ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Tokonaki Fepueli 14, 2026

NOMIPA 7-8; HEPELU 7:26-27

The need for the Old Testament priests to be repeatedly cleansed should make us thankful for the coming of a priest who needed no cleansing.

Ko e tu’utu’uni ki he kau taula’eiki ‘o e Fuakava Motu’a ke nau toutou fakama’a, ‘oku fakaake ‘iate kitautolu ha fakafeta’i ‘i he hoko mai ha taula’eiki ‘oku ‘ikai toe fiema’u ke fakama’a.

Luella has been known to say, "I can't understand, with just the two of us living here, how things get so dusty." Have you ever noticed that nothing in your life stays clean? Your clothes don't stay clean; your house doesn't stay clean; your car doesn't stay clean; your teeth don't stay clean; your garage doesn't stay clean--the list goes on and on. We spend a large portion of our time working to keep things clean. Even more important to recognize is that your heart doesn't stay clean. Sin causes us to wander away from God's holy standards and expose ourselves to things that are not morally pure. Temptation seduces us into seeing as beautiful the things that God calls ugly. The dirt and dust of a heart not yet free of sin causes all of us to need a constant cleansing stream of God's grace.

So we find this directive in Numbers 8:5-6: "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and cleanse them." Before the priests could do their holy sacrificial work before God and on behalf of his people, they needed to be cleansed. It is important to understand that the priests did not stand above the need for sacrifices to be made to atone for their sins and to grant them forgiveness and cleansing before God. The priests did not live above a need for God's grace. They were men with sin still living inside of them, which meant they desperately needed for themselves what they had been called to offer to the rest of God's people. No one has ever lived above the need for a sacrifice for one's sin, just as no one has ever lived above the need for God's forgiving and cleansing grace. No one.

I think particularly of the leaders of Christ's church. This portion of God's word has been retained for you as a warning and a calling. There has only ever been one priest who needed no cleansing, the Messiah Jesus. He alone lived without the need for the forgiving and cleansing stream of God's grace. It is vital that you look at the people to whom you have been called to minister and see yourself as another person in need of God's grace. A seminary degree doesn't make you a grace graduate. A ministry calling doesn't make you a grace graduate. Ministry gifts don't make you a grace graduate. Ministry experience and success don't make you a grace graduate. Like the priests of old, it is important to recognize that, this side of eternity, the school of God's grace has no graduates. It is spiritually vital for you to humbly acknowledge that every part of the gospel that you hold before your people, you desperately need yourself. And it is good to remember that no one gives grace better than a person who knows he needs its cleansing stream himself.