Imperfect Priests
return the wife of the man, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. Genesis 20:7
Pray – Abraham caused the problem. He passed off Sarah as his sister in order to protect himself. Abimelech reaped the results. God brought the notice of a death sentence on the unsuspecting king. Abimelech complains. “How can this be fair? I didn’t even know.” God answer is disturbingly surprising. God tells Abimelech to go to Abraham so that Abraham can pray for Abimelech to live.
What? This doesn’t make any sense. Abraham is the guilty party. His deceit is the cause of the whole mess. Why would God send the king to the perpetrator for prayer? Unless you understand the role that the priest plays in God’s moral economy, you will never figure this out. Abraham is God’s priest and God treats Abraham in the capacity of a priest even when Abraham sins.
“He will pray for you.” In Hebrew, veyit.palel, from the verb palal. It’s the common Hebrew verb for prayer and intercession. That’s important because it tells us that this is no special case. It’s the same verb that is used to describe Hannah’s prayer (1 Samuel 1:10); a prayer that is considered the best of the best, Elisha’s prayer that raises the dead boy to life (2 Kings 4:33); and Daniel’s prayer for the sins of Israel (Daniel 9:4). We conclude that God’s assignment of the function of priest for those outside the Kingdom is independent of the actual moral status of the person assigned the task. Did you get that? You are expected to act like a priest, and God will treat you like a priest, no matter what your current guilty status happens to be. If God chooses you, then you are part of a royal priesthood. You do not get to opt out of that role just because you sin. God doesn’t see you as some sort of defrocked priest because you sin. He doesn’t even acknowledge your sin in the role of priest. Why? Because God sees the purpose you are to fulfill, the not person who fulfills that purpose. Your status before God is settled at the moment He chooses you. It is your obligation to act accordingly, even when you are responsible for the mess.
Think about how effective this is. Do you suppose that Abraham was unaffected by Abimelech’s distress? Abraham knew immediately that he was the perpetrator. He also knew that God expected him to pray on behalf of the victim – a victim who was in trouble as a direct result of his own sin. Don’t you think that Abraham’s role caused him to repent of all his deceit – before Abimelech and before God? Imagine the impact that such an assignment would have on you when God asks you to pray for the life of someone that you are responsible for mistreating!
The priesthood of the believer isn’t quite as glorious as you thought, is it? It’s real. It’s essential. It’s purposeful. Now it carries a much bigger load.
Topical Index: Priesthood
