Over the past month I’ve been reading the Wingfeather Saga to my daughter. It is fun to see her eyes open wide at the twists and shocks of the story, and to see it spill off the page, into her imagination, creating a world within her mind.
We’ve just finished the section where Janner Igiby has escaped the Fork Factory. During this time, we are constantly met with Janner’s angst, as he battles the tension between his feelings and his responsibility. We even see him confronted with differing types of responsibility, and we watch as he has to make the difficult choices of placing one above another.
In the Fork Factory, Janner is met with hundreds of kidnapped children who have been enslaved in horrible conditions, forging weapons for the evil Fangs. Not one to be put down so easily, he determines to escape. But he’s met with a choice: Bring others with him, making escape less likely, but freeing them alongside himself, or escaping alone, knowing that this will bring the greatest chance of everyone’s deliverance in the future.
As Janner struggles with trying to care about everyone, he is ultimately driven to act on the basis of one overpowering reality. He is not merely Janner Igiby, he is Janner Wingfeather, Throne Warden of the Shining Isle of Anniera. His first and foremost responsibility is toward his brother, the heir to the throne. Even if his brother doesn’t always want it, Janner is compelled to protect him. When the difficult decision in the Fork Factory arises, he is driven by the responsibility for his homeland, rather than the multitude of needs before him. His primary calling is to know his identity, and to live out the responsibilities and repercussions which it entails.
He’s not the only one.
In Leviticus chapters 6-7 we get a view of a similar calling. In chapter 1-6a we see the calling of the worshiper, the layperson, to draw near to God, through sacrifice. And maybe the implications are easily applied by us. We understand our need to approach God through the means he has given, and the effect that those means cause.
But from 6b through chapter 7, we get a look at the other side of the altar. Here it details the same sacrifices (plus the ordination offerings), but now from the priests’ perspective. Here is where we find the determining responsibilities of the priesthood that allow others to approach God with their help. And three major areas of their calling stand out: Drawing near, Devotion and Discernment.
- Drawing Near: He needed to know how to approach God for himself
Leviticus is about the approach to God, drawing near to his presence. And ultimately, that is the role of the priest. They are to be those who facilitate that drawing near. (Note: they do not cause the drawing near, nor are the means by which to draw near. But they do facilitate it.) The priest knows and understands the inner workings of the sacrificial system. The layperson may not understand exactly how his cow should be killed, or portioned out etc., but the priest is there to guide him, to ensure there are no mistakes made in the sacrifices, so that this offeror may himself draw near to God.
But firstly, the priests were to be themselves intimate with the details of offering the sacrifice. They personally must have drawn near to God, to have brought their offerings, to know what it meant to be cleansed, forgiven, brought into fellowship with God via the animal’s sacrifice. We see this especially in the ordination offerings that they must present. When a layperson offered a grain offering, the priest would have a share of it. But before the priest was fit to do that, he had to provide a grain offering that only the Lord enjoyed.
The priest would soon function as the embodiment of God’s presence. In approaching him, people began to approach God, which he facilitates. But he had to first know what it meant to draw near and enjoy communion with God alone.
This is a sobering thought for their ministry. It seems that this was particularly true of the next high priest (Lev 6:22), who, out of everyone, should know exactly what it meant to draw near into the intimate presence of God. How else could he lead others to do so?
2. Devotion: His dedication to his role was to equal, and eclipse that of those he served
But then their responsibility deepens. They serve on the other side of the altar now. And they were no mere observers, nor simply butchers. No. Their identity was to form their ministry. It was not for them to solely have their own private times of sacrifice, drawing near to God. The first “priests” in God’s presence were commanded to go and fill the world as mediators of his presence. So should it be for these priests after them.
This is what they were ordained for. This was their identity as the sons of Aaron. This was their role before God and before man. To treat it as a position of self improvement, of living off the offerings of others, of seeking self, rather than being invested in the facilitating of drawing near to God, was to invite disaster. This is how it was in the days of Eli’s sons, and God’s judgement fell. To act outside of their identity and calling, was to lead others to sin, and to destroy the approach to God, much like Adam and Eve in the garden.
The people would bring their best animals that they may draw near to God. It has cost them to raise them, they have set it aside rather than eating it, and now, they are offering it up as a burnt offering. An offering of devotion. A complete offering, with not even a taste of the toasted meat. It is a symbol of their utter devotion, and an utterly devoted animal for when their devotion has failed.
Should the facilitators of this sacrifice therefore be less devoted? By no means! Rather, the priests were to tend to the hearth of the altar all night. It should be continually burning and not allowed to go out. Four times in four verse this is mentioned. They needed to tend to the fire with as much (if not more zeal), as those who were placing a sacrifice upon it.
Their identity is as facilitators of the approach to God. Their role is devotion to those who would draw near. And it should never wane.
3. Discernment: He was to keep the approach to God pure
The aspects of approaching God were manifold. Five different offerings, five different purposes, and each of them accounting for different income levels, various options for how to prepare food, and just who should be allowed to eat from each type of sacrifice. The path to God’s presence, though wonderfully open through these means, was peppered with opportunity for the wrong path to be chosen.
These priests were to have a commitment to distinguishing between holy and unholy. They were to ensure that the command of the Lord was followed. The people could not simply waltz into God’s presence on a whim, bringing any kind of sacrifice they liked. Nadab and Abihu were stark warnings to that end. Rather, as part of their facilitating, the priests were to stick to the revealed means of approach. They were to guard against things that may defile the sacrifices or the altar itself.
Even vessels and clothing, tools which were prepared and consecrated for the task of helping in these offerings, must be constantly monitored by the priest as potential opportunities for uncleanness to enter into the cultic system. They must be washed, scoured, or even destroyed. “Once consecrated” did not mean “always useful”, and the priest had to be permanently on alert to this fact. (Let the tools of methodologies and means of ministry be so monitored and tested by us today.)
After his own sacrifices, and facilitating the drawing near of others, the priest must still remain on high alert for anything that may pollute the path and therefore make the sacrifices unacceptable to God, and the approach to his presence impassable.
As priests in this world, are we aware of our identity, and the responsibility that arise from that? We are facilitators of people drawing near to God through the sacrifice of Christ. That is no light task. It requires a knowledge of drawing near ourselves, of utter devotion to the task of seeing others draw near to him (believers and unbelievers alike) and of a discerning mindset that governs our actions. We cannot afford to act in any old way.
Janner Wingfeather realised that the one hope for the Fork Factory slaves was his freedom… because of who he was. If he were an ordinary boy, his freedom would have meant nothing to them. And he could have chosen to act in any way that he wanted. But his escape mattered, because he contained the hope of the kingdom within him. And he was bound to act on account of that hope.
If we truly are a kingdom of priests, freed ourselves by the sacrifice of Christ, then it behoves us to realise why it matters that we don’t merely join in drawing near to God ourselves, but that we learn how to minister from the other side of the altar, as conduits of the kingdom hope, as facilitators of others drawing near to God. What we do, and how we do it matters, not because of arbitrary motives or means, but because of the hope that we uniquely hold within us. And that hope will compel us to act in ways that bless people with ultimate good, the joy of drawing near to the living God.
Imitators of Those 
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