Wednesday: Jesus Is Our High Priest
Hebrews Chapters 5-7 introduces a second function of Jesus. He is our High Priest. The author explains that this fulfills a promise God had made to the promised Davidic king, that He would be “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4, as quoted in Hebrews 5:5-6, NKJV).
Read Leviticus 1:1-9, Leviticus 10:8-11, Malachi 2:7, Numbers 6:22-26, and Hebrews 5:1-4. What functions did the priest fulfill?
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The priests were appointed on behalf of human beings to represent them and mediate their relationship with God and the things pertaining to Him. The priest was a mediator. This was true of any system of priesthood, whether Jewish, Greek, Roman, or any other. The priest makes it possible for us to relate to God, and everything the priest does has the purpose of facilitating the relationship between us and God.
The priest offers sacrifices on behalf of human beings. The people cannot bring these sacrifices to God in person. The priest knows how we can offer an “acceptable” sacrifice so that our gifts may be acceptable to God or that they can provide cleansing and forgiveness.
Priests also taught the law of God to the people. They were experts in God’s commandments and were in charge of explaining and applying them.
Finally, the priests also had the responsibility of blessing in the name of Yahweh. Through them, God mediated His goodwill and beneficent purpose for the people.
However, in 1 Peter 2:9, we see something else. We — believers in Jesus — are called “a royal priesthood.” This role implies incredible privileges. Priests could approach God in the sanctuary. Today, we can approach God through prayer with confidence (Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 10:19-23). There are, as well, important responsibilities. We must collaborate with God in His work of saving the world. He wants us to teach and explain God’s laws and precepts to others. He also wants us to offer sacrifices of praise and good works, which are pleasing to Him. What a privilege and what a responsibility!
| What difference should it make in our lives that we are indeed “a royal priesthood”? How should this truth impact how we live? |
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We often have a very sanitised picture in our minds of the priesthood and its duties. Most of us have the mind pictures from the illustrations in Arthur Maxwell's Bible Story, where the priests wore white robes. The real picture was quite different. They helped people all day every day making sacrifices. Imagine having to kill say, thirty animals a day by cutting their throats. It is a messy business. White priestly robes were quickly covered in blood. It was awful and the smell of fresh blood gets up your nostrils and does not easily go away. To make matters worse someone (the priest had to wash down the courtyard and clean up at the end of the day. There were no high-pressure water-blasting hoses in those days either.
When I think of the priesthood I think more of an abattoir worker in today's society, who does the messy business of killing animals so that consumers can avoid the mess and eat the plastic-wrapped sanitised meat that stocks the shelves of the local supermarket.
Why am I telling you this? Well, the picture of Christ, the high priest that appeals to me is the one that handles the awful messiness of sin so that we can enjoy salvation. He handles the spilt blood and the stench. Maybe if we had church in the killing room of an abattoir we may appreciate more the work of Christ our high priest. (and win a few converts to vegetarianism in the process)
I love this comment! I have always been one to never sqaush insects that find themselves trapped in my house, but I get a piece of paper and gently help them climb onto it, then take them outside to hopefully live out the rest of their lives in piece. (Honestly, cockroaches have a different story.) I also remember a time when I was a passenger with my mother driving a car. She hit a dog, and I cried so much! She tried to quiet and calm me by saying that the dog was okay, he didn't die. She said she saw him in the rearview mirror walk away. Everytime I think about the slaughtering of precious sheep for the forgiveness of my sin, I don't know how I would've survived back then!
Markeeda Riley, does God's word reveal an order/ preeminence for our love?
Does Jesus teach that it is alright to love our earthly father or mother, brother or sister, husband or wife,
Or neighbor, more than God?
Did Jesus teach that a sparrow is of equal value as a human being or that a human being is of greater value than many sparrows?
You make me think of a thought I once had: that someone would be more swiftly and severely punished if they killed a bald eagle than if they killed a human being.
Thank you for the reality check. The job of the priest to clean up the messiness of sin. How often are we as the Lord’s servants doing this with family, friends, and others? Even sometimes, if nothing else, just lending a compassionate ear for another to “unload” about their problems that have been caused by sin in this world is what the Lord has called us to do as part of his “royal priesthood.”
I found it interesting in Leviticus 1, the description of what took place. The one presenting the offering to the priest was the one that killed the animal, not the priest. I’m guessing this was so the “sinner” would grasp the magnitude of sin. They too would be pretty messy as they walked away from the ceremony. And, if you were further down the line that day, you would be standing in a pool of blood before you ever killed your own offering. That should have been enough to lead the children of Israel into obedience to Gods law. I would think that it would be a traumatic experience that would make you hesitate before you disobeyed, not from fear, but out of compassion.
Hi Karen
Because I see that you try to think things through, may I offer the following for your consideration. If a person grows up within a non-violent society and is not exposed to bloodshed on a regular basis, what you have proposed is more likely to be the response - as a generalisation.
But what if we are talking about a background context where bloodshed is a 'normal' and regular occurrence? The general brutality of the time periods covered by the Bible is often overlooked. We even have cultures today where more violent and brutal practices are 'regular' occurrences and participation in such doesn't seem to cause people to stop in their tracks or recoil from such. Within such contexts, perception of bloodshed and associated practices is radically different because there is a different reference point.
There is often reference to the brutality of the Old Testament - yet we don't have a record of people being horrified and objecting to becoming involved in bloodshed. It may seem strange to us, but it was so normal for them at the time - and this is what God was having to contend with rather than what God was initiating.
Hope this adds to your reflections...
This is on point Morris. Thank you for breaking it down to my level. Indeed our High priest has saved us from so much mess!
This week the author is giving us an overview of the book of Hebrews and then he will take an in-depth look at the different aspects of Jesus' ministry, I am looking forward to Chapter 6 were we will look in more details at what it means to have the LORD as our High Priest who will explain the truth to us.
To me the Good News is that in His Word the LORD has provided all we need to know about Him for Life and Godliness as the Holy Spirit through Peter tell us.
2Peter 1:2-3
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
The Greek word "Zoe" translated Life in this text is the same word used in John 10:10 for the Life Jesus came to give us.
I trust that God would give the owners and managers of this web site long life. These comments have been my balm in Gilead & my discipline in this pandemic. I am slowly but surely settling into the freedom of the good news and the privilege of reading and sharing it!
There is a big gap between the complexity of reality (especially when also considering spiritual reality) and the limitedness of our brain-mind to try and sufficiently comprehend that reality in order to exist within it. Metaphorically, it has been suggested that the best our brain-mind can do is to make a very 'low-resolution representation' of reality. This idea matches with the notion in Hebrews 10:1 of a shadow/silhouette compared with the detail of the reality that actually exists.
Because of our limitations, of necessity God is trying to assist us to progressively better understand Him and His Ways/reality through use of 'low-resolution representation' metaphors. Jesus used these a lot when teaching people (eg Luke 13:18-21). It is therefore important to realise that the many biblical metaphors are trying to help us gradually piece together a progressively clearer and clearer understanding of realities that are themselves beyond the metaphor (shadow/silhouette). However, this is at odds with our mind which tries to keep things simple ('low-resolution) and therefore typically defaults to a literal interpretation of the metaphor.
So, when you consider Jesus as Our High Priest, does your mind stop at seeing Him literally as an Old Testament High Priest ministering within an Old Testament sanctuary in heaven? Or do you, with the empowering assistance of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), go beyond this to begin to consider and contemplate the various aspects of what a High Priest's role and function was and add this to other aspects of other metaphors as you gradually piece together a broader and more complex 'picture'/understanding of the reality of God and His Ways? Today's (and this week's) lesson gives a good start point that can assist your journey to doing this ...
One thing that is not included here that Leviticus is clear about and that is that even the priest himself had to offer the blood of the sacrifice for himself too as Hebrews 5:3 indicates. And none of the priests from Aaron or the tribe of Levi could ever be Kings. Yet Melchizedek that met Abraham, was not only Priest but was also a King. Personally I feel that even Hebrews 7:3 regarding King and Priest Melchizedek, "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days , nor end of life,..." and also 7:15 is clear that after "The similitude of Melchizedek...," that there was only "one" priest in the OT that was ordained to be a King and also a priest (Jesus in human form "Melchizedek") to then also eventually become a baby in a virgin woman to also then spill His blood and then resurrect to become who He always was and is: King and priest forever at the right hand of the Father to intercede for all believers until He returns to take us home with Him.
Pete - you have touched on the most salient point about a 'priest' eligible to minister God's presence in man's life - righteousness. All the ordained earthly priests had to attone for their sins like the rest of the people. I do not see how they could possibly be a mediator between God and man since they are mortal and fallible. Only a 'clean' vessel like Jesus can perform this spiritually based, meditatorial work; which He did during His life on earth.
Melchizedek and Christ Jesus have something very important in common - faithfully teaching and administering the Will of God as they live among people in the form of man.
I understand that, when Christ Jesus was our Priest in the flesh, He also was our Mediator; He fulfilled the Will of the Father, having received authority to become the means by which those the Father gave Him could be saved. He is the spiritual channel through which Salvation has come to man!
His mission is solely spiritual: “a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” ‘Forever’ only in the context that Melchizedek ‘has existed before he came to serve the Father’ - was not born and appeared having no earthly father and mother and parted earth without an ancestral record after his assignment was fulfilled – Heb.7:1-21EVS; Heb.5:1-14EVS.
Before Christ, the earthly priests, in my opinion, were not mediators, they were God’s vessels to oversee the ritualistic aspect of the law God gave His people; accountable to the law. Now, the priestly position is held by men who are appointed by their churches to conduct the ritualistic aspects of their religion; (though they might claim to have a ‘better/more direct’ access to the Father due to their office, they do not.)
I can see ‘God mediating His goodwill’, but not the priests ‘mediating’ on behalf of the people; they lack the standing, the authority to do such work.
Today, the office of the earthly priest only ‘officially’ facilitates what is sanctioned by their church as their ritual.
Always, the ‘from among men’ high priest is subject to weakness, but not so our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus. The believer’s relationship with God is spiritual, free to all who believe Christ Jesus.
As Christians, we are almost 2000 years passed this period in religious history, having embraced the Lord and Savior as our shield and cover to approach the Throne of God directly and personally. Each person who choses to believe that God has sent His Son and lives his/her life according to His Truth and Light as taught by the Savior is now always in the presence of the Father.
The life of all mankind, each individual, is an open book to be read by all in heaven who are appointed to the care of mankind. Heaven is involved on mankind’s behalf to assure God's Work of Salvation - Christ Jesus, our Creator, Lord and Savior, and architect of this plan appointed it this way!
I have found it fascinating to study the whole Sanctuary System and to discover the many aspects that foreshadow the LORD's ministry.
For instance the outer white curtains around the whole area speak to the LORD's righteousness that covers us.
Then there are the Levites (that were not priests) who did many different jobs from cleaning the tabernacle/temple area to singing the LORD's praises and teaching the law. Even the menial job of cleaning points to what the LORD said that He came to serve not to be served. Mark 10:45, Matt 20:28; Phil 2:7; Heb 5:8
Sorry, Shirley, but the OT very clearly indicates that God chose the entire tribe of Levi to be priests from the time they were born till the time they died (all the males to be exact.) But again, they could not be Kings. Jesus was from the tribe of Benjamin and so was King David. But King David was not allowed to build God's Temple as was King Solomon because King David was a man of blood, but King Solomon was a man of peace etc.
Pete, I got my understanding of the difference between the priests - Aaron's decendants - and the rest of the tribe of Levi firstly from Numbers 18 and also from Num 3&4 and 1Chron 23-26. Are there other passages that I should consider?
Numbers 18:1-7
Duties of Priests and Levites
1So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house must bear the iniquity involving the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity involving your priesthood. 2But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony. 3And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. 4They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.
5And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again. 6Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting. 7But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”
Jesus and David were from the tribe of Judah.