Are You Ready to Serve?

Seek Purification for Service

In order for old covenant priests to be ready to serve God, they had to be cleansed from sin. The washing mentioned in Leviticus 8:6 was symbolic of cleansing. Verses 14-17 describe the sacrifice of a bull as a sin offering, and verses 18-21 describe the sacrifice of a ram as a second offering. Old Testament priests sinned. If they were to be in the presence of God and ready to serve God, their sin had to be forgiven and cleansed.

That is a fundamental difference between the high priest in the Old Testament and Jesus the eternal high priest. Jesus is the only person who has ever lived on the earth without sinning. Hebrews 7:26-27 says that Jesus is our high priest, and it refers to Jesus as,

holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins.

Jesus has no need to offer sacrifices for His own sin because He never sinned. Hebrews 4:15 calls Jesus our high priest, and it says that He was “tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus was always clean morally and spiritually, so He was always ready to serve God.

Unlike Jesus, we, like the old covenant priests, have sinned. To be ready to serve God we must confess our sin and allow God to forgive us and cleanse us. Why? God requires us to be clean in order to serve Him.

Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver bowls, but also those of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (2 Tim 2:20-21)

God wants clean vessels to carry His living water to thirsty people. We are useful to Him when we are pure. Praise His name, He is always ready to make us pure by His forgiveness and cleansing! First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What God requires, God provides. God illustrated His requirement when He commanded His priests to offer sacrifices for their sin before they began to serve Him. We must seek purification for service. Are you ready to serve?

Demonstrate Dedication to Serve

Leviticus 8:22-29 describes the ordination offering. That was a special offering to dedicate the priests for service. Verse 23 says that Moses put some of the blood of the sacrifice on Aaron’s extremities—his ear, thumb, and toe. That represented the fact that all of Aaron was being dedicated to serve God. As we would say, he was dedicated to God “from head to toe.” Frances Havergal wrote words expressing that message in his song “Take My Life, and Let It Be.”

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.

Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

(public domain)

We dedicate every part of ourselves to God. That’s what Moses symbolized by touching the ear, thumb, and toe—complete dedication to God during ordination.

The Hebrew word translated “ordination” literally means “to fill the hand.” Filling the hand meant that someone was placing in the hands of the priests what they needed to serve as priests, giving them the tools of their trade. If we’re in a ceremony in which people are dedicating us to God, when they give us tools, we should get the message—the position for which we are being ordained will involve work. As someone has said, “Every great vision eventually degenerates into hard work.” When we have a grand vision to serve God, eventually we’re going to have to work.

In order to become members in the church where I serve, we are
all required to sign a covenant. Among other things, that covenant states that we will serve God in some way in the church. We do not intend to be a church that is filled with attenders. God calls every Christian to serve, He gives us gifts to serve, and He gives us pastors and teachers to equip us to serve. Galatians 5:13 says, “Serve one another.” To be obedient, we must serve. If you are not serving somewhere, find a place and start serving. Don’t be like the guy I heard about who applied for a job. His prospective boss called his former boss and asked him, “Is he a steady employee?” The former boss said, “Steady? He was so steady that he was virtually motionless.” Unfortunately, many followers of Jesus are just like that. Dedicate yourself to serve.

Enjoy Communion with God in Serving

Verse 31 describes an ordination meal that the priests ate at the entrance of the tent of meeting. They were in the tabernacle precincts, and that space represented the presence of God. Therefore, they were eating in the presence of God. Eating with someone symbolized fellowship, friendship. So the meal in the tabernacle area represented their communion with God. They were at peace with God. Are you? Do you have a relationship with God through Jesus? Are you in close fellowship with Him? Are you serving Him as He commands? We are “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), and priests serve.

My cousin Beverly and I are the same age. Beverly was not a Christian during our growing up years or during young adulthood. After she was married and about the time her husband left her, everything began to change. Several years ago, she wrote this:

Mae was my boss, but from the beginning I could tell there was something special about her. As time went by I realized that special thing was she was a Christian. . . . When you work with someone day after day you develop a relationship and ours became close, like mother and daughter. . . . Every Monday we would ask what the other had done that weekend. Her answer was always about something they had done at church. . . . My hunger to hear about God was growing, the seed had been planted. . . . I knew something was missing in my life and I started thinking maybe it was God. . . . Over the next couple of months my son and I attended Sunday School. . . . I was still holding back and not putting my trust in God. . . . Mae was always there to answer my questions and give me verses to read. And then on Easter weekend it happened.

She described how she put her faith in Jesus as her Savior, and then she continued:

The peace I found that day can only be discovered when you let God totally into your life and accept him as your Savior and believe in the Scriptures. . . . The Bible I read from is the one [Mae] gave me as a gift so many months ago when I was searching for answers to make order out of chaos.

To my cousin Beverly, Mae served a priestly role. She lived a godly life before her, she spoke God’s Word to her, and she brought her to God. She served, and God gave her power and blessed her. Are you ready to serve?

Reflect and Discuss