Why Every Jew Was Meant to Be a Priest — Exodus 19

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, I guess we're ready to get back into our introduction. That's all we've been doing for the last two half hours. I'm getting everyone ready for our study of the book of Matthew. And now, when I say Matthew, I'm talking about the four Gospels. We're not going to take Matthew verse by verse and then Mark and Luke and John. But we're going to take an overview of the Gospels and prepare us then for the book of Acts because there's no use studying Acts unless you understand the Gospels. There's no use trying to study the Gospels unless you understand the Old Testament because again, as we said in the last program, all of this is a progressive revealing. And it's just like building blocks. So I'm going to have you turn with me to Exodus chapter 19. And again, for those of you on television, we'd like to welcome you to study with us. And if you have a question, feel free to write to us. We try to answer our questions personally. And again, I want to thank all of you out there for your letters, your encouragement, and for your financial help. We can't do this without money. I never will ask for money. We never have, but nevertheless, the Lord has led you and you've given how we do appreciate it. And we thank Him for it. All right, so now if you'll come with me to Exodus 19, like I said, this is still more or less all an introduction to the account of Christ's first coming and His dealing with the nation of Israel. Now here in Exodus 19, of course, they have just recently come out of Egypt under Moses. They are now a nation of people. And as they're gathered around Mount Sinai in the next chapter, they're going to get the Law. They're going to get the Ten Commandments. And then, of course, all the other ramifications of the Law will follow. But as yet, it hasn't been given, and now God is telling Moses what to tell the children of Israel. Now remember the setting. They're out of Egypt, and they're gathered around Mount Sinai. Exodus 19, verse 5, God says, Now you see, He always leaves it up to the will. It's up to them. He's not going to force them, but it's conditional. That if you will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people. Now there again, that's God setting Israel aside and above all the other nations of the world. That's why we call them the chosen people, the favored nation, the covenant people, whatever you want to put on it. But it is God sovereignly designating this little nation for a unique role in His overall program for the whole human race. Now just because He's going to deal with the Jew only forever so long, doesn't mean that He has blanked out the Gentile. We're going to see that in just a minute. But the whole scope of this is that He can prepare now this favored nation, this covenant nation, for the express purpose of bringing all the other nations of the world to a knowledge of Israel's God. Which reminds me, do you remember the last time we taped in our last half hour program, I was looking for a little clipping I'd taken out of Jerusalem Post, and I wanted to read it, and you remember I couldn't find it because I'd left it in my other Bible at home. But I managed to bring it along, and it is out of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. I'll have to give him credit, and he writes every week in the Jerusalem Post, and it's always a comment on some verse in the Old Testament. And as I've mentioned in this program so many times, he is so on line with what I would call our view of their accepting what they think will be the Messiah. But anyway, on the other hand, he's right in line with what I've always taught concerning Israel's role of being the vehicle, if I may use that word, to bring the knowledge of their God to all the other nations of the world. Now this is in one of his articles just a couple weeks ago, and I wasn't able to read it, but I'll read it to you now. He said, "...Abraham had been promised that a nation emerging from his own loins would against all odds survive and declare the name of the one God to the world." And that's exactly what I've always been saying. This is the whole scope now then of bringing the nation of Israel on the scene, giving them the Abrahamic covenant that God would make them a nation of people, He would put them in a geographical area of land, and then one day He Himself would come in the person of the Messiah to be their King. Now this was the whole scope of the Old Testament. Now as you read the Old Testament too, always remember that most of the time everything is written in the future tense. Remember the Abrahamic covenant? God said, "...I will make of you a great nation, I will do this, and I will do that." Now that's all in the future. When He talked about Osiris, the King of Persia, He named him 150 years before he was born. Now what is that? That's prophecy. And whenever you see the text in the future tense, that's prophecy. See? I will. And He can reveal it in His own time, but you see a lot of times in the Old Testament He reveals things prophetically before they happen. And so you have both of them to sort of cope with. Now in Exodus 19, this is more or less prophetic. He's telling the nation of Israel that if they will be obedient to His covenants, then they can be a treasure above all the other nations of the world, and God can do it, He says, because the earth is Mine. And then look at verse 6. It's what I call, again, one of the benchmark verses of Scripture. And He says to the nation of Israel, "...you shall be unto Me a..." What? Kingdom. "...a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." In other words, a set-apart nation. "...these are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." Now what does that verse say? That the day would come out there in the future when every Jew was to have been a priest of God. Now lock that in up here, because when we get into Matthew, I'm going to refer back to this. Every Jew in God's program of the Old Testament economy was to have become a priest of God. Now I know the first thing you say, well that was just for the Levites. Well I know, so far as tabernacle worship was concerned, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about reaching out to Gentiles. Every Jew was to have been a priest. Now always remember, what is a priest? Well he's a go-between, see? And so every Jew was to get to the point where he is God. That's the promise, but it was conditional that they had to be obedient to His covenants. All right, now let's just take a quick swing again up through the Old Testament. We're always heading toward Matthew now, remember, in the New Testament account. Now in Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah 42, and you just start at verse 1. Isaiah 42, verse 1. Where the prophet writes, now I've got to wait and make sure you all have it. Isaiah 42, verse 1. Now this is a personal pronoun, so we're talking here about the Messiah, the Christ, the One that's coming. I have put My Spirit upon Him. In other words, He was already an established personality. He's a member of the Deity. But now look at the next statement. What tense is that in? Future, see? Future tense. He shall, in the future, He shall bring forth judgment or rule to what people? The Gentiles, see? Now God hasn't forgotten about the Gentiles. Not at all. But He's going to reach those Gentiles after He has prepared this covenant people. All right, now I said we could go all the way up to Zechariah. Next to the last book in your Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 8. Zechariah chapter 8, verse 20. Zechariah chapter 8, verse 20. All right? Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, It shall yet come to pass. Past, present, or future? Future! So when God speaks of something future, what is it? Prophecy! See? This is prophecy. It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people in the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts. Now remember, these are Gentiles. Cities, nations, see? Not Jew. And they'll pray before the Lord to seek the Lord of Hosts, and this one Gentile will say to another, I'll go also. Then verse 22. Yea, many people, and strong nations, plural, you see that? We're not talking about Israel here. These are the Gentile nations. And they shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts, where? In heaven? Jerusalem, see? In Jerusalem. And to pray before the Lord, or before Jehovah, and that's what the word Lord in the Old Testament is Jehovah. In those days, what days? These prophetic days that are out there, when the Gentiles will be able to come to a knowledge of Israel's gone. Alright, how are they going to come to that knowledge? Here it is. Remember what Exodus just said? They were to become a kingdom of priests. Every Jew is to be a priest, a go-between, alright? Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages, see? These are Gentiles. They shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, the Gentile nations. They shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. And what do they say to that Jew? We will go with you. Why? For we have heard that God is with you. Now isn't that plain? See now, this is the role that God is preparing the nation for. So that when the appropriate time comes, every Jew would have been a priest of God to bring Gentiles to a knowledge. Now that's the Old Testament format. And that's all God is revealing so far is that this is the way God is going to reach the Gentiles, is through Israel. Now then, let's back up to Psalms chapter 2. I hope I don't confuse by doing this, but I'm trying to throw all this introduction together in such a way that when we get into the Book of Matthew and into the Gospel accounts, you will have a clear understanding of what it's all about. Now, in Psalms chapter 2, beginning with verse 1. Psalms chapter 2, and it's just a little short chapter, and we only have to go to about the verse 6 or 7 to cover everything that we want to cover here anyway. Let's just begin verse 1. Why do the heathen, or the Gentiles, rage, and the people, the Jew, imagine a vain thing? Now, you remember what Solomon said about vanity. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Well, the vanity in this case is that they're so wrapped up with themselves that they don't want anything to do with a sovereign God. Verse 2. "...the kings of the earth," Gentiles, "...set themselves, and the rulers of Israel, take counsel," What's the next word? "...together." All right, now leap ahead. "...on the night of his arrest," his betrayal, "...and his kangaroo court, who was conniving now to put him to death, well, not just the Romans, not just the Jew, but both of them together." Now, don't lose sight of that, because this is prophecy. And it wasn't an accident that the Romans put him to death. But that's the way it happened, because it's prophecy, see? All right, now read on. Verse 3. "...so the nations of the world in so many words said, Let us break their bands," that is, of the Godhead, "...let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." In other words, we'll not have You rule over us. We want to go our own way, and that's exactly what they've done. Verse 4. "...he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them," that is, the nations, "...in derision." Now, it's taken 2,000 years more, of course, than the first indications of prophecy would have indicated. But where are the nations tonight? There they are. Oh, we're in complete derision. They think it's over now, and there's just no return. I keep telling people all the time, I'm not a pessimist, I'm an optimist. Hope springs eternal on the wrong side, and the rest of the man is on the wrong side of the market. You've heard that. And I'm an eternal optimist, but on the other hand, I can see things going on in our beloved nation that we are no longer able to turn around. We are past that point of return. And, of course, that just tells me that we're in derision. Now, verse 5. "...then," when they've reached that point of perplexity, as the word Jesus used in Luke 21, "...then he shall speak to them in his," what? "...wrath." Now, that's not love, mercy, and grace. Wrath is the opposite. "...he will speak unto the nations, Jew and Gentile, in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." What is this? The Tribulation. Now, I think I've shared it, and he won't mind. I have a Jewish gentleman watching my program out in Hollywood, California. And he loves to call periodically, and he's not a Christian Jew. He's an Orthodox, Judaistic Jew, and, boy, I'll tell you what, we have some good conversations. And the other day, he said, now, Les, and he was so excited, and I know he expects me to share it on the program. He said, Les, he said, I just came from a seminar of rabbis. And he said, I've got to share this with you, because I want you to share it with your classes and your program. He said, the rabbis are all excited because they are convinced that we're right at the coming of the Messiah. See? They're right at the coming of the Messiah. And he was so excited, he could hardly spit it out fast enough. And then we got talking about things, and I said, well, now, what do the rabbis do with the seven years of Tribulation? Well, he said, the only difference from what you teach and what they feel is that it's going to be awful for the Jew, but not seven years' worth. It's going to be a relatively short, terrible period. Oh, he says, I know. He said, the Jews are going to come under some horrible events. But he said, not seven years. Well, you know, whatever. We have our differences. But I just had to share that with you, because like I say, I know he'll be waiting for it on the program, that I am indeed using his information. He told me a lot more. Oh, and I just don't want to take the time to share all of it. But it is. It's getting close. We're not that very far away. And of course, I always have to remind him, now, everything you're looking for in your Messiah coming the first time is what I teach my classes is, the Antichrist. And it is. I mean, everything that they're looking for in a Messiah is my description, your description, of the Antichrist. See? But they are blind to that, and they're going to accept Him. You know, Jesus said, if we ever get to that in our Gospel, when we go to teach the Gospels, you remember Jesus said, I come in My own name, and you won't accept Me. But He said, the day is coming when another shall come in My name, and you will accept Him. Well, of course, that'll be the Antichrist. But anyway, so verse 5 is the Tribulation. But immediately following verse 5 is verse 6. And there's no indication of any kind of a gap in between there. And what does verse 6 talk about? The King setting upon the holy hill of Zion. Now, do you see that? Just as sure as the nations, Rome and Jew together, conspired and crucified and rejected the Christ, God called Him back to heaven. Psalms 110, verse 1. Come sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. All right? That's going to be followed by the wrath and vexation in verse 5. Then verse 5 is followed by what? The Kingdom. See the order? That's the Old Testament program. Immediately after the Tribulation, those days would come the Kingdom. And so far as Scripture is concerned, there's no room here in Psalms for 2,000 years. And so the Old Testament looked for all these events to just take place one right after the other. And then after Israel had the King and the Kingdom, you see, then they could carry out all these promises of taking the knowledge of salvation to the Gentile. Now, of course, that flies in the face of what we understand, that there would be no unbelievers going into the Kingdom. Now they see that was all changed, of course, when Israel rejected the King and the Kingdom, and Jesus was crucified, went back to heaven, not to immediately come after the Tribulation, but now to wait 2,000 years while Israel has been set aside and we've had the Church Age, see. But that wasn't in the Old Testament. There's nothing in here at all to indicate that there's going to be 1,900 and some years that God is not dealing with Israel because God hadn't revealed that yet. Here's part of the secret again, that He has not given any indication of whatsoever. All right. Have we looked at Isaiah 42? I don't think we did yet. Did we? Yeah, I did. Okay, now then let's go on into the Book of Matthew because according to the Old Testament program now, and that's why I put the line up here because I've noticed in my classes during the week I always go up or go down, so I draw the line ahead of time for the television audience, and we've come back here to Genesis 1 again, the creation of Adam, and then in just 11 chapters we cover that whole period from Adam to Abram or Abraham, 2,000 years in 11 chapters. 2,000 years in 11 chapters. Maybe I better get this a little clearer. Just the first 11 chapters of Genesis cover that whole 2,000 years. Then we get to Genesis 12, we have the call of Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant. All right, now then as I've shown it so often, out of the mainstream of humanity God calls this one little nation, the nation of Israel, and to them He makes these promises that they're going to become a kingdom of priests. And in order to prepare them to be that kingdom of priests He puts them under the law. It was a whole preparation process. Gave them the temple worship, the priesthood, and He gave them the Old Testament, the Word of God, and He's going to let the Gentiles, as we saw in Ephesians chapter 2, He's going to let them go. They're outside the covenant promises. They are not citizens of the nation of Israel. They're without hope, they're without God, and so they continue on their way until such time as Israel can be funneled back into the Gentile nations with the idea of bringing them then to a knowledge of their God. So this is the whole scope of the Old Testament, and this is all, what have I said? Prophecy. Everything in the Old Testament is telling future events. The coming, yes, of the crucifixion. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It's all back here. But it's in such subdued language and in such latent terms that nobody understood it. They didn't have a comprehension as the leaven, even when Jesus told them, as we saw some time ago in Luke 18, when Jesus told them that He'd be crucified or He'd be put to death and He'd rise from the dead. They didn't comprehend it. But here is God dealing now with His nation of Israel, preparing them for the time when they can be used to bring a Gentile to a knowledge of their God. This is all prophecy. Now, after Israel has rejected all of that and you get into the book of Acts, let's just draw a line here. After the ascension and we get into the book of Acts, it's still the same premise. A lot of people don't see this, but all you have to do is look at the language. Peter is strictly appealing to the Jew. See? And his whole idea is just an extension. Well, let's put the three years of earthly ministry here. For three years, as we study the Gospels now, Jesus is going to be presenting Himself as the fulfillment of all of these prophecies as He comes to the nation of Israel. Then they crucify Him and Peter picks up the torch and he continues on in the book of Acts with that same program. And that's what we're going to be showing in the next several weeks. How that all of this is primarily, not exclusively, but primarily Jew only. And then I always put with exceptions. All right, but Israel continues to reject. And then, here comes a body of truth. And that's the best way I can put it. Here comes a body of truth that has never before been mentioned. It's all in fulfillment, but it is a body of truth that Paul refers to now as the mysteries. Now, when that is complete, then, as we've seen over the last several weeks, we're going to go into that final seven years, which once again is what? Prophecy, the Second Coming. See? Our time is running out, but whatever. This is the whole format coming out of the Old Testament, and the Jew is going to continue to reject it, and then God reveals the mysteries. All right, let me show you a little bit of what I'm talking about. Go with me, if you will, to Matthew, just to finish out this program, and then the next program I'm going to go back to chapter 1 and pick it up. But turn with me a moment to chapter 4, Matthew, and verse 17. That's all we're going to have time for. Time is gone. Matthew 4, verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, "...repent." Why? Well, the King was there, ready to set up His kingdom. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. 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