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Set Apart Devotional June 18

by David Joynt on June 18, 2024


LEVITICUS 9:7a | 7a Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your purification offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself...

In their ordination, priests were set apart for special tasks and purposes. Having been cleansed and consecrated and ordained in chapter eight, they begin to offer sacrifices in chapter nine. Their service begins with offerings to rectify their own brokenness and guilt.

 

Being set apart for leadership is exciting and important. It is an    honor as well as a duty. This means it carries the danger that the role will lead to a sense of privilege and status, and become an ego building exercise. This possibility is foreclosed—Aaron and sons must face their own need and imperfection before they help others. Ordination for God’s service is founded on humility.

 

Have you ever been humbled by a calling?

 

 

Gracious God,

As we serve and lead, keep us mindful of our need. Only You can provide the help and healing we require to serve others.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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