“The responsibility of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light and the fragrant incense and the continual grain offering and the anointing oil– the responsibility of all the tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings” (Numbers 4:16).
We shall conclude the study on our priestly duty by looking at the final duty God gave the priest. This was the “responsibility of all the tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings” (Numbers 4:16). God instructed the people of Israel while they journeyed in the wilderness to build Him a sanctuary, a tabernacle built according to the pattern He revealed from heaven to Moses (Exodus 25:8-9). But now, the Most High God does not live in dwellings built by human hands (Acts 7:48). For we, who have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, are the temple of God (2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Just as the priest under the Old Covenant had a responsibility for the tabernacle of God, so are we as a royal priesthood under the New Covenant given distinct responsibilities concerning the temple of our God- our bodies.
Jesus taught us that God’s house is supposed to be a house of prayer (Matthew 21:12). Even so, if we are the temple/house of God, then we must be people of prayer. Prayerlessness and Christianity don’t go together. We are rather instructed to “be serious and disciplined for prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). It is the will of God that, at all times, we pray and not loose heart (Luke 18:1), for the heartfelt and continued prayer of the righteous makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working (James 5:16), and the prayer of the upright is the Lord’s delight (Proverbs 15:8).
Another responsibility we have been given concerning our bodies is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is our true and proper/spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1). This Scripture shows us that our worship of God is not complete until we have presented our bodies to God as a living sacrifice. This will require that we do not conform to this world but are transformed by the renewing of our minds on the word of God (Romans 12:2). Our thinking, perspective in life, and our sense of what is right and wrong must be in line with what the Word of God says. It is only when we renew our minds in this way that we are able to know and agree with the will of God (Romans 12:2). To present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God also mean that we do not live as we please, following after our fleshly desires. Rather, we are to walk and be guided by the Holy Spirit so that we will not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
We are given a solemn admonition concerning our bodies which we will do well to keep: Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). These Scriptures teach that we destroy God’s temple, which we are, through unholy living, and if unholy living becomes the manner of our lives then we make ourselves objects of God’s wrath. For it is written : “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16) and ‘without holiness no one shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Even so, if we are devoted to not destroying God’s temple then we must also give thought to how we treat our bodies: giving the proper attention to healthy living and physical exercise. It is in the body that we perform our priestly duties here on the earth, and we must give attention to eating healthily, having the proper rest and keeping fit in order to perform our priestly duties as we ought. No matter the strength of anointing we have for ministry, it will not do us and others much good if we are sickly and weak because we have not taken proper care of our bodies. This, however, does not call for the idolatrous worship of the body, placing the body above God and our spiritual life. For although physical training has some value, it is still limited but godliness is profitable for all things, holding promise for the present life and also for the life to come (see 1 Timothy 4:8).
Kwadwo Omari
© 2016