Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

The Priestly Calling

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Lesson: 14

Track: 14

Dictation Name: RR172G14

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Our Heavenly Father, we come into Thy presence again, knowing that man is vanity and futility, and that all his efforts to establish his order apart from Thee are doomed and bring only death to this world. We thank Thee that Thy judgment is sure, and that we live in a time of judgment when Thy wrath shall be upon the nations, and Thy redeeming hand shall manifest itself in our midst and all around us. Make us strong therefore in the day of adversity that we may stand in terms of Thy Word and spirit and be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Leviticus 8:1-13. Our subject, “The Priestly Calling.” “The Priestly Calling,” Leviticus 8:1-13.

“1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

3 and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

5 And Moses said unto the congregation, this is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.

8 And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.

9 And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses.

10 And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.

11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

13 And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put bonnets upon them; as the Lord commanded.”

A very important and central stress in the modern world is spontaneity. We can see its influence in the arts. Knowledge of paints and of materials, for example, has very extensively disappeared. It is not surprising, therefore, that museums are finding that their acquisitions in the area of modern art are disintegrating, sometimes within a decade of their purchase. For lack of an apprenticeship, the artists have no knowledge of the very tools and materials they work with. Apprenticeship is now decried in favor of unplanned, emotional approaches to art. The same, as I have pointed out before, has been true in ballet. The Russian Ballet very early was described as representative of autocracy, and therefore the avant-garde dancers were acceptable.

In every sphere this has been the case. In the churches, in some denominations notes and written sermons fell into disfavor to the point where, in some cases, it could terminate a pastorate. An unprepared, spontaneous utterance was somehow supposed to be inspired, as though the Holy Spirit does not like the use of intelligence and study, which is a ridiculous belief!

We see this insistence on spontaneity all ‘round us in everyday life. How often have you heard a woman say, instead of taking credit for something that she worked hard to prepare, that the dinner on the table was just something she “whipped up at the last moment”? As though spontaneity were more important. Merit is held to belong to spontaneity, to a lack of preparation, not to intelligent work and planning. This is why the detailed ritual preparation for the priesthood is not popular reading among churchmen today. In every area today, people demand perfection, but are ill-at-ease with the disciplined work which lies behind all good accomplishments. Men prefer to ascribe excellence to genius, rather than to intelligence and work. And the result is we are over-run with poser—pretended geniuses (another aspect of the difference between then and now).

In Moses’ day, despite the prevailing non-belief, men were closer to Creation and the Flood and to general revelation. Holiness then, in Leviticus, is as one scholar described it, something substantive—almost something physical or material, whether used to describe persons or things. And the same is true of the descriptions of clean and unclean. Just as a man by disciplined exercise can build up muscles so there is something material to show for the effort, so obedience to the laws of holiness develops holiness, which is something you can see, something which is observable.

The consecration of the priests was important, because first, the priest represented the people to God. Second, the priest represented what all the people were to become. And in their places was required to dedicate himself, his realm, his life and work to God, which all of us are required to do. Earlier, God had told the people through Moses, in Exodus 19:2, 6 “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle’s wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”

In Leviticus 8:6 we are told that Moses brought, or presented Aaron and his sons as sacrificial offerings to God, even as the Levites are so viewed in Numbers 3:13 and 8:16. Now the installation of the priest has nine aspects to it:

1.      The presentation

2.      The washing

3.      Clothing them

4.      Hallowing the sanctuary

5.      Three separate sacrifices, because priests, like all other men, are sinners; this is in the remainder of the chapter (some of it).

6.      Purificatory rights

7.      The sacred meal

8.      A period of seclusion

9.      The anointing of Aaron

The head alone was anointed, symbolizing the entire man. Now man is symbolized by his genitals too often, but in the Bible, by his head. The prophets also were anointed, and kings also. Their offices were united in the Messiah, and the word ‘messiah’ is derived from the root word for ‘anoint.’

Sinners need a sacrifice, and believers need a priest. A priest is needed for both atonement and mediation. As God declared through Moses in Exodus 29:42-46,

“42 This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord: where I will meet you, to speak there unto you.

43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.

44 And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office.

45 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God.”

These verses come at the end of the consecration of the priests, in a section devoted to that. The purpose of the sacrifices is atonement. And the priesthood sets forth first, that it is to provide and avenue whereby God will speak to His people, and second, God will dwell with His people and be their God, and this depends on a true priesthood; and Jesus Christ as our great High Priest gives us this assurance.

The function of priests is a service of God. Hence, all the covenant people are to be a kingdom of priests, according to Exodus 19:6. Jesus Christ is the perfect High Priest, and we are priests in Him, called to serve God in every sphere with all our being. Thus, the purpose of the priesthood (and as all of us as priests) is, as Revelation 1:6 makes clear, “To serve God and to establish His rule and kingdom.” We thus must see ourselves as priests unto God. We are called to develop and to establish God’s order on earth in every sphere of life, in Church and State, in the schools, in the vocations, in arts and sciences. In every sphere. And this is our Levitical, our priestly calling.

The sad fact is, that in the modern world, as in antiquity, this priestly calling has been usurped by the State. The goal of the State is order. The goal of the State is to act as the mediator between man and whatever truth exists. And this is usurpation. It gives us disorder. It gives us the Tower of Babel in every century. It gives us a defiance of God and confusion as a fact of life. It—confusion overwhelms us. Parliaments, congresses, legislative bodies under various names, as well as under a variety of rulers, represent the false priests of history, those who seek to redeem Man, those who seek to lead Man to the true order, to make atonement for the sins of Mankind. They seek to give us the good society without God. The consequences of all this, as with Babel, are confusion and disorder. Thus, we see the importance of the priesthood in the Old Testament and the fact that the priesthood points to Jesus Christ and to us, because we are the priests of Christ; each in our sphere, called to dedicate ourselves—al that we have, all that we do—unto Jesus Christ our High Priest and to God the Father.

Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, recall Thy Church to its priestly calling. Grant that Thy people become a holy people, separated unto Thee, mediators between the un-redeemed and Jesus Christ, bringing all things into captivity to Christ. Bless us in this purpose, we beseech Thee. And destroy the false priests of our time, and bring to life the truth of Thy Gospel among nations. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Well if there are no questions … Yes, Otto …

[Audience] I’d like to say that the United States is the only government so far as I know in the history of the world that was established without a god, without officially acknowledging any definition of any religion. The Constitution, enacted in 1789, was weak in that respect. Never before had any society ever constructed itself on that, ah, {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s true, and yet it isn’t Otto, for this reason: First, as the Constitution was constructed, it was merely to be a confederation of states, so this was left to the states, and they had the right, both on the state level, and/or county level to have establishments, and they all did to varying degrees, either of Christianity or of a particular church. Then, ah, and it was the ministers who insisted on that. Then, we’d have to say it did have a profound recognition of the Christian character of the country at two points.

1.      It was unique in the history of the world in that there is no mention of sovereignty, because sovereignty was recognized as being an attribute of God.

2.      It required an oath of office. Now an oath , to us, doesn’t mean much. Then, it meant that you swore to Almighty God and invoked all the curses and blessings of Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 for obedience and disobedience. Nobody knows that any more.

But those two facts, they thought were sufficient. You see, in the early days the Supreme Court and Congress met, usually only two weeks; they did not see themselves as the basic government of the United States. And, eh, most of them stayed in Washington in boarding houses. The President’s life was a rather lonely one, because, ah, most of the time it was a deserted place—a muddy, deserted place. There was the White House and not much else. So, ah, they should have looked down the road and seen what was possible. I think Patrick Henry was one of the few who saw that the country was not going to stay the same size, nor Washington. So, they were seriously remiss in not imagining the future in being different from the present. But I think we have to recognize that they didn’t visualize that anyone would make it secular.

[Audience] {?} The French Revolution came almost on their heels.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and scared a lot of them half-to-death.

[Audience] That was a secular revolution.

[Rushdoony] Yes. And that’s why Alexander Hamilton, before his death, was planning to start a Christian Constitutional Party. And his death prevented it, because he was the mainspring of the effort. So, a number of things intervened to alter it. Another fact that hurt was that the Federalists represented New England to a great extent and New England was drifting from the faith, and not too, in harmony with the goals that very late (tardily, Hamilton began to reveal), and, ah, while Jefferson had strong support from the Calvinists, because he represented a cause of the least government, and the Calvinists were distrustful of a powerful state. He, while keeping his personal Deism secret, was distrusted by some, but trusted by very many, and did a great deal to prevent at a key point, any real attempt to cope with what the Revolution meant—the French Revolution.

So, there were serious omissions, and they can be faulted for them, but it was short-sightedness also in terms of the future.

Any other questions?

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee that all our todays and yesterdays and tomorrows come from Thee, that Thy purpose is the victory of Christ and of His kingdom. We thank Thee that Thou has called us to be a part of that victory, and that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail or hold out against our Lord and His kingdom. Make us more than conquerors therefore in Thy service. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.