JESUS - OUR HIGH PRIEST
(This study was an attempt to explain the a chorus I had written, which was based around passages in the book of Hebrews. When I get round to it, it will eventually turn up on my Music Page)
One thing that a lot of people find difficult as they read the New Testament are the number of things that are talked about that assume the reader also knows all about the Old Testament. The book of Hebrews is one of the books that relies most on an understanding of the Old Testament and Jewish ritual, so it has some of the hardest concepts for many people to understand. The reason for that is that as its name implies it was written to Hebrews, or believers who had been saved from Judaism. Indeed some of them were in two minds about whether they wanted to follow Jesus or stick with their Jewish heritage, while others were trying to do both. Thus for the most part the letter is showing the superiority of what Jesus did to what the Jewish law accomplished - that in every way it was better. The word "better" or "superior" comes up more in Hebrews than in any other book of the New Testament, and along with use of words like "greater", "more excellent" and "perfect", the message that the writer is trying to get across is why settle for anything less when you can have the best. Why try and keep the Jewish law, the Old Covenant with its temple sacrifices, when you can live by a better covenant (Heb 7:22), established by a better sacrifice (Heb 9:23), with better blood (Heb 12:24), in a greater and more perfect temple (Heb 9:11) by a more excellent High Priest (Heb 8:6). In short God is offering a better hope (Heb 7:19) and a better life (Heb 11:35), so why would anyone want to settle for less.
When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, He made an agreement with them. He laid down some rules on how they should live and said that if they would do what He asked, He would bless them. He also laid down some rules on how their representatives should approach Him and how to make sacrifices that would cover their sins when they did disobey Him. They built a Tabernacle as a place where they would minister to Him and where His presence would dwell on the Mercy Seat, which was part of the Ark of the Covenant. The inner part of the Tabernacle, the Holy of Holies symbolised the very throne room of God. It was the one place where God came down and revealed Himself, where He was actually present. It was regarded as so holy that only one person at a time in the entire nation of Israel could enter it. He was the High Priest. Actually if you look up in a concordance for references about the High Priest, you don't find many in the books of the law: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. This is because at the time the High Priest was better known by his name than his title. He was Aaron, the brother of Moses, and so all the passages about the High Priest refer instead to Aaron and his sons. The high priesthood was hereditary - a bit like our monarchy. You had to be born into the right family, you couldn't just apply for the job. God had separated one family - a twelfth of the people of Israel, to spend their lives serving God by guarding and carrying the Tabernacle (Num 1:50-53) and by teaching the law to the people (Deut 33:10). This was the tribe of Levi. Out of the tribe of Levi, one family was appointed to actually minister in the Tabernacle, and only one member of the family was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. This was the family of Aaron - he was the first High Priest - the next high priest was one of his sons. This carried on all the way down to the time of Jesus, the High Priest was always a descendent of Aaron in the correct line. When one High Priest died, a new one was chosen, selected by the Lord from the eligible candidates.
The Jews were attached to their priesthood - it was the centre of their religion, it was their means of contact with God. God however had shown in the Old Testament that this pattern of things was only for a season and would eventually be replaced. In various different places there are references to a priesthood of a different order and a New Covenant to replace the old. The book of Hebrews presents Jesus as the fulfilment of these prophecies and that the new order had now come into being. The Old Testament had shown that it was God's will that the old way of doing things would end and that burnt offerings and sacrifices were not really what He wanted, and it even prophesies Jesus saying to the Father that He had come to do His will (Ps 40:6-8, Heb 10:5-10), so by what He has done in obedience to His Father the old had been abolished and the new had been established. This meant that there was no reason for anyone to continue doing following the terms of the Old Covenant, because it had been cancelled (Heb 10:9), it was completely obsolete (Heb 8:13) for those who had placed their trust in Jesus.
Now just imagine a queue of traffic on the main road, moving along at a snails pace, and right at the front there's a car following a man with a red flag in his hand. Now when the police pull him over to complain about him obstructing the traffic, he says he's not obstructing the traffic, he's following what the law says. It says that he can't drive faster than 4 miles an hour, and he has to have a man walking in front of him waving a red flag. I imagine he'd be locked up, because yes he was doing what the law said, but that law was repealed in 1896 - it no longer applies. Though it was once in force and if you broke it you would be punished, these days you'd end up in far more trouble trying to keep it. You are now allowed to drive at 30mph in a built up area - that's the law in force now, and that's the one which you should be keeping. When Jesus died on the cross, a major change took place, and for anyone who has placed their faith in Him, they are no longer judged by the standards of the Old Covenant, because they are now under the New Covenant. Some of the Jews that had accepted Jesus were still trying to live by the old rules - they were following a man with a red flag when they could have been driving at 30mph.
Okay, the Jews had a religious system which they had been following for over a thousand years. Many of them were extremely religious about it and had added extra rules and interpretations of the original commands. There was plenty of repetition in all their rituals, because all that they did never got them to the place where they thought they'd be alright if they stopped. Over a thousand years of sacrifices didn't deal with sin effectively enough that they could have a year off (Heb 10:1-3). That was the problem with the law, it could not bring perfection, if anything all it could do was show how imperfect people were and how far away they were from God. The sacrifices could cover sin, but could not take sin away (Heb 10:11). Hebrews 7:11 states that a different kind of High Priesthood was needed because the Levitical priesthood (that's the ones descended from Aaron) couldn't bring about perfection. "Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood - for the people received the law under this priesthood - what further need would there have been to speak of another priest arising according to the order of Melchizedek, rather than one according to the order of Aaron".
Now there was a big word in that verse I just read - Melchizedek - and he is the key to the matter. Melchizedek was a person who is only mentioned in 3 books in the Bible. There's three verses about him in Genesis, a verse in one of the Psalms, and great chunks of the book of Hebrews. So who was this guy, and why is he so important. If we look at Genesis 14:18-20. Abraham had just come back from winning a major battle, and it says: "And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!' And Abraham gave him one tenth of everything". Now that's all there is about Melchizedek, but those few details are very significant. The first thing we should notice is his name: Melchizedek, King of Salem. Melchizedek means King of Righteousness, and Salem means peace - so what we have is someone called the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace (Heb 7:2). He is called a priest of the Most High God, it is the first time that a priest is mentioned in the Bible, and one of very few times where it is not referring to either the Levitical priesthood or to the pagan priests of the surrounding nations. But this is possibly 500 years before priesthood of Aaron was established, and here is Abraham the Father of the Jewish nation giving a tenth of all he has to this priest who blesses him in the name of the Lord (Heb 7:4,6). Unusually for an important character in the book of Genesis, we know next to nothing about Melchizedek. All the other great servants of the Lord, we know who their father was and often their mother, how long they lived, where they came from - but with Melchizedek he apparently came from nowhere and went nowhere. Every high priest in the line of Aaron got his position because of his descent and his genealogy, but Melchizedek has no genealogy, no family tree (Heb 7:3).
Now if we take a look at the next reference to Melchizedek - Psalm 110:4, things will start to become clearer. "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek'". So here we have someone being declared by God to be a priest forever - can any priest serve forever? - none had ever done so before, they've all died. This person who will be a priest forever, is a priest after the order of Melchizedek - he's not part of the normal Jewish priesthood which is descended from Aaron. Who is this person that the passage is talking about. In verse 1 of the psalm, King David says "The Lord says to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool'". So who is this person who David calls his Lord and who God says that he will sit at His right hand until all his enemies are defeated? If you haven't got there yet, the passage is talking about Jesus. Even though it was written about a thousand years before Jesus came to earth, this psalm speaks about Him and what He is going to do. So Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek - but so what? What does that all mean for us.
Jesus could never have been a priest in the normal Jewish system. He was descended from the tribe of Judah, so there was no way He could have ministered in the temple in Jerusalem. There was an episode in the book of Numbers (Num 16:20-35, 40, 18:7) where some people who were not descended from Aaron decided they could minister just as well as the official priests, but the result was that the ground opened up and swallowed them, so it was not something any Jew would consider doing. But the temple at Jerusalem wasn't the real one. Most people thought it was the real temple, it seemed solid enough; but it only symbolized the real temple. In the Holy of Holies was the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat which symbolized the presence of God - but the real temple is where God is actually present - in heaven, and instead of the Ark of the Covenant there is the real throne of God, not just a symbol. The whole purpose of the Levitical priesthood was to offer sacrifices to God for the sins committed. The sacrifice offered by Jesus as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek was a better sacrifice with better blood - His own. The single sacrifice of this perfect, sinless man accomplished far more than over a thousand years of sacrificing unblemished lambs had done. Jesus was the High Priest offering the sacrifice to God, but He was also the sacrifice himself.
The High Priest in the temple at Jerusalem went into the Holy of Holies once a year, did what he had to and got out - he was probably only in there a few minutes. There were plenty of other sacrifices and ceremonies throughout the year, in fact they went on every day (Heb 10:11), but only once on the day of atonement was an offering made inside the curtain. With Jesus, things were very different - He entered into the presence of God having given His life on the cross, and then He sat down (Heb 1:3, 10:12) - and that's where He is today, He has never left. He sat down at the right hand of His Father just as He was invited to in Psalm 110:1, and He has never left His Father's presence. So what is He doing there now? He is not making any more sacrifices - He doesn't need to, the one sacrifice that was made was all that was needed for all eternity to deal with all the sin of everyone who has placed their trust in Him. Hebrews tells us that He is interceding for us before God (Heb 7:25), He is pleading our case. This is why our salvation is secure because we've got the most powerful prayer of all time praying for us continuously and continually. We don't need any further sacrifice for our sin, because the job has been done: "He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb 10:14), but we do need His intercession. Jesus never takes a break from this - there is no time at which He decides to do something different. No as our High Priest He has placed Himself between the Father and us, and we can have access to the Father through Him. There's an old hymn which has a line "I know that while in heaven He stands, no power can force me to depart" - much as I love that hymn, it's wrong in that He isn't standing, He's sitting. "We have such a High Priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven" (Heb 8:1). No Jewish High Priest ever sat in the presence of God - they never got to the stage where they'd finished what they were doing so they could sit down before God, no they did what they had to and got out of there as quick as possible, it wasn't a safe place to be. For us though, it is a safe place where we have access to the Father and He bids us draw near.
This is a major difference. The old Jewish law was very good at showing people how far away they were from God. They would have known they would have been struck down if they had dared to come into the presence of God. Even the descendants of Aaron would not presume to go behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies except the one chosen as High Priest. The rest of the Jewish people couldn't get even this close. Jesus though, has turned everything upside down. He has made a way - Hebrews says "a new and living way" (Heb 10:20) - for everyone who trusts in Him, to come right into the presence of the living God in the real temple in Heaven, not just the symbolic one in Jerusalem. He has appointed us all as priests, not just a small number, and we all have equal access to the Father. And we are invited and encouraged to come and make the kind of sacrifice which God desires - a sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15). Hebrews 4:14,16 "Since, then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God ... let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness", Hebrews 10:19-22 "Since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He has opened for us through the curtain ... let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith", Hebrews 7:25 "He is able for all time to save those who approach God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" - notice that the ones He is able to save for all time are those who approach God through Him - the tense of approach is continuous, it means you keep on approaching God - so make sure you spend plenty of time in the presence of God, because that is where your salvation is.
Alright so the Bible says Jesus is the High Priest - but what about the guys in Israel at the time keeping the Old Testament law and offering their sacrifices. Well they were given a chance to respond to the gospel and most of them rejected it. But when Jesus died there was a change which rendered all they did obsolete. When Jesus died the curtain in the temple separating the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Holy Place, was ripped in two from the top to the bottom. God was signifying that a new way into His presence had been made, He was also signifying the replacement of the old covenant with a new covenant, and with the old High Priesthood descended from Aaron with a new High Priest who would live forever. As well as the High Priesthood of Jesus being prophesied in the Old Testament, it was also prophesied that the law, the covenant between God and Israel would be replaced by a new and better covenant. Hebrews 7:12 says that when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. One of the ways in which the new is better than the old is that it couldn't be broken. The Old Covenant, the agreement between God and Israel laid down rights and responsibilities. Israel had to do what it was called to do to gain the benefits and blessings promised. But they didn't, they broke it again and again (Jer 31:32) - is it any wonder their history was such a trail of disasters. The New Covenant though is quite different - God makes it with Himself, and allows us to share in the benefits and blessings, with no provision made for us breaking the agreement as we weren't parties to it.
Jeremiah says (Jer 31:31-34) "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - a covenant that they broke, though I was a husband to them says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more." This is indeed a better covenant, with much better promises (Heb 8:6), without any of the problems of the old covenant. The old one was effectively obsolete as soon as God announced there would be a new covenant (Heb 8:13), and it ceased to have any effect as soon as the sacrifice had been made which established the new covenant. The Jews continued offering their sacrifices in the temple, but I don't think they had any effect any more and once the curtain was torn I'm not sure God was present any more in the earthly sanctuary. The book of Hebrews said that what was obsolete would soon disappear (Heb 8:13), and indeed within a few years the Temple at Jerusalem had been destroyed and the whole Jewish sacrificial system collapsed. As a result, in spite of the attempts of pious Jews to keep the other rules, they have been unable to obey the full instructions of their law since that time. The thing is they no longer need to, as all the blessings and promises of the New Covenant are now available to them, if they would just accept it.
Death is an important fact in the establishing of a covenant between God and man. Sacrifices involving the death of animals and the offering of their blood were the means by which the blessings and promises came. A covenant is like a will. You can be promised all manner of things in a will - an inheritance of the titles held by a person, great wealth, but it will only be yours when the person who made the will has died. Before that it's just a promise of something to look forward to and has not taken effect (Heb 9:17). A death was required to bring in the New Covenant, but once Jesus had died, the inheritance then belongs to those to whom it was promised - though of course they have to accept that the person named in the will has died, and that they will receive what He has left them. Unfortunately it is possible to refuse a bequest, and sadly many have turned down the eternal reward which was promised, which is a real tragedy, as Hebrews says "how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation" (Heb 2:3). So let us make sure we know where we stand with God, and recognize what the sacrifice and High Priestly role of His Son means for us. If you haven't done anything about this in the past, please make sure tonight that you respond to what He has done and receive the blessings of the New Covenant.
As the people of God we are on a pilgrimage, on a journey; we are not at home where we are, we are citizens of another kingdom (Heb 11:13-16 13:14). Jesus is our guarantee that we will get where we are going. He is the forerunner (Heb 6:20), He has gone ahead of us, passed through the heavens into the throne room of God and sat down. Where He has led we will follow and enter into the rest promised by the Father (Heb 4:9-11). As believers, let us encourage one another, let us stir one another up to love and good deeds and keep on meeting together (Heb 10:24,25). Keep your eyes fixed on what has been promised to us and don't give up moving forward. Just as Abraham and the heroes of the Old Testament saw, what God has got for us is better by far than what we now see (Heb 11:40) - it's worth all the hardship, trouble and persecution we may have to endure, so lets keep pressing on (Heb 12:1-13). "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of God." (Heb 12:1,2) "Since, then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession ... Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb 4:14,16) "We have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain ... and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb 10:19-22) So let's do it, let's draw near.
Andy Williamson, December 1998
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