Don’t Priests Get It Right Every Time?

Shouldn’t Zacharias have accepted what the angel told him without doubt? Shouldn’t priests get it right the first time — every time? This devotion looks at Zacharias’ interaction with Gabriel.

Nuggets

Aaron and his descendants were set apart; they just had trouble with the perfect and pure part.
Both Zacharias and Elizabeth were considered blameless.
Zacharias had to consecrate himself in order to perform his duties.
Zacharias doubted Gabriel.

God had special plans for Aaron. “Appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out the duties of the priesthood …” (Num. 3: 10 NLT). In fact, all of his male descendants only would be priests.

What is a priest? “… Aaron and his descendants were set apart to dedicate the most holy things, to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s presence, to serve the Lord, and to pronounce blessings in his name forever.” (I Chron. 23: 13 NLT). They were in charge of worshiping God.

There is something important to remember. Levi had three kids. Aaron was his great-grandson. We know Moses had kids. Levi’s other kids surely had kids, who had kids.

Aaron wasn’t the only Levite, so not all Levites were priests. Other descendants performed other duties within the temple.

Disclaimer: This is going to be a short overview. I did not get to research this in-depth, so I may leave some important points out. This is just a quick pass. We’ll have to come back later and look at it more in-depth.

Let's Put It into Context

“For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth” (Mal. 2: 7 NIV)

I’ve never really thought of it before, but isn’t the way God chose His priests backwards to how we would do it? Wouldn’t we approach it as a job interview?

We would put out the ad saying the position was available. We would screen all of the applications and decide who we would want to interview. After the interview, we would decide who was the best candidate for the job.

That is not the way God did it.

God said that everyone from Aaron on down in the line of his descendants had their job already picked out for them. It didn’t matter if they didn’t want the job. It didn’t matter if they were not the best person for the job.

The job was theirs.

But it did call for specific qualifications to be a priest. The men had to be holy. “They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God. They must be holy, for they are the ones who present the special gifts to the Lord, gifts of food for their God.” (Lev. 21: 6 NLT). We’ve said that holy means to be set apart, perfect, and pure.

Aaron and his descendants were set apart; they just had trouble with the perfect and pure part.

That wasn’t good. “The priests must follow my instructions carefully. Otherwise they will be punished for their sin and will die for violating my instructions. I am the Lord who makes them holy” (Lev. 22: 9 NLT). God does hold us accountable for our sins.

So, the number one qualification is birth in the tribe of Levi for those performing services in the temple. Their commitment to keeping themselves

Think about the commitment the priests would have to have. They would have to be faithful to doing their jobs.

“But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance” (Heb. 9: 7 NLT)

The priests put a level between God and other humans. The people had to have a go-between to approach God (and that was only once a year).

What did the priests do the rest of the time? It was their job to minister to the people. They were God’s ambassadors. That meant they would have to ensure their relationships with Him were strong.

I would think the sacrifices took a significant amount of time. He priests would have to know which sacrifice was appropriate and how to perform it. They had specific guidelines to follow.

The priests were responsible for keeping “… the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night …” (Ex. 27: 21 NLT). I am sure there were other maintenance duties that the priests would have to perform.

It was a responsibility of the priests to teach the others what God’s Word was.

“And you must teach the Israelites all the decrees that the Lord has given them through Moses” (Leviticus 23:11 NLT)

The priests were to teach God’s laws and commandments. How were the people to obey the laws if they were not taught what the laws were?

“Suppose a case arises in a local court that is too hard for you to decide—for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder or only of manslaughter, or a difficult lawsuit, or a case involving different kinds of assault. Take such legal cases to the place the Lord your God will choose, and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict” (Deut. 5:8-9 NLT)

When it came time to apply the law, the priests had a hand in that, too. They were to act as judge and jury to settle difficult cases.

“Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them” (Num. 6: 27 NLT)

God wants us to praise Him, so He assigned the priests to lead in the worship.

As lead up to the Christmas story, we learn about a priest who is doing his job. Let’s take a look.

Enter Zacharias and Elizabeth

“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth” (Lk. 1: 5 KJV)

God had His eye on Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias was a priest. Elizabeth was his wife.

Note: the different translations have two different spellings for this dude’s name. One spelling is Zacharias (NASB, NKJV, KJV). The other spelling is Zechariah (NIV, NLT, ESV, CSB, CEV, GNT, HCSB).

They Were Blameless

“Both were righteous in God's sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord” (Lk. 1: 6 CSB).

Blameless is a moral character we achieve after we have gained salvation.

Resource

What Luke is saying here is that Zacharias and Elizabeth followed all God’s laws and commandments, which speaks to the sincerity of their faith. They come across as a team as they navigate living the married life. They were well suited.

The problem was that they didn’t have any children. They were advanced in age now, so having a child really was impossible.

Or so Zacharias thought.

He Was Doing His Job

Duties for the week were assigned by lot (Lk. 1: 9). It was a normal day. Since there were 20,000 to 24,000 priests in Jerusalem, their lot didn’t come up often.

Resource

Well, semi-normal day, because Zacharias’s lot had come up. He was scheduled to burn incense (Lk. 1: 9-10), either in the morning or at night. “This incense offered under the law, represents our prayers offered to God under the gospel” (Burkitt).

Resource

Zacharias had to consecrate himself in order to perform his duties. “Even the priests who come near the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out in anger against them” (Ex. 19: 22 CSB). If we are made holy by consecrating ourselves, that means Zacharias had prayed for forgiveness for any unconfessed sin. He was sanctified.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

But Zacharias had a problem.

He Wasn’t Practicing What He Preached

“And Zacharias said unto the angel, ‘Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years’” (Lk. 1: 18 KJV)

Okay, seeing an angle probably threw Zacharias off his game. We do have to give him that.

But Zacharias had been praying for a long time for a kid – earnestly praying. He was in the Lord’s presence. He was consecrated.

And Zacharias doubted Gabriel.

Okay, maybe Zacharias didn’t expect an angel to show up right in front of him. But Gabriel did.

What do we miss because God shows up unexpectedly and not where we think He has to be?

Making the Connections

God will find us in the mundane, routine activities of life. He will come to us where we are. No, it probably won’t be Gabriel coming to see us. But God will find us and come to us when we need Him.

Think about it this way. We are to take things on faith. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11: 1 NIV).

But this wasn’t faith. This was sight. And it was scary. So, Zacharias was just being human.

Why is it scary? Is it because we feel so unworthy? Or is it because it is so far out of a typical everyday occurrence?

Look who is having trouble believing – a priest. He was described as blameless – but he messed up this one.

Zacharias looked at things through his perspective. God wanted Him to look at Him, not circumstances.

How Do We Apply This?

We, as were Aaron and his descendants, are called to be holy. “They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God …” (Lev. 21: 6 NLT).

Why? “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession …” (I Pet. 2: 9 CSB).

Our job description says we are to proclaim the gospel and make disciples of others. We do that by teaching them about God and what a relationship with Him means.

The Disciple’s Job Description

Complete Job Description

Individual Description

Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)

Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)

If we are believers, then we have to believe. We have to expect God to answer some prayers exactly the way we pray them.

Father. We know Your ways are not our ways (Isa. 55: 8). Help us to see Your answers to our prayers. Give us courage and strength to reach out and grab them. Consecrate us so that we may be holy. Amen.

What do you think?

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