Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will changetheir glory into shame.
(Hosea 4:6-7 NKJV)
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When the priesthood was first created there were only five. Before their numbers started growing, two died, and the priesthood dropped to only Aaron and his two surviving sons. That's about one priest for every seven hundred thousand people, give or take. That's a pretty daunting task. I'm guessing it also made it pretty easy to stay focused on the mission. By the time of King David, there were twenty-four divisions, or groups, of priests. Each group had a thousand people, half of the groups lived permanently in Jerusalem, and there were over a thousand priests and helpers in the Temple on any given day. The task to be a mediator between God and the nation was just as great, but there was a much more reasonable division of labor. This ratio would have continued in the priest's favor by the time of Hosea. After all, among the people returning from exile in Ezra, one in ten is a priest.
On the day of Pentecost there were about 120 believers. That means there was one person in the "Royal Priesthood" for every 1.6 million people on their mission field. Today about 1.7 billion people claim to be Christians. In a world with over 6.5 billion people, even if one half of one percent of those really were, we still have less than a thousand to one ratio. This is a much better ratio than the early church was faced with and in much of the world, it is continuing to move in our favor.
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So I'm thinking, all these numbers great. Statistics are nothing but reasonable sounding lies right? But whether my numbers are good or my math is as fuzzy as a politician's, the point is still clear: there are plenty of Christians and our numbers are growing. The same thing was true for the priesthood in Hosea's time. And the problem Hosea spoke against is a danger for us today.
It is easy for us today to lose sight of our mission. There's a minimum of over five billion people who do not have a saving knowledge of Christ.
5,000,000,000.
Minimum.
But I sit here spending hours a day watching TV or playing games on the internet.
I'm not going to witness there's thousands of missionaries doing a great job sharing their faith.
I'm not going to pray my church has a team of intercessors.
I'm not going to study my Bible the pastor will do so and share with me what he has learned on Sunday.
I'm not going to live holy. Yes, I know that I am supposed to be a reflection of Christ but there are mirrors everywhere.
Perhaps God has called me to something greater than this.
We're supposed to be priests and kings, right? Well, Proverbs speaks about the heart of the king being in the Lord's hand -- he turns it any way he wishes. So we're supposed to be led by God. And as priests, we will be led to lead people to Christ. Yup, so that TV time is time that belongs to God that WE choose to waste. Ouch. You got me again, Brother. (grin)
