A Kingdom of Priests

Exodus 19: 5-8

We have learned that it is important to have disposition of the heart, to obey, to listen to the voice of God and to keep God’s covenant. The invitation to keep God’s covenant is way deeper than the law that was given on Mount Sinai. Israelites were given a set of laws in Mount Sinai, but God’s Word did not stop there. Giving the laws on Mount Sinai was not the end of all the canonization of the Old Testament. Hence, the commitment to obey and to listen to God’s voice is somehow “open-ended”. What does it mean? It means that after Israelites received the Torah law on Mount Sinai, they could not say to God that enough was enough, just be it. The Israelites were demanded to have a commitment to obey the Word of God that would be given progressively to them. Indeed, this is not comparable to our situation where the canonization has already been completed. Regardless, Psalmist said that it is delightful to contemplate on and to do God’s Word.

The Book of Exodus talks about God’s deliverance, God’s redemption and God’s liberation. There is a danger to our spiritual life if we somehow fail to enjoy and live out God’s liberating power. It seems as if doing God’s Word is something that is challenging to do. It is true that there are feelings of self-denial when doing God’s Word. However, if we always do God’s Word with a troubled heart, then we do not truly understand when Jesus said that His yoke is easy and the burden is light. People always have burdens, be it with or without Jesus. There is no such thing as living in the world without burden. The difference is that the burden is light if you follow Jesus and the burden is heavy if you follow the world. Be careful because there are dangerous teachings or perspectives that say that the burden is light if you follow the world and the burden is heavy if you follow Jesus. This is not a biblical teaching, but rather it is a satanic one. If we see Christianity as a heavy burden, it means that we do not have any spiritual regeneration. When we treat Christianity as a heavy burden, our spirituality does not grow. If you have spiritual growth, the burden will become easier.

In Exodus 19 verse 6, God said “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…”. If we look closely, the word ‘priests’ in this verse is a plural noun. As we know, the high priest in Israel is only one, not many. However, this verse wants to emphasize that the Israelites are the priests before God. The duty of the high priest at that time was to mediate between the people of Israel and God. The question then is, if the whole Israelites become priests, then who was being mediated? The answer is actually simple, it was the other nations, the non-Israelites. The story of Israel is the story of God’s people. The people of Israel are called to be the mediators of this world. To relate with the spirit of Exodus, we should see this as something that liberates us, because this is God’s purpose in our lives as believers. To be a true believer is to be a mediator like Christ Himself. So we are reminded again to not see this calling as a heavy burden. We do not have to squeeze ourselves to work for God. Our lives will become more content if we do this mediational function just like God did. What does blessed happiness mean, if it is not being united with Christ? To be more and more united with God is our blessed happiness.

If we put ourselves to learn from Jesus, He is indeed the Great High Priest. He sacrificed himself to mediate God the Father and the sinful human being. We are called blessed because we become a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9), and this is the function of mediation. What is the opposite of a peacemaker? We can perhaps say it is a provocator or an instigator. We need to be very sensitive so that we are not easily lured into Satan’s trap. Yet, it does not mean that we are living the toxic positivity. We are not blinded by the weaknesses of others or even our own. Instead, we cover the weaknesses with love. That is the difference between the peacemaker and the instigator. This world is full of conflict and it is in need of reconciliation. We, the people of God, are called to be people that reconcile for the world. In other words, we are called to become a kingdom of priests. Why does the bible use the word “kingdom”? It is because we are talking about the Kingdom of God. An interpreter once said that Israel is a servant nation, not a ruling nation. It means that Israelites are called to serve other nations, not to rule them. Lately, there is a growing emphasis on Dominion Theology, where they misinterpret the cultural mandate. In the Book of Genesis, man rules over other lower creations. However, from the dominionist view, they do not only want to rule over the lower creations, but they also want to rule other fellow human beings. With this view, Christians are competing with each other to be in the top position so they can rule other Christians or non-Christians. This is a truly dangerous concept because this is not reflecting the Kingdom of God.

The Bible clearly said that the people of God are called to be servants, not rulers. Even though they are given power, the purpose of the power should be to serve others. So, what is the meaning of being a servant? To understand this, we must connect the role of a servant with the role of a mediator. At the top, there is God, and besides you are the fellow human beings that must be reconciled to God. What is the difference between the position of a servant and a ruler? Someone with a ruler mindset tends to think that everyone needs to get along well with them. Everyone needs to follow them or otherwise it can cause trouble for them. If there are people who are against them, they might also develop dislikes towards that group of people. Take note that there is no place for a mediatorial role at all here. One with a ruler mentality competes to be on the top, to become the first layer of a kingdom which is sadly not a kingdom of priests, but the kingdom of the world.

Back to the Book of Exodus 19 verse 6, it is mentioned that after the Israelites became a kingdom of priests, Israelites also became a holy nation. A kingdom of priests and a holy nation are inseparable. If we are talking about the function of priests, it is very closely connected to holiness. The high priest cleanses and brings the people of Israel before God. This is indeed a mediating position / role. Reformed churches place a great emphasis on the idea of holiness, where holy means concentrated for a certain purpose. Being holy is not just an idea of being different from other communities / religions / human beings. It is true that in holiness there is an idea of being separated, sanctified, but let us not forget that there is a specific purpose for this. Without any specific purpose, there is no holiness. For example, we can see that Christians can get married and build a family, just like what ordinary people do. However, the difference lies in the direction of the heart. If our hearts and minds are no different from the other unbelievers, then there is no holiness. If the purpose of a Christian family is only limited to a harmonious family or high achieving children, then this purpose is no different from the non-Christians. The problem now is the world is full of conflict and we are called to be a mediator. This is called holiness, because we are willing to fulfill this role, this specific purpose.

Mediatorial role is very close to the concept of brokenness. As a mediator, we must sacrifice ourselves because we are being squeezed in the middle. This is just like Christ who was also in the middle between a furious God and sinful human beings. He squeezed and sacrificed Himself to death to mediate God and the sinful human beings. Well, we do not have to be squeezed until death to be a mediator. However, this is actually how God works to make us flourish. The church does not grow without God’s sacrifice on the cross and the death of the martyrs. Since we already have eternal life, we should have the courage to live this specific purpose.

When we are talking about sacrifice, sometimes we wonder, what does that actually mean? The idea of sacrifice in the bible is very simple, it is to perform the mediatorial role. As a mediator, you become a third party who may sometimes be forgotten. However, your role is noble because you make the reconciliation of the I - Thou relationship possible. We can see that in this world there are always conflicts, even if we do not need to look for it. Then, the question that follows, are we functioning as a peacemaker? Are we interested in becoming a peacemaker in this world? The first task of the peacemaker is to reconcile sinful human beings with God. Becoming a mediator means that we are willing to make sacrifices in our lives. We might be hated by many parties, rejected, etc. However, let us learn to think about this mediatorial role in everyday life. If we carry out this mediatorial role in our everyday lives, to bring Shalom (peace), I believe the church can grow.

Besides being a living sacrifice, doing intercession prayers are also part of the mediatorial role. Just like what Jesus did, as a mediator, He sacrificed himself and also became a Great Intercessor. As Christians, we should be anxious when we see many people whose lives are not reconciled with God. We should pray for people who are not interested in God. How can we expect people who are not interested in God to be reconciled with Him? Another temptation that the church faces is that the church tries to be attractive by delivering messages that are interesting and touching on societal problems, etc. It is actually not completely incorrect to discuss that topic, but when we look at the life of Jesus’s ministry or the ministry of the apostles during the early churches, there is not any story that explains how the church tried to be more attractive to the congregations. They are not called to be attractive in order to attract people that are not attracted / interested. So, what should the church do? The church should play a mediatorial role and God will work to attract the people. Remember that this world is looking for a “taste”. We are the salt of the earth and the salt attracts people. We must not lose the taste, because no decorations can help to attract if the salt has lost its taste (Matthew 5:13). So instead of thinking about how to make the church more attractive and more contextual, we should contemplate on how we become a kingdom of priests, and how we fulfill this mediatorial role. Many people in this world are not interested in holiness and praying to God. Who will then pray for them if not us as Christians? We should pray for people who are not able to pray yet because they have no interest in praying. And if we also have no interest in praying, then this world is a really dark world. Instead of bringing peace to this conflicted world, we ignite the fire which causes the world to become more chaotic. Let us recall again that we are part of a holy nation. Why holy? It is because there is a specific purpose. And what is that specific purpose? It is to play a mediatorial role just like Jesus Christ did. (G.N.S.)