God’s Transfer of King, Priest, and Prophet to Humans

In previous posts we have talked about how God’s unity is tied to the roles of king, priest, and prophet. Under the leadership of Moses, he transferred these roles to certain individuals within Israel. Let’s see how God expected them to operate on his behalf.

God sets earthly kings up as being his agents to the people. God gave kings a divine mandate (Dt 17:5-20). Israeli kings were to be chosen by God (Dt 17:15), were not to be a foreigner (Dt 17:15), were not to amass horses or wives or silver and gold (Dt 17: 15-17), should write a copy of the law and read it all his days (Dt 1:18-19), was to ensure covenant observance by the people (Dt 17:20), was to rule with justice and righteousness (Is 32:1), and have military leadership (1Sa 23:2).

Let’s look back at the mandate requiring a king to write a copy of the law and read it all his days. As king, he should know the law as well as, or even better than, the priests as he was to have it read daily and consistently. He can’t lead as God would expect unless his own words were like those God himself would speak. He was representing God to his people and needed to have the mind of God to do that. Reading and studying God’s words was the only way for him to accomplish that. A corollary to this is what Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians: we are to have the mind of Christ (1Co 2:16).

Priests were seen as ministers of God. They were to guard God’s covenant by carrying out the duties of the tabernacle/temple required by the law (Dt 33:8-11), make atonement for Israel as God commanded (1Ch 6:29), and were to teach the difference between the holy and common and show how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean (Ek 44:23).

Prophets were seen as God’s enforcers to ensure and maintain alignment between kingly leadership and religious observances and teachings. They were to be messengers of God tasked with conveying his words to the people, were to remind Israel of their covenant with God, advocate for social justice often condemning the exploitation and oppression of the poor and vulnerable, foretold future events, both immediate and distant, acted as intercessors between God and the people, and were to be instruments of God’s miraculous power, performing signs and wonders to validate their message and mission.

While this was set up for Israel to follow God so they could have and maintain a relationship with him, God has done the same for us. Yet, our relationship with him is even more intimate because of Jesus Christ coming and fulfilling what the law required. He speaks to us in several different ways. There are many examples in Scripture about this. How he has communicated before, he can do so again. This is what we’ll be exploring next time. Pease join me.

____________

Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens