Prophet, Priest, and King

By Travis Anglim

David. Elijah. Aaron. All of these men were leaders of sorts in their time, but only Jesus filled all their roles when He came to Earth. And He so thoroughly filled those spiritual roles that all the world stared in wonder.

What can we learn from the example of all these ancient leaders? What can we find in Christs fulfillment of their duties that we can apply to our own everyday lives?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512749809

Travis Anglim

Travis presents common material that readers may never have thought about in a new and interesting manner, investigating the leaders of Old Testament Scripture and relating their roles to our own lives in a personal and challenging way.

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Copyright © 2016 Travis Anglim.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4981-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4982-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4980-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016911571

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/13/2016

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 In Ancient Times

Chapter 2 The Prophets

Chapter 3 Samuel

Chapter 4 Elijah

Chapter 5 Elijah To Elisha

Chapter 6 Daniel

Chapter 7 The Priests

Chapter 8 Aaron

Chapter 9 Zadok

Chapter 10 Hilkiah

Chapter 11 The Kings

Chapter 12 David

Chapter 13 Hezekiah

Chapter 14 Josiah

Chapter 15 The Prophet, Priest, And King

Chapter 16 Today

Appendix

To God the Father, as the first-fruits

of the ministry, talents, and calling

He has given me in writing

Thank You Lord!

Introduction

H ave you ever wondered why Israel had so many different leaders in its ancient days? In the beginning, God Himself was the shepherd over His people, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dealing with each on a personal level maybe every single day! But as time went on, the people sought after other gods and wanted to do things their own way. They then ended up with prophets and judges, but eventually decided in their own hearts that maybe God wasn’t a good enough leader, so they asked Him for a king! But why didn’t God simply have a single leader who was able to act in all of these capacities and lead His people? Likely because men wouldn’t have been able to handle all these leadership positions and would end up with way too much stress in their lives!

No one ever filled all (or perhaps even fully filled one of) the roles described in this book until Jesus came along because of the distribution of power in the roles. The same way many of the governments on earth today have checks and balances in place, these ancient leaders of Israel were playing separate roles in order to best minister between God and the people. Having them split into distinct titles and roles helped do a heart-check on who each role was serving, how, and constantly making certain that it was in subjection submission to the Father for His glory!

But in modern times—or as I often say, this side of Jesus—we can and should operate in all those leadership roles at different times and in different capacities so that we can better serve our Creator, our neighbors, and our families with our gifts, abilities, and talents. We need to be guarding our own hearts on this journey, however, making certain to act on God’s behalf, rather than ours, by looking at the example set by Jesus. Comparing His flawless example to those of the kings, prophets, and priests of Israel’s history really helps us grasp how to interact with and better serve people while watching out for the pitfalls some of these characters took.

As we examine the ways Jesus interacted with our Father and His fellow man, we can learn how to improve our relationships with our neighbors by serving them and with God by honoring Him.

Chapter 1

IN ANCIENT TIMES

I n all the histories and every account recorded in the world, no single figure stands out as much as Jesus. No character was as unique as He is. It isn’t difficult to pin down the reasons why: His life and ministry, His death and resurrection, and His teaching and dealings with the people He interacted with. Even non-Christian religions of the world mark Jesus as a specifically special individual, many claiming that if He wasn’t indeed the Son of God, He was at the least a prophet.

Another interesting aspect of Jesus, however, was His leadership capabilities and role. Not just the Father’s Son or the leader of twelve devoted disciples, Jesus fulfilled aspects of leadership in Israel that had never before been taken up by a single person.

The history of Israel is riddled with kings, running the range between the great kings, their sinful successors, and some others who led a terrible life but repented before their time was finished. There are even a few cases of kings who served God mightily and then took a nosedive before their reign had ended.

Then there were the priests. These were the wonderful men who held the job passed down for centuries from the line of Aaron; theirs was the duty to offer up a sacrifice before the Lord continually, day and night burning incense to lift up to Him, as well as making sacrifices for the people of Israel as a whole. On a more individual note, only the priests had the responsibility of offering up a sinner’s sacrifice so that he or she could be forgiven of whatever commandment was broken. An ordinary citizen was incapable of even asking for his or her forgiveness. Praise God that this side of Jesus, we have an intercessor before the Father in heaven who was our debt payment mediator while here on earth! Imagine having to sacrifice an animal with a priest’s supervision every time you needed to confess a sin. That was the role of the priests who lived and dwelt in the temples.

And then there were the prophets. Imagine a priest—knows the word of God and is probably well educated in it because most of the priests were involved with the Word day in and day out—but now add in the superpower advantage of the Holy Spirit upon that person’s life. Voila! A prophet! The prophet’s job was not as narrow as the priest’s nor as open as the king’s. The prophet, whoever he was at the time, had the direct and most reverent responsibility of attuning himself to the voice of God, hearing it, and then proceeding to obey it.

It seems like that couldn’t be too hard. After all, even though the kings were kings, they still looked to the prophets for advice and guidance throughout their lifetimes, seeking the will of Yahweh for the kingdom, for themselves, or for a greater blessing. Must be nice to be the prophet! But even though the prophets were respected for their specific position in being the ear of the people and the mouth of God, any of the kings, with their position and power, easily could have done away with a prophet should they decide that the timely word from the Lord was not as pleasing as hoped.

Not to mention that the life of a prophet was generally difficult; they often lived a life of seclusion, never knowing where their next meal was going to come from or if they were going to have to cook it in some unsightly way (check out Ezekiel. Talk about obedience). Still they obeyed the voice of God, and they were blessed to see God do more things in, by, and through their lives than any person usually does because they spent plenty of time in prayer to hear the voice of God and then spent all their days’ energy and focus on carrying out the will of God. Our lives should reflect the same enthusiasm: God, I’m going to listen until You speak. And once You speak, I’m going to do it until You tell me to stop again and listen.

Isn’t it interesting, however, that among these three leadership positions in ancient Israel, not one single man, woman, or child ever filled the role of all three?

I’m a firm believer in the idea that God understands the human heart far better than we ever could. He made it, He formed it, and He alone knows its true thoughts in our daily walks with Him. Even we can be deceived by our own hearts. I think He knew that when He set up this system of prophets, priests and kings in Israel.

If any one person held all three of those positions, the likelihood is that all the power and authority would poison his or her heart and go to his or her