Hebrews 8
“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
I love how simplistic the writer puts this “now the point is this”. Our high priest is not ministering in a tent that had to be built by earthly hands. Our high priest sits at the right hand of God in heaven. Even though the high priests in the early days were to minister and were to offer sacrifices they were still mere men, mere fallible men. They built the tent according to the pattern but it was still built by human hands. It was always meant to point to things to come.
“They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’” Hebrews 8:5
God established a covenant with Moses and gave him the plans to erect an earthly tent, the tabernacle. God appointed Aaron and the Levites to be the high priests. But you see all of these things were carried out by men. Therefore because these were just people, like you and me it was destined to have fault within it. The point of all of it back then was to point to the future High Priest Jesus. Because of Jesus we no longer have to go to the tent to offer sacrifices to be forgiven for our sins. Jesus completed that once and for all. Because of Jesus we can look to the law as a guide but more than that we have the Holy Spirit living within us and we can know His will and his way for our lives and we can know that God is merciful toward us when we fail Him, when we sin.
“For this is that covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: 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 ‘Know the Lord,’ 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.” Hebrews 8:10-12
Because of this new covenant, because Jesus is our High Priest we get to KNOW Him for ourselves. We don’t have to have a priest to approach the Holy of Holies and speak on our behalf to Him. We get to have this relationship for ourselves! Let that sink in. Yes I ask for prayer from others on my behalf when things are heavy on my heart. But there are things on my heart that are reserved just for me and Him. I don’t have to take it to a High Priest somewhere and ask them to approach the throne for me, I get to take it straight to the throne myself. I don’t know about you, but that gives me all sorts of feels!
Restore 