Who Can Instruct in the Commandments?

Jesus was taken away after He had given commandments to His apostles (Acts 1:2), and Paul exhorts Timothy to keep these commandments without spot and blameless until Jesus comes again. 1 Tim. 6:13-14.

Times have changed greatly during the long period since then, and it takes great faithfulness to preserve the commandments just as Jesus gave them, without adapting them to the times.

“And of Levi he said: ‘Let Your Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one, whom You tested at Massah, and with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah, who says of his father and mother, ‘I have not seen them’; nor did he acknowledge his brothers, or know his own children; for they have observed Your word and kept Your covenant.

“They shall teach Jacob Your judgments, and Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You, and a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.

“Bless his strength, Lord, and accept the work of his hands; strike the loins of those who rise against him . . . that they rise not again.’” Deut. 33:8-11.

This prophesy concerns Jesus. He was the Rock that followed them and from which they drank. 1 Cor. 10:4. He was free from everything and everyone. As He was, so we have to be so that we can teach men to keep the commandments and be a complete sacrifice on the Lord’s altar. Jesus says if anyone wants to be His disciple he has to hate his entire family and his own life also.

The Levitical priesthood was established through the law of a fleshly commandment. You were a priest if you came from the right family. Heb. 7:16. However, Melchizedek had no family; and Jesus is priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Vs. 3, 17.

In some churches there can be several people who are related to each other. If there is a difficulty with one of them, the entire extended family will have it difficult. They are in the flesh. If there are several such families, it can result in cliques in the church. Those who proclaim the commandments and laws of the Lord must be totally free from all kinds of carnal bonds in order to be faithful. Only they can put the complete sacrifice on the altar. There can be much unfaithfulness in the ministry; consequently, the sacrifices that are being brought are not whole sacrifices.

The one who wants to be faithful has to reckon with opposition, but “bless his strength, Lord . . . strike the loins of those who rise against him . . . that they rise not again.’” God gives strength to those who are faithful in the ministry, and He also upholds the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek with power, in the deepest darkness of the times, so that the commandments can be kept pure until He comes.