CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 8
The great subject of the epistle now comes before us - approach to God.
In chapters 3 and 4 they were turning back because they were unequal to the task, and then the Lord presents Himself as able to support, so that infirmities were not to hinder them. Thus the greatness of the Priest was brought before us. (See chapter 7: 26.) “For such a high priest became us”, separated from sinners, gone to heaven, He is out of the whole thing. I am not out of it, but He is. In John 20 He goes up, and places us in association with Him where He is, “I ascend to my Father and your Father”, etc. Here, He comes down to where we are - “In the midst of the assembly”, etc. They were put into association, not union. Here we are in association, and He comes into the midst of His gathered people. I want Him to sustain me on the earth, and to maintain me in the presence of God. We have a great Priest over the house of God. I want the lesser before I can go on to the greater.
In chapter 4 are infirmities to be lifted out of; here it is the whole thing. In chapter 4 He is a Priest for me; in chapter 10 He is a Priest for God. In chapter 4 a Priest to sustain me here; in chapter 10 a Priest gone inside. There is a danger of our being content with the lesser without going on to the greater. In chapter 2 He is able to succour; in chapter 4 able to sympathise; in chapter 7 able to save completely. Able to succour [p. 109] is in order that we may meet Amalek. Able to succour (chapter 2) suggests His shoulder; able to sympathise (chapter 4) His heart. The two combine in chapter 7 - able to save completely.
We get the glory of His Person in chapter 1. We get the glory of His priesthood in chapters 3, 4, 7, 8. We get the glory of His work in chapters 9 and 10. Chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, presents the position Christ is now actually in, “sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places”. In chapter 1 He sat down personally; in chapter 8 He sat down as a priest.
In this epistle we find He has sat down as to:- (1) The glory of His Person (chapter I: 3). (2) The perfection of His priesthood (chapter 8: 1). (3) The perfection of His work (chapter 10: 12). (4) Perfect as to the race (chapter 12: 2). Sitting down in chapter 8 is the effectuation of the priesthood for us. (See the difference between the priesthood in chapters 4 and 8.) In chapter 4 He comes, as it were, into the wilderness to us. In chapter 8 He is set down, because He has gone up to the highest point. It is here that the work was done, but as Priest He has gone to the highest point, and the priesthood is exercised from such a height. In company with Him we are to share now in all the moral value of this at the present moment. It is not only that He supports me, but I am in the company of the Supporter in the holiest. Having stated this point, that we are in company with Him (chapter 8), we see in chapters 9 and 10 how He cleared the ground.
Chapter 8 shows us how we find Him as Priest in the holiest of all. Chapters 9 and 10 show how He has brought it about, that we can come in. Under the law one could not go in with an infirmity. Now, what Aaron could not do for his sons, Christ does. I am in the sense of infirmity, but am not only supported by Him, but I am in the company of the [p. 110] Supporter. He is not only a Priest for me, but a Priest to God.
In Leviticus 21, those of Aaron’s seed who had a blemish were permitted to eat the bread of God, but could not go in, and so now there are people who say what a bright meeting they had, but it is questionable whether they were in the sense of the Lord’s presence. We may get the sense of relief, etc., without being in the presence; that answers to going inside the veil. Have I a sorrow? The Lord bears me over the sorrow, and thus I pass from having a Priest for myself to having a Priest to God. I have “grace”. (chapter 4). Am I compassed with trials and greatly depressed? I am, by Him, brought above it; not made superior to it, but I have a sense of the wondrous way He can console; and thus freed, I am in company with the Minister of the holy places. My sorrow is thus in abeyance. I am taken out of the sense of my infirmity and in with the One who has delivered me from it, where He does not occupy me with my things, but with His. Knowing Him thus, we have not so much the expulsive power of a new affection, but the expulsive power of a new Person. If a physician could give his patient one minute’s perfect health, he would have a taste of what perfect health is; so, if only for one minute I have the sense of His presence, I know what it is.