This is the goal, the model, the path. It has been laid out for us.
I have been reading on thebibleproject.com about the Royal priesthood in the Bible. It starts all the way back with Adam and Eve’s role to tend the garden of Eden and those therein, and culminates in the king of Heaven, Christ, the High Priest.
“A kingdom of priests” is what God called and calls his people to, a people that can approach boldly “the throne of grace” to help in their time of need, and those of others. It is interesting to note here, the lineage of Jesus in talking about a kingdom of priests. Because Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, not Israel, where all the other priests came from. Jesus’ lineage was a kingly one, descended from King David and Solomon. Yet, he is our High Priest, the one who offers “better sacrifices” to God in His presence.
So, the wonderful thing is, we, aka Adam, which is Hebrew for ‘humanity’, are to be a conglomerate of Jesus’ lineage and Israel’s in that we are under the King, yet we are called to be priests, as were the descendants of Aaron priests, to offer sacrifices for ourselves and for others. But of course, no further sacrifice is required since Jesus offered his own body to be an everlasting sacrifice, for the actual forgiveness of sins.
Anyway…when Moses went up the mountain to receive the tablets of the 10 commandments, his face shined from God’s presence, was still shining when he came back down the mountain. When Jesus was transfigured, aka revealed his divinity to 2 of his disciples, He shined with brilliant white light. The priestly garments shined white as they were instructed to, as they were to point back to Moses’ and Jesus’ experiences, and forward to the Hebrew nation’s and our, as followers of Christ calling to shine as lights to the world.
What does all this mean? What’s the importance? Why do we need to shine to the world? Well, there is the remembrance…Jesus spoke of his last meal with his students as something to “do in remembrance of me”. Looking to the past to understand now and to come is important…
So how does all this lead into what’s to come? SHIMMERING! In the new heavens and new Earth, the New Jerusalem, when what we know as civilization is replaced by God’s heavenly one on Earth, we the people of Christ will reach our culmination of shining, our reward, our fulfillment. We are to shimmer as the stars in the sky, adorned as will be the city with the jewels that the Old Testament priests wore.
So you might say, pretty wonderful but is it motivating enough to “carry a cross”?…on a daily basis? I am asking myself as I ask you. My only answer is when God is called the King of Glory, it refers not so much as to a King who is worthy of honor and praise, as to His position, the King of the realm of Glory. Where no sun nor light is needed bc of Jesus, where the healing of the nations is offered in the leaves of the tree of life, where the martyrs are exalted, where we not only dwell but rule, where we receive new bodies! I could go on. Put your thoughts of harps on clouds to the side. We were not made for this trying life. We were made, ultimately, to shimmer!