THE PRIESTHOOD
[p. 174] THE PRIESTHOOD
I desire to make a few remarks on the priesthood. The object of the book of Hebrews is to detach the Jewish converts from the earth, so to present Christ to their hearts that they may be drawn away from the earth to the place where Christ is, and so effectually that you find at the end of the book they are running a race to where Christ is (chapter 12: 1).
The book opens with a fact of the deepest importance to us. The question of sins is settled (chapter 1: 3). “Having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. Sins do not belong to the assembly of God. To introduce sins into the assembly of God is to introduce what has been put away. If the question of sins is not settled with you, you are not ready for the Priest. There is the earthly saint and the heavenly saint. The earthly saint wants the priest on earth, but the heavenly saint knows that his Priest is in heaven, at the right hand of God. When you take earthly ground, you are wanting Christ to bless you on the earth. In the Jewish economy the people knew no assurance, no blessing, till the priest came out of the tabernacle. (See Leviticus 9: 23.) But we do not wait for that; we have received the Holy Spirit to tell us of heavenly things. The tendency of us all is to the earth - the portion of the earthly saint. The apostle’s work here is to turn their hearts away from the earth. The heavenly Priest is for heavenly blessing.
The question of sins having been settled, as I have said, in chapter 1, another thing comes out in chapter 2: 14 - “that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”. It is not only that sins are purged, but the power of Satan, and [p. 175] all that his power could effect, is annulled in death. Here is the fulfilment of what was promised in the garden of Eden, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. The power of the enemy is completely broken - gone. All our enemies are sunk like lead in the mighty waters. You do not learn the benefit of the priesthood until you know this. The priesthood is to relieve you of your infirmity, and then, relieved of your infirmity, you find yourself in company with Him. You have boldness to enter the holiest without a spot, in company with the One who has sat down there. Here we have Paul’s side of John 13. In John 13 it is failure, defilement. If there is even a shade of reserve between you and the Lord, there is no communion; it is broken. I speak solemnly. Many a one who is clear of his sins has never known intimacy with the Lord. No one can know what it is to have his feet washed unless he has known intimacy with Christ. Feet-washing is to remove what breaks in upon the intimacy. You cannot lose what you have never known.
I would say a word on the nature of the intimacy, and how it is vouchsafed. In John 10: 14, 15 I find the character of it. “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. It is the same character of intimacy that exists between the Father and the Son. How great it is! How Peter felt its greatness when the Lord said, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”. There cannot be communion without intimacy. You cannot be in the new place to which the Lord was going, if you are in any way defiled by things here, until your feet are washed.
How is this intimacy produced? First, the sins are gone. Second, the priesthood. “No more offering for sin”. How can you offer for the thing that is done with? But you may say, I commit sin. Yes; and woe betide you if you do not judge yourself. But it is [p. 176] not judging your sins, but judging yourself. That is a different thing. Your sin was judged in the cross, and nowhere else. But if you return to it you have to judge yourself. “If we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord”, etc. Infirmities are not sins. The Lord as Priest makes intercession now. He has purged away our sins. Here the apostle is warning the saints to beware of an evil heart of unbelief like their fathers, who would not go up and possess the land. It was the day of provocation. I would warn you all against the day of provocation. The tendency of our hearts is to stop short, to refuse to go up, to say, No, I am not able. Therefore he says, “Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to the word”.
I have taken my ticket for heaven, but here I am encompassed with infirmity. Well, there are two helps on the road, the word and the priesthood. The word is to direct you if you are on the road to heaven, and to detect you if you are not. The Lord will not help you if you are on the road to pleasure. It is only on the road to heaven that He can sympathise with you. The word is the finger-post. Look! Which way is it pointing? If you are going on the wrong road the word finds you out, you are not directed by it. “The word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.
The second help is the Priest. “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”. In all our afflictions He was afflicted, and He has passed through all, and is now [p. 177] higher than the heavens. He would support us in our infirmities in order that we should be borne above them.
There are three great classes of trial. First, the pressure of circumstances; there may be pressure from being either too rich or too poor. Second, ill-health; that is like a ship waterlogged. Third - the greatest of all, because it cannot be mended - bereavement. We find an example of this in John 11. There the Lord is walking beside Mary in her bereavement. It is a most affecting moment. She is made acquainted with Him. The friend you make in sorrow is much more to you than the friend you make in joy. The friend you make in sorrow remains. I learn the Lord in such a way in sorrow that He is indispensable to me; and although He is in heaven it is thence I receive from Him, and my heart follows Him to the place where He is. The support He renders to me draws me to Himself away and apart from everything here. Mary had made an acquaintance with the Lord in her sorrow which she would never forget. She had known His sympathy. Which are you looking for, sympathy or compassion? People call compassion sympathy. If some great providence makes a way for me out of my trouble, and I get relieved from it, that is compassion, not sympathy. The Lord has great compassion for us in our sorrows and weakness. His compassions fail not. But when He sympathises with us, it is to support us under the pressure, as He Himself was supported. Very often there is no relief from the pressure until we have learned His support, His grace. The Lord does not come down to you to remove the trial, but to bear you into the superiority in which He walked when here. He Himself is your support in your pressure. When He was in the storm He was asleep. Well, when you are in some terrible storm, the Lord would teach you how He was supported in a storm. He comes down not to remove [p. 178] your trial, but to bring you up to Himself. It is wonderful to get support from the One who is higher than the heavens. The support comes down from heaven. If you were sinking in the water, and a rope was thrown to you from a small boat, you would be supported to that level; but if the rope came from a great ship you would be quite out of danger. The higher you are borne the safer you would be. The Lord would conduct you to the highest place, to heaven itself, where He is. He comes down to you to the very lowest place, but it is to bear you up to the very highest place or position. But this you can never understand until you have once been in it.
Now turn to John 12. “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”. In another gospel we read, “And having broken the alabaster flask, she poured it out upon his head”. She was relieved because Lazarus had been raised from death; but that is not enough for her. Now she is heart-stricken because of Him who had relieved her. His death is at hand. He was her support when Lazarus was dead; He was known to her as a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. If He dies, she feels that everything attractive here has gone; the golden bowl is broken. It is as if she said, If you go, my sun has gone down at noonday. The Lord is pleased with her testimony. There was a heart in this world true to Him. Hence He said, “Wheresoever these glad tidings may be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done shall be also spoken of for a memorial of her”. For sympathy and comfort, we require a Person who can enter into all our pressure, and not only console us, His company in it, but raise us up out of the pressure into association with Himself, who is “become higher than the heavens”! Who is your Comforter? One who was
[p. 179] in all your trials. But He is out of all now, and not only does He solace you by coming down to you, but He Himself is so made known to you that you are in company with Him. It is a Person we are brought to who knows everything and is everything to us. In the garden of Eden it was things, but in the new creation it is a Person - the Son of God.
You see Him when He rose from the dead in the midst of His own. You are of the consecrated company. You are at home with Him in the holiest of all, the scene of divine blessing, and there you learn that you have through Him access by one Spirit unto the Father. Thus your heart is buoyed up, and borne above everything to Himself where He is. You run the race.
May the Lord grant that each of our hearts may have more personal acquaintance with Himself, so that we may not only turn to Him to support and to comfort us, but that our hearts may know the unique solace of being in company with Himself, who comforts and supports us, for His name’s sake.