The Perfect Pattern

Review

When we last left off, the writer of Hebrews had just laid out the amazing revelation of Jesus as a priest in the order of Melchizedek. If you remember, the name itself is broken down into its two components. Melech and Tzedik which means King and Righteous one - or in a broader sense, priest. So we understand that when the writer says that Jesus was a priest in the order of Melchizedek, what he’s saying is that Jesus is both a king and a priest.

Introduction

This week we’ll study the transition the writer makes from comparing and contrasting the earthly Aaronic priests with the king-priest Jesus, to comparing the covenant that the earthly priests minister under versus that which Jesus ministers in.

Hebrews 8:1–6 NKJV

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Right away, Hebrews 8 starts out with laying down the bottom line.

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying.”

What was the main point? Well, that the ceremonial law was “weak and unprofitable”

Hebrews 7:18 NKJV

For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness,

And it was weak and useless because it could only temporarily cover sin, whereas the constant goal of the Jew was to strive to melamed zekhut, which means demonstrate innocence. Jesus demonstrated innocence perfectly and then rather than cover our sins, he imparted that innocence to us. This impartation was so perfect, it made just as if we’d never sinned. There was a finality about it.

According to the Pattern

Everything that Israel had done up to that point was a rehearsal for the real thing. It was an earthly shadow of a heavenly reality. A reality that had to be marked in the present space with symbols. This is why God specifically commanded that everything was to be done according to the plan.

Let us focus on the following words of Hebrews:

Hebrews 8:5 NKJV

who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

God was very specific with Moses about the pattern for the tabernacle, then very specific about the mitzvot (or commands). But he was extremely specific about the Sabbaths. The weekly ones, as well as the Holy Feast Days. It was all about the pattern.

Church, it’s good to learn the pattern, because God still works by a pattern. It is good to study the patterns in the word, because in doing so, you will unlock the mysteries of God. Can you imagine if the Jews had understood the pattern that God laid out in the passover supper, how many more would have realized that Jesus actually was the Messiah, and finally understood the significance of passover? Then 50 days later as they celebrated Shavuot or the day of Pentecost, they shouldn’t have been surprised with what happened in the upper room. That was commemorating the day that God gave them the Torah, or the law by emblazoning them on tablets of stone, the parallel being that that is the day that God wrote His laws on the hearts of men.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 NKJV

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which 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 in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

A passage of scripture that was then quoted in what is the longest direct quotation of the Old Testament in the New.

Hebrews 8:7–12 NKJV

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Do you see church? Yeshua, Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament to those who have eyes to see. To those who have eyes to see Jesus is still revealed in the Old Testament concerning things to come, concerning ways to live our lives. Jesus didn’t do away with symbolic meaning Think of Holy Communion, the bread, the wine. It’s symbolic of Jesus blood and flesh. And still the symbolism of the feast days was not done away with by the crucifixion of Jesus. How do we know? Well because Pentecost came after the resurrection, in fact, it came after the ascension, thus showing that the remaining feast days feast days would likewise be fulfilled by some future work of Christ.

Not Different, Just Better

The saddest thing I ever hear Christians saying is that “we’re not under the Old Testament anymore, we’re under the new.” The reason being, is that it’s the same covenant. The New Testament is nothing more than a new and improved version of the Old Testament, tweaked by God Himself. So when a Christian says they’re not under the old testament, I cringe because it just shows me that they have no idea what they’re talking about. No if the New Testament is nothing but a new and improved version of the Old, then shouldn’t we expect that the Old will still have plenty of validity when trying to understand the new? Jesus knew that His disciples had the necessary foundation of understanding about the Old Testament to be able to embrace the promises o f the new. The early church fathers likewise wrote their epistles with the assumption that its recipient would have that base of understanding as well. It with this in mind that he penned these thoughts to the Hebrews.

It’s All About the Word

At the time of Jesus, the way the Jews were discipled was through repetition. The rabbi would say something, and then his disciple would repeat it back to him word for word. It’s no wonder the disciples understood the gospel so well. Not only had they heard Jesus teaching the multitudes, they most likely spent time repeating these words back to him. Is it any wonder then, how his teaching just rolled off their tongues?

Isaiah 50:4–5 NKJV

“The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.

So then, Jesus being the Word made flesh showed that even He absolutely needed that Word. He studied it and it became like food to Him.

John 4:34 NKJV

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

When we were looking at what the best way to observe the Sabbath was, we found that above everything else, rest was to be found in studying God’s word.

It is in this same way that the writer of Hebrews approaches this passage and points out something very special, that is that the word was written upon the heart of the people. How significant is that?

Obedience From the Heart

According to Jeremiah God’s word had to be written on the hearts of men in order to be truly effective. Simply memorizing the word was not sufficient to live a life that was worthy of the atonement that Jesus had provided for the people. In order for that change to be made, it had to start from the heart, from the very core from where the desires of men come.

If you’ve ever taken the time to study the Old Testament, you’ll find that it is not always the most encouraging material that you could be reading. In fact, parts of it are rather depressing if you consider them apart from Christ. In it you find the futility of man’s struggle with sin, can you imagine being a Jew in Jesus’ time? Can you imagine having lived all those years in captivity? In subjugation to one tyrant after another? It must have been truly heart wrenching.

We do have a story of the ancient Hebrew sage Gamaliel to elucidate this hypothesis.

The story says that the sage wept bitterly each time he studied Ezekiel. Apparently each and every time he unrolled the scroll he saw the demands of God upon mankind, he saw the demands of God upon himself, and as he considered them the feelings of inadequacy grew until they stifled him. As the panic within him grew - a panic at the realization that he could not live up to the lofty requirements of the God of Israel, he despaired.

He mused, “How could Ezekiel have been OK with this?” After all, Ezekiel lived among the exiled nation in Babylon. A people that needed hope desperately, but had very little. The hope of the Jews was a God who had so strictly prescribed the way in which He was to be worshipped, that they were unable to do so adequately having been separated from the Temple. Did Ezekiel despair? No, on the contrary. Ezekiel understood that the only way for man to truly live by the law of God was to have His law emblazoned upon their heart. So Ezekiel looked at the passage we just read from Jeremiah, and he found the hope that the people needed. Not only did he see it there, he expanded upon it.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 NKJV

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Oh Church, can’t you see the preciousness of this gift from God? Gamaliel saw it and wept. He wept bitterly because he saw the futility of his own situation, and because he saw the chesed mercy of God. That devotion that God had toward His children that compelled Him to do something about their sinful state. Gamaliel wept because he understood that what was really needed to completely obey the will of God was a heart transplant.

This is that gift to His people

Putting it All Together

We as believers in Messiah Jesus have been given an advantage that not even the prophets that foretold its coming would have. For you and me, the Torah has been written on parchments, on paper. It has been bound with leather, or paper, or whatever. But more than that, we have it written on our very core, on the very place from which we are inclined toward obedience. As it says in 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 9:15 NKJV

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!