Anoint
The word anoint may have been mostly removed from worldly vocabulary. Much of the time it isn’t heard in regular conversation about situations where it may be appropriate to use anoint, a different verb would be used instead: rub, pour, choose, designate, dose, apply…
The other day a man used this very word in a way that stood apart. His use of the word has stayed with me for weeks afterward and as I’ve processed and pondered his choice of word and the circumstance he spoke it, I’ve realized the importance of “anoint” and I’ve decided that it is very timely and appropriate for it to have fallen in the background of the day-to-day vocabulary in these days.
Today the world is in a hurry. Lives are not held in the preciousness that they once were. Days are fleeting and, in the hurry-scurry, people have trouble remembering what day it is much less what they did for the last holiday or birthday. Even those traditions are not as they once were.
Back in the days of Exodus as the priests and Levites were being set apart to manage all the details of the Tabernacle, the Priests were anointed and the leaders chosen to help them were sprinkled. It makes sense because Arron and his sons were the Priests, and there were 22,000 men chosen from the Levites to support them as leaders, (Exodus 29, Numbers chapter 3. Numbers 8:5-26). To anoint 22,000 men would take quite some time. It wasn’t as much that the leaders were less important, they were very necessary for the work of the Lord, the Priests had a specifically designated position that required much and would be judged exceedingly. If you know the story, you’ll remember two of them were struck dead as consequence of disobedience in their position! Most of us get chance after chance to change our ways and learn from our mistakes, but those that were anointed knew better and the consequence for their judgement was immediate death.
So, I ask you, would you throw around the word anoint? Would you call someone anointed without understanding what you are raising them to be judged for? Would you call yourself anointed? If so, I hope you call on the Lord to convict your heart for ways that you may not be living up to that title, because the wages against it, sin, is sure death. In that death you’ll answer for how you lived out that title. Will you beg excuses or will you hold your head high and admit your decision to accept that title?
God cares for you. If you follow Him there’s no end to the things He will do for you. And if you understand the God that David worships in Psalm 23, He could very well “anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over.” Because He loves you that much. So much so that I can understand how He would want to bless us that much. His blessings have no end. They are too numerous to count.
