The Priesthood of Believers

Brother Ron was a big man—and hugely wise. He once told me about his experience of leading weekly worship services. As he stood before the congregation with arms outstretched, he imagined that he was lifting up the congregation from the nave and then turning around to place the people gently inside the chancel to receive God’s mercy. This is an image that I have recalled often: a priest in the priestly office bridging the space between God and people.

As prescribed at Sinai, the Levites attended to matters of Israel’s worship throughout Israel’s history. Incidentally in today’s passage, which is prior to the event at Sinai, a Levite household produces the central leading figure of the Old Testament. The Levite baby placed into a basket on the edge of the Nile is Moses, who later becomes a mediating leader for Israel. Moses serves as a communicator between God and the people on Mount Sinai and in the tent of meeting.

The enslaved Levite mother trustingly hides her baby from Pharaoh in the reeds, and years later the man the baby grows to be encounters God at the burning bush. In the Exodus story, all of this leads directly to God’s people being led to freedom. This Levite baby is “drawn out of water” and named by a foreigner, yet he is lovingly raised by his own mother—a beaming, wage-earning, royal nursemaid handing down to her “fine child” his Hebrew heritage. Poetic justice and prevenient grace meet beautifully well in this story.