Representative!

I want you to think back this morning to the last time you had a question about a bill. Well, maybe not the LAST time. These days, if we have a question about a bill, most of us go online and search through the billing history for the answer.

Or we go online and chat with some AI customer service bot. And you know it’s AI, because they’re always MUCH more friendly than the real people they replaced, even if they’re no more helpful.

No, I want you to think way back to the old days, like 2010, back when dinosaurs still walked the earth and every company had a computerized system that answered the phone and insisted on trying to help you.

Remember that? Press 1 for English. Press 1 again for Customer Service. Press 1 again for Billing Questions. Please enter your 27-digit account number, printed in invisible ink on the back of page 4 of your most recent bill. You have 10 seconds to complete this step before we terminate the call. Have a nice day!

There were also voice-response systems, that, in theory, at least, would allow you to SPEAK all those responses. Please say your address. 123 North Main Street. You said, “123 Fourth Train Beep. Is that correct?”

Either way, after you’d spent 15 minutes pressing random buttons or being mocked by a computer for your accent, what was the word you’d finally say through gritted teeth? What was the word that promised to release you from this computer nightmare?

REPRESENTATIVE!

I must confess to having shouted at more than my fair share of disembodied, automated voices, only to find myself suddenly having to clean up my language and change my tone when some cheery human finally answered from the other side.

I think many of these folks would’ve made great hostage negotiators. Think about it. Everybody they interacted with every day had reached them at the end of their ropes.

They were all frustrated with the process they’d had to go through to talk to a human. They were already stressed from whatever problem had caused them to call the company in the first place.

And now, the company representative had to restore calm to the situation, talk the caller back from the ledge and negotiate the release of the hostages — your hard-earned dollars.

And from the caller’s perspective, this live person on the other end of the line — wherever in Pakistan or India that might have been — was the face of the company. This REPRESENTATIVE would mediate between you and the all-powerful company demanding your money.

And it was a good thing to remember that they were representing the company to YOU and not the other way around. They had the best interests of the COMPANY in mind, not yours.

Well, today, we’re going to talk about representatives with similar roles in Scripture. These were the priests of Old Testament Israel, the ones who represented the people before God, the ones who mediated between the people of Israel and God.

Now, for the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about typology. As a reminder, typology is a theological concept whereby certain people, places, objects, or events in the Old Testament serve, in part, to point us to their perfect fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

The Old Testament thing is the imperfect or incomplete TYPE that finds its fulfillment — its completion, its perfection — in Jesus as the antitype.

Adam, as the first man, was the type for mankind. But in his sin of unbelief in the Garden of Eden, he failed to be what God intended mankind to be.

But Jesus in His perfect obedience and faith in His Father, perfectly fulfilled God’s intentions for what man was supposed to be — the embodiment of His righteous character.

Moses, perhaps the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, was the type for prophets. He spoke God’s words to God’s people. But when he struck the rock to bring forth water, instead of speaking God’s word to it as God had said to do, Moses defiled the holiness of God’s word.

But Jesus, the prophetic antitype, perfectly fulfilled God’s intentions for a prophet. He spoke only what God told Him to speak, perfectly revealing to us God’s mind and God’s heart.

Today, we’re going to spend some time talking about the role of the priest in Old Testament Israel. And then, we’ll see that Jesus is the Great High Priest, the antitype to the Old Testament type.

And finally, we’ll see how His role as Great High Priest gives us confidence — confidence in our salvation and confidence as we stand before God in prayer.

Now, today we’re not going to talk so much about specific Old Testament priests or their failures, though there were some notable ones.

Instead, we’re going to talk about the office of the priest, and especially that of the High Priest.

In Old Testament Israel, priests, in general, were the ones who guarded and served the relationship with God that was central to Israel’s life.

And the High Priest had the ultimate spiritual responsibility for God’s people, which made this a position of both great honor and great sanctity.

Priests had to be Levites descended from Aaron. They couldn’t have physical defects. They couldn’t be married to a woman who’d been divorced or who’d been a prostitute.

The idea behind all of this was that they’d be serving God for the people and needed to be — these are my words, not the Bible’s — good specimens of humanity, good representatives.

The priests had two roles in Israel: to represent the people of Israel before God and to represent God to the people of Israel.

They fulfilled these roles through three primary sets of priestly duties. First, in conjunction with the High Priest, they declared God’s will to His people. Second, they taught the people of Israel about God and about the Mosaic Law. And third, they served in the tabernacle, conducting worship and sacrifices there.

So, the priests, in general, were responsible for maintaining and guarding the relationship between God and His people.

But the High Priest had an especially important role in this regard. He was administratively responsible for the spiritual condition of the priests under him

But the office of High Priest was about more than just administrative duties. In fact, one of his annual duties was also one of the most important things to take place in Israel each year.

We see this in the 16th chapter of the Book of Leviticus, which is one of the two most likely places people tend to abandon their Bible-in-a-Year plans.

So, maybe you’ve HEARD of the Day of Atonement. But I won’t be surprised if you’ve never actually read what it entailed. So, let’s take a look at it now.

Leviticus 16 NASB95

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. 2 The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 “Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 “He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. 5 “He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. 7 “He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 8 “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 “Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering. 10 “But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. 11 “Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. 12 “He shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. 13 “He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die. 14 “Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 “Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 “He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. 17 “When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 “Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides. 19 “With his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times and cleanse it, and from the impurities of the sons of Israel consecrate it. 20 “When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. 21 “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. 22 “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. 23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. 24 “He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 “Then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar. 26 “The one who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; then afterward he shall come into the camp. 27 “But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. 28 “Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp. 29 “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; 30 for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.

Now, remember that the office of priest in the Old Testament is a type that points us to the antitype of Jesus. He perfectly fulfills that which was imperfect in the Old Testament.

He is the Great High Priest who perfectly represents God’s people to God and who perfectly represents God to His people.

So, let’s go back through and see how that works.

In Hebrews, chapter 2, we read that Jesus became flesh and blood in order to be able to fully represent us before God. Look at verse 17.

Hebrews 2:17–18 NASB95

17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

Verse 17 is the first time in Scripture that Jesus is referred to as the High Priest. And here, the writer tells us Jesus did for us what the High Priests of Israel did for the people of Israel. He made propitiation for our sins.

Through His sacrificial death at the cross, He made atonement for us, just as the High Priests made atonement for the sins of the nation on the Day of Atonement.

But there’s a big difference that should be obvious. Look back at the passage from Leviticus. What was the first sacrifice Aaron had to make? A bull. And for what? For HIS sins. He couldn’t enter the Holy of Holies without first atoning for his OWN sins.

Jesus, however, was without sin. He was tempted as we all are, and yet, He did not give in to that temptation. So, the sacrifice HE made, He could make for mankind. He didn’t have to sacrifice for Himself.

Here’s the reason I read that whole passage from Leviticus, and here’s one of the reasons the Book of Leviticus goes into such great detail about the sacrifices: Sin is a big deal. And it pollutes everything it touches.

When we sin against God — no matter how small the sin — we rebel against the holiness and His righteousness of our Creator and King. And the penalty for such rebellion is death.

But God graciously gave the people of Israel a solution to that problem by providing the sacrificial system. In faith, they could sacrifice animals , shedding the blood of bulls and goats and sheep so their sins could be covered.

Instead of requiring THEIR death — the complete destruction of their relationship with Him — God accepted the death of animals in their place.

But every new sin required a new sacrifice. The tabernacle would have been absolutely putrid with blood and gore. And there was nothing the High Priest could do except go on making sacrifices.

But as Jesus took His last breaths on the cross, HE said, “It is finished.” His sacrifice was once, for all. The sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God was sufficient to pay the just penalty for ALL the sins of ALL who would turn to Him in faith.

Look at how it’s put in Hebrews 10:11-13:

Hebrews 10:11–13 NASB95

11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

The priests in the tabernacle were on their feet all the time. Think of all the sacrificing that had to be done to cover the sins of all of Israel!

But Jesus returned to heaven in His glorified body, and what did He do? He sat down. His work was done.

And there’s one other difference between the High Priests of Israel and Jesus, our Great High Priest, that I want you to notice.

When Aaron went to make his sacrifice for the people, he had to enter the Holy of Holies, that place behind the veil in the tabernacle, where God’s presence in Israel dwelt. And nobody could go with him there. God’s presence was literally veiled from His people.

But when Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two. The Holy of Holies — that place in the very presence of God — is now in heaven, where Jesus, our High Priest sits at the right hand of God.

When we come to God in prayer — when we come to Him in the name of, in the authority of Jesus — we stand in God’s very presence.

We still come to Him through our High Priest — in the name of Jesus. But this Great High Priest, who perfectly represents us to God and perfectly represents God to us, is able to do what the High Priests of Israel could never do: save us! Listen to how it’s put in Hebrews 7:23-25:

Hebrews 7:23–25 NASB95

23 The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Because He is the God-MAN, Jesus can perfectly represent us before God. And because He’s the GOD-man, Jesus can perfectly represent GOD to US.

Because He lived here without sin, Jesus could offer HIMSELF as a sacrifice for OUR sins. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we can know that God ACCEPTED His Son’s sacrifice as full payment of the sin-debt for all who turn to Jesus in faith.

Because Jesus will never die again, we can know that He’ll continue in His role as Great High Priest forever. And because He loves us, we can be sure He’s interceding with God FOR us.

And all this should strengthen our faith. It should bring us consolation as we face temptation. And it should give us great confidence before God. As the writer of Hebrews puts it in chapter 4:

Hebrews 4:14–16 NASB95

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Stand firm in your faith. Trust in Him who understands the temptations we face, because He faced them, too. Come boldly before the throne of God and find there His mercy and His grace.

And praise God that He’s given us this Great High Priest through whom all these things are possible.

How wonderful to know we have such a representative sitting at the right hand of God! Let’s go to Him in thanksgiving now.