The Role of Your Pastor in You Seeing the Glory of God

Leviticus 9

Verses 1-14 cover the offerings for the Priest.
Verses 15-21 cover the offerings that the Priests make for the people.

Verses 22-24 describe the Lord’s acceptance of these offerings, as follows:

“²² Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. ²³ Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. ²⁴ Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”

Thoughts on the Passage

There is something to be said about our priests and pastors or ministers carrying out their duties and then making a special point of blessing the people they serve. Chuck Smith says these represent the twofold responsibility and duty of the priesthood. First, they represent us to God through the carrying out of the sacrifices (or today the various sacraments) and second, they bring God’s blessings to us.

Somebody recently commented to me that fewer and fewer pastors are blessing their congregations at the end of worship services. Benedictions are rare these days. Hope you got one the last time you went to church – I know I didn’t.

In fact, in these last three verses of this chapter, Aaron blesses the people and then Moses and Aaron come out of the ‘tent of meeting’ and bless the people again.

And it was after that – after the two blessings – that the Scripture says, “the glory of the Lord appeared” and more importantly His glory “appeared to all the people”.  If we want to be blessed during and after our worship services, our leaders need to stick to the basics as dictated by God.

What we don’t need is mood music or fog machines to send us off in awe of God’s glory. We need the real thing. And oh, how we need pastors who know how to facilitate their congregation seeing the Glory of God.

There is no reason why our worship today cannot be accompanied by God’s miraculous presence, not necessarily as it was experienced in this passage – by fire coming down and consuming what was on the altar – but in some evident way whereby everyone present can know that God was pleased with His people and their worship. He was pleased in such a way that we would all sense it. We would should Hallelujah and jump for joy if not fall on our faces as the Israelites did.

A worship service could have everything as David Guzik suggests – it could have priests, rituals, sacrifices, you name it – but if it does not have the “glory of God” or the fire from above, it has been an almost meaningless experience.  You will remember that Moses had been telling the people that they would feel God’s presence on that day.  He was preparing himself for it; he was preparing the priests for it (everything had to be done right) and he was preparing his people for it.

Matthew Henry says this: “God's manifestations of himself, of his glory and grace, are commonly given in answer to prayer. When Christ was praying the heavens were opened, Lu. 3:21. The glory of God appeared, not while the sacrifices were in offering, but when the priests prayed (as 2 Chr. 5:13), when they praised God, which intimates that the prayers and praises of God's spiritual priests are more pleasing to God than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.”

I wonder how much time pastors spend in prayer seeking God’s direction as to how to ensure that His glory is shared with the people each and every Sunday. I hazard to guess that it is not much.  More time, it seems, is spent on how eloquent they will sound.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.