You Were Created to PraySample

Created to be Priests

Shortly after God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He instructed Moses, “Go and tell the people, ‘You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’” (Exodus 19:6). Who were going to be priests? The entire nation of people, both male and female—children, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged adults, and the elderly—were all to be priests.

In God’s perspective, the priesthood is ultimately not for a special group of people but for all those who belong to Him. This promise corresponds to His original plan for mankind to exercise dominion authority on the earth. Therefore, when God called the children of Israel “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” He was reflecting His purposes for mankind from Adam to Abraham to Jacob to the children of Israel and beyond. God’s plan is that mankind be His priestly representative on earth.

However, we learn from Scripture that human beings failed as God’s priests. Therefore, God raised up a Priest not only from the line of Abraham but also from His own house, One who would be faithful—Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, our High Priest:

No one takes this honor [of being a priest] upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:4–6)

This Priest didn’t fail. He served God perfectly. He knew how to enter God’s presence and how to represent man to God and God to man. In doing so, He created a new nation of people who would be God’s priests to the world. This nation is called the church. What did God say to the church? The same thing He had said to Israel. The apostle Peter wrote:

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

As God's priests, we are meant to commune with God, offer effectual prayer, and be His mediators on behalf of the world.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the privilege of being able to enter with confidence into the place where You dwell, because of the atonement that Your Son has made for us. Help us to be Your mediators on behalf of the world so that your kingdom may come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Thought: God wants to win the world through a priesthood of believers.