Distinction

Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.  -- Malachi 3:18

During the Incarnation, Jesus talked of how things would be for people at the end of His earthly ministry.  He compared it to the days of Noah.  No one expected the flood, even though Noah told them judgment was coming.  They continued to live as though nothing ever changed.  In the time of Jesus, people heard Him speak and tell of terrible times to come – e.g., Matthew 24, yet they continued to live as though Jerusalem would never face tribulation. 

I don’t know if things will become difficult, if judgment of some kind will fall upon the earth.  I don’t know if San Francisco will face another great earthquake, if the Yellowstone caldera will erupt, or if a sweet meteor of death will strike Washington, D.C. or Brussels or Mecca. 

I do know that I will die someday, and I’m not the only one to which this end will come.  When that happens, I believe I will be required to give an account of how I have lived since I entered this world.  Some of that account is going to be pretty embarrassing, if not downright shameful.  Still, I believe in the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of God.  As Jeremiah said in Lamentations, the mercies of God are new every morning.  I will not exhaust His clemency or His compassion. 

I am not anyone else’s judge.  As many failures as I have had, as many times as I have willfully and intentionally done the wrong thing, I can in no way be acceptable to God on my own.  But I am not on my own, for … [I]n Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them … (2 Corinthians 5:19).   Christ stands between the righteous and the wicked as Aaron the priest stood between the living and the dead (Numbers 16:48).

But for Christ, I could in no way be counted among the righteous had not the Father [f]or our sake  … made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Christ is our distinction.

Standing In

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.  -- Zechariah 3:3-4

This Joshua is the high priest in the time of Zerubbabel.  The prophet sees this scene in a vision that foreshadows the work of our Joshua which, as you know, is simply another form of the name “Jesus”.  Jesus as our great high priest was clothed in the filth of humanity’s iniquity and rebellion.  Because of His willingness to come down to us, to be shamed, humiliated, and put to death on our behalf, He was raised up, clothed in purity and perfection.    

Unlike the high priests of Aaron’s line, the Lord had no iniquity of His own to be taken away.  The sin that was removed was mine and yours. 

There are days that I wake up and think that I am broken beyond all hope.  I wonder if I can ever be anything except a miserable, pathetic excuse of a person who sometimes actually rejoices in evil.  My self is a corrupt, grubby beggar.  But between that soiled and sinful dead man stands the living Christ, clothed in spotless robes of righteousness, making intercession for me.  He is the one who is seen and accepted in my place. 

Numbers chapter 16 tells the story of a rebellion among God’s people led by Dathan, Abiram and Korah.  Those who thought they were righteous enough to stand before God challenged Moses and Aaron and brought their own censers to offer incense (prayers) before the Lord.  Korah was a Levite but not of Aaron’s line.  He was a son of Kohath and had duties relating to the tabernacle.  But he was not a priest.  The principals in the rebellion were swallowed up by the earth, and two hundred and fifty of their followers where struck down by the fire of God. 

The next day – and who thought this was a good idea? – the congregation was grumbling against Moses and Aaron.  They said to them, “You have killed the people of the Lord” (v.41).  Brilliant.  The cloud of the Presence descends and the Lord tells Moses and Aaron to step back because He has had just about enough for this week.  A plague falls upon the Israelites and people start dropping dead.  At the urging of Moses, Aaron took a censer and ran into the crowd.  And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped (Numbers 16:48).

So today, the High Priest stands between the Living God who is a consuming fire and the dead man.