I Am Giving You the Service of the Priesthood
Numbers 18:7, 20
Messiah’s blood has purchased a holy priesthood from among Jews of every tribe of Israel and Gentiles of every nation. YAHshua’s (Jesus’s) blood opened the way for a priesthood to enter the holy sanctuary of God; it tore the veil that had separated the people of YAHveh Almighty from His divine presence. The cost was immeasurably high for YAHveh (the LORD) to purchase this priesthood for His glory.
We must not take lightly such a great sacrifice, nor should we neglect this awesome privilege and responsibility. His Spirit says to us (as He said to Aaron and his sons, the Levites), “I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. … You will have no inheritance in their land [the world], nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance” (Numbers 18:7, 20 NIV — emphasis added).
The court of the uncircumcised—called the “outer court” in the ancient temple, is symbolic of the large outer court of the religious system. It is filled with the multitudes who give lip service but whose hearts are far away from Him and are truly uncircumcised in heart. This vast religious system and domain sits in close proximity to the world—as if a flimsy, man-made wall labeled “religion” is the only thing separating this court from it.
It was therefore inevitable that the world’s influence would enter in and pollute this outer court of the uncircumcised of heart with lusts, selfish ambitions, self justified compromise, hypocrisy, and rebellion resulting in deception and lukewarmness. This hypocrisy has defamed the holiness and sanctity of the almighty Creator.
YAHveh is a jealous God (Deuteronomy 6:15) and a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)! Few Jews or Gentiles who profess to know Him have truly experienced this awesome King of Glory. Through the sacrificial blood of our holy Savior, He redeemed a people to become a holy priesthood (as in Israel’s day) who would be able to enter the Holy of Holies to stand in His fiery, life-changing presence.
In the book of Revelation, John told of a religious system that would lightly esteem this God of glory; they would trivialize the call to be a holy priesthood and the divine blood that purchased it. The members of this Laodicean-type religious system would remain uncircumcised in heart. And be constrained to the outer court of empty religion because they had never forsaken the gods of this world beginning with selfish ambition and the cravings for the worldly delicacies. YAHveh said, “you shall be holy for I am a holy” (1 Peter 1:16) thus this apostate compromised half-hearted massive religious segment would live so close to the ice-cold dying world that inevitably, by sheer proximity, it would become lukewarm in nature.
Messiah said that He would rather a people be either hot, as they wholeheartedly embrace the most high God and Savior YAHveh and worship Him in spirit and truth in His holy presence, or cold, as they wholeheartedly embrace the dying world and all its delusions enticements, preoccupations, and dissipating influences.
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of YAHveh, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you Are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.’” (Revelation 3:14-16)
Scripture tells us that when YAHshua (Jesus) entered Jerusalem and went to the temple, he “looked around at everything” (Mark 11:11 NIV). As the righteous High Priest, He saw His Father’s house filled with an abominable mixture of the holy and the profane. With righteous indignation, He turned over the tables of the money changers who filled the outer court and robbed the temple of its sanctity. “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?” Messiah asked. “But you have made it a robber’s den” (Mark 11:17). This display of holy zeal was a symbolic warning of YAHveh’s righteous judgments to come.
Directly before YAHshua (Jesus) was slaughtered as the Passover Lamb, He cleansed the “outer court” of the temple of its tangible atrocities. When our Savior comes again, it will not be as a meek sacrificial lamb, but as the roaring Lion of the Tribe of Judah. With mighty indignation, He will mangle His foe and devour His Father’s enemies. He will enter His temple, built with the living stones He purchased by His blood. With eyes like a flame of fire (see Revelation 1:14; 2:18; 19:12), He will once again “look around at everything” within the temple.
The Messiah will see far more than human eyes are able to perceive. He will look deep into our hearts, which are to be holy temples for YAHveh’s (the LORD’s) glory. The multitudes who confess Him with their lips, but whose hearts remain far from His Father’s heartbeat, will be lukewarm and nauseating to Him. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah will search both the religious systems and the individual hearts of professing believers. Any unholiness, including pagan influences and abominable mixtures of the holy and the worldly, will be vehemently uprooted and spewed out.
May His piercing words penetrate our hearts and cleanse our holy temples, just as He cleansed His Father’s temple long ago. “‘Get these [compromises and idols that desecrate] out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’” (John 2:16-17 NIV — emphasis added).
Messiah gave His life to build a holy house filled with holy priests. It is to be a temple built of living stones. He will tear down every lifeless stone laid on the foundation of man-made doctrines. Not one stone was left standing when the Roman army destroyed YAHveh’s earthly temple. In a similar manner, the Mighty One will destroy completely any house that has not been built by His Spirit, on His foundation, and according to His plumb line of truth.
Now is not the time to freeze in your spiritual tracks or to dig your self-righteous heels into the ground. Flee from the destruction to come! Do not remain lukewarm! Leave the doomed outer court of the hypocritical and uncircumcised in heart and its unholy mixture of worldly and religious affairs! Consecrate yourselves! Be hot! Be holy! For without holiness, no man will stand in His holy presence—which is a consuming fire.
Only those who are circumcised in heart and are impassioned with red hot love and devotion for their righteous King and His glory will be able to enter His coming eternal kingdom. These are the “living stones,” redeemed by our Savior and built by His hands as a temple that is Holy to YAHveh. This is the priesthood that will stand eternally in His glorious presence in the New Jerusalem. Of this eternal kingdom, Isaiah prophesied, “For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no more come into you” (Isaiah 52:1).
YAHshua (Jesus) is sounding a trumpet and crying out, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins” (Revelation 18:4). Repent and depart from the love of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and from all empty forms of religion that compromise and do not uphold the Almighty’s holy Commandments. The outer court of the lukewarm religious masses, like the golden cup of wrath in His hand, is soon to reach its fill of abominations. It will inevitably overflow its brim. Then the Lamb’s mercy and grace will become the Lion’s righteous judgments. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah will mangle and destroy everything that profanes and desecrates His Father’s eternal, holy temple.
If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? … Surely YAHveh God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? YAHveh God has spoken! Who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:6-8)
Prayer: YAHveh (LORD), forgive me for being lukewarm; I want to be hot—impassioned for You alone. Please help me to overcome the pulls of the world, the enemy of my soul, and my self-centered nature. Help me to flee the outer court and all its enticing strongholds. May my heart be ablaze with a passion that burns up all my carnal sin nature and its lustful desires, so that I might learn to be a whole-hearted worshipper who worships You with a holy fire that makes me pleasing in Your sight.