We are Called to Be Priests: The Mystery of Aaron & Melchizedek

Zechariah 6:12-13: The Lord of hosts saying, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory. He shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them.

Now, brothers and sisters, who shall sit upon this throne? The Branch. But who is sitting on the throne? Jesus. Oh, I know that, and you know that, but who’s sitting on the throne? Look at it again. I will read verse 13 again. He shall build the temple of the Lord; then he shall bear the glory, sit upon the throne, and be a king. Alright, now then, who’s sitting on the throne, brothers and sisters? The priest sits on the throne. And the council of peace shall be between both of them.

Let’s read the rest of the Scriptures. We’ve got a whole bunch. Hebrews 5:1-6: For every high priest, taken from among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity, and by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. And the “as was” is not really in the original, so we can say the only people who do this are those who are called by God, that is, Aaron. Now, we’ll read a little bit more. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.

Alright, we have here a picture of a man. The man comes into God’s presence, bearing sacrifices and gifts, but the man who does it, and who eventually, ultimately, even goes not at the altar, the outer altar, and the inner altar, but has to come into the Holy of Holies and bear the sin; this person has to be a man, but he has to be more than a man. He has to be a man called by God to go in there. He has to have God’s call on him for this.

The next verse says: As he also says elsewhere, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Does anyone have a cross-reference on that? What is the passage? Psalms 110. The whole Psalm 110. You are a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 7: 1-3. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; he had no father, he had no mother, he had no descendants, having neither beginning of his days, and he didn’t have any end of life, but was made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually.

Further down, it says he came bearing something to Abraham. What did he give unto Abraham? No, Abraham gives his tenth to Melchizedek; Melchizedek comes also giving something. He comes and gives Abraham bread and wine.

Exodus 28:12 is a little bit more about our priest Aaron.  All of this is telling what they’re going to wear, and I want to read one verse about what they’re going to wear. Thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memory unto the children of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memory. Who do you figure is going to remember? It’s a memory. Well, as for right now, you can just guess. Who might remember when they see these stones? You know, I think before we read this, we might as well read Psalm 110. There’s a great deal of reading here.

Psalm 110: And the Lord said unto my Lord, you will notice all of this consistently deals with the throne. And the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thine footstool. Read that again.

The Lord said unto my Lord…you will notice that all of this consistently deals with the throne… sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of …where? Isn’t it interesting where God sends the strength from? Go back and read Ephesians: God has given Jesus Christ thrones and dominions and principalities and powers, and headship over everything…three more words…to the church. So God says to Jesus Christ, “Sit.”

What do you do when you sit on a throne? You reign. Sit on this throne and reign until I make your enemies your footstool. And then he says, so there has to be a place on earth. It’s like a pipeline coming out of the throne of God. It’s got to have a place where it issues forth. Is that going to be out here in the middle of the field? No. The pipeline comes right down to here. Authority on earth issues out of Mount Zion.