Introduction: Words change both in their meaning and their frequency of usage. Some words go ‘out of date’! Where do we meet the term ‘High Priest’ these days? If we are ‘orthodox’ Christians, or belong to some other religion, or are reading books which take us into fantasy lands maybe ‘High Priest’ will be used – often in a derogatory fashion. Most certainly not being used in the Jewish Biblical sense! As the book of Hebrews in this passage and ch 7 clearly states Jesus, as our High Priest holds an enormously important role in God’s true plan! Before Him there were a succession of human people all coming from the tribe of Levi, who because of their humanity lasted only for a certain number of years, and because of their sin-nature were only symbolically allowed into the presence of God, once a year, and then bearing pre-ordered sacrifices. The Holiest of Holies, where God was shown in a shadowy concept to live, was shut off from the rest of the world by a thick veil. God’s Holiness didn’t stop Him from being involved in every day life, but this concept (type/example) showed the reality of the sinfulness of sin compared to the Holiness of the Holy Creator God! At the Ascension everything changed!
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he (Jesus) were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. (see above introduction) They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, (originally a tent, then the tabernacle, then the temple in Jerusalem) he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Mt Sinai) But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
For he (God) finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant, ….. I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Comment: The typology has served its purpose! The thick veil separating the Holy God from His sinful people was torn from top to bottom (by God) because the death of the sacrificed Perfect Jesus made reconciliation with God possible. Jesus entered, by His rising from the earth, into the heavenly realm as our High Priest (our Representative, our Advocate) able to understand our situation because He had been through the testing -pressing Him to give into temptation – but whereas we fall into the traps set by the devil and our own desires, He was a Perfect Person and perfectly understood us. He is our Redeemer and our Representative High Priest forever in the sight of and on site with God the Father!!
Hebrews 8: 12 – For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Prayer: Thank You, thank You, Jesus!
As I read it! 