The Highest High Priest
Yesterday found me with an unexpected trip to the Capitol to testify on a bill. After getting home later, and not feeling the best, I jumped into some other work and in the midst of everything forgot to post my daily blog! How about that?! My string of daily post between Debbie and myself over three and a half years was broken. I’m not sure how many will notice. Thank you to all who have shown their support and followed my posts over the years. I am pleased to have some thoughts and reflections to share as I engage in my annual reading through the Bible.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…. “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.” Hebrews 8:1,2 ESV
The writer of Hebrews is unknown. I believe it could be Apollos. Because in Acts he is described as follows: “Now a Jew named Apollos…was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus….” (Acts 18:24,25 NIV)Â
This certainly meets the focus of Hebrews in presenting Christ as the better High Priest and the New Covenant as being better than the Old. A key to the comparison is the role of the High Priest. The High Priest was God’s representative to the people and the people’s representative to God.
Hebrews presents Christ in the role of the eternal High Priest of the New Covenant. He was not from the tribe of Levi, but in the “order” of Melchizedek, the mysterious person Abraham met after rescuing Lot. Â He is referred to as a “priest forever.”
Human Priests were from man, our great High Priest is from heaven. Human High Priests were the mediator of Old Covenant, our great High Priest is the mediator of the New Covenant. Human High Priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sin, our great High Priest is without sin. Human High Priests had to offer annual sacrifices for the sin of the people on the “Day of Atonement” our great High Priest offered a sacrifice once and for all. Human High Priests offered the blood of an animal our great High Priest offered His own blood. Human High Priests conducted their service on earth our great High Priest conducted His service in the heavenly Holy of Holies.
The prophet had foretold of the day of Christ when he declared God’s promise, “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….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. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, âKnow the Lord,â for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.â (Hebrews 8:8-12 ESV)
Four of the eleven chapters of Hebrews deal with this issue of Christ as the better High Priest, offering a better sacrifice providing for a better salvation. The conclusion and the call in all of this is seen in these words,
“…since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:21-23 ESV)
When Jesus came to fulfill the Law, He did so as the bridge between two covenants. He was the only perfect man, living in full obedience to the Law of the Old Covenant. He was without sin fulfilling all the Law and what the Law spoke of and then He established through His death and resurrection a New Covenant, a new way to God, forgiveness and eternal life.
Prayer for today…. Lord, we stand in awe of Your divine plan. We see in You an honoring and fulfillment of what was to bring to pass what is for us in Your plan of redemption. Help us to embrace, “so great a salvation” and be those who worship you in holy awe.