In Joshua the high priest, we see a picture of every single child of God. You have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You have been taught to minister in holy things and to enter behind the veil. Jesus has made us priests and kings to God, and even here on earth we exercise that priesthood through consecrated living and holy service.

But look closer at this high priest. He is "standing before the angel of the Lord." Standing to serve. Standing to minister. This should be the constant posture of every true believer. Every place is now God's temple! Your office, your kitchen, your car—you can serve him as truly there as in any church building. We are to be always ministering, always offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, always presenting ourselves as living sacrifices.

But notice where Joshua stands to minister—before the angel of Jehovah. Before the messenger. And here is the glory of it all: it is only through a mediator that we poor, defiled creatures can ever become priests to God.

I bring what I have to the messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus. And through him, my prayers find acceptance, wrapped up in his prayers. My praises become sweet when they are bound together with the myrrh and aloes and cassia from Christ's own garden. If all I can bring him are my tears, he takes them and mingles them with his own tears in his bottle—for he once wept. If all I can offer are groans and sighs, he accepts these as a worthy sacrifice, for he was once broken in heart and sighed heavily in spirit.

I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved! All my polluted works—though in themselves they deserve nothing but divine abhorrence—are so transformed that God breathes in a sweet fragrance. He is satisfied, and I am blessed.

See it clearly then. This is your position, Christian: a priest—standing—before the angel of the Lord.