Robert Murray McCheyne was a godly Scottish Presbyterian minister in the 19th century who died before his 30th birthday. But he famously said many times, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” It became a motto for many ministers who understood that McCheyne knew that he was not able to save anyone but that he, through an ungodly example, could lead many astray. And that the church’s greatest need is the perfect righteousness of Christ, in whom our righteousness is found.

We need to understand that Aaron and the high priests that would follow him clearly knew the great danger that accompanied their calling. Some say the high priest had the most dangerous job in Israel. The people had already seen that coming into God’s presence without his permission could be fatal. The people and the priests were told not to even step foot on the bottom of Mt. Sinai when God appeared to Moses at the top, “lest the Lord break out against them.” They heard the cries of the Egyptians who lost their firstborn on that dark night of the final plague. They saw God swallow up his enemies in the Red Sea. Our God is an awesome God! And now the high priest was told to wear bells in the Holy place so its sound was heard when he went before the Lord, and when he came out, “so that he does not die.” The bells reminded him that he was dressed properly to come before the Lord. Matthew Henry compared it to the Lord’s story of the man who showed up at a wedding without a wedding garment. The king had him cast into outer darkness. Some believe the bells were also a sound the people listened for, knowing that as long as they heard the bells, the priest was ok. Even though they could not see him, they knew he was alive. Other say the priest wore the bells for God, as people going before a king in the near east always wore their best and were always announced before entering. It could be that God had all of these reasons in mind. But remember, it was only the High Priest who wore a robed fringed with symbolic pomegranates and golden bells. He was to wear everything God told him to wear in order to be qualified to stand before the Almighty on behalf of his people. 

We have the better High Priest now. We have the final High Priest.  Jesus Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, “always lives to make intercession for (us).” His blood pleads for you and for me and his sacrifice is final and forever. Aaron, meanwhile, could only wear the garments and perform the sacrifices as a flawed man, chosen by God to do the impossible. 

What does it mean for us? Modesty is important but there is no dress code for those who want to appear before the Lord. We don’t have to wear bells when we pray or go to church. Imagine how distracting that would be. No, our Lord said it plainly: man looks on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. We know we are broken and flawed people who struggle in many ways. A pastor named Clay Smith wrote this: “Charles Spurgeon, the barrel-chested preacher of grace, battled depression and chronic pain throughout his ministry, so much so that he was out of the pulpit more than a third of the time. Of his depression and pain, Spurgeon said to fellow pastors, “I’ve learned to kiss the waves that throw me against the Rock of Ages.” May we be able to say the same. May we remind ourselves every day, especially in the heat of a chronic battle with health or with besetting sin, God is for us. The Rock of Ages is with us. He sees our heart and he knows our struggles.

What rings in God’s ears are not bells on our clothing but the Son saying, “Father, this one is mine. He belongs to me. She belongs to me. I paid for their sin with my blood.”

Were any of us given a pair of sanctified dice when we were born? You know, ones that we can throw that will tell us whether to marry this person or not? Whether to go to this college or another? Buy this house or rent? No? Ok, then should we consult the fortune teller down the street or go eat Chinese every day to get a fortune cookie? Or should we get a Magic 8-Ball or a Ouija Board or Tarot Cards? How do we find the answers to life’s many questions? One of the things we do at our family beach trip every year is gather one night, after supper, where Cindy and I will ask everyone some questions as we sit in a circle in the living room. Some are just for fun, like would you rather go to a concert or a Broadway show? Would you rather spend a day at an amusement park or a beach? Some are more serious. This year Cindy asked, “If you could know for certain the answer to one question, what would it be?” It was a fascinating few minutes to hear my children and grandchildren answer that. What would your one question be? Maybe some would say, “How can I know the will of God for my life?”

 We don’t have Urim and Thummim, “light” and “perfection,” that was used in the Old Testament on a handful of occasions to find out God’s will. We have something infinitely better. Someone. We have Jesus, perfect light and perfect truth. We have the Word of God. And we have the Spirit of God. And if the answer to your question about whom to marry isn’t spelled out in the Bible (and it’s not), the principles necessary for making such a decision are there. The church in Thessalonica had a lot of questions, which prompted two letters from the Apostle Paul.  One question was about the second coming of Christ and Paul answered that in no uncertain terms: Jesus is coming back. But Paul also offered these two encouragements, words we can take to heart as guideposts for our own lives and decision-making: 

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Those are clear instructions on knowing God’s will in the area of self-control. We don’t have to pray about God’s will there. It is clear! Paul also wrote, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Three commands that are clear for all who follow Christ.

I remember the speech former NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano gave in 1993 when he won the Arthur Ashe award for courage. Valvano was dying with cancer and would be overcome by it just one month later. But in the speech, which is excellent, he said, “We should do three things every day: we should laugh, we should think, and we should cry, and they can be tears of sadness or joy. If we do those three things every day, seven days a week, what a wonderful life!” I like that. But Paul said we should rejoice always, pray always, and give thanks always. All three, all the time. If we do those every day, what a life filled with joy, peace and purpose, despite the trials that will also come to all of us.

 Finally, Sinclair Ferguson wrote that knowing God’s will “comes through a combination of studying God’s Word (where we learn the great principles of his will), a heart which is submitted to the Lord of the word, and the help of the Spirit that illuminates the word and leads us into a true application of its principles to our own situation.” 

That’s good wisdom.

It is important to recognize that neither Aaron nor his sons claimed the office of priest for themselves. Their calling came from God. There were no self-appointed priests in the Bible. In fact, whenever a man in Israel, even a king, presumed to act in the place of a priest, it was considered a grave sin. Remember King Saul, who was impatient because Samuel did not arrive when he wanted him to. Saul offered an unlawful sacrifice, he was not a priest, and Samuel told him when he arrived, “You have done foolishly…Your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought a man after his own heart…” 

The same principle remains true today in the church. There are no self-appointed pastors, elders, or deacons. The Spirit of God calls people into those offices. He will give an inner calling to men who desire to be elders or pastors. Paul said, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” That inward desire, if it is a calling from God, will be confirmed by those who have spiritual authority in the church.  It is a dangerous mission to decide on your own, as many men and women have done, that you have been called by God to be a spiritual authority, and since no one around you can clearly see that calling and affirm it, you will just go and start a church on your own. It happens somewhere every week. Those who are not called should not assume that office. And the flip side is true: those who are called by God should not shake off that calling or walk away from it! I mentioned George Herbert last week. He was a minister in the Church of England in the early 1600’s. He was also a poet and one of his poems is titled, “The Collar.” A play on words with collar of an Anglican priest and the call to preach. Read his complaints about the pain he suffers from ministry, and listen as he tells himself to leave his calling to pursue his own pleasures. Then listen to the call at the end: 

“I struck the board, and cried, “No more; I will abroad! What? shall I ever sigh and pine? My lines and life are free, free as the road, Loose as the wind, as large as store. Shall I be still in suit? Have I no harvest but a thorn To let me blood, and not restore What I have lost with cordial fruit?… Recover all thy sigh-blown age On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute Of what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage…But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild At every word, Methought I heard one calling, Child! And I replied My Lord.”

May I remind all of us that it is not only elders and pastors and deacons whom God calls to love and serve him. And to serve one another. This calling is repeated all through the Bible. Here’s one example where God tells all of us to wear the collar, in a manner of speaking. Paul wrote, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Peter also, who learned humility the hard way, tells us this: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” We don’t need a collar, but He calls us to put on humility. 

As the old saying goes, “The tree that bears the most fruit bows the lowest.”