Questioning What the Church Does - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Chronicles 24:19,

"This was their [the divisions of priests] appointed order of ministering when they entered the temple of the Lord, according to the regulations prescribed for them by their ancestor Aaron, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded him."

As the planning and organization for the priests was enacted under David's rule, I note their ministering was "prescribed for them" by the first chief priest the Lord chose for Israel, Aaron - as the Lord had commanded him. There were those things the Lord wanted done in certain ways - not just any way. These things are available to us, as we can read of them in Moses' writings (the first five books of our Bibles) - the book of Leviticus is prime material for this.

From inspired books such as Leviticus, we learn the Lord ordained certain sacrifices and offerings, feasts and convocations for their religious calendar and so forth. As God's word was progressively provided us over the years through the nation Israel, we learn that much of it was designed for us to recognize the Messiah when he came to provide his sacrifice of atonement for all mankind.

These "regulations prescribed for them" had a larger and more broad significance as we can see from our vantage point. Through them the Lord was teaching the world what he was about and what he was going to do. "Clean" and "unclean" was to teach us about the duality of life (that which is godly and that which is not - sin), the concept of righteousness. The sacrifices were to teach us the concepts of substitutionary atonement for the unrighteous, of the fungible nature of payment for sin, of God's justice that must be satisfied, and so forth.

The responsibilities of the priests were provided for very specific purposes - God's purposes. They were not put in place to satisfy some felt need for "religious activity". They were not arbitrary and they were not without substantial meaning.

Which brings my mind to the things of the church today. What about that "order of worship"? What about those vestments? What about that liturgy? What about those church buildings with spires and steeples? What about the various activities that mark our ecclesiastical calendars? Since the Lord has not chosen to prescribe those things himself (save, maybe, remembering the Lord through the "Eucharist", the baptizing of new converts, etc.), how do those things further the Lord's agenda, as did his prescriptions for the priests the Lord provided through Aaron?

I'm not suggesting anything may be amiss here... but it appears to me that whatever it is the church adopts within its community, should it not further the Lord's agenda of redemption, as the responsibilities of the Jewish priesthood did? I'm certain much of what the church does may do. I am quite certain, however, there may be much that does not.

Just asking here...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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