Priestly Service In The Home
Family – November 2023 – Grace & Truth Magazine
Priestly Service In The Home
For those of us who are husbands, it is good to consider for a moment our priestly role in our families. There are many lessons that can be found in personal studies of men like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, which we encourage you to do. While these men are not called “priests,” they performed priestly service in their homes.
Every believer today is a priest, whether male or female (1 Pet. 2:5,9). As we know, all believers are equal before God (Gal. 3:26-28), but not all believers have the same function or responsibility. The responsible head of the home is the husband, just as Christ is the anointed head of the Church (Eph. 5:23).
When we look at the functions of a priest in Scripture we learn that they are twofold: toward God and toward others. In application, the horizontal service of a priest has many characteristics that are very helpful and challenging for husbands today. The priestly service toward others was basically characterized in five areas, which should be taking place in our homes:
- Interceding in prayer (2 Chr. 30:27),
- Communicating blessing (Num. 6:22-26),
- Directing worship (Lev. 1:9),
- Instructing in Scripture (Mal. 2:7), and
- Judging things in a holy manner (Lev. 13:2-3).
Priestly language is used in Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV): “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Christ gave Himself! Verse 2 says, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” We, especially husbands, are to imitate this sacrificial giving. Sanctifying, cleansing and washing are priestly activities which are connected with loving “just as Christ loved.”
But what does this kind of priestly service in the home look like? Adam (Gen. 4:3-4) must have taught his children to worship God, for they knew to give Him offerings. Noah not only served God by obediently building the ark and bringing his family into it, but he also offered burnt offerings to the LORD after the flood (Gen. 8:20) with his family no doubt looking on.
Look, too, for a moment at Job. He “was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). As father to seven sons and three daughters, Job regularly “would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all” (v.5). His concern was not only for their outward actions; it was also for what they had done or said in their hearts. Job loved his children with a view to the things of God.
“Teach your children” appears multiple times in Deuteronomy. The statutes and righteous judgments of God were before the people, who were told to watch themselves and teach what was of God to their children and their grandchildren (4:9). Later, the nation was told, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (6:5-7). Again, in Deuteronomy 11, the people were instructed to hold tightly to the words of the LORD and “teach them to your children” (v.19). Ephesians 6:4 adds a caution with the same instruction: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Proverbs 4 is one example of a father’s instruction to his son.
May we just also point out that a father must “rule his own house” in a right manner if he is to “take care of the church of God” (1 Tim. 3:4).
Let us all “meditate” on God’s Word, “take heed” to ourselves and “continue in” His teaching (4:15-16), serving Him as priests in the roles He has given to us.
By Timothy P. Hadley