Heb 7:22-26 Priesthood of Jesus Christ CLICK TITLE TO OPEN
Every religion has leaders, whether they are priests or prophets or elders or bishops or whatever. In the Old Testament, Aaron and his sons were the priests. But in Christianity, we don’t have this kind of hierarchy. Jesus said, “…whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant,” [Matt 20:26-27]. The reason we need no “clerical head” [Catholic priest, Watchtower society, Mormon prophet, Islamic Imam, or such] is that we have Jesus Christ, our high priest, who is “higher than the heavens.” Comparing him with the Aaronic priests of the Old Testament, we find the following:
He was without blemish – Lev 21:17; Jesus was holy, undefiled and separate from sinners.
He was called by God – Heb 5:4-5; as Aaron was called by God and not self appointed, so was Jesus.
He was anointed with oil – Ex 29:7; Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Heb 1:8-9.
He was gloriously appareled – Lev 16:4; Is 63:1
He was crowned – Ex 29:6; God “crowned him with glory and honor,” Ps 8:5. He has many crowns in Rev 19.
He had something better than the Urim and Thummim – Ex 28:30 – Urim and Thummim were “lights and perfections” that caused the stones in the breastplate to light up in reply to an inquiry of the Lord; Jesus was the light of the world, Jn 8:12.
He bore our iniquity – Ex 28:36-38 – Aaron wore the plate of gold so that he could bear the iniquity of the holy things that were hallowed by the children of Israel; Is 53:6 shows us that the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was God’s spokesman to us – Ex 4:12-16 Aaron spoke to the people the things that the Lord told Moses to tell them; according to Heb 1:1-2, God hath spoken unto us by his Son!
He will marry a virgin – Lev 21:14; Jesus will marry his chaste virgin, the church, 2 Cor 11:2.
He offered a sacrifice – Heb 10:11-12, whereas Aaron and his sons offered the blood of goats and calves [Heb 9:11-12] many times and they could never take away sins, Jesus offered himself and his blood once for all and took away all sin!
His death set those in refuge free – Num 35:25 – whereas a man in the safety of the city of refuge had to remain in the city until the death of the high priest, so the Old Testament saints had to remain in Abraham’s Bosom until the death of Jesus [Lk 16:19-22, Eph 4:8-9].