HOW BELIEVERS PROVE THE LORD AS PRIEST
Hebrews 2: 16-18; 3: 1; 7, 25
The Epistle to the Hebrews is a very important one. Of course all the epistles are important, but there is something special about the Epistle to the Hebrews. As far as I can remember it is the only scripture in the New Testament which presents the Lord Jesus as Priest. This epistle was written to Hebrew Christians, and no doubt Paul wrote it, and he wrote it in language which they would understand. In John 6 Peter came to it that Jesus was the holy One of God, and that would involve His priesthood, but I do not think the Lord is definitely called Priest in any other New Testament scripture. That, of itself, would make the epistle very important because the priesthood of Christ is a truth that we all need to understand and appreciate.
Now in these two scriptures I have read we get reference to the kind of persons who get the full benefit of the Lord’s priesthood. The Lord Jesus as Priest would have every believer on His heart. The high priest in the Old Testament wore the breastplate which contained the names of each of the tribes of Israel, and even if the tribe was not what it ought to be, its name was still there. The Lord Jesus is available as Priest to every believer, but we read where He “does not indeed take hold of angels by the hand, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham”. Now “the seed of Abraham” would suggest the moral features that characterised Abraham, therefore the Lord taking hold of the seed of Abraham means that the Lord Jesus supports as Priest persons who are characteristically obedient and believing and are here for the will of God. Even if believers are not devoted to the will of God the Lord Jesus has regard for them and is available for them, but it is persons who are committed to the will of God who get the full support of the Priest. It may be that the Lord as Priest is not known as He ought to be. I believe that when brothers and sisters get older and maybe weak in body, maybe suffering, such persons experience the Lord as Priest. Even if they do not realise that it is as Priest that they are looking to Him, in experience they draw support and are strengthened and are able to overcome frailty, and in spirit they are able to rise above weakness. That is the believer drawing from the Priest; it is the Lord’s priestly grace and support that enable believers to rise above infirmity or suffering, or whatever it may be.
Now such are of the seed of Abraham. Abraham did not take an easier path. There might be, as we have had in our meetings, a tendency with us to take an easier path, to look for an easier way, a way that would involve less exercise, less sacrifice, but that was not the way Abraham took. Abraham took the path of obedience and believing God. It says in this very epistle, “By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out into the place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and went out, not knowing where he was going”, Heb 11: 8. He stepped out in faith, but he was supported and sustained and helped. Melchisedec met him and brought forth bread and wine to support him and sustain him in this way of the will of God. He went out, not knowing where he was going. All Abraham knew was the God who called him; and he trusted Him and took the step in faith, not seeing the end of the way. Abraham was the first to be called and, remarkable man that he was, he went out not knowing where he was going. We have a whole chapter, the eleventh of Hebrews, to show those who were in this way before us. Our Lord Jesus Himself is presented in chapter twelve as the Leader and Completer of faith. He sets out the whole course. This book speaks about the race, the course; the Lord Jesus is our Forerunner and we are after-runners in the same course as He fulfilled, and I need not say it was no easy path. It was a path of suffering and reproach and sorrow. He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and, as this passage indicates, He went through these experiences that He might, speaking reverently, qualify to enter sympathetically into the feelings that believers have as they follow their Forerunner; as we had on Lord’s day,
We follow our Forerunner to His God
(Hymn 284).
We are not stepping out into the dark, because the Lord Jesus has gone before us, besides all these persons who are mentioned in chapter 11. We are thus assured of the end of the way we undertake.
The seed of Abraham would suggest persons who down here from day to day are committed to the will of God, and they know they can draw from the succour and sympathy and support of the Lord Jesus in His grace as Priest. No matter what is involved in it, and sometimes there is a great deal of sorrow and heart-rending involved, there is One, dear brethren, whom we can draw from who has known sorrows such as we shall never know. One who has suffered as we shall never suffer. We are assured of His succour and His ability to strengthen us in our day-to-day path down here. “For he does not indeed take hold of angels by the hand, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham”: in this sense He would take hold of us by the hand. You remember in Matthew 14 Peter stepped out of the boat and began to walk on the waters to go to Jesus. He could not sustain the walking on the water but began to sink, but he said, “Lord, save me”, and Jesus stretched out His hand and caught hold of him. He does not take hold of angels by the hand, but He takes hold of the seed of Abraham. Peter was, in principle, of the seed of Abraham. He had right desires. He was attracted and attached to the Lord, for He was his object, but he needed to be taken hold of by the hand of the Priest.
That is a kind of illustration of the believer’s path down here. Sometimes we are confronted with sorrows and difficulties, troubles that seem impossible to face. We have not the strength to face them, but in the assurance of the support of our Lord Jesus as Priest, in His sympathy, His love and grace, His faithfulness, we are able to go through as taken hold of by the hand. It says, “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest”. He is merciful and faithful. It is remarkable how it is put. It does not say ‘faithful and merciful’; it is “merciful and faithful”. Think of the mercy, the grace, the tenderness of the Priest we have. He is faithful, of course, but then He is merciful. He will consider for us in every way and support us, especially as we are here for the will of God, involving some cost and some sacrifice on our part. It says “in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted”. This epistle speaks about the Lord being made perfect through sufferings (Heb 2: 10) as the Leader of our salvation, and salvation in this epistle would be a full matter, a daily matter. The Lord is available for every one of His own inasmuch as the twelve tribes were on the breastplate of the high priest. Not only does the breastplate suggest believers individually, but inasmuch as there were twelve tribes it might suggest localities. The Lord Jesus is able to save us, to support us, individually and also to support and strengthen and sustain us in all our local exercises as we are committed to His will as being of the seed of Abraham.
Now in Hebrews 7 the same persons who are referred to as of the seed of Abraham are spoken of as those “who approach by him to God”; “Whence also he is able to save completely those who approach by him to God, always living to intercede for them”. They are those who approach by Him to God, which would involve that they are for God’s pleasure. It would involve what we speak of as the service of God. Believers are meant to be down here committed to the will of God and they are meant to be persons who are available for the great matter of the service of God. The first seven chapters in this epistle, as we have been taught, refer to the Priest as Minister of the holy places, who sustains the service of God and those who approach by Him to God. The Lord said when He was here, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me”, John 14: 6. That must include His priesthood. So the Lord’s priesthood leads on to His being Minister of the holy places as Priest, as Aaron was in the Old Testament. He was for the people, but he was also minister and sustained the whole service of God in the tabernacle system. Let us be persons, therefore, who are here in day-to-day life, committed to the will of God in faith and obedience, as Abraham was, and let us be persons who are committed to be here in view of being available under the Lord’s hand for the service of God.
PLAINFIELD NJ
28th March 1978
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