What does Ellen White write about...
Adventistische Schriften über: "Zacharias performed the incense service in Luke 1. This means that the incense offering was not carried out solely by the high priest. Otherwise Zacharias could not have performed the duties of the high priest. Moreover, this service was assigned by lot, as written. Therefore the statement that only the high priest was allowed to incense at the altar of incense is false! So any priest was allowed to incense if the lot assigned him."
Answer
The documents confirm that Zacharias, as an ordinary priest, was assigned by lot to serve at the incense altar in the temple. While the high priest indeed had the right to perform all duties of the regular priests, the daily incense service was often carried out in practice by priests of the respective service division. However, it is also noted that the vision of an angel during the incense offering was highly unusual for an ordinary priest like Zacharias, as such revelations were traditionally reserved for the high priests.
Zacharias and the Service at the Incense Altar
»Zacharias lived in the “hill country of Judea”, but he went up to Jerusalem to serve in the temple for a week, a service required twice a year of priests of every order. “And it happened, while he was performing the priesthood before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, the lot fell to him to incense, as he went into the Lord’s temple.”«
Distinction between High Priest and Priesthood
»But we learn from reading the passage that Zacharias was not a high priest, but exercised the priesthood in the order of his division, and his lot was to incense... His act of burning incense at that altar in the first division is by no means the same as that of a high priest, who goes into the Most Holy Place with a burning incense censer.«
The Unusualness of the Appearance for a Simple Priest
»In fact, tradition had never reported such a vision for an ordinary priest during the act of incense offering. The two recorded supernatural appearances... were both granted to high priests on the Day of Atonement. Nevertheless, there was always unrest among the people when a mortal drew near to the immediate presence of God.«
Collaboration of the Priests in the Sanctuary
»It was impossible for one man to perform all the work of the sanctuary that symbolized the work of Christ, and for this reason there was a group of ordinary priests who assisted the high priest. It is always a rule that a higher official can fill the offices beneath him... While the high priest could perform any work in the first compartment that other priests could also perform, there was a daily service in the first compartment of the sanctuary that only the high priest could perform.«
Original Sources (English)
Stephan Krol
Founder of EGW Vision
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