you to be saved. Only you, dear Lord, can reconcile us to God, the Father. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 