Part 2 - The Lens of Priesthood

Go back to Part 1 to get the full gist.

John the Baptist: God Disrupts the Pattern

This is one of the most fascinating parts of John’s life to me. John wasn’t from some random family. John was a Levite from Aaronic priestly lineage.

His father, Zacharias, was a priest from the division of Abijah, which descended from the Aaronic priesthood (Luke 1:5; 1 Chronicles 24:10). His mother Elizabeth was described as being “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke 1:5).

John had priestly lineage on both sides. So naturally, you would expect John’s life to follow the established pattern of priesthood.

His father served in the temple. In fact, Zacharias was inside the temple performing his priestly service when the angel appeared and announced John’s birth.

Yet , God doesn’t place John  in the temple. He sends him to the wilderness.

Think about that contrast. John's lineage is priesthood. The normal pattern pointed toward the temple. But his assignment took him somewhere completely different.

• John wasn’t wearing traditional priestly garments. He was wearing camel’s hair.

• John wasn’t standing at the altar. He was standing at the Jordan River.

• John wasn’t receiving animals for sacrifice. He was crying:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

— Matthew 3:2

God was disrupting the normal understanding of priesthood through John’s life.

And I don’t believe this was accidental. The priesthood had become corrupted. The high-priestly office had become entangled with political power.

And God takes a man born from Aaronic priestly lineage and raises him outside the normal priestly system. Sometimes, God has to take you out of a system before He can send you back as the change agent it needs.

John’s life itself became a statement: It will not be business as usual anymore. Something new is coming!!!

John Was Doing the Heart of Priestly Work—Differently

This is where it becomes even more powerful. Outside of offerings and sacrifices, what was a priest supposed to do?

Bring people toward God.

• Teach God’s Law.

• Preserve knowledge.

• Live according to God’s Word.

• Teach it accurately.

Malachi says:

“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,

And people should seek the law from his mouth;

For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.”— Malachi 2:7

Notice that word:

Messenger.

Then God says:

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.”

— Malachi 3:1

The priest was called a messenger.

John was called a messenger.

But John’s ministry didn’t look like what everyone had become accustomed to. John’s prophetic assignment was that:

• He would turn many Israelites back to the Lord their God.

• He would “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.”

• He would turn “the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.”

And ultimately: “To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”— Luke 1:17

Think about it. That is priestly work at its heart.

Bringing people back toward God. Teaching righteousness. Preparing people to encounter God. John was doing it—just not according to the old pattern. That’s the first layer of John’s life.

I believe John wasn’t only the forerunner of Jesus. His life was also disrupting people’s understanding of priesthood.

• The location changed.

• The clothing changed.

• The method changed.

• The pattern changed.

But the purpose—turning people toward God—remained.

And God was preparing everyone for an even greater disruption IN THE WAY OF PRIESTHOOD.

Layer Two: John Introduces the Ultimate Priest

John wasn’t the destination. John was preparing everyone for Jesus. And look at how John introduces Him:“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

— John 1:29 NKJV

Do you see the priesthood language? Lamb. Sin. Sacrifice.

John came from a lineage associated with priests presenting sacrifices. But now John points at a Man and says: There is the Lamb. Something was changing.

A shift is taking place in the priesthood—but this time, in an entirely different dimension.

Jesus would become the ultimate High Priest. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…”— Hebrews 4:14 NKJV

The old priests offered sacrifices repeatedly. Jesus offered Himself once and for all.

“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”— Hebrews 10:12 NKJV

And unlike earthly priests who died and had to be replaced, Jesus lives forever:

“But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.”

— Hebrews 7:24 NKJV

Jesus is the ultimate Priest. And through Him, something radical happens. Priesthood is no longer limited to the tribe of Levi.

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…" — 1 Peter 2:9 NKJV. Through Jesus, we also become a royal priesthood.

John stood between two eras.

• His lineage connected him to the old priesthood system

• His assignment introduced the new priesthood system.

Now Connect John Back to Joshua

And this is where everything comes together. Go back to Zechariah 3.

Joshua was the high priest. Yet there he stood in filthy garments. Satan was accusing him. And Joshua couldn’t remove his own iniquity.

Think about the picture.

The priest who participated in a system dealing with the sins of Israel himself needed someone to cleanse him.

That reveals the limitation of Levitical priesthood. But then John introduces Jesus.

And he is different.

• Joshua needed his iniquity removed. Jesus had no iniquity.

• Joshua wore filthy garments. Jesus was without sin.

• Joshua stood while Satan accused. Jesus defeated the devil.

• Joshua belonged to a priesthood carried by imperfect human beings. Jesus possesses an eternal priesthood.

Hebrews describes Him as:

“holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners…” — Hebrews 7:26

And now we understand why the ultimate Priest had to come.

Here’s something I found incredibly interesting.*

Abraham is the first person Scripture explicitly calls a prophet—but Abraham lived before the twelve tribes of Israel were birthed. There was no tribe of Levi yet. But once the twelve tribes emerge, who is the first prophet we see God raise up?

Moses—a Levite.

Don’t miss that.

The first prophet we encounter after the twelve tribes are established comes from the very tribe God would set apart for priestly service.

Moses becomes the prophet God uses to introduce the Levitical priesthood. Through him, God gives its instructions, establishes its order, and consecrates Aaron and his sons to minister before Him.

A Levite. A prophet. Moses was chosen to prepare the way for and introduce the Levitical priesthood.

Then generations later, God is preparing to introduce something greater—a new covenant and a greater priesthood.

And look at what God does. He follows the same pattern.

Who appears immediately before Jesus? John the Baptist. Once again, a prophet from the tribe of Levi. And what was his assignment? Prepare the way for Jesus—our eternal High Priest, not according to the order of Aaron, but **according to the order of Melchizedek** (Hebrews 7).

Do you see the pattern?

• When the Levitical priesthood was being introduced, a Levite prophet stood at the doorway. Moses.

• When the greater priesthood was about to be revealed, once again, a Levite prophet stood at the doorway. John the Baptist.

Sometimes the details we read past are the very details that reveal just how intentional God is.

Random Fun Fact: Biblical Priests Married 😂

Since we’re discussing priesthood, here’s a random fun fact. Did you know priests in the Bible married? Lol—I mean, how else would they have preserved the priestly lineage? 😂

The Bible never commanded priests to remain unmarried. Instead, God placed higher standards on whom priests could marry.

“They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.”— Leviticus 21:7 NKJV.

And the high priest had an even stricter marriage requirement: “And he shall take a wife in her virginity.” — Leviticus 21:13 NKJV

Zacharias himself proves the point. He was a priest. He was also Elizabeth’s husband.

So the idea that biblical priesthood itself required priests to remain unmarried is simply not in the Bible.

Mandatory celibacy became a discipline within the Latin Catholic priesthood; it is not a requirement established for the priesthood in Scripture.

And choosing celibacy is different from being commanded to be celibate.

Paul himself speaks about singleness as a gift and personal calling (1 Corinthians 7:7).

This actually a perfect example of the difference between biblical truth and religious tradition. Something can become so normal within a religious system that people assume:

“This must be biblical.” Then you actually read Scripture and realize…

Uhhhn… where did God say that? 😂

Good food for thought. I digress back to the blog...

In Summary

Joshua shows us that cleansing doesn’t eliminate the need for obedience.

His descendants show us how compromise can grow across generations and nationally.

Malachi shows us what happens when corruption reaches the people who were supposed to lead others toward God.

Then John appears.

Priestly lineage—but wilderness training.

Born from the old system—but called outside its normal pattern.

A messenger calling people back to God while preparing them for something greater.

And then John points: Jesus. The High Priest. The One whose priesthood cannot be corrupted, replaced or ended. The new priesthood system!

Maybe that is what makes John’s life so powerful. God used someone born from the old priestly lineage to disrupt people’s understanding of priesthood and introduce the ultimate Priest who was about to change everything.

John wasn’t the destination. John was the disruption.

And Jesus was the revelation of the new priesthood.

Music Time 🎶

Theophilus Sunday — “Now That We’re Married”