Priestly entreaty.
The priests of the old covenant occupied a position, relatively to religion and to the Church, very different from that occupied by Christian ministers of any special order. Their office was partly fulfilled and superseded by the ministrations of" the great High Priest of our profession," and partly taken up by the whole body of the faithful, who are "priests unto God."
I. THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. Priests were:
1. Ministers of the Lord, appointed by him to serve in the offices of religion.
2. Representatives of the people, from amongst whom they were selected by Divine wisdom.
3. Mediators between the laity whom they represented, and the Eternal whom they served in his temple.
II. THE PRIESTLY GRIEF. In time of calamity it was the function of the priests to mourn. They were men, and representative men. They were touched with a feeling of the people's infirmities. They bore the burden of the nation on their hearts. Between the porch and the altar, it was their sacred function, clad in dark sackcloth, to lift up their voices and to weep.
III. THE PRIESTLY ENTREATY. The simple and touching language, in which the Hebrew priests appealed on behalf of the nation to the mercy of high Heaven, has passed into the Litany of the Christian Church. The supplication for pity and deliverance is urged by the united appeal of the holy assembly in the words, "Spare us, good Lord!"
IV. THE PRIESTLY PLEA. The text does not urge the necessities and sorrows of the people as a motive for Divine interposition, so much as the reputation, the honour, of the God of Israel. If God's chosen people perish, then Jehovah will no longer be worshipped, and the heathen will triumph over the downfall of the true faith. This lesson we may learn from this plea, that to a rightly judging mind the glory of God himself is the highest, noblest aim that can be sought and striven and prayed for.—T.