As priests consecrated to God we must be absolute for God, so we take Christ as our daily burnt offering – He is our absoluteness.
Also, we need to take the strong Christ for our consecration, listening to His word, doing what is required by Him, and walking according to His way in serving Him.
It is a great revelation for us to realise that as believers in Christ we are priests to God, but at the same time we need to realize that we need to be consecrated to God as priests.
According to Lev. 8, the priests were consecrated to God in a very specific way, showing us that we as believers in Christ need to be consecrated to God for our service as priests.
On our side, we need to take the initiative to consecrate ourselves to God for Him to do what He desires in us and with us; on His side, God ordains us as priests, and we become a corporate priesthood.
To consecrate is to fill the hands, that is, to fill our hands and our being with Christ, the One whom we enjoy as the reality of all the offerings.
We need to enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings, taking Him daily for our experience and applying Him to our experience. As we are constituted with Christ as the reality of the offerings, we are consecrated to God, and He ordains us.
Our consecration is to Christ and the church, for us to serve God in the church life.
We need to be washed by the Spirit by being in the Lord’s word; on one hand we need to apply the precious blood of Christ to be washed from our sins, and on the other, we need to be washed in the word of God by praying over God’s word, and the Spirit will wash us.
As we are washed, the anointing adds the elements of God to us, and all that He has and has done is added to our being.
For our consecration for the priesthood we need to be adorned with Christ’s divine attributes mingled with His human virtues; our outward expression should be Christ’s divine attributes expressed in our human virtues.
Our garments – our behavior, our living, our expression – are for beauty and glory; Christ’s glory and His beauty need to be expressed in our daily living.
Furthermore, we need to enjoy the stronger and richer Christ as our sin offering, so that we may deal with the flesh, the old man, the indwelling sin, Satan, the world, and the ruler of the world; we need to daily offer Christ as our sin offering for our priesthood.
As we enjoy Christ as our sin offering, we will also be able to minister Him as the sin-dealing life to His people, so that they may be recovered and restored to being proper priests to God.
Being Absolute for God as Priest to God by Taking Christ as our Absoluteness
After offering the bull for sin offering for their consecration, the priests had to offer a ram for burnt offering (Lev. 8:18); this signifies the strong Christ as our burnt offering for the assuming of our New Testament priesthood.
The burnt offering reminds us that we as serving ones must be absolute for God – yet we are not, so we need to take Christ as our daily burnt offering (Lev. 6:12) throughout the dark age until morning, that is, until the Lord returns. Only Christ can be our absoluteness.
The burnt offering has to be burning on the hearth all night until the morning, that is, until the Lord comes back.
As priests to God, we need to take Christ as our burnt offering daily, laying our hands on Him and being identified with Him as the One who is absolute for God, and we need to offer this Christ to God for His satisfaction for the rest of our lives.
The only One who lived and can live a life that satisfies God is Christ; we cannot live such a life, so we need to take Christ.
We are not – but Christ is! We are not the ones who can do the Father’s will completely, but the Lord is that One, so we take Him as our consecration.
As serving ones to God we need to be absolute for God by taking Christ as our burnt offering, and we need to do this until the Lord returns.
Lord Jesus, we take You as our burnt offering. We are not for You, Lord, and we are not for God, but YOU are, so we take You. Amen, Lord, we are not the one who can do the Father’s will completely, but You are that One, and we take You as our consecration. Lord, we take You as our strong Christ, our burnt offering, for the assuming of our New Testament priesthood. Until You return, Lord, we want that every day we would take You as our absoluteness before God!
Taking Christ as our Consecration in our Hearing, Doing, and Walking in our Priestly Service
The priests had to offer two rams for their consecration – one for the burnt offering and the other for their consecration; the ram of consecration (Lev. 8:22) signifies the strong Christ for our consecration in the assuming of our priesthood.
Some of the blood of the ram of consecration was put on Aaron’s and his son’s right ear, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot (see vv. 23-24); this signifies that the redeeming blood of Christ cleanses our ears for hearing, our hands for working, and our feet for walking.
It is interesting to realize that this specific application of the blood was the same as in the cleansing of the leper in Lev. 14:14; this indicates that in the eyes of God we sinners who are ordained to be priests are unclean, like lepers.
Yes, the Lord did call us to be His priests, and He wants us to be fully consecrated to Him for His service, but we need to realize that in our nature, in our inner being, we are all leprous, sinful and rebellious – we are all unclean!
So just as the leper needed a thorough and detailed cleansing, including his hearing, his doing, and his walk, so the priests also need a cleansing. We must learn how to listen to the word of God (Luke 10:38-42), how to do what is required by Him, and how to walk according to His way in serving the Lord.
Our hearing is mentioned first because it affects our working and our moving; as Isa. 50:4-5 indicate, a servant of God must have a hearing ear.
As priests to God we need to have a circumcised and opened ear, having the blood of Christ applied to our ear; a servant who doesn’t listen to his Master’s word cannot serve Him according to His will, heart, and desire.
We need to be awakened by the Lord and hear as an instructed one, not being rebellious and not turning back but listening to the Lord; what we do and how we walk depends on our hearing and our obedience to our hearing.
As believers in Christ we are priests to God, and the first thing we need to do is not to be zealous to do this or that but have an instructed ear, morning by morning hearing a fresh message from Jehovah and having a living, present, and particular word from God.
No one who doesn’t hear God’s word can be His servant. We must often stop ourselves from doing things and hear the Lord’s word.
We must stop ourselves from doing anything without His order, without His command, otherwise we will commit the sin of presumptuousness, and therefore are rebellious.
We need to take the place with Mary at the Lord’s feet, know His heart, His will, His desire, and then we can serve Him.
How much we need to daily have an intimate time with the Lord, a dear, personal time with Him so that we may hear His direct speaking! Our fellowship with the Lord in a personal way is indispensable, and this is part of our consecration.
Lord Jesus, give us the ear of an instructed one so that we may hear Your word every day. We depend on Your speaking, Lord, and we want to hear Your words. Save us from merely being zealous to do things for You. We want to stop ourselves daily to hear a fresh message from You and enjoy a living, present, and particular word from Your mouth! Lord Jesus, may we treasure our time with You, may we receive Your word, and may we do what You instruct us and go in the way You have ordained for us as priests.
Remembering our Consecration as Priests and Not being Careless in our Enjoyment and Service of Christ
The process of consecrating Aaron and his sons was repeated for seven days for their expiation (Lev. 8:33-36); this signifies that we need to remember all the things remembered in our consecration and ordination as New Testament priests.
We need to have our hands filled with Christ as the reality of all the offerings, we need to be washed by the Spirit, clothed with Christ, take Christ as our sin offering and minister Him as the sin-dealing life, take Him as our burnt offering for our absoluteness before God, and take Him as our consecration in our hearing, doing, and walking.
This has to take place for “seven days”, that is, our entire Christian life and priestly life; we need to remember to do this again and again.
The solemnity of the consecration and ordination of the priests is indicated by Lev. 8:35, warning us that we should not enter into the New Testament priesthood and into the enjoyment of Christ in a careless way (see 1 Cor. 11:27-29).
In Leviticus it says, “that you may not die”, and in 1 Cor. 11 it says, “eats and drink judgement to himself”. We need to realize the seriousness of what is taking place and what might happen if we are careless.
We shouldn’t enter into the enjoyment of Christ in a careless way. We need to be warned, and especially regarding the Lord’s table, we need to discern the bread and the wine.
The bread signifies Christ’s body, and the wine signifies His body; if we eat the bread and the wine without the proper discernment, our eating and drinking could be to our own judgement. Oh Lord Jesus!
We need to be warned of the seriousness of participating in the fellowship in the enjoyment of Christ in a light or loose way. May we be the real priests in this age, and may the Lord gain in His recovery the genuine and real priesthood, those who serve God according to Himself.
Lord Jesus, may we be Your consecrated priests today, those who know their consecration and remember it, and who are solemn regarding serving the Lord. Save us from entering into the New Testament priesthood in a careless way. Save us from entering into the enjoyment of Christ in a careless way. Lord Jesus, we want to serve You with our whole life and our whole being, and we consecrate ourselves to You in Your way for Your purpose. May we be those who discern the body of Christ and the blood of Christ at the Lord’s table meeting!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 1, The Consecration of the Priests.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Consecrated is Thy temple, / Purged from every stain and sin; / May Thy flame of glory now be / Manifested from within. / Let the earth in solemn wonder / See my body willingly / Offered as Thy slave obedient, / Energized alone by Thee. (Hymns #403)
# Lord, I take You as my sin offering for what I am, / But Lord, I take You as my burnt offering for what I’m not. / I’m not loving, submissive, patient, kind, or meek, / I’m not single in view, Lord, nor is it God I seek. / But dearest Lord, You’re all these things, all virtue’s in You, / So Lord I lay my hands on You in all I do. (Song on, Our Burnt Offering)
# As we eat Thyself, Lord Jesus, / Consecrated we become; / By Thy wondrous life within us, / Thy obedience is our own. / No more need we strive and struggle, / Consecrated try to be; / Consecration dwells within us— / Now our part to eat of Thee. (Hymns #1138)
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