For the Priest Is the Messenger of Jehovah of Hosts

 

This passage teaches us the role of the priest: because the priest is the messenger of God, his lips must preserve the knowledge of God’s word, and people should seek the law of God from his mouth.

 

The messenger of God must never deliver any word to people other than the word of God. This is because the one who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him. And the one who is sent must know that faithfully delivering the will of the sender, without adding to it or taking away from it, is a blessing to him.

 

John 13:16-17 “16Verily, verily, I say unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord; neither one that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.”

 

Therefore, when God raised up a prophet, He spoke as follows.

 

Deuteronomy 18:18-20 “18I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”

 

Thus, the prophet who is sent must, as the messenger of God, speak to the people all the words of God without leaving anything out. If he speaks another word which God did not command him to speak, then, according to the passage above, he will be put to death. Therefore, those who have become messengers of God must know what is truly a blessing to them. No matter how much they may have other things they want to say, they must hold them back and proclaim only the written word of God just as it is.

 

Long ago in the wilderness, Balak king of Moab feared the great number of the people of Israel, and he brought Balaam the son of Beor in order to have him curse the people of Israel. This was because Balak knew that the one whom Balaam blessed was blessed, and the one whom he cursed was cursed.

 

Numbers 22:5-6 “5And he sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. 6Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.”

 

Balak king of Moab summoned Balaam because he wanted to hear the words he desired, and he wanted Balaam to curse the people of Israel so that he might defeat them. So he sent gifts and high-ranking nobles to Balaam to bring him. However, while Balaam was on the way, the angel of God stood in the road to oppose him and sought to kill him. At that time, the donkey he was riding rebuked him with a man’s voice. Through this, Balaam came to know clearly again that he could speak only the word that God told him to speak (Num. 22:21-35, 2 Pet. 2:15-16). Therefore, he spoke not the words Balak wanted, but only the words God commanded him to speak.

 

Numbers 22:37-38 “37And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to promote thee to honor? 38And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to speak anything? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.”

 

Just as Balaam said to Balak, the messengers of God are not in a position to speak anything of their own will. They can only speak the word of God. When Balak king of Moab again did not hear from Balaam the words he wanted to hear, he made the following demand of Balaam.

 

Numbers 23:25-26 “25And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all. 26But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that Jehovah speaketh, that I must do?”

 

To Balak’s demand, “Neither curse them nor bless them”—that is, say nothing at all—Balaam answered in the same way, saying that he could do nothing but what God had spoken. If even Balaam, a Gentile who practiced divination (Num. 24:1), spoke in this way, then what kind of person should the messenger of God be? Surely, the true role of God’s messenger is to put the word of God first, not the demands of people. This is because the servant of Christ is not one who seeks to please men, but one who seeks to please God.

 

Galatians 1:9-10 “9As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema. 10For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? or am I striving to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.”

 

Therefore, the apostle Paul said that when he proclaimed Jesus Christ, he did not do so with excellency of speech or of wisdom from man.

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “1And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

 

That is right. Now, rather than trying to speak “words pleasing to people,” “words people want to hear,” or “words one personally wants to say”—including one’s own experiences, wisdom, or understanding—priests must strive, as servants of Christ, to proclaim the words of Jesus just as they are, without any leaven mixed in. For, as mentioned earlier, the one who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him, and therefore the messengers of God have nothing to speak except the words of the One who sent them, that is, the word of God.

 

John 3:34 “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for he giveth not the Spirit by measure.”

 

Jesus Himself also said:

 

John 12:49-50 “49For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life eternal: the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak.”

 

Because the word of God is eternal life, Jesus also said that He did not speak from Himself, but spoke only the word of God just as it was given to Him. The Spirit of truth is the same (John 16:13). Therefore, we also, as servants of Jesus, must rightly proclaim only the words of Jesus.

 

If, like Balak king of Moab, there is someone who comes to a prophet to inquire for himself, and if there is also a prophet who answers him, God said that He would hold both of them accountable for their iniquity.

 

Ezekiel 14:7-11 “7For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Jehovah will answer him by myself: 8and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. 9And if the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, Jehovah, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10And they shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him that seeketh unto him; 11that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah.”

 

Because the word of God is like this, people must not come to priests to seek something for themselves, but must come to hear the words of Jesus. Whether those words seem pleasing or displeasing to them, they must obey them (Jer. 42:6). And priests must give them only the words of Jesus written in the Scriptures, without adding to them or taking away from them (Rev. 22:18-19). Truly, priests who become the messengers of God must rightly understand the role given to them, and must strive to keep only the pure and sincere words of Jesus in their mouth and proclaim them.

 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 “6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: 8wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

John 5:25 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.”

 

Amen.