Our Great High Priest - Part 1

Series Overview

Our goal with our study of Hebrews will take place on 3 levels: (1) We will walk verse by verse through the book in our daily readings, (2) We will examine what we can learn about Jesus in our group studies, (3) We will peel back some layers and place this work in the context of the entirety of Scripture.

Week 1 — Understanding the Priesthood

Week 2 — Who is Melchizedek?

Week 3 — Can a Man Fix It?

Week 4 — Jesus! Our Great High Priest

The goal will be simple: to help you discover your value in the kingdom of God and understand why Jesus is Our Great High Priest.

What is Hebrews all about?

Author: Unknown

Audience: Jewish believers

Aim: Teach that Jesus is better (superior) to the Old Covenant (OT) in both person and work.

What is a High Priest?

My goal through this series is to help “pull back the curtain” (something that only Jesus can do) to gain a better understanding of the role of the priest in Scripture and in Christian life, as well as to convince you that Jesus is Our Great High Priest.

In Jewish history, the High Priest was the chief official in the Temple. Their primary function was the Temple service on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). We learn of this in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. On this day, the High Priest alone was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the people. But it goes much deeper than that if we look at the grand narrative of scripture.

The Priesthood

A priest is a person who presides over the overlapping boundary of Heaven and Earth. That sounds strange, I know, but I will explain momentarily. The priest functions to represent God to people and people to God, mediators between Heaven and Earth, the divine and human.

The first person called priest (Heb. kohen / ןהכ) in the Bible is Melchizedek in Genesis 14. We will get to him next week. After that we meet a series of priests, like Egyptian priests in Genesis 41:45, Jethro in Exodus 2:16, and Aaron in Exodus 31:10.

Other than the priest, there are two other types of people who represent God, the prophet and king. The priesthood is one part of this triad. We read of this triad working together (maybe) throughout the OT. When we move into the NT and study the life of Jesus, we discover that this triad is united into one man, the Son of Man.

The Beginning

In order for us to understand what the author of Hebrews is trying to communicate to this Jewish audience, we must gain an understanding of what it means within the context of the Grand Narrative of scripture. Therefore, we must begin at the beginning.

Genesis 1:27–28 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The creation account establishes the truth that man and woman are created in the image of God (Imago Dei). Man and woman are also created for a purpose: to rule over creation as the image of God on earth. While we discussed the separate creation roles or purposes on Mother’s and Father’s Day this year, let’s now go a little deeper.

“The imago Dei refers to human rule, that is, an exercise of power on God’s behalf in creation... This delegation of, or sharing in, God’s rule suggests the image is ‘representative,’ designating the responsible office and task entrusted to humanity in administering the earthly realm on God’s behalf” (J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1, pgs. 88-89.)

A quick study of Ancient Near Eastern history will reveal this representation present with various cultures such as the Syrians, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians all having some sort of representative between man and their god.

Specifically, regarding the Egyptians, Middleton states this:

“Central to this ideology was the divinity of the pharaoh, by which he was set apart from all other human beings... [T]he central function of the king was his cultic, intermediary function of uniting the earthly and divine realms. The pharaoh was thought, in a fairly strong sense, to be a physical, local, incarnation of the deity, analogous to that of a cult statue or image of a god, which is also such an incarnation... The king... was a place where the god manifested himself and was a primary means by which the deity worked on earth.” (J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1, 109-110.)

Our view of biblical theology presents the image of God within the priesthood as an incarnation of the divine presence of God established in Genesis 1 with Adam and Eve.

Stay with me here and don’t let your mind wander. This is where it gets interesting. A reading of the creation account describes Adam and Eve as royal priests presiding over the overlapping boundary between man and God. This boundary we call the garden of Eden. It’s right there in the text if you look closely. Also, the Garden is a temple. A temple that will one day be restored and become our future home.

Look with me...

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Again, we discussed these terms...”work and keep” in our previous series but now let’s lean in a little and go a little deeper. Words matter. And the words used here matter.

The word for “work” is used in the OT in a few different ways:

“To Work”

Exodus 20:8–10 ESV

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

“To Serve”

Genesis 27:29 NASB95

29 May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”

“To Worship”

Exodus 3:12 NIV

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

“Priestly Service”

Numbers 18:7 NASB95

7 “But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

The word for “keep” is used to describe the priestly service of worship. When these two terms are combined, as they are in the creation account, describe priests working in and around the temple.

Numbers 18:7 NASB95

7 “But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

Regarding the role of Adam and Eve within the Garden, understanding context and setting with our study of language, John H Walton clarifies their role:

the point of caring for sacred space should be seen as much more than landscaping or even priestly duties. Maintaining order made one a participant with God in the ongoing task of sustaining the equilibrium God had established in the cosmos. (John H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, 106-107.)

Now, let’s circle back and talk about the PLACE. The Garden or the Temple. Which is it? Both! God placed his image bearers in his garden/temple so that they could live in the boundary of Heaven and Earth (paradise).

But something happened to disrupt this paradise. After sinning against God, Adam and Eve forfeited their calling and were cast out of the Garden, the Holy of Holies, the Presence of God.

Have you ever stopped to think about the topography of the Garden?

The creation account describes God creating the dry land. And on the dry land, God placed the land of Eden. And in the land of Eden, God planted a Garden. And at the center of the Garden, He planted a tree (the tree of life).

Now, let’s compare this topography to that of the Temple of the Lord. First of all, the people dwelled and the Temple was build within their own land (Israel/Jerusalem). Within the temple, there were three layers/levels/rooms: the Courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.

Notice the parallel?

Now, when God banished his image bearers from the Garden, how did He keep them from going back in?

Genesis 3:24 ESV

24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

What flanks the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, in between which we are told rests the very presence of God?

Exodus 25:17–22 (ESV)

17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.

18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.

19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.

20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.

22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Can you guess what image is on the walls of the Holy Place and on the front doors going into the temple?

1 Kings 6:29–32 (ESV)

29 Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.

30 The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.

31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.

32 He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

What about the sword? David has something to say about that.

1 Chronicles 21:16 (ESV)

16 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

Isn’t this incredible? But what does it mean for us?

It means that YOU were created to be an image bearer, a priest in the presence of God!

It means that God is incredible! In His creative design, His pursuit of His image bearers, and His fulfillment and completion of His rescue plan.

It means that the story, YOUR story, isn’t over. So....

It’s not too late to trust in Him

It’s not to late to discover your purpose

It’t not to late to work and serve as a priest in the kingdom of God

Why? Because Jesus has created a pathway back into the presence of God!

Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.