God’s Call to Abraham

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

All blessings come from God.

James 1:17 (ESV)
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Genesis 22:16–18 (ESV)
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Blessings come from obedience.

Galatians 3:7–9 (ESV)
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

This verse illustrates that God’s blessings have been extended beyond Abraham and the covenant God made with him to include all who have faith including Gentiles.

Exodus 19:4–6 (ESV)
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

This describes a covenant relationship like that of a bride and groom. Notice this covenant is prefaced with the idea that God’s voice must be obeyed.

1 Peter 2:9–12 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Revelation 1:5–6 (ESV)
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

What does it mean to be a priest?

We are partners with God in bringing restoration to a broken world.

We are to put God on display by sharing his goodness with the world. “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We have a guilty conscience when we disobey God and we need to reconcile with God. This is the idea of atonement and one of the roles of a priest is to help people navigate their atonement. In other words not only do we need to reconcile with God we need to help others to do so.

The priests had extra rules placed on them that the average Israelite did not. The Israelites were to look to the priests as examples of how to live. This helped them understand why they had rules that the pagans and gentiles did not have.

The Jewish priest looked different and this served as a reminder to the Israelites that they were to stand out and look different to the world around them.

Our God looks different than all other Gods because he wants to enter into a personal relationship with us.

How we live our lives is important because others are watching.

You learn by watching the Priest.

Jesus is our High Priest

Hebrews 4:14-15 (ESV)
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

As Priests we need to intercede on behalf of others in prayer just as Moses did on Mt Sinai.

Exodus 32:31-32 (ESV)
“So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.””

The Priest is also to function as the one who distributes resources to those in need.

There will always be people with more than enough and others without enough. We need to see that those who do not have enough are being taken care of.

Jeremiah 29:7 (ESV)
“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Questions to consider:

Do we as Christians look and act differently than the world around us?

Are we helping others to know how they can stand right and be reconciled with God?

Are we praying for people to find their way to God so that they can experience His Grace?

Are we sharing our resources with those in need?