Levitical Priests

Q. Jer 33:17-18 says: “For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.’” I assume the one sitting on the throne of Israel refers to Jesus as the king forever. Who do the Levitical priests refer to? I thought Jesus was the sacrifice once and for all, why would there be continually burnt offerings and sacrifices?

Jer 33:17-18 is part of God’s promise in Jer 33:14-18:

• V 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth, and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.
• V 17 For thus says the Lord, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;
• V 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.’”

It is clear that vs 15 and 17 are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus:

• Jer 23:5-6 Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’
• 1 Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
• Php 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God based on faith,
• 2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Who then are the Levitical priests in v 18? The Levitical priesthood passed away in the New Covenant. Who replaced them? Scholars proposed two possibilities:

A. Christ:

Heb 7:11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for based on it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

Heb 7:17 For it is attested of Him, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Heb 7:24-25 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Heb 7:27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

Christ is the priest according to the order of Melchizedek, superior to and superseding the Levitical priests, who offered up Himself once and for all and continues to make intercession for His people.

B. Christians:

1 Pet 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Rev 1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Rev 5:10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

What sacrifices do we offer?

• Rom 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
• Heb 13:15-16 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect to do good and share, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

I do not hold the dispensationalism idea that Jews saved during the Millennium will offer burnt and grain offerings, though not for atonement but as a memorial for Christ’s once for all offering of Himself. This ignores replacements clearly articulated in the NT and pushes beyond literal interpretation.

Jeremiah Prophecy

Q. In Jeremiah 25:15, God gave the cup filled with His wrath to Jeremiah and asked him to make all the nations drink it, and Jeremiah did just that. In v 28 God said they must drink it. Is this all figurative or did Jeremiah go to all the nations mentioned to warn them God’s punishment was coming?

I interpret your question as consisting of two parts:

• Is the cup of wrath literal or figurative; and
• Did Jeremiah warn the nations of the coming judgment?

First, the cup. The full phrase “cup of the wine of wrath” appears three times in the Bible:

• Jer 25:15-16 For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.
• Rev 14:10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
• Rev 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.

A similar expression “cup of anger” appears twice in Isaiah:

• Isa 51:17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger; The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.
• Isa 51:22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God Who contends for His people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, The chalice of My anger; You will never drink it again.

It is not a literal cup, as God is spirit and does not have physical hands, and real cups do not bring swords (Jer 25:16). It is a symbol of God’s wrath or anger against Judah and the nations by punishing them with wars.

Second, did Jeremiah warn the nations? Yes. Did he GO to warn them? No, not in the same sense as Jonah going to Nineveh to warn them. Let me elaborate.

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the nations, not just Judah:

• Jer 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.
• Jer 1:10 See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.

He was obedient to God’s calling, but he did not have the freedom to travel to other nations throughout the 40 years he served as a prophet. Jeremiah prophesized during the reigns of five kings in Judah:

• Josiah – from his 13^th to 31^st year. During these 18 years, Jeremiah was free to travel but spent most of his time warning his countrymen about their idolatry and social injustice.
• Jehoahaz – 3 months;
• Jehoiakim – 11 years. Jeremiah was restricted and cannot go into the temple (Jer 36:5), so he dictated his warnings which his disciple Baruch wrote on a scroll and read to all the people. This was eventually read to Jehoiakim who cut the scroll and burned it. Jeremiah was opposed by the king, priests, and false prophets and could not travel.
• Jehoiachin – 3 months;
• Zedekiah – 11 years. Though Jeremiah could not go to the nations, God has His way for Jeremiah to declare His warnings:
  • Jer 36:2-4 thus says the Lord to me— “Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters,
  • Jer 36:8 “It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand.

When messengers from the surrounding states came to meet Zedekiah, Jeremiah put a yoke on his neck as a visual demonstration and asked them to pass the message to their kings – whoever does not submit to Nebuchadnezzar will be destroyed.

Babylon was used by God as an instrument to punish Judah. The warning to them was delivered by Seraiah:

• Jer 51:60-62 So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud, and say, ‘You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’

So my conclusion is that Jeremiah did warn the nations, just not by himself going.

Samuel’s Age

Q. Though Samuel was called a “boy” when wearing the linen ephod (1Sam 2:18 NASB), he was attending to the service of the Lord before Eli (1Sam 3:1 NASB). Is it that only priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place (Heb 9:6) while other Israelites cannot come close (Num 18:22)? So, if Samuel attended to the service of the Lord, may I assume that he had already been ordained as a priest, having reached the minimum age requirement of 30 (Num 4:3)?

The logic of the argument is:

• Samuel wore an ephod; therefore, Samuel was a priest;
• Priests serve from thirty to fifty years old;
• Therefore Samuel must be at least thirty years old when he first ministered before the Lord.

The conclusion is wrong because the first premise is not valid.

Initially, the ephod was worn by the high priest:

• Ex 28:4 These are the garments which they shall make: a breast piece and an ephod and a robe and a tunic of checkered work, a turban, and a sash, and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may minister as priest to Me.

Later it was worn by priests:

• 1 Sam 22:18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn around and attack the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.

However, it was also worn by persons engaged in the service of God:

• 1 Sam 2:18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.
• 2 Sam 6:14 And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod.

Samuel served primarily as a prophet and a judge, not as a priest:

• 1 Sam 3:20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.
• Acts 3:24 And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.
• Acts 13:20 After these things, He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.
• 1 Sam 7:15 Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

Prophets can offer a sacrifice like a priest e.g., Elijah (1 Kings 18:36.)

David wore an ephod, but he was from the tribe of Judah, not Levi:

• 1 Sam 17:12a Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse.

David served God as a king, not a priest.

While priests wear ephods, wearing an ephod does not make one a priest. The first premise is therefore faulty, and the conclusion that Samuel was thirty or older cannot be established.

A second reason is from the context of 1 Sam 1-3 itself:

• 1 Sam 1:24 Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, although the child was young.
• 1 Sam 2:11 Then Elkanah went to his home at Ramah. But the boy ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.
• 1 Sam 2:19 And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
• 1 Sam 3:1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days; visions were infrequent.

According to Jewish custom, a child is weaned between 18 months and 5 years of age. “Little robe” would not be appropriate had Samuel been an adult, nor does his running to Eli when God called him. All the clues point to the conclusion that Samuel was young.

Millennium

Q. Is Isaiah 65 referring to the new heaven and earth in verse 20? If so, why would there be death then? If not, what period is he talking about?

• Isa 65:20 “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. The one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

Or is he referring to the Millennium?

Although the preceding context Isa 65:17 refers to “new heavens and a new earth” and the eternal state, I believe Isaiah switched subjects and referred to the Millennium in v 20.

• Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.

As you pointed out, there will not be deaths in the eternal state:

• Rev 21:1, 4 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. … and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

This is because, before Rev 21:4, death had already been abolished in Rev 20:14 –

• Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
• 1 Co 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

Since Isa 65:20 says, “the youth will die at the age of one hundred,” it could not be talking about the eternal state.

Secondly,

• Isa 65:25 “They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord, And their descendants with them.

But our Lord said in:

• Mt 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Also Mk 12:25)

In the eternal state, there will be no marriage and therefore no bearing children producing offspring, which could happen only during the Millennium.