I was reading in Leviticus the other day and had a thought I wanted to share with you.
In chapter 22 it is talking about proper use of Holy thing, mostly holy food from the sacrifices. In large part the chapter is about who can and cannot eat of these holy things.
What stood out to me was verses 10 and 11. But we will get to that in a second. First I must express how I often feel.
I of myself am a wicked man. When I have done right I have only ever done what anyone in my position and place would have done and more often than not, I have fallen short of even that. As the words of Come Thou Fount put quite eloquently:
“O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.”
As such I often feel a stranger in a strange land when in our churches. I feel a foreigner, hired in the 11th hour, scared and disfigured and cut out of the congregation.
This, as often is the case, was upon my mind when I was reading through the scriptures and came to leviticus 22. My feelings did not abate as the chapter talks of those who are strangers, foreigners, hired hand, scared, sick, and hurt not being allowed to partake of the Holy Thing.
But then I came to verse 11:
“but if a priest buys a person with his own money, that person may eat the holy offerings”
In a slightly looser translation:
If a priest buys a person for a price, they may partake of the Holy thing
That stopped me for a moment. Although and outsider, a foreigner, a stranger in a strange land, should I be bought for a price by a priest I could partake of the holy things.
A series of thoughts then occurred to me:
“Hey that’s kind of cool, I wonder how that would be”
“We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
“Oh right, I had forgotten that scripture, but he would not want me, I know me”
“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Wait, I have been bought with a price, in fact the greatest peice that has ever been paid, paid for by not just a priest but the highest of High Priests.
By virtue of this divine act, I, the broken, foreign, 11th hour worker who is cast out, can partake of the Holy thing.
If you feel as I do. If you feel like you don’t belong, if you feel like all you do is fall short, you have been bought with a price. You have been brought into a the house of the priest and you are allowed to partake of that which is holy.
If you are ever made to feel like you do not belong, shrug that off. God has bought you, and wants you. You belong to Him and have a place in His congregation.
As always I’m praying for thee, please pray for me.