Hebrews Chapter Five, Taken From Among Men

 

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

 

We find in Exodus, “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest,” Exodus 28:1. Aaron’s lineage was chosen of God to be ministering priests in the tabernacle. The priests acted as mediators between God and man, accepting the sacrifices of the penitent in God’s name (by the authority He vested them with) as a token that his sins were atoned for, or covered over.

Verse 2 reads, “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” The garments consisted of an ephod, a special vest or apron for the high priestly office (verses 3, 4) comprised of gold, blue, and scarlet thread and fine linen. The fine linen, according to Revelation 19:8, represents the righteous acts of the saints. The gold, blue and scarlet are symbols of dignity and majesty.

 

The shoulder straps were to bear twelve stones, representative of the twelve tribes of Israel, as a memorial before God. Note that the stones represented the tribe in toto, Exodus 28:12. Here the high priest’s office is to stand in the stead of a people complete, saved or unsaved, to make an offering for sin. The sin offering was to be a satisfactory atonement for the people’s infidelity, offered not by the people, but by their high priest in their stead. In this offering we see the cross of Cavalry reflected because Christ became sin for us, offering Himself on behalf of the world, whether we as individuals received the efficacy of that payment for not. There is no place in the pattern of the Old Testament’s sacrifices for systems the like of Calvinism, a system that demands only a specific elect set aside by God for salvation. The high priest sacrificed the lamb on the Day of Atonement for the people—that is, for all the people of Israel from Dan to Beersheba. If this does reflect Cavalry then we know that when Jesus said that He would draw all people to Himself He literally meant that: all people would find in Him a satisfactory payment for sin.

 

Aaron was taken from among men, or he was appointed. To be appointed means to be chosen or assigned, and in this capacity, he was chosen by God, through Moses, to act as His intermediary in regards to gifts and sacrifices. We note that in Exodus 28:43, God tells Moses, “It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him.” Contrast this passage with what came before in Hebrews chapter 4. The priests that descended from Aaron never ceased in their mediation; there were always sacrifices to make and work to be done, see Leviticus 6:13. Why? The Law was never meant to justify a man in terms of declaring them guiltless. If obedience to this system could expiate sin then the Jews would have been made righteous, and no further need to sacrifice would have been necessary. The author of Hebrews will deal with this topic in detail later. But note that Aaron and his sons did not have rest. Christianity is a faith in which God the Son calls us to rest, because He has worked for us, Matthew 11:28-30. God gave Israel the Law to provide a teaching tool to lead them to faith in Christ, while likewise exposing sin’s nature more completely in light of the Law’s absolute demands for obedience; an obedience no person can fulfill, Acts 15:10.

 

The high priest is taken from men, and appointed FOR men in things pertaining to God. The purpose of the high priestly office was to be the bridge between God and man. Not a door, but a bridge. On behalf of his fellow men the high priest may offer sacrifice with the utmost sincerity, since he shared our nature and knew our weaknesses. Being fallible, born with the sin nature Adam was cursed with, he ministers to God with the testimony of Scripture and conscience bearing him witness that reconciliation is necessary for man to have peace with his Maker. It is written, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul,” Leviticus 17:11. The good works described in detail in the Law cannot save the soul, according to Leviticus. Paul testifies of our individual salvation, stating, “there is one God who will justify the circumcised (the Jew) by faith and the uncircumcised through faith,” Romans 3:30.

 

God expressly stated that shed blood remits sin; nothing else suffices, no matter how good we deem it. What does shed blood mean? Read Leviticus and we quickly and inescapably come to the realization that shed blood only means the death of either the offender or the offender’s proxy. Watching an innocent animal be killed in their stead must have been a grim and sobering experience for the pious Jew. But blood remits sin; one is no longer guilty of sin when they are dead, because by the Law they can’t sin any longer, or be charged with it. The animal’s death represented the death of the offending penitent, a fact the worshiper and high priest were painfully aware of, Leviticus 9:7.