Last week we considered how the Prophet, Priest, & King pattern was established by God in the Garden as well as how Adam failed to be faithful to the Lord in each of these categories. As the Genesis narrative unfolds, we find that this threefold pattern continues to be evidenced in the lives of certain individuals like Noah and the Patriarchs who received the Word of the Lord, proclaim it to others, while also offering sacrifices of worship to God and leading His people.
While individuals were to relate to God properly in this threefold pattern, God’s people are a collective entity. Though the descendants of Abraham arrive in Egypt numbering only seventy people, by the beginning of Exodus they have grown into a great nation. Seeing their plight, God delivers them from the hands of the Egyptians and leads them to Mt. Sinai where He makes a covenant with them as a people. In Ex. 19 the Lord speaks directly to them, calling them to obey His voice and keep His covenant. His promise to them is that if they would do these things, they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
The use of this particular language demonstrates that God intended for His people to continue to relate to Him in prophetic, priestly, and kingly ways. Though these offices would be divided in Israel (what we will consider in the following weeks), the entire nation was to faithfully exhibit these characteristics. Prophetically, Israel was to receive the Word of the Lord and to pass it on faithfully to subsequent generations (Deut. 6:4-9). They were also to function in a priestly role as the people among whom God would dwell and through whom He would be mediated to the other nations (Deut. 4:5-8). Finally, Israel was to have a kingly role as they were used by God to defeat His enemies (Deut. 12:29-31) and to exercise justice (Deut. 16:18-20; 24:17).
Though Israel was given this noble call, like Adam they failed in each of these areas. God, however, did not abandon them, instead raising up prophets, priests, and kings in their midst whose work anticipated the coming of an individual who would represent them. This anointed one would serve the Lord faithfully where they had failed both individually and collectively.
Jesus came into out world as the Promised One of Israel. Unlike Adam, the individual, and Israel, the corporate entity, Jesus was faithful as a Prophet, Priest, and King. Instead of glory and recognition for His faithfulness, He received scorn and mockery from those He came to save. His work secured forgiveness of sin for individuals, but also for His people collectively.
Join us this Sunday as we worship our Savior, the one who makes sinful people holy through His work on their behalf!
Soli Deo Gloria.
-Thomas