Called Out, Set Apart

Ekklesia was the perfect word for Jesus to use as a title for what He intended to build in the earth. For over six hundred years, Greeks and then Romans had used the word in various times and places to describe a group of people summoned from a larger group to represent the larger group in some decision or function or project.

In Exodus 19, Yahweh declared to His nation, the descendants of Israel, that He desired they would be three things to Him: a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and a small, valuable and portable treasure to Him. Each of these relationships could have been considered being called out of the earth as an ekklesia. The Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures that is called the Septuagint used the word to describe Israel as having been called together by Yahweh unto Himself.

Holy is a word that means “set apart to ____” and could have anything or anyone inserted in that blank as a target. Judah called Tamar a “holy woman” when he thought she was a prostitute (Genesis 38). The turbans Yahweh instructed the sons of Aaron to wear as priests had “holiness unto Yahweh” written on the foreheads. This is a fine example of being called out to represent the King of Heaven as His people in the earth and to represent the nation to their God.

Priests represent their people as intercessors before their gods. The priests of Yahweh were responsible for bringing sacrifices and prayers to Heaven on behalf of the nation they were called out from as an ekklesia. They were also expected to represent the King by instructing His nation and the neighboring nations regarding His nature and His intentions.

The ”special treasure” desire Yahweh wanted Israel to be to Him (Exodus 19) was called “peculiar people” in one of Peter’s writings (1 Peter 2:9) in the translation James 1 of England purchased. In that part of Peter’s letter, he was saying that we have become the three versions of ekklesia Yahweh had been longing for a people to be to Him from the beginning.