Kingdom of Priests (Compilation) — Compilations

The Calling of a Kingdom of Priests

And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar and for that within the veil, and you shall serve. I give you the priesthood as a service of gift.

You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession,.

That you may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable host of angels, to the general assembly and the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

Therefore receiving a kingdom that can't be shaken, let us have grace by which we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Elijah's Prayer and God's Consuming Fire

It came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God.

The Bread of the Presence and Accountability Before God

You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it. Two-tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually. It is on behalf of the children of Israel an everlasting covenant. If a man sins against another, God shall judge him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?

Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life

Sir, they said, from now on, give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Joseph's Forgiveness and God's Providential Care

Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him.

They sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father commanded before he died, saying, So you shall tell Joseph. Please now forgive the disobedience of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.

Now please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we are your servants.

Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore don't be afraid.

I will nourish you and your little ones, for we must all die, and are as water spilled.

Reconciliation, the Curse of Hanging, and the Lord's Rest

On the ground, which can't be gathered up again. Neither does God take away life, but devises means that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day, for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

If a man sin against another, God shall judge him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

The Spirit Given to God's People

The Lord said to Moses, Has the Lord's hand grown short? Now you shall see whether my word shall happen to you or not. Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and set them round about the tent.

The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and it happened that when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

But there remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad, and the spirit rested on them, and they were of those who were written but had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

A young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, My Lord Moses forbid them. Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake?

Pentecost and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit on them. Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the spirit gave them the ability to speak.

Christ's Lordship and the Call to Repentance

Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.

With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

Paul's Anguish Over Israel and Israel's Covenantal Privileges

To speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying.

My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

Theirs is the adoption as sons. There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised.

Amen.