THE PROBLEM OF MESSIANIC JUDAISM

PART 26

 

A TRAIL OF MESSIANIC ISSUES, CONT.

 

 

8. Meaning of the Restored Levitical Ministry

The Messianic case for reconstructed Mosaic worship in the age to come also rests on prophetic references to future Levitical ministry (Isa. 61:6; 66:18-21; Jer. 33:18-22; Mal. 3:3-4). This contention is in turn founded on the assumption that the prophecies are speaking of naturally born Levites. But this case too fails at its foundation.

 

- The Problem of Levitical Identity

Isaiah distinctly shows that the identity of the restoration Levites is regenerative, not connected to physical Levitical lineage:

 

56:6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant; 7 even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

66:18 "—The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. 19 I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations—that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. 20 "Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, —to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. 21 I will also take some of them for priests {and} for Levites," says the LORD. 23 "And—All mankind will come to bow down before Me," says the LORD.

 

Taken together,⁸⁶ the Lord is saying in these passages that He will make priests and Levites out of foreign people who will offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to Him. These are not native Levites born to that tribe as prescribed under Mosaic Law. Not only so, but the opportunity to serve as a priest / Levite is open to anyone who wants it. In actuality, Isaiah is predicting the regenerative New Covenant truth of the priesthood of the believer, and projecting its expression into the era of glorified restoration.

Now consider. If anyone who wants to can become a Levite, and millions of people from around the world accept this invitation (which they will!), then it strips the priestly and Levitical offices of any natural lineage-based identity!  This means the prophesied restored ministry has nothing to do with one’s natural heritage. It means therefore that the prophesied Levitical order cannot be reconstructively Mosaic, because the Mosaic order strictly reserved Israel’s service of worship to those naturally born of the tribe of Levi.

If the identity of the priests and Levites in these prophecies is indeed regenerative, it also means that their ministry—their sacrifices and offerings—must be regenerative, in harmony with New Covenant spiritual reality and defensible in terms of spiritual physicality as described in the previous section.

 

- The Problem of Office Consolidation: The Melchizedek Factor

There is another problem with the case for Levitical reconstruction. Zechariah 6 says that when Messiah builds the temple, He will also combine the offices of the throne and of the priesthood (Judah and Levi) into one office, setting up His throne in the temple.

 

12 —Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, a man whose name is Branch—will build the temple of the LORD. 13 Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices." 14 Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the LORD…

 

In the Interpretive Synopsis from the first treatise, we demonstrated that Zechariah is really predicting the ascendancy of the Melchizedekan priesthood in which every believer is both a priest and king—fulfilled under the regenerative New Covenant order demonstrated in the Book of Revelation.

But what does this mean for the prophecies of a restored Levitical ministry? In the reconstructive realm, there cannot be two orders of priesthood, one Levitical, the other combined (Melchizedekan). Nor can a reconstructed Levitical priesthood exist as a “department” of a greater Melchizedekan king-priesthood. In the Mosaic order, the Levitical priesthood is the one and only priesthood allowable, and it may not contain elements of the kingship.

But in the regenerative realm, it is entirely possible for the Levitical priesthood to serve as a department of the Melchizedekan king-priesthood, using it to simply refer to the priestly side of the Melchizedekan ministry. That’s because a regenerative Levitical priesthood is not under constraints of Mosaic order, any more than it is under the constraints of physical lineage!

The point to all this is that, due to Zechariah’s prediction that Messiah’s king-priesthood and the restored Levitical priesthood will exist simultaneously, it is therefore impossible that the Levitical priesthood described by the prophets is a reconstruction of the Mosaic Levitical priesthood.

 

NEXT – PART 27: TRIBAL IDENTITY AND BOUNDARY RESTORATION

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