An Amazing Inauguration with an Anointing and Spectacular Power

Any Inauguration portrays a promises for greater things ahead. The day is organized with hope, direction, unity and a promise to build back better. A tremendous ceremony takes place with thousands of people looking on and is followed up with parades, concerts, celebrations and fireworks. This is the way it ought to be, for new leaders often spend years dreaming, planning and preparing to guide a nation of citizens on a road (no matter how well things are going) to a brighter future.

Throughout history every great leader was inaugurated with pomp and ceremony. This was true for the Pharaohs of Egypt, Emperors of China, Kings of Babylon, Potentates of Persia, Caesars of Rome and Presidents of the United States. Formalities in the past have included crowning, oaths of loyalty, and pronouncements of power. In our country, during the inauguration, the new leader is received by officials, takes an oath of office, pledges his loyalty to our country, receives a blessing, and addresses the nation with a message of vision and hope.

Through these official inauguration ceremonies, new leaders are given the permission to rule and the reigns of power. Heads of state in large nations hold an amazing amount of power.

The Beginning of a Nation

A most unusual inauguration is recorded as taking place 3,500 years ago. This ceremony took place in a secluded location, over a period of months, with great outpourings of miracles as a new nation was formed, which endures even today.

Imagine the inauguration of this nation’s history … the citizens of the new nation were only a few days removed from their fate as a band of slaves. They had endured a four hundred thirty year captivity, and were now standing at the foot of a tall mountain that would be celebrated as the place of their nation’s birth.

The almost two million people gathered on the desert plain before the mountain were originally but a family of seventy people, shepherds by occupation, who experienced a drought that forced them from their homes. At first their exile went well, but then a new king arose who would abuse his power and impute slavery upon the immigrant ancestors of this nation.

The leader that stood before the people on this inaugural occasion was formerly a man condemned to die by drowning, almost before his life started, in the River Nile. The child who had been literally drawn out of the water was raised by a princess, committed murder, and was forced into exile for forty years. Then he was confronted by a burning bush that changed his life.

An Inauguration in the Wilderness

Around two million people stood before the mountain that day. There were no reporters, televisions, and not one internet connection; but yet we know, because the nation’s new leader wrote it down.

The inauguration was amazing. After an initial two day period of preparation, the people had assembled, with clean clothing, in an appointed area that was marked off before the mountain. There were fireworks of thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud formed over the mountain. Loud blasts sounded, as if from trumpets, and the people trembled in fear. The leader of this people, Moses, stepped forward and began to speak. There was no sound system required, for God Himself made the words of this leader sound like His own.

Moses ascended the mountain a first time, and then came down in order to command the people to stay put. He called fort his brother Aaron, and a climbed up the mountain a second time to meet with God. He received the nation’s constitution, and then returned to the people.

Moses went up a third time, with Aaron, his two oldest sons, and a group of seventy men who formed the country’s leadership during their final days in the land of Egypt. These men were privileged to see the throne room of heaven, with its floor made of intensely covered smooth metamorphic rock, as bright blue as the sky.

The men came down, read the nation’s new constitution, received a pledge of allegiance, and offered sacrifices of thanksgiving. Israel was born, and the new administration accepted their authority from God and the people. A new leader’s first hundred days had started.

Further Documents of Authority

During the first 100 days of this nation their new leader did not spend any time in his earthly office; that would come later. Moses ascended the mountain again, this time with a young man named Joshua, and was called into the presence of God. During this meeting, Moses was given two stone tablets with the ten most important laws for the people and complete instructions for setting up the nation’s most important institutions.

But all id not go well, for a sedition was raised among the people. The holy altar that had been built with Moses’ own hands was desecrated as insecure people of the populace forced Aaron’s hand and tricked him into building a golden idol. Moses was forced to depart from the meeting with God and made to care for the people.

The man of God came down angry, as he was forced to handle the crisis at hand before completing his business with God.

Inaugurating Service rather than power

When Moses returned, he came with two installation services designed to help all future leadership understand their positions before the Lord and His people. The first instillation set up the order of Priests, Israel’s religious authority which also served as their judges. The second ceremony set up the executive branch of the government.

The ordination of Israel’s priests required a period of cleansing and purification. The Priests were then dressed in robes of authority with remembrances of the people they served. The High Priest wore medallions with the names of the people he served so he would never forget he was a servant rather than a leader. Every priest was then anointed with the purest of oil as a seal of loyalty and commitment to God.

The executive of the nation would be required to arise from the ranks of the common people. He was not to be a man of wealth, but closer to the people’s status, remembering where he came from in order to increase his benevolence. The leader was required to commit to an honest and pure life. He was to write a scroll containing all the words of God’s book, in order for him to understand their importance, commit them to his heart, and as a promise to follow their instructions through all the days of his term of office.

An Anointing from God

In future days of Israel, the King, as well as the Priest would be anointed with oil. The anointing, although messy, contained a symbol of connection to and power from Heaven itself. In a symbol God showed the prophet Zechariah “a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” The lampstand has ever been a symbol of Israel showing how God provides a light for the nation every day of the week. The oil flowing from the olive trees shows how a nation is empowered by its leaders.

God wants every leader to know that man himself is not the source of his own power. Rather, as God told Israel’s King and High Priest through His prophet, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Stupendous power, amazing strength and wisdom to rule come from none other than Almighty God, who sees the importance of every individual, and helps the President understand he is one of us.

 “The greatest among you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”