Prophets and Priests

There's a distinction between two religious offices of the Old Testament we need to be clear on. This will help us to properly understand the Old and the New Testaments, and it will clear up some of the confusion people have as we live out our faith in the 21st century.

The main religious figures of the Old Testament were the priests and the prophets. The two roles were similar, but there were important distinctions.

The priests oversaw the operation of the temple. They made sure worship was according to God's design. And, of course, they performed the sacrifices that were required by the Law of Moses. It's this latter role that is the key to understanding the office of the priest: No one else could perform these sacrifices. The priest was an intermediary; he stood between the people and God, interceding on their behalf. The priest represented the people to God.

The prophets are associated with fantastic visions of angels and shouts of impending doom, but their role can really be summed up with one phrase: "Thus sayeth the Lord...." Sometimes they saw the future. Sometimes they had wild visions of heaven. Always they represented God to the people. Sometimes their role was to bring a new revelation from God, but usually they reminded the people of what God already said.

These two roles were quite separate. Moses was a prophet; he never performed any sacrifices. Aaron was the priest; he never heard directly from God. Both the priest and the prophet stood in the gap between God and man, but they were facing different directions.

How does this affect the New Testament? We are priests, not prophets.

Peter says believers are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1Pet 2:9). In Christ, we are the nation of priests Israel had declined to be. That means we do not need anyone to stand in the gap for us, to represent us to God. Our great High Priest has already made the only sacrifice we need, so we can "approach God's throne of grace with confidence" (Heb 4:16). We need no human intermediary to grant forgiveness of sins or to ask anything of our God and Father.

But priests are not prophets. Priests did not hear the voice of God. I don't deny the New Testament says some believers are given the gift of prophecy. We can debate exactly what that means, but it's clearly a gift given only to some.

In the scriptures there were very few people who got direct, open communication from the Lord. Why then do so many people believe all Christians should expect personal revelation from God?

There are two things we run into. First, there are a lot of people out there who think they have a direct line from God. They're always getting "a word from the Lord". Frequently that "word" seems to be something someone else needs to do. This may also result in their being unwilling to trust scholarly works like commentaries; they don't need books because the Holy Spirit will tell them what the scriptures mean, and they'll tell you the same. They behave as if they are prophets in continual communication with God and think this is normal for Christians.

We can also encounter believers who doubt their salvation because this doesn't happen to them. They may be heart broken because they've never received "a word from the Lord" like those other people.

Both groups need to hear that this is not the normal Christian experience. The former need to be careful they aren't giving their personal preferences or every idea that pops into their heads the label "Holy Spirit". They need to learn to respect the teachers the Spirit has given to the church and to have the humility to listen to them, because every prophecy is supposed to be tested against scripture (1Thes 5.20-21), and when the scriptures mean whatever you want them to mean, that's not a valid test.

The latter group needs to be comforted that they're OK. There's nothing wrong with them. They want to get special guidance from the Lord; we all do. But as the old saying goes, 95% of the will of God is in the Bible. Focus on putting that into practice and that other 5% will work out.

Every believer has access to God that was unimaginable before Christ. Rejoice in that. Rest in that. Take full advantage of that. And don't let the claims of the "super spiritual" disturb you.


Image: Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh, James Dabney McCabe, 1877 via Wikimedia Commons