Remember the first Passover? God’s people, the Israelites, were in slavery in Egypt. He sent nine plagues to convince Pharoah, “You’d better let my people go.” But Pharaoh didn’t want to lose his cheap labor. So God sent one final plague. He struck down every firstborn son in Egypt. But the Israelite families who slaughtered a lamb and put its blood on their doorposts were spared. No firstborn son died in those homes. But because God, in his grace, spared these firstborns, they became his special property.
Not long after, we hear how God made Moses count all the firstborn Israelite males in the tribe of Levi who were a month old or more (Numbers 3). He also made Moses count all the firstborn Israelites in the other 11 tribes who were a month old or more. There were 22,000 Levite firstborn males and 22,273 other firstborn males. (Stay with me; this is going somewhere.) God told Moses that he would take the Levite males as his own special property instead of the other males from the other tribes as payment for sparing all the firstborn males of Israel at the Passover. In fact, the extra 273 males had to be bought back with a special offering.
The Levites became God’s special priests and holy servants who offered sacrifices for the people, prayed for the people, preached to the people, sung to the people, and cared for the temple for the next 1500 years.
Jesus is the Passover lamb whose blood was shed to cover our sins before an angry God. Jesus was slaughtered; we went free. But when God sacrificed his Firstborn, He bought us for himself to be His new Firstborn children. See where this is going? When God bought us, then, we also became his priests. 1 Peter says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God.”
As priests we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, living lives of worship for God’s glory. Everything in our lives belongs to God, our time, our abilities, our finances—every moment, every chore, every event on the calendar. Paul wrote, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it ALL for the glory of God.” We are priests who pray for each other in good times and bad, every day praying for our Christian brothers and sisters, every day praying for this community and the lost. We are priests who preach God’s amazing grace to all those who need it. We are priests who sing of God’s love with melodies of kindness and generosity toward our Christian family and the world. We are priests who strive to care for the beautiful temple (that is, the body) that God has given us so that he is praised through purified thoughts, words, and deeds.
All this because we are God’s. That’s a comfort and a call to action!
