Students love to hate them.  But I was an exception to the rule.  Math word-problems!  They were some of my favorites.  Especially those asking to recognize a pattern.   Discovering that mathematical rule that maps one data set into another always brought great satisfaction.   Like unlocking the key to a mystery, recognizing patterns is axiomatic to the business of living in the well-ordered world God has made. 

Virtually all of life involves recognizing and following patterns.  The computers which facilitate most of modern life are utterly dependent on repetition, iteration, and pattern recognition.   Medical diagnoses, scientific discoveries, and industrial production all revolve around recognizing and repeating patterns.   Patterns allow us to be creative without creativity.  To repeat a success without repeated failures.  And to live in a dependable world whose time and space can be measured and predicted.

Pattern recognition and repetition is the soul of technology whereby God through common grace allows us to push back some effects of the fall and reduce the sweat that must fall from our brows.   Patterns give us proven, well-worn paths to navigate the highways and byways of our pilgrim life.   And as believers in Jesus Christ, walking the Camino de Christo to the Celestial City, we are not called to be bushwhackers or trailblazers, but followers.   The calling of Christ and of the Christian life is to follow him, where he has led.  Jesus call to discipleship is the call to “follow me.”  Not to innovate or speculate, but to follow.

One translation of Hebrews 12:2 makes this point clearly.  “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.“   And the race marked out for the life of faith is traced in the Bible through the patterns of faithful living it describes and prescribes.   God grants us faith, calls us to follow, and provides all the directions we need through the patterns of faithful following found in his Word.

The story of the Exodus illustrates this powerfully.   God “sees, hears, and is concerned” for the condition of his people and he “comes” to deliver them.   But this deliverance is unto a life of freedom, not merely from a life of slavery.  The first half of Exodus tells the story of God’s saving work.  But the second half of Exodus calls the people live as freedmen Christ. 

Beginning with the pattern of moral law and its application through the civil law, God moves on to his magnum opus, the pattern of his dwelling with his people.    A dwelling that required a place for his presence, process for bringing sinful people near to a holy God and a priesthood to mediate between God and his people. 

However, the priesthood of Aaron and his sons had two glaring insufficiencies.  Every priest in this order is immoral and mortal.   Every priest is a sinner, under the curse which brings death.  So, God, himself must provide a covering for them.   Beautiful clothing which covered them in the alien righteousness of the true and great High Priest who was to come, the High Priest without sin who would live forever to make intercession.

Once clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, God ordains Aaron and his sons and instructs them in their mediatorial work.   We often gloss quickly over these instructions because we tend to view them as tedious details associated with an obsolete administration of the Covenant of Grace.   But in Exodus 28 we apprehend the beauty of Christ and our need for His mediation.   And in Exodus 29 we see in the process of priestly ordination the pattern for the Christian life; washing, covering, worship, fellowship, provision and ministry. 

In Exodus even before the moral, civil and ceremonial laws are given to the people at Sinai, God declares.

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Exodus 19:5-6 

This idea of all God’s people being a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ is not confined to the Old Testament.   The Apostle Peter writes to New Testament believers.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5

And in the preface to Revelation, the Apostle John writes to the churches.

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 Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

Revelation 1:6

The Christian life is a priestly life.  The pattern of the Old Testament priesthood is neither irrelevant nor obsolete. But provides a remarkable picture of our life of fellowship, worship, communion and faith as we follow Christ, our great High Priest.

Join us as we examine Exodus 29 and consider how the priest’s ordination shows us how we are to live our lives as a kingdom of priests.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.