Public inauguration of Divine service.
I. ALL THE PEOPLE GATHERED TOGETHER.
1. Religion is universal, as human necessity and sin. God and man reconciled and united in fellowship. No human condition dispenses with worship. We should labour to get all the people to the tabernacle, God invites them. His ministers should summon them. No excuse can be suffered either for their absence or for the lack of success in gathering them together, We shall succeed best when we speak to them in the Name of God and with his own Word. Lower means and motives, if employed at all, must be kept in subordinate places.
2. There are no secrets in religion; no esoteric doctrine; no rites or privileges which are not for the people. If the priests are set apart, the people witness their consecration, and sanction it and take part in it. The priests are for the people. A Church which withholds a part of the Lord's Supper from the congregation cannot be a true Church. In the commandment to gather the people was the implicit doctrine of universal priesthood, afterwards (as in 1 Peter) more expressed when the great High Priest had come.
II. THE FOUNDATION ON WHICH ALL RELIGION STANDS IS THE REVEALED WORD AND WILL OF GOD. The Lord spake to Moses. Moses did as the Lord commanded him. Moses said to the congregation, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done." Mere will-worship is unacceptable to God. We must beware of two errors.
1. Dependence on mere tradition in contrast with the Word. No need of a supplementary revelation, for it implies that the Word was not sufficient—no authority in it, for the fathers and those who handed on the tradition were liable to err and falsify.
2. Expediency may mislead us into disobedience; fashion in worship; convenience consulted; pure truth hidden; man usurping God's place.
III. PUBLIC CONSECRATION OF PRIESTHOOD. The people saw the men, their garments, the consecrating oil, the atoning sacrifices, the basket of unleavened bread.
1. Spiritual leaders should be distinguishable, both personally and officially.
2. We should remember they are men, and liable to sin, and needing the same sacrifices as all others.
3. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is their main qualification.
4. They are nothing unless anointed, i.e. they are wholly dependent on the Spirit of God—not a line of succession, but a personal inspiration.
5. Their ministry being for the people, among the people, and with the help of the people, let the people by their assembly sanction their election and approve their consecration. A God-given ministry is not imposed upon congregations, but welcomed by their free choice.—R.