Every Bible book gives us something joyfully unique. Hebrews adds to everything we know about Jesus that He’s our `Great High Priest`; who, besides being our Redeemer, watches over us now, cares for us, prays for us now, through the toughest of times. (Hebrews 4:14-16.) It’s a vision that can keep us alive.
But to really grasp it we need Exodus; to understand what `Great High Priest` meant to the new testament’s first readers. (So this is Exodus 28, 29, and 39.) What would Israel have learned as they watched their high priest who embodied the way into God’s presence? And what is there in this picture for us?
First, they would watch the high priest seeing to the atonement for their guilt (28:38); they couldn’t deal with it themselves. They’d watch his immensely significant actions on the Great Day of Atonement (Lev 16), when he took the sacrificial blood into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled it there on the `mercy seat`, and they’d realise how desperately important this was if they were to be forgiven. The new testament picks that up in Hebrews 2:17, 9:7,11-12, 26, and elsewhere, to say, Look folks this is for us, the guaranteed way to God is through a Person who sees once for all to the payment for our sins. But then, as the high priest completed that Day, they’d learn that the sins being atoned for are really vile rubbish, and what was left of them after the sacrifice had to be sent far away (Lev 16:20-28). But Hebrews picks up this detail in another, unexpected and powerful way in 13:11-13; Christ actually became that rubbish (unfashionable, `outside the camp`, disreputable); and we are called to be willing to be (in this world’s eyes) rubbish, `bearing His disgrace`, for Him.
But that wasn’t all. As day by day they watched the high priest, they would see he always carried their names on jewels, on his shoulders, and over his heart. His clothes were designed so that each individual stone was a jewel with a name and had its place, and the high priest carried them all into God’s presence. We likewise have a Great High Priest: meaning, Christ knows and cares for us each by name! It’s not unreasonable to see God’s power there in the `shoulder’ (Isaiah 9:6), and His love there in the heart; isn’t it as we worship God for this combination of infinite love and infinite power that we grasp, each individually, our enormous security?
Here’s something, then, to pull back into our minds in difficult times: when we’re in danger, physically or spiritually, He’s praying. When we’re in pain, He’s praying. When we’re apparently alone or defeated, He’s praying. And His prayers are answered; because He’s prayed, the pain will one day prove to have been worth it, cross will turn into resurrection, we’re going to make it through…
So Exodus and Hebrews teach us this: the glory of Jesus is that He is not only the glorious Saviour whose blood paid for our sins; every single day He is also our Great High Priest, standing before the Father, joyfully praying there for us individually, and releasing the power of God’s goodness and strength into our situation. `Brothers and sisters`, says Hebrews, `since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… and since we have a great priest… let us draw near to God!` (10:19-22). Because of Jesus; that’s because of His blood shed for us; but also – the bit we may have missed – because every single day He is watching, caring, loving, praying for each of us, with prayers that will certainly be answered; because of these two things we surely can `draw near`!
`Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A Great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me!
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart!’
`Therefore, holy brothers and sisters… fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle – and high priest’ (Heb 3:1)…
PS Hebrews is one of the new testament’s most profound books, but it’s not entirely easy. David Gooding has a brilliant guide that we can download free from https://www.myrtlefieldhouse.com/online-books/an-unshakable-kingdom (scroll down the page). (Gooding’s downloadable free guides to Luke (According to Luke) and Acts (True to the Faith) on the same site are also brilliant. And all three are downloadable free there in several other languages, for example https://mh316.com/russian in Russian.)
