set aside

There was an awful lot of fuss involved in the Old Testament priesthood.

I just read two chapters describing what Aaron’s robes, undergarments and ephod were supposed to look like, and another long chapter laying out the ordination ceremony. Fancy, expensive, and spectacular.

Then, at the very end of today’s reading, this: "So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” Exodus 29:44-46

Consecrated. Set apart for holy use. No one in the camp could miss that something huge was happening; all of the sacrifices and horn-blowing would see to that. And the Levites in their distinctive new uniforms looked special. I wonder if they felt different. I wonder if they felt holier.

I wonder that because Paul writes in some of his letters that I’m supposed to be consecrated too. Jesus was the sacrifice that cleansed me, and since then I’ve been set aside for holy purposes only.

So why do I feel so unfit? Why do all the sinful pleasures have their hooks so deep, why do they pull so much? Probably because that holy purpose isn’t my first focus. And it needs to be.