He also had memorial stones: the first was worn over the heart; the second were two stones, one on each shoulder. Naturally, we shoulder responsibility, so therefore the names on the shoulder refers to responsibility as a son. So firstly, I need a heart change as a son. Secondly, I must carry responsibility as a son. Sons are responsible to represent their father, and extend the father's name and house, and so are worn on the shoulders.
Isaiah 9:6 – “The government shall be on His shoulders”.
So as a son, as a priest to God now, I now have a transformed heart, and many aspects of sonship are written by the Holy Spirit, on my heart. I need to grow into all of them. Secondly, I now have responsibilities as a son; and in my responsibility as a son, I must learn how to represent God, and exercise authority on His behalf. Then the final thing, the gold crown, which was worn on the forehead. Gold has to do with divine, or heaven, or God. It's worn on the head, or the forehead, which refers to the mind, the way you think; it talks about the mind of Christ. The gold there means that we have the mind of Christ. The statement it had on it was: ‘Holiness To The Lord’.
Part of our journey as a priest is the ongoing transformation of our heart. Part of our journey as a priest is that we take responsibility for working with God, and serving Him and advancing His kingdom. Part of our responsibility, as a priest, is to have our mind renewed, so that we're constantly being renewing our mind, and being transformed. So, every aspect represents an aspect of Christ, and an aspect of what it means to be a son or a child of God. Only the overcomers receive those priestly garments of glory and beauty.
Revelations 3:5 – “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments”.
So where you look in the Bible, you'll find pictures that you can just draw out, and suddenly they show you things that it's not easy to explain in the New Testament. The next thing I want to look at, in relationship to the priesthood, is that there was a change made, in the priesthood - God changed His mind. Now when God changes His mind, there's got to be a good reason for it; so, I want to have a look at that change that took place, in the priesthood. In Exodus 19 He called everyone to be priests to Him. However, because the people fell into idolatry, He said: okay, I'll limit it to the tribe of Levi; and then later on, He changed it from Levi to Judah. I want to have a look at that transition, because there's always a reason for it.
So in Exodus 19, He called them all to be a kingdom, or a holy nation, a kingdom of priests; but because of their idolatry, He narrowed it down to the tribe of Levi, and they had an Eternal Priesthood. Then He made a change, and I want to look into why He made the change, because what it means, very simply, is that the people who were operating in the priesthood didn't qualify, and so the priesthood went to someone who did qualify. I want to ask the question: why did they not qualify? What caused them to be disqualified, and lose their priesthood, their access to God? What caused the other ones to be qualified?
There are two priesthoods that are mentioned in the Bible: one is the Levitical priesthood, and they descend from Aaron and his descendants; the second one that's mentioned is called the Melchizedek priesthood, which is the priesthood associated with Jesus' ministry. So firstly, the Levitical priests: we saw before that everyone was called to be a priest. However, most people didn't want to go near God. They wanted someone to go to God on their behalf, and so they fell into idolatry, and then it set on the Levitical priesthood.
So the Levitical priests were chosen to minister the old covenant. They were all descendants of Aaron, so the Levitical priesthood represents the old covenant. It represents the law. Under the law, I had to do things to walk with God; and it says, concerning Levi, that Levi was quite violent and cruel, and came under a curse. In Genesis 49:5, Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty in their dwelling place. So, the Levitical priesthood was replaced by another order - the Melchizedek priesthood. The Melchizedek priesthood are chosen to minister the new covenant, the things of the spirit. Two priesthoods: the priesthood of the law, where you're operating under law, under rules; and then the priesthood of the New Testament, which is under Melchizedek, and it is operating in the spirit.