The Ninth Hour
If we are the temple9, if we are the priesthood10, then the responsibility resides with us—God’s redeemed community. Through the everlasting sacrifice, we have been drawn near11 to God and invited to enter into relationship and service with Him.
Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.12
We, the priesthood, offer up our prayers, the smoke and the pleasing aroma that should invade and infuse the world around us, and, reach the throne of the Most High. The temple is no longer structurally bound to a mountain in Israel. The temple, represented by Messiah’s body of believers, has been given feet. The pervasive scent of holiness is no longer land-locked in Jerusalem and apparent in Jericho, but has moved onto every continent, and into every tribe and nation.
The service was not done away with, but instilled in us. We have a mission and a purpose. We must be about our duties as God’s holy priests because one day soon, before the throne of God, we shall visibly witness the pouring out of the incense. We, shall see our prayers on the heavenly altar, and we shall all share in that most solemn half-hour of silence, eagerly anticipating the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord and the establishment of His kingdom here on earth!
PR
Copyright © 2000 Kevin M. Williams. All rights reserved.
Notes
- Genesis 24:63
- Exodus 29:39
- Psalm 141:2
- Isaiah 53:10
- A set of rabbinic commentaries compiled in the 6th Century CE
- Made According to Pattern , by C.W. Slemming, 1938, Christian Literature Crusade: p.114: brackets mine
- The Temple, Alfred Edersheim, 1994, Eerdmans, p. 167
- Revelation 8:1-4
- 1 Corinthians 3:16
- 1 Peter 2:9
- Hebrews 10:22
- 1 Corinthians 10:13-14
Category: Biblical Studies, Summer 2000