Hebrews Chapter Eight, Appointed

 

Hebrews 8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.

 

Leviticus chapter 16 describes the high priest’s sacrifice, or atonement, for his own sin. “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house,” Leviticus 16:6. Aaron attained to the role of high priest by divine appointment; that cannot be overstated. What the Aaronic priesthood did in the interim between the genesis of the tabernacle and the fulfillment of the Law by Christ was ordained by God.

Why was Aaron appointed? “To offer both gifts and sacrifices.” Without exception every high priest that succeeded Aaron was not to come before God empty handed. On the Day of Atonement in Israel, when the high priest was permitted once a year to enter the veil into the Most Holy Place, he first put incense on the fire before the ark of the covenant to obscure its sight, Leviticus 16:13. Entering with a censer filled with the coals taken from the fire of his sin offering, as well as handfuls of incense, which represents the prayers of the saints, Aaron would take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat from the east side, and before the mercy seat as well, Leviticus 16:14.

 

We know from Revelation 5:8 that the censer represents the prayers of the saints. “The twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” The eastern direction seems to hold a certain importance with our Lord, especially in terms of His tabernacle or the place of meeting. We first meet this detail when we read, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man He had formed,” Genesis 2:8. Interestingly, Adam was not created in Eden, but from the earth outside the garden, and then translated into Eden to tend it. The entrance to Eden was from the east, since it was there that God placed cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life after Adam’s expulsion, Genesis 3:24.

 

Likewise the entrance to the tabernacle created in the desert was on the eastern side, Exodus, 27:13-16. The Millennial temple as described in Ezekiel likewise showcases God’s use of the east. The eastern gate of that temple would always have its door shut, since, God tells the prophet, it was the gate through which He personally entered, Ezekiel 44:1, 2. Ezekiel 47:1 adds the bit of information that the temple itself faces east. Solomon’s temple likewise had it entrance affixed to the east, 1 Kings 6:8. This also appears to be the direction from which the Lord will come, so to speak, Matthew 24:27.

 

As Aaron entered the Most Holy Place with the blood of a bull, a censer, and incense, we see the nature of the gifts offered. These aren’t gifts or sacrifices of man’s election. They are items God commanded to be brought to Him if man is to come before Him in an acceptable manner. Aaron (and his successors) came in faith with these offerings, believing Him who told them to do so. The high priest’s journey behind the veil demonstrated that one might only approach God on His terms. One of His terms is the shedding of blood. The bull’s blood, representative of Christ’s suffering on our behalf, was sprinkled on God’s footstool, where He appeared to Israel enthroned between the golden Cherubim. The incense created a cloud through which the high priest did not gaze directly upon the Shekinah glory and court death. On earth, our Lord’s prayer, recorded in John chapter 17, was an intercessory prayer for His followers. The smoke of the incense was a window through which the high priest may look upon God and not die. Jesus our Lord taught that the road to salvation was narrow, because the margin for error was nil. One entered entirely by grace through faith, and that only in Christ our Lord the Savior. No gift or sacrifice can substitute for humble obedience to revealed truth, 1 Samuel 15:22.

 

 Finally it is said that this One, the Son who is perfected forever, also have something to offer. Though God swore that the Christ, His Son, would be priest forever according to Melchizedek’s order, it did not negate the necessity for our Lord to enter into that ministry without an oblation. The purpose of the priesthood, as defined by the Aaronic ministry, was one of sacrifice. The priests sacrificed animals to make atonement for the people, accepting said sacrifices in God’s stead. In short, their acceptance of them was demonstrative that God Himself accepted the offering by the hand of those He ordained to minister at His altar. Jesus our Lord was not exempt. Nor is Scripture the remotest bit silent when it comes to defining the nature of the sacrifice He brought when we read, “who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself,” Hebrews 7:27.