true and better

 

A couple weeks ago at the Institute, we studied the book of Hebrews. Then, a group of us got the chance to visit the land of the Hebrews.

For twelve days, we explored Israel– the land promised to Abraham and Moses about 4000 years ago, the land Joshua conquered not long after, the land David ruled about 3000 years ago, the land Jesus walked 2000 years ago, and the land to which Jesus will one day return.

Israel was a nation formed by God (Genesis 16) to be a display of God's power to all other nations that He might be worshiped by all for His majesty. One of the ways God showed His power was through his dwelling place among the people. He instructed Moses and a creative artist named Bezalel to erect a place in which He could live with His people. 

The tabernacle stood for about 480 years before King Solomon built a grand temple as a place of worship and house for the Ark of the Covenant, which was where the Spirit of the Lord dwelt.

Thousands of men from the tribe of Levi worked as priests over this period, but only the high priest could offer the atonement for the sins of the people. Year after year, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and an atonement on behalf of all of the people of Israel.

Throughout the Old Testament, there are thousands of references to the Lord "passing over" the sins of His people. The Hebrew people observed the Passover Feast yearly to recognize God's grace in sparing their firstborn sons through the blood of an unblemished lamb and leading them out of Egyptian captivity. In the same way, the high priest would present a spotless lamb and sprinkle its blood on the mercy seat, year after year.

The Passover and the Day of Atonement were beautiful pictures of the grace and lovingkindness of God our Father. But they were only ever meant to be a shadow.

The Book of Hebrews is written by an unnamed Messianic Jew. A saved descendant of the original promise. In the letter, this man who grew up in the Jewish tradition unpacks all of their customs and explains why each one was meant to be a picture of Christ, the Messiah for whom Israel had waited since God made the covenant with Abraham. 

He is particularly interested in the idea of the high priest, and rightfully so. Israel was not an official hierarchical kingdom for very long, and it was instituted long after God had designated them as a nation, a people for His own possession in Exodus. The Kingdom of Israel last about 300 years. The priestly system lasted about 1100 years (taking into account the time both before and after the Assyrian captivity). 

The high priest, therefore, was perhaps the figure of most prominence among the Israelite people, and that's why the author's equation of Jesus as the High Priest was of utmost importance.

The temporal high priest was a man from the tribe of Levi. They were holy and set apart by God, but they were completely human and could intercede on behalf of the people because they lived a life on imperfect earth, subject to trials and temptations just as the rest of Israel was. The Israelites watched Aaron go through the plagues and they saw him mourn his sons. They also saw him erect a golden calf and aid his sister in undermining Moses. He was a human with trials and temptations. A human who gave into temptation. 

Jesus walked among a similar group of Israelites. A group who had struggled and hurt and was waiting for something better, just as Aaron's audience longed for the Promised Land. He existed in an imperfect world, subject to the same trials that his countrymen were. His Jewish brothers and sisters watched Him be mocked and ridiculed and mourn his brother Lazarus. However, they never watched worship anything other than the Father or stir anyone's gaze from His glory. He was a human with trials and temptations. A human who never gave into temptation.

He was the High Priest, holy and set apart and able to intercede on behalf of all people because He walked among us and experienced what we do.

The high priest's role was intercessory and of intrinsic value to the people. The presence of God cannot be entered into without some sort of divine appointment. Aaron and his sons (namely, Eleazer) were the line of Israel which God designated to this office to represent the people to Him. To illustrate this, the HPs would wear a mantle around their necks that names each of the 12 tribes as he entered the Holy of Holies. 

It was a calling higher than what we could even acknowledge: the temporal atonement for the sins of God's chosen people (Jews). Jesus' calling was similar, yet far greater: the eternal atonement for the sins of all mankind (Jews and Gentiles). The traditional high priest entered the veil and sprinkled the blood of a perfect creature upon the mercy seat. The Final High Priest entered the veil to sacrifice His Own perfect blood and sit upon the mercy seat.

Aaron and his descendants were usually faithful men set apart for a high calling before the Lord. Jesus, a priest specifically ordained by God and of the line of God, was a completely faithful Man set apart for the highest calling before the Lord: only He could intercede for us definitively, because the sacrifice He presented was Himself (Hebrews 9:23-28).

The blood of the unblemished lamb caused the Lord to "pass over" the sins of Israel. The blood of the Unblemished Lamb of God canceled out the sins of the world and allowed us to enter into the presence of the Lord.

I've known about the tabernacle since I was little and heard about the Holy of Holies my whole life. To be honest, it did not seem that important to me until recently. Because I have the Holy Spirit, I was pretty indifferent to what came before the indwelling. 

But... "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). In Hebrew, the word for dwelt among us is tabernacle. Jesus Christ came to earth and tabernacled amongst His people. The nation of Israel was geographically built around the tabernacle. John was making a substantive claim about Jesus and His role. 

"Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." Hebrews 8:1-2

Jesus is the true and better tabernacle. He is the true and better Lamb.  And... 

He is the true and better High Priest.

He is the High Priest "who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He did not bow before idols as Aaron. 

He is the High Priest and "mediator of a better covenant" (Hebrews 8:6). His covenant allowed him beyond the veil, like Aaron, but also to remove the veil altogether, a gift unattainable by flawed high priests. And "where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it" (Hebrews 9:16). In Genesis 17, God creates a covenant of circumcision with Abram, but He does something peculiar at the beginning– He puts Abram to sleep. God, from the beginning, was offering Himself as a sacrifice because all covenants necessitated the death of one party.

And so, Jesus willingly allows Himself to be tried, arrested, and condemned to die, because He dearly desired for us to be reconciled to Himself. In His death, He accomplished this. The Holy of Holies, once only able to be entered by the high priest of the Levites, was now accessible by all. The veil was torn, and our God is approachable.

In the Negev desert, there is a replica of the tabernacle. We visited it one of the days during our trip, and it was perhaps the most profound part of the trip for me. We stood in the courtyard in front of the altar, entered the Holy Place, and gazed upon the replica of the Ark of the Covenant.

Our guide, Marco, was a Messianic Jew who loved His Savior but also loved the tradition of His people. He talked to us about the tearing of the veil and asked us why it was important. "It allows us to enter the presence of God." He told us that we were right, but also that it had even a more profound meaning for the Ancient Jews:

 

In the ancient Near East, a father would rip his clothes from top to bottom when his son died. At the crucifixion, the Father ripped His clothes to mourn the death of His Son. The tearing of the veil was a divine declaration that Jesus Christ was the begotten Son of God and was also approachable.

Jesus Christ is our High Priest, loved and given by His Father on our behalf. He is the fulfillment of Jewish customs and the true and better substance of it all. He is what they were waiting for.

Hebrews 4 talks about Jesus being our better Rest. He has done what we could not do and died the death we should have died so that we can take part in the inheritance of eternal life that we do not deserve. His love is deeper, greater, kinder, and more merciful than we could ever begin to imagine.

When God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, He said, "'Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation'" (Exodus 19:5-6). This command is repeated all throughout the Torah and the Old Testament. He set the Levites apart to be tabernacle priests and the line of Aaron to be the high priests, but He set the nation of Israel apart to be a nation of priests.

And what does that mean for us?

The Old Testament called people of all nations to "come and see" the glory of God on display through the nation of Israel and its people. 

The Coming of Christ called people of all nations to "go and tell" the glory of God to all corners of the earth through the Holy Spirit. The nation of priests has been expanded to all of the people of Christ– hallelujah!

We were once slaves to the Law, "But [now we] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (I Peter 2:9-10)

How kind of the Lord that we are grafted into His nation of priests! Let's live on mission, thankful for the truth that our High Priest has allowed us into the veil!