A Priest in the Home

A PRIEST IN

THE HOME

James Michael Doyle

Copyright © 2000 by James Michael Doyle.

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Contents

FORWARD

CHAPTER ONE

HE SHALL PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI

CHAPTER TWO

DENY YOURSELF, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME

CHAPTER THREE

NOW THIS IS WHAT YOU SHALL OFFER EACH DAY UPON THE ALTAR

CHAPTER FOUR

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD

CHAPTER FIVE

BE A HOLY PRIESTHOOD, OFFERING SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES

CHAPTER SIX

TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE

CHAPTER SEVEN

HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES, AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH

CHAPTER EIGHT

LET MAN HAVE DOMINION OVER ALL THE EARTH

CHAPTER NINE

WE DO NOT WAR AFTER THE FLESH

CHAPTER TEN

YOU TOLERATE THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AFTER YOU HAVE DONE EVERYTHING, STAND

This book is dedicated to my wife, Kathy, and my five children

who endured my pesthood but adore my priesthood. They all

were a great inspiration and encouragement to me in writing

this book.

FORWARD

You will note that the title says to be a priest in the home, not a pest in the home. Although my wife will never admit it, I was such a pest for the first eighteen years of our marriage. And, even though I was saved after the first six years, I really did not turn my pesthood into a priesthood until a few years ago. Oh, I didn’t beat my wife or kids, or anything like that. It was just little things: nagging, grumbling, complaining, never satisfied, always demanding perfection. And even though I act more like a priest today than ever before, I still must struggle to keep myself from slipping back into pesthood. Quite often I fail.

This is the reason for writing this book. There is a very real crisis among the men in the church. We are abdicating our responsibility as spiritual leaders to our wives, Sunday school teachers, pastors and anyone else who will take it. We have need of a how to book where we can go to learn our scriptural responsibilities as the priests in our homes. Some men may not need this resource but most of us are starving for it. I fall into this latter category.

Very little of this book is based on scientific data or deep psychological insight. But, I have been observing men for years. I’ve been watching us. And I can say without any reservation that I was not, nor do I remain, the only pest around. I have tested my observations against the Scriptures and, by God’s grace, have discovered some truths about His expectations for the male of the species in the home. Of course I do have some experience too, with five grown children and a wife of over 33 years.

But before we begin learning about these expectations and our response to them, let’s get one thing straight. Our response is to

God, and God alone. We can’t fall into Satan’s trap by conditioning our response upon our wives’ performance. In other words, no excuse will be accepted that goes something like this: I could really be an effective priest in my home if my wife would submit to my authority. Guess what? If you use that worn out excuse, you’ll still be a pest.

Rather, our effectiveness as a priest can only come from the One who set up the priesthood: God Almighty. Then by submission of our will and desire to His will and His desire, we will see our home become His Tabernacle and our families become His church.

You will find in this book that our priestly duties in the home tie very closely to the priestly duties of the old Levitical priesthood in the Tabernacle and the Temple. That is, to preserve the word of God (know it and understand it), teach His laws to the people (our children), intercede with God for the people (our wives and children), and make sacrifices on behalf of the people (again, our wives and children). But our New Testament priestly duties don’t end there. We also have to love, lead, provide for, and protect our families as priests in the home. And if you haven’t discovered it already, this is an impossible task to accomplish without divine help. God promised this help to the Levitical priests as they ministered to the nation of Israel, and He promises us this same help as we minister to our families: a microcosm of the nation of Israel.

Each chapter in this book explains why these duties are to be performed and how they are to be performed. This work is intended to be an instruction book on how to begin to be a priest in the home. It doesn’t contain all the answers; you’ll have to do some of the research on your own. But, it is a good place to start.

So say yes to God’s call to be a priest in your home and see if God will not honor your faithfulness by pouring out so much blessing that you’ll not be able to contain it all.

CHAPTER ONE

HE SHALL PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI

It is 6:00 A.M. I grumble as I tumble out of bed. My two older daughters, both teenagers, are arguing over who was using the mirror first in the bathroom. Initially it starts out as a whispering match, but intensifies as it moves to the bedroom and degrades into a test of wills over who can be more stubborn in preventing the other from wearing her blouse.

Oh, but have no fear. The grumbler ( a name I called myself) will make peace. If you’ve ever tried to put out a fire with gasoline, you will understand what happened. I am drawn into the middle of the raucous and don’t just whisper loudly, but start shouting. And, of course, my concern is not just about their argument any more, but the bathroom’s a mess and their bedroom is a pigsty. Now, the entire household is awake and grumbling. A new day has dawned and we’re not exactly praising God for it.

Little did I know that I was being manipulated by an unseen enemy into exactly the position he wanted me. I had the choice of setting the mood in the home first thing in the morning. It could be a joyful beginning, or it could be a contentious one. If it was joyful, God would be glorified. If it was any other way, He would not be. And, the enemy would win another battle. He has won many.

By contrast, picture another morning. My first thought as I awaken is to thank God for a beautiful day (even if it’s raining). I lay there for a while just thinking how good He is to us and how much He has blessed our family. Another minor scrape begins over the mirror or the wardrobe. But, instead of playing peacemaker, I offer up a little prayer and ask for God’s peace to settle over our home. Soon it’s quiet again, without me saying a word. As I drop my daughters off at school I bless them, tell them I love them, and remind them to cover themselves (which I’ll explain later). And, instead of them being upset and contentious, they have smiles on their faces and a peace about them.

Anyone who heads a household has a very great and grave responsibility; as great as any job on earth. That is to be a priest in the home. And it is no simple task. It’s not for the fainthearted or weak. Rather, it takes courage, true manliness (which I’ll explain more fully in chapter 2), to head a household in today’s world.

Now, before I go too much further and offend all the women of the world who are trying to run a household by themselves, please understand that I am directing this primarily to men. That’s not to say you won’t get anything out of this book. Only you and the Lord know that your job as a single parent is more difficult than when two are running things, because you’re having to fulfill both roles. But the men must be talked to first, in a direct concise way, so they know their responsibilities. Then, maybe we’ll see fewer single-parent homes, particularly in the church, as it should be.

The office of priest was instituted by God Himself at Mt. Sinai. Because our families are nothing more than miniature churches, the person leading these is looked upon by God, and held accountable, as a priest. Accountability to God carries with it great reward or grave consequences. There is no way a priest in the home can escape this accountability any more than a priest in the church can escape it (which includes pastors, ministers, etc.). And, just because you are a pastor or minister of a church does not diminish your responsibilities to be a priest in the home first. On the contrary, you have a double portion of responsibility. No one who heads a household will escape the final accountability to God on how they fulfilled their priestly office in the home.

Because this accountability is so great and the job is so important, we need to study the duties of the priest. The best place to start is the actual office of priest, which God ordained for the children of Israel in the Old Testament. Please keep in mind as we look at this and other rituals God ordained that He gave us these physical things in the Old Testament to help us understand spiritual things in the New Testament.

Just as the natural-born descendants of Abraham comprised the physical nation of Israel under the Old Covenant, so the spiritual-born descendants of God, through brotherhood with Christ, comprise the spiritual nation of Israel under the New Covenant. Thus, in the Old Testament, God has provided a vast guidebook of spiritual truths related to us in the natural or physical realm that we can apply in the New Testament to the spiritual realm.

THE LEVITES

The Levites are the descendants or tribe of Levi. He was the third son born to Jacob (whose name was later changed to Israel) by his wife Leah. The name Levi means joined, and was given to him by Leah. She hoped his birth would join her closer to her husband, Jacob, because he loved his other wife Rachel more than her.

The tribe of Levi did not get the best start in the world. Apparently Levi and his brother Simeon were ill tempered, vengeful and ruthless. When their sister Dinah was violated by a non-Israelite named Shechem, they plotted a scheme to completely murder all the Shechemite men and utterly plunder their city. They pretended to agree to let Shechem marry their sister if he and all his men would be circumcised. Three days after the circumcisions were done, while the men were still in pain, Levi and Simeon attacked the city and killed all the men, taking Dinah home. Then the other sons of Jacob completely plundered the city and carried away everything they had. (Genesis 34)

This caused Jacob so much grief that he remembered it until his death. And when it came time to bless each of his sons before he died, he actually cursed Levi’s anger and fury so cruel. And he predicted that Levi’s descendants would have no land of their own in the Promised Land, but be scattered throughout all Israel. Such was the heritage Levi left for his descendants.

But what seems to be a curse to man can be a blessing in the Lord’s plan of events. The tribe of Levi was blessed when Moses and Aaron, both Levites, were selected by God to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And the Levites were further given an opportunity to redeem themselves by making a choice to follow the Lord when the golden calf was made at the foot of Mt. Sinai. While Moses was up on the mountain, God revealed to him that, by His grace, He would make Aaron His high priest and Aaron’s sons His priests. This would be a great honor bestowed upon the tribe of Levi. But neither Aaron nor his sons, nor any of the Levites except Moses knew of this as Moses came down the mountain and found the golden calf.

At the sight of this idol and the revelry of the people, Moses became very angry and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me. All the Levites came to him. And later, they were the ones who executed those who did not turn away from the idol. By making their choice for God and carrying out His judgment, they redeemed themselves to the Lord and broke the curse left them by Jacob, turning it into a blessing instead. Moses said to them, You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and He has blessed you this day (Exodus 32:29). Thus, even though they had been chosen by God to do His work, they had to make a willful choice to be for the Lord.

WHY PRIESTS?

Why was the office of priest necessary? Consider events that had occurred up to this time. God had created man to fellowship with Him. This fellowship was good until man sinned and broke off that fellowship. What had been a perfect and holy world, now became polluted and utterly filthy in God’s eyes. Man could no longer approach God directly because unholiness cannot exist with holiness. To come into the presence of God in that state would mean certain death to the vessel of unholiness: man (see Exodus 33:20).

How, then, could man approach God and continue to have fellowship with Him without being totally destroyed? By having an intermediary between God and man who could join the two and bridge the chasm between holiness and unholiness. This was the responsibility of the priest. God would make the priest holy temporarily so he could bring the atoning sacrifice to God to appease His just wrath against sin. And yet, even the holiest of priests, such as Moses, still could not look upon God’s holy face without dying. God had to mask Himself in natural objects so man could survive His presence, i.e., the burning bush, the pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire, the curtain in the Tabernacle, etc. When He masked Himself, He would allow only the high priest to approach Him to make the sacrifice.

Prior to God establishing the formal priesthood, the job of bringing sacrifice to God rested with the elders of each family or tribe, usually the firstborn after he aged in maturity and wisdom.[1] But this system fell far short of the needs of man to know his creator God. Only bits and pieces of information about God survived the centuries between Adam and these elder-priests. And many ignored their responsibilities because of this lack