TEXT:
‘Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honour beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven’ (Hebrews 8:1 NLT)
THOUGHT:
One of the mantras of Leadership Training is, “Keep the main point, the main point!” The writer of Hebrews urged his readers to do just that. For the Christian, the main point is always centred on Jesus Christ.
Since the beginning of creation, there has always been a point of contact between God and man. It started in the Garden of Eden when God would come down to talk with Adam and Eve.1 Sin destroyed that relationship and since then God had to remain at a distance.
Believers started building altars as a point of contact and called on the name of the Lord.2 When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for forty years, God was with them in The Tabernacle.3
When they were settled in Canaan, King David wanted to build God a permanent resting place, a temple, although it was his son Solomon who actually built it.4
Finally came the church that Jesus is building, ‘On this rock I will build My church. The powers of hell will not be able to have power over My church’ (Matthew 16:18 NLV).
Now Jesus is our High Priest, not an earthly man anymore and we must keep it that way. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared to Jesus and His three disciples. These two colossal figures from Israel’s past were talking to Jesus about His impending sacrifice and death. When Peter interrupted them and suggested he made three shelters for them, Moses and Elijah suddenly disappeared and God said, ‘This is my beloved Son, hear Him!’ (Mark 9:7).
However influential earthly leaders are or have been, not one is on a par with Jesus. He alone is all that we need.
Today’s Teaching considers the Tabernacle, the Temple and The True!
1. The Tabernacle
Moses was given specific instructions about the Tabernacle’s construction and the material to use.5 It was divided into three distinct sections. The Outer Court contained the Brazen Altar and the Laver. The Holy Place contained the Lampstand, Table of Showbread and the Altar of Incense. Lastly, the Holiest of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant. The High Priest only went into this part once a year on the Day of Atonement. So God was shut off from man. He was present but not personal.
2. The Temple
David had the desire to build God a house but all the time God had been intending to build a house for true believers. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you’ (John 14:2).
In the Temple, God was again separated in the Holiest of Holies, which man could not access except the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.
Solomon built a magnificent temple but God warned the Israelites if they did not keep the main thing, the main thing, they would be removed from the land of Canaan and the temple destroyed. This was literally fulfilled nearly 400 years later. Even the temple rebuilt by the Jews returning from Babylon suffered the same fate. When the disciples wanted to show Jesus the Temple buildings, He prophesied it would be destroyed by the occupying Roman army.6 This was fulfilled in AD70.
Yet in spite of these setbacks, God was intent on bringing something totally new, which was spiritual, not physical.
3. The True – ‘But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises’ (Hebrews 8:6 NLT).
The Bible says Jesus had no right to operate as High Priest on earth because He was from the tribe of Judah not Levi (See Hebrews 7:14, 8:4). Something new was needed because the old was not working, ‘But God himself found fault with the old one, for he said, “The day will come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel”’ (Hebrews 8:8 TLB). So what are the main differences between the Tabernacle, the Temple and the True?
- The Original not a copy
Both Moses and David7 had a revelation to make a replica on earth of what God had showed them was in heaven. ‘They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain”’ (Hebrews 8:5 NLT).
‘So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world’ (Hebrews 9:11 NLT).
Everything about the Tabernacle and Temple was man-made, with materials which could be destroyed but the one in heaven is eternal.
- God is not shut off from man anymore
The Bible states, our sins have separated us from God.8 God has removed our sins so there is no reason why God and man cannot be together. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple (behind which was the Ark of the Covenant), was torn from top to bottom. By that act the Holy Spirit indicated that man could now be with God and God with man.9
- Sacrifice not continual sacrifices
Jesus, by offering His own blood as the sacrifice, once for all, has made this possible, ‘With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever’ (Hebrews 9:12 NLT).
Previously animal sacrifice could only cover sin, but Jesus as the Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world.10
- Free, at no cost to the worshipper
There was always a cost to the worshipper on earth because they had to provide the bull, lamb, goat, pigeon, oil or flour when they sacrificed. The money-changers were quick to exploit those making a sacrifice, something that aroused Jesus’ anger.11
Jesus’ sacrifice means we can freely receive but we also now have a responsibility to freely give and bless the church with our tithes and offerings and the world through our evangelism.
The Bible says, ‘God speaks of these new promises, of this new agreement, as taking the place of the old one; for the old one is out of date now and has been put aside forever’ (Hebrews 8:13 TLB).
Why do we want to hang on to that which has been put aside forever? When Jesus taught about new wine needing new wineskins, He said, ‘No one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say’ (Luke 5:39 NLT).
Paul criticised the Galatian Christians for being deceived and returning to the former ways of worship under the Old Covenant, when they had been born again and had become followers of Christ. They did it to avoid ridicule and persecution.12
Why do we want to hold on to religion at the expense of reality through Christ? Let go and let God manifest the new in you!
Endnotes:
1 Genesis 3:8 2 Genesis 12:8 3Exodus 25:22 4 2 Chronicles 6:7-11
5 Exodus chapters 25-31 6 Matthew 24:1-2 7 1 Chronicles 28:11-12
8 Isaiah 59:2 9 Hebrews 9:8, Matthew 27:51 10 John 1:29 11 Mark 11:15-17
12 Galatians 4:9-10
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