Introduction
     And Moses went up unto Elohim, and Yahweh called unto him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; ‘Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth [is] Mine: And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation’. These [are] the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel,” Exodus 19:3-6. (The King James Version used throughout.)
    It is understood that Almighty Yahweh was speaking to, and of, the physical house of Jacob, His servant, on how they, and their generations, should become His chosen ones. But Israel was not Elohim’s through physical procreation! Yahweh begets His children in another way (John 1:12-13).

Yahweh Calls a Chosen, Peculiar People
     Our Righteous Father Yahweh protected the children of Israel during their stay in Egypt and afterward, reserved a people to Himself in the wilderness sojourning and in Canaan. The sea was parted before them, and He fed them with manna and quail and secured them from marauding peoples as they fulfilled their time in the desert.
    Yahweh did all these things, all the while giving them His holy messages. In the same way, Yahweh delivers us today from dead works and Satan’s attacks, all the while providing us with His message through Yahshua (John 6:44-45). There are blessings awaiting us – ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people … And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exod. 19:5) – that is, if we receive and accept the Message: “if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant” (Exod. 19:5).
    Three times at Sinai, Israel pledged their obedience, severally saying, “All the words which Yahweh hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exod. 19:8, 24:3, 7). But did Israel obey the voice of Yahweh, and keep His covenant, so that they would be fit as a kingdom of priests? The Scriptures reveal the answer, a digest of which if recorded by the prophet Jeremiah:
    Then Yahweh said unto me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the days [that] I brought them up of the land of Egypt, [even] unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded [them] to do, but they did [them] not’. And Yahweh said unto me, ‘A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other mighty ones to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers’,” Jeremiah 11:6-10. (See also, Jeremiah 7:23-30, Isaiah 5:24).
    Hear the word of Yahweh, ye children of Israel: for Yahweh hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because [there] is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of Elohim in the land … My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy Elohim, I will also forget thy children, Hosea 3:1-2, 6. (emphasis ours)
    So, if obedience to Yahweh’s voice and observing to do His covenant are requisites toward becoming a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests and an holy nation, how could the children of Israel be worthy of that appointment?
    Though Father Yahweh disavowed the ancients from being priests before Him, owing to their rejection of His Words, the Fountain of Living Water, has He given up on His Plan?
    He does not lie, like the son of man nor change like a shifting shadow (Num. 23:19; Mal. 3:6). Jacob is not utterly destroyed, for there has remained a Seed … the Man Whose Name is the BRANCH, that is, Yahshua Messiah Who should come forth, and build the temple of Yahweh (Zec. 6:12; Eph. 2:20).
    Many are called, but few are chosen … and even fewer, ordained – only they which walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they have been called (Matt. 20:16; Eph. 4:1). Someone is not a vessel of honor because of being called. Rather one is a vessel of honor for giving diligence in making his calling sure (2 Pet. 1:10) by serving Yahweh acceptably with reverence and with fear (Heb. 12:28). Exceeding great and precious promises are reserved to the few who have renounced the corruption that is in the world (2 Pet. 1:5). Keeping His commandments, statutes and ordinances as they are delivered to us vouches that Yahweh is our Elohim, and we, His peculiar and holy people (Deut. 26:16-19).
    So, are you living or dead in your calling? It’s an individual answer. Examine, prove, know yourself, whether or not, you are a peculiar, holy people (2 Cor. 13:5).

From the Beginning, a Priesthood is Purposed
     And Elohim said, “Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” So Elohim created man in His [own] Image, in the Image of Elohim created He him; male and female created He them. And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth,” Genesis 1:26-28. (emphasis, ours)
    We have already concluded that the children of Israel had not long sustained their promise to both do and obey all that Yahweh had commanded, and were therefore disqualified to become a chosen, peculiar people. But Yahweh had this Plan … from the beginning, “in the Image of Elohim created He him.”
    The man and the woman were charged with authority (“subdue … and have dominion”), and with responsibility (“be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth”) … with the Divine intention, that all the created order should bear the impress of His peculiarity, His holiness.
    Sin has frustrated His Plan, but sin has not annulled It. While it was the first Adam’s responsibility of nurturing Yahweh’s Plan, his sin deferred Its fruition until the coming of the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) Who has succeeded in proclaiming the reconciliatory work of Yahweh, and through faithful disciples, to all the nations to make of them that are called, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Pet. 2:9) as it was, from the beginning, purposed … even though it was contingent upon man’s exercise of his free will.
    And so, in this age of grace and truth, it was revealed to the Apostle Peter, that “in every nation he that feareth Him (Yahweh), and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him” for “Elohim is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:35, 34).

Yahweh’s Mercies Shown through a Planned Seed
     And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, Genesis 26:4.
    Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, “And to seeds, as of many; but as of one,” And to thy seed, which is Messiah, Galatians 3:16.
    While we properly understand that through Abraham’s son, Isaac, and his posterity after him Yahweh would establish His covenant, an everlasting covenant (Gen. 17:19), the Apostle’s assertion that Messiah is that seed of Abraham is no less true.
    For we have seen that ancient Israel, through the seed and progeny of Isaac, did not attain unto that law of righteousness which should characterize priesthood (Rom. 9:31). But neither could the gentiles who were contemporary with them, because they were a people without the true Elohim.
    So, how could Yahweh’s intention of making to Himself a chosen, peculiar priesthood dominion be accomplished? For He did not, and is not now, working with dead stones; neither would He then, nor now, expect fruit to proceed, remain, and abound from trees whose root was bad.
    Yet, did Yahweh promise Abraham that he should be established and that his seed (Yahshua) would be exceeding fruitful (Gen. 17:6).

The Husbandman, the Root, the Vine, and the Branches
     In John’s narrative of Yahshua’s dissertation in the fifteenth chapter, Father Yahweh is the Husbandman; Yahshua Who is at once, THE BRANCH, is also the True Vine; and we are the branches (John 15:1-2). So long as we abide in the Vine, we bear fruit. But every branch that bears no fruit, the Husbandman takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, the Husbandman prunes so that we bear more fruit … fruit that remains (John 15:16), and abounds to our account (Phil. 4:17).
    Thus, Yahshua declared His righteous Father’s intention of reconstituting the priesthood, that we, as His disciples, should go forth and bear much fruit for the kingdom, John 15:8, 16.
    But to the chief priests and Pharisees of His time, He spoke this parable:
    There was a certain householder (Yahweh), which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen (the priests), and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he (Yahweh) sent his servants (the prophets) to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son (Yahshua), saying, “They will reverence my son.” But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” And they caught him, and cast [him] out of the vineyard, and slew [him]. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out [his] vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.” Yahshua saith unto them, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is Yahweh’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’? Therefore say I unto you, ‘The kingdom of Elohim shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder’. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that He spake of them, Matthew 21:33-45.
    “… Given to a nation bringing the fruits thereof?” – a holy nation, today, comprised of branches, supported by a Holy Root (Yahshua, Rom. 11:16, 18). The branches are made up of both the natural (they which are of the covenant of circumcision, Gen. 17:10) and the wild (aliens and strangers to the covenants of promise, Eph. 2:12, … grafted into the natural, as one husbandry (1 Cor. 3:10); Yahshua the Messiah, come to abolish in His own flesh the enmity between the natural and the wild, making in Himself “of twain one new man, so making peace” (Eph. 2:15).
    So, in place of the chief priests and Pharisees in Yahshua’s day, we, all which have believed on Him, are become through Yahweh’s workmanship in Messiah (Eph. 2:10), the priesthood the Creator had purposed from the beginning.

The Changing of the Priesthood
     If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need [was there] that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. … for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For He testifieth, “Thou [art] a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” … For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto Elohim … By so much was Yahshua made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this [Man], because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto Elohim by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an High Priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself, Hebrews 7:11-12, 15, 16-17,19, 22-27.
    And I appoint unto you (those who received Him, John 1:12) a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, Luke 22:29.
    Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Messiah Yahshua; Who was faithful to Him that appointed him, as also Moses [was faithful] in all his house, … And hath made us kings and priests unto Elohim and His Father, to Him [be] glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, Hebrews 3:1-2; Revelation 1:6.
    Do you grasp that Yahshua was anointed of Yahweh as a Melchizedek-order High Priest and so are we, in Him?

The Selection for Priesthood
     For the purpose of review,
    Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant … ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation, Exodus 19:5-6. (emphasis ours)
    Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to Elohim by Yahshua Messiah, 1 Peter 2:5
    Yahweh wanted the whole house of Israel to be the living stones, as we are today through Yahshua. But they would not incline their ears to Yahweh’s Message of Peace for their good.
    Nevertheless, the Priesthood will be restored those of the house of Israel who will no longer abide in unbelief (Rom. 11:23).
    “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them,” saith Yahweh; “But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with house of Israel; After those days,” saith Yahweh, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh’: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,” saith Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” Jeremiah 31:32-34; Hebrews 8:8-10.
    Yes, living epistles, manifestly declared, “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living Elohim; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart’ (2 Cor. 3:3). It’s the working of Yahweh, so that no man should boast, and marvellous in our eyes. Obedience to Yahweh then, in offering ourselves as a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice which is our whole duty and reasonable service qualifies us as members of this priesthood (Rom. 12:1).
    “Know ye not that ye are the temple of Elohim, and that the Spirit of Elohim dwelleth in you? … Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophet … For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid … [On] Whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Master: In Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of Elohim through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:20; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:21-22).
    So, if the priesthood is no longer imputed to the natural bloodline, who are the kingdom of Priests today? The Apostle Paul answers the question in Galatians 3:7-9:
    Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that Elohim would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, [saying], “In thee shall all nations be blessed.” So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (emphasis ours)
    [Cometh] this blessedness then upon the circumcision [only], or upon the uncircumcised also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness How as it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he had yet] being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which [he had] being [yet] uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, [was] not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, Romans 4:9-13.
    In speaking further of circumcision, we note,
    For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither [is] [that] circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of Elohim, Romans 2:25-29. 
    We see then, how that righteousness which is imputed by reason of one’s faith and circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter qualifies one to become a member – even which in time past, were not a people but are now become a people who had obtained mercy, called out of darkness into marvellous light; now, a people of a chosen generation; a royal priesthood; an holy nation; a peculiar people, called the children of the living Elohim (1 Pet. 2:10, 9; Rom. 9:26).

Conclusion
     We began this discourse by asking a question: “Who are Yahweh’s kingdom of priests, today?” And the answer can be summarized in but fewer words than what this discourse has provided.
    Briefly comprehended, Yahweh’s kingdom of priests are they who will obey His voice and keep His covenant. Yahweh then affirms then, they shall be a peculiar treasure to Him above all people; a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
    Appointment to His priesthood, moreover, is Yahweh’s award of a righteousness that proceeds from a circumcised heart which both wills and does Yahweh’s good pleasure and is expressed by an obedience that staggers not in unbelief but which is fully persuaded that Yahweh is able through His Word

        • to perfect that which is lacking in their faith;
        • to transform them from this world and conform (restore) them into the Image of His Dear Son, Yahshua, Who is at once, both the Image of the invisible Elohim and the Apostle and High Priest after the Melchizedek order; and,
        • that He is able also, to build them into a fit habitation for Himself through the Spirit.