Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins...No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 
Hebrews 5:1,4 
Fellow Believers,

In I Kings 11-13, there is an intriguing account about Jeroboam. He originally was an official under King Solomon. But when God decided to take ten of the twelve tribes away from Solomon's son Rehoboam because of the king's apostasy, He gave them to Jeroboam. The latter thus became the first king of the northern nation of Israel.

Jeroboam was no man of God, however. Among other things, he set up a golden calf in Bethel and another in Dan, telling the people of Israel that those idols were their gods. He also built shrines on high places and appointed priests from people who were not Levites.

Later, when he attempted to make an offering at an altar he had built, the Lord showed His disapproval by causing that altar to split apart and the ashes to pour out. Chapter 13 then ends with this passage:

"Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth."

Why did God single out Jeroboam's arbitrary appointment of priests as the very sin that led to the downfall of his house? I believe the answer can be found in Hebrews 5:4 (see above). From it, we can infer that every priest, as well as the high priest, must be called by God.

What has that to do with us? Well, we read in the doxology in Revelation 1: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Fatherto him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." In the New Testament period, you see, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the priests called by God.

So, the Jeroboam account effectively warns that we are not to tell people willy-nilly that they are saved just because they claim to have received Christ, answered an altar call or whatever. We must be able to see distinctly a changed life in them first. Otherwise, we would effectively be appointing "anyone who wanted to become a priest" a priest, and that's an abomination to God!
 

Tom Holt, Editor
First Quarter, 1992

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