(1.) Soldier, Priest – Introduction.
(1.) Soldier, Priest – Introduction.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-20).
When a country declares war, the citizens don’t have much choice… the citizens are called to go into battle if one wants to remain a citizen. When someone starts following Jesus, that believer becomes a citizen of God’s kingdom. In our fallen world, the kingdom of Satan has declared war on the kingdom of God, so warfare comes with the territory. Only, Satan’s fighters in this spiritual battle don’t have bodies, they are invisible. These fighters of Satan are headquartered in the heavenlies where Satan has his hideout, and conduct constant warfare on Christian believers here on earth. So our war is not against flesh and blood, it is fought with spiritual weapons in the unseen world. God has given us all the supernatural weaponry we need, which includes the armor of God. Most of the armor is protective equipment, but two are aggressively offensive in nature: the Word of God and the ability to pray. These two spiritual weapons are empowered by the Holy Spirit and are divinely effective in the unseen battle. In this series on spiritual warfare called “Soldier, Priest,” we will look first at the spiritual defense system given by God, the Commander-in-Chief. And then we will study those wonderful weapons that attack the enemy, the devil and his fallen angels.
There are two traditional ways of picturing our part in spiritual warfare… the military version and the priesthood version. St. Paul focused on the believers as soldiers ready to do battle against the powers of darkness. But there is also the version which puts the believer in the role of priest in our inevitable spiritual battles. Both pictures of the armor of God are helpful to us, since as soon as we believe in Jesus Christ, we find ourselves on the devil’s radar. In his pride, Satan doesn’t yet accept that he has been forever defeated by Jesus, so he continues to wage these after-battles to make things as miserable for us as possible. So on the one hand, we believers are pictured as soldiers of the Cross, engaging in battles in the spiritual realms. On the other hand, we are in the fellowship of the priesthood, wielding the power of the Lord to put up a stiff resistance to Satan and his demonic horde. What makes this armor of God interesting, which is all protective equipment except for Scripture and prayer, is that in Paul’s classic Ephesians 6 passage above, the spiritual equipment could be understood as the clothing of either a soldier or a High Priest.
SOLDIER. The military motif is what we are most familiar with, and for good reason. There is a lot of Scripture to support the idea. In the famous Song of Moses and Miriam after the victory at the Red Sea, Moses referred to the Lord as a “man of war,” or a “warrior.” (Ex. 15:3). Then there is the preincarnate appearance of Jesus in the Hebrew Bible, in Joshua 5. Here is the Israelites’ first big test in the Promised Land, the gateway city, Jericho. Jericho was perhaps the oldest and best fortified city in the ancient world, with walls as high as 25 feet and as thick as 20 feet. Jericho was considered to be invincible. Joshua was commander of the Israelite army, and was waiting for his marching orders from Yahweh. While camping near the city, Joshua was confronted by a mysterious Man, who stood there with a sword drawn in His hand. (5:13-15). This Man identified Himself as the Commander of Yahweh’s Army. Joshua immediately fell on his face before Him and worshiped Him. Joshua asked this Commander what He had to say to him, and the first thing this Man said was to take off his sandals, for they were standing on holy ground. By no means was this a typical angel. Joshua wouldn’t have worshiped an angel, and the angel wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. Holy ground only occurs in the presence of God Himself. This Commander was indeed the heavenly Warrior, Jesus Christ, ready to give the unusual battle plans to Joshua. As their conversation continued, “Yahweh said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand!” (6:2). And then the divine Commander Jesus, the Messenger of Yahweh, proceeded to lay out the head-scratching strategy for taking over Jericho. Joshua, filled with faith in this heavenly Commander, followed these instructions to the letter, and Jericho was defeated. Joshua the human commander had the faith needed to submit to the divine Commander. And the battle was won. Just as Moses was confronted by Jesus on holy ground with the burning bush, Joshua was likewise confronted by Jesus on holy ground outside of Jericho.
To take the military picture even further, we have the most common Name for Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible… Yahweh-sabaoth = LORD of Hosts; LORD of the Angel Armies; Commander of Heaven’s Armies; Leader of Angelic Warriors: a host of angelic forces massing together for battle at the command of the LORD. This name of God is the most frequently used compound name for God in the Hebrew Bible. It is used over 280 times, most of them found in the biblical Prophets, especially Jeremiah, Isaiah, and in many of the Psalms. “For God will order His angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands to keep you from stumbling and falling.” (Psalm 91:11-12). In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this psalm has been understood as God’s protection during spiritual warfare. It is about divine protection of our soul during demonic attack. In verse 13 of this psalm, three of the great symbols of satanic power are mentioned by name: lions, snakes, and dragons. But we needn’t worry about demonic spirits capturing our souls or hurting us in any way spiritually, because, as the Orthodox Christian church has stated, “believers can walk unharmed among the fiercest powers of darkness.” The psalmist’s opening verses in Psalm 91 clearly declare that only those who dwell in God, who abide in faith to the Almighty God as refuge and fortress, will remain safe and protected from the demonic realm. Our soul is fiercely defended, and the victory is sure. Much of that spiritual protection comes from God’s angelic hosts. St. Paul continues with that military theme as he gives advice to his trainee, young Timothy, telling him to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12), and “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 2:3). So clearly the Christian soldier has been a common picture of the believer in Jesus, a noble warrior in the ongoing battles against evil and the evil one. John’s book of Revelation is of course filled with military imagery as the Final Battle takes center stage.
Soldier in the Army of the Lord – Blind Boys of Alabama – YouTube
PRIEST. Yes, Christian believers are indeed soldiers of the Kingdom, but we are also priests on the front lines. We have been told time and again that believers are members of God’s holy priesthood. “You will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6); “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1Peter 2:9); “He has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father” (Rev. 1:6, and in Rev. 5:10 and 20:6 as well). Also, we have been given solid spiritual knowledge from the writer of Hebrews that Jesus is High Priest, especially in chapters 7-10. It’s clear that the Tabernacle’s High Priest was an early picture of Jesus, a foreshadowing of Christ as High Priest.
Jesus wasn’t merely a priest, but High Priest. In the Mosaic tradition, the priest was God’s representative to man and man’s mediator before God. The priest offered sacrifices to God for the people for forgiveness and to establish a connection with the Almighty God. The priest was to intercede for the people, to offer up prayers and thanksgivings. Animal blood was sprinkled, incense was burned, bread was baked, the lamps were lit, all to build a bridge from man to God. In fact, that’s what the word priest means in Latin, “pontifex,” or “bridgebuilder”. The high priest was the only priest allowed to enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, where he offered the sacrifice and sprinkled the blood that cleansed the people once a year. One can see how this Old Testament system was full of powerful hints at the coming of the Messiah, the High Priest. Blood is sacred, says the Lord. Blood is holy, set apart from other aspects of creation. In the eyes of God, blood represents life. Life itself depends on blood. In fact, “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11). Blood is a life principle flowing into the very structure of created life. Since the Fall in the Garden, the world has had a disastrous problem: sin. The result of sin is death. And the result of blood is life. So it naturally follows that blood is somehow the remedy for sin. Blood has to be involved if forgiveness is to happen, if life proves victorious over death. In God’s plan of redemption, His universal solvent is blood, it dissolves the presence and authority of sin. “Unlike the other priests, Jesus does not need to offer sacrifices day after day. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself… Jesus did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood.” (Hebrews 7:27 and 9:12).
Like the good priest that He is, He now “lives to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:24-26), and this is the perfect fulfillment of the priesthood that was so important in the Hebrew Scriptures. His one-time sacrifice on the Cross is sufficient, because He is the sinless sacrifice that will remain for all eternity. Our High Priest fulfilled the Day of Atonement on Calvary, and that sacrifice will remain forever. “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. There He ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.” (Heb. 8:1).
It is fascinating that so many of us believe the spiritual equipment we need for the spiritual battleground is reflected in the sacred garments of the High Priest Jesus. The armor of God described in Ephesians 6 has often been historically seen as the holy clothing of our priesthood, outfitted to be spiritual warriors, using “weapons of righteousness” (2 Cor. 6:7), “pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:34-35), and “taking captive every thought” (2 Cor. 10:5) for Jesus. One could make the case that believers are called to fight our spiritual battles like a battalion of priests as we follow the High Priest into the action. Placing the priests on the front lines has been known to happen, fighting evil through prayer, praise and worship (Hi there, Jehoshaphat). This last line here is definitely a teaser to guide you into the second article on this “Soldier, Priest” series.
You’ve Already Won | The Worship Initiative (feat. Davy Flowers) – YouTube