The groundwork, the preparatory material, for everything we will read up to chapter 10 verse 18 is being laid down in the first 10 verses of chapter 5. The author has moved away, for a short time, from his exhortation to move into a didactic (or teaching) mode. I hope you are just as interested in this material as the penetrating exhortation that he has just finished because his purpose for these verses is to prepare us for his future discussion. The author will return to exhortation soon enough, perhaps too soon for our comfort level for the author never lets us sit too long before stepping on our toes once more. But while he is in this teaching mode let us relish this opportunity to glean what we can from his background lesson on the Old Testament.
Now as we are going to be speaking in the coming chapters about the Hebrew priesthood in detail we must understand the New Testament never initiates or continues the priesthood of the Old Testament. And we will soon see clearly that the Old Testament priesthood was completely fulfilled by Jesus Christ. He is the only priest/high priest needed because he did away with the sacrificial system by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross. Now I am getting a little ahead of the text here but we need to understand that any group that teaches an ongoing organized priesthood is still living in the Old Testament and refuses to recognize the completed work of Christ and the New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament types.
Hopefully as we continue to work through these verses of Scripture in the coming weeks this basic Christian truth will become so clear to you, that if you had ever been confused by the issue before you will wonder, “Why was I ever confused.” And when we come to the conclusion of this material in chapter 10 we will review this foundational truth spoken of so clearly in Hebrews 5-10. And it should be plain to us by then that an ongoing organized priesthood is not a Christian concept but a pagan one.
The main idea of these four verses is very simple; God chose the Jewish High Priest to serve the people of Israel in spiritual worship.
There are three aspects of the high priest’s office the author of Hebrews discusses. The first aspect is his appointment. The author notes this in verse 1. He says, “He is appointed.” I think we can sum up this appointment in four ways.
I. His Appointment
A. From people
The first way we can sum up this appointment of the high priest is his appointment is from people. This doesn’t mean people appointed him but that he was taken from among people. The beginning of verse 1 says, he is “taken from among men.” In other words he is not alien to the human race. He is a person like everyone else. He is not different from them. He is in every way human. He is taken from among men. The Lord gave this command to Moses in Exodus 28. There he says, “Then bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to minister as priest to Me – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.”
Here God established in the nation of Israel this priesthood from among the people of Israel. He appointed the priesthood from one family. The high priest was to be taken from among Aaron and his sons. No one else was accorded this position. It was only to be from their family among the people of Israel. Now later in history, after the exile of the Jewish people, the office of high priest was sold to the highest bidder or given to someone by whatever government happened to be in charge over them. But this is not how God had intended it to take place. It was to follow a family succession from the line of Aaron. And he was taken from among the people of Israel, specifically the tribe of Levi.
B. For people
The second way we can sum up this appointment of the high priest is his appointment is for people. Verse 1 also says, he is appointed “on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” The reason the Old Testament high priest was appointed was to serve his fellow Israelites. He was appointed on behalf of men. This position was one of service toward the Israelites so they might worship God acceptably.
The author noted God’s purpose for the priest was to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. The Day of Atonement was the great festival for the Jews in that it was a yearly sacrifice to remove the sin of the congregation collectively. From the passage in Leviticus 16 we read this morning, we see this collective atonement of the sin offering. In Leviticus 16:16 the passage reads, “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.” This sacrifice allowed them to remain in fellowship as a community with the God of Israel throughout the following year. The high priest was in this way called or appointed to serve his fellow Israelites in leading them in the worship of the one true God.
His service was a service for the benefit of the people. If the high priest did not perform the service of the Day of Atonement the community would be effectively cut off from the presence of God. God would leave their midst and not go with them into battle. He would not protect them from their enemies. He would not bless their families or their harvest. He would not watch over them. And worst of all the people would not be able to worship the Lord. They could not approach Him. They could not seek His favor. They were effectively cut off from His presence. Or, without the atonement covering for their sins as a people God might have simply wiped them out. He told the people He was jealous for His own glory and honor and if the people did not honor Him in worship He would blot them out from the face of the earth. So the high priest was serving the people by His service in the temple. His service, or lack thereof, had great ramifications for the people of God. He was appointed on behalf of men to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
C. For God
The third way we can sum up this appointment of the high priest is his appointment is for God. Again in verse 1 we see he is appointed “in things pertaining to God.” The high priest was serving God. He didn’t serve him as he thought best. The high priest was appointed to serve Him in things pertaining to God. The high priest was this mediator between God and man. He not only served man but God. And this too was a serious thing. God is holy and righteous. You don’t just shoot from the hip when you are serving God. He is very specific in detailing how He is to be served. What happens when those appointed to serve God thought they could serve Him in any way they chose? Leviticus 10 gives us a glimpse of this. It reads, “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans (that is, the instruments they used to make an offering), and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is what the Lord spoke, saying, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.”’”
When the sons of Aaron thought they would experiment and improvise in the service of the Lord, the Lord destroyed them. There is no room for improvisation in the service of the Lord. I think this has some real time application for us. There are people today who are trying to serve the Lord who are more interested in getting results than pleasing the Lord. Is the Lord interested in people? He certainly is but not at the expense of His honor through a message that is diluted. And there are people who will seek to use anything to draw a crowd simply because it works instead of having their first priority as, “will it honor the Lord.” They are more concerned about what other people think of them instead of thinking of what the Lord thinks of them. They say, “Well I have seen this church use this method and it worked for them so we should try it. This is a pragmatism that is sourced in humanism. Humanists have no trouble trying anything that works because they don’t see themselves as being responsible to God for their actions. But when the church starts patterning itself after the world then something is wrong. When we take the leadership guides of the world and seek to implement them in the church to get it to run we are in trouble. God has given us a leadership guide for the church and we had better use it.
The boat in the water is OK. It is designed to be there. The water in the boat is not OK. It is not designed to be there. The church in the world is OK. It is designed to be there. But the world in the church is not OK. It is not designed to be there. There is a saying, “Whatever you win them with, you win them to.” If you aren’t winning people to Christ by an accurate representation of who Christ is then you aren’t winning them to Christ. “Come visit our Christian mosh pit. Let’s get out our aggression and hurt each other in a Christian manner because we do not just have a mosh pit but a Christian one. Changing the name of something doesn’t sanctify it. Israel tried this when Aaron made a golden calf and called it the Lord. “Step right up and worship the Lord. Notice his shiny appearance. Notice his spectacular hooves. Come see his impressive appearance.” Fortunately there were a few who recognized it was simply an “UDDERLY” ridiculous idol and not the Lord. The people were on the verge of heading back to Egypt so Aaron compromised with them. If you stay we’ll add a little bit of idol worship. But you can still call it the Lord. We can take the methods of the world and call them Christian but it does not change their nature. How come Christians are the last to see these things? It seems some in the Christian realm are too undiscerning, desensitized or dishonest to recognize it.
In the book of Acts people were drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ because of the holy character of the believers and because they reflected a life different from their culture not because they had the hottest worship band in the area. They weren’t trying to become like the world to win the world to their side. Their slogan was “Love not the world neither the things of the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.” Try reading some of the writings of the early church leaders. They display a mindset that is in short supply among the Christian population. They refused anything that might be regarded as worldly so they would not miss the power of God working in their lives. Our service to God must not be in any way we choose. Our service to God must be done in a way that reflects God’s words, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy and before all the people I will be honored.” If we serve God in a holy manner then God will be honored in our lives.
Now back to the office of the high priest. He was appointed to serve God. He was put in that ministry to do what God had appointed at the altar. He was there for God.
D. From God
The fourth way we can sum up this appointment of the high priest is his appointment from God. The author notes this in verse 4. “And no one takes this honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.” The appointment the high priest received is an appointment from God. The high priest wasn’t put into office by popular election. He wasn’t chosen by lot. God appointed him. It was God’s choice. He said who was going to be high priest and that was it. This position of high priest wasn’t an enlistment it was conscription. The high priest’s office wasn’t a volunteer position it was fulfilled by the draft. There was no arguing over it, there wasn’t even any opportunity to decline the appointment. I can see now an argument a person might have with God over it. “I’ll take that position over my dead body” as God replies, “I can see to that.”
This was a divine appointment as such and wasn’t something self-exalting. If a person understood the position correctly it actually was a position of humility. Think with me about this. Here is a person who is chosen to be God’s representative to people. He is to represent God’s holiness. His life is to be an example for the people of how awesome God is. Yet he is only a man. Or think about the other end of his responsibility. He is to represent people to God. He is to come before God and atone for their sin. He is to do this even though he himself has sin.
This man had to understand what an awesome task he had. It had to be humbling to realize the grace involved on God’s part even to allow such a thing to take place. Imagine yourself in this position. God has appointed you to be high priest over the nation of Israel. You are called to come into the presence of God with an offering for yourself and the people. How can God allow me to do this? Surely he knows me. Surely, he knows what I am like. And yet he has given me this inscription to wear upon me that says, “Holy to the Lord.” He has allowed me to place this animal blood before him so I don’t have to be killed. Wow. I can’t believe what I am doing right now. I think I’ll just keep my head bowed so I don’t inadvertently look at something I shouldn’t while I’m in this most holy place. Why did God choose me and not someone else? I’m not better than my brother. I don’t deserve to be here.
Can you see what it means to be appointed by God?
II. His Ability
The second aspect of the high priest’s office we find in this passage is his ability. Verse 2 describes this aspect of his office. It reads, “he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.” The author describes two facets of his ability. The first facet of his ability is he has compassion.
A. He has compassion
The author tells us the high priest had compassion. He could deal gently with others. He understood their frame. He recognized they were filled with weakness and should treat them accordingly. He did not expect perfection from them. And when they failed he did not treat them harshly but dealt with them as a brother. The author here portrays the scope of the high priest’s ministry to them.
1. Able to teach
First, the scope of his ministry extended to the fact he was able to teach them. The author notes he was able to deal gently with the ignorant. He was able to instruct those who were ignorant of the law. Being high priest carried with it the concomitant responsibility of knowing the law. Not only did he have to know the law but also he needed to be capable to pass on the knowledge of the law. He needed to instruct those who were ignorant of the law’s requirements. He had to have been able to impart to the untaught the importance of obeying the law.
2. Able to reach
Secondly, the scope of his ministry also extended to the fact he was able to reach them. He needed to be able to reach those who were wandering from God. The verse says, “He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided. The word the author used was the word for planet. It meant “a wanderer.” This misguided or wandering individual might have known the law’s guidance but was not following its instructions and the high priest needed to be able to bring the force of the law to bear upon this wanderer and reach him in a way to turn him from his destructive path. He had to be able to make the word understandable and powerful in working with those who were ignorant.
The high priest needed to be able to teach those ignorant of the law and reach those who were rebellious to it.
B. He is a companion
Now the second facet of his ability as a high priest was intrinsic to his nature as a human being. That facet of his ability is he is a companion. Verse 2 goes on to say, “He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.” In the words, “He himself also” we see he is a companion to those with whom he deals. Being human, he understands each person is going to have a different set of problems with which to deal. He knows each person has some difficulty in his or her life. And he is a companion to them because he also is beset with difficulties. But because he knows the Word and is able to teach and reach he knows the Word of God has answers for their difficulties. He is able to use his knowledge of the Word of God and apply them to each individual in their difficulties. And as a companion he can give firm testimony to the work of the Word of God in his own life.
III. His Obligation
But finally we see the third aspect of the high priest’s office and that is his obligation. The author describes this in verse 3. “And because of it (that is, everyone’s fault) he is obligated to offer sacrifice for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.” Because, as the Scripture says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” he is under obligation. Because of the sinfulness in all with whom he dealt he was compelled to offer sacrifice. And he was not exempt from this obligation, “As for the people, so also for himself.” It was necessary for him to make sacrifice because God had decreed the penalty for sin. That penalty was death. Death or as it is in truth, separation from God prevented the high priest from coming before the Lord to worship. He needed to present an acceptable sacrifice to atone for his sins. He needed the death of an innocent party in his place before he could lead the worship for the people. This is what Leviticus 9 describes. There the Lord relates to Aaron, “Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make an offering for the people, that you may make atonement for them.”
The high priest dare not enter the presence of the Lord without the appropriate sacrifice. If he did the wrath of God would burn against him and he would be killed like Nadab and Abihu. He could not approach God without the proper innocent sacrifice offered in his place.
But when he had offered the proper sacrifice for himself he would then offer a sacrifice for all the people. This sacrifice was necessary if the people were to approach God. Let me ask you, have you had all your sin removed? Can you say, without the slightest doubt that you could enter the presence of God without fear of being burned up in His awesome wrath? Could you say you are completely clear of any wrongdoing whatsoever?
God has provided a high priest for you who offered himself without spot to God. He offered a perfect sacrifice to remove all your sin. We will learn more about this shortly but if you couldn’t answer the questions I just asked in the affirmative then you need to come today to find out how to have your sin removed. You must ask, “What must I do to be saved?” Otherwise you will not be ready to meet God face to face and his awesome wrath will consume you. He has provided a way for you to be able to approach Him without fear. Will you receive it?