Levitical Priesthood:
Failure in need of a Messiah
The Bible is replete with dualities. The number two represents difference that may form a union or cause division. Thus, two witnesses will either agree in their testimony affirming a fact or disagree to annul a charge. There is the dualities of covenants, priesthoods and final destinations. A discussion of these differences will deepen one’s understanding of the Old Testament and the need for the Law {Mosaic} Covenant.
First, we need to look at a covenant made in eternity past between the Father and the Son. The Father, wishing to show His love to the Son, promised Him a bride {Bride of Christ} (Jo 17:24). The fulfillment of this expression of love required the creation of our physical universe and a people who would carry the imprint of God’s moral nature. Notice the duality of the Father and Son. The Father is infinite in all respects and thus surrounds this universal creation. The Son, the agent who brought order into the creation out of nothing, is the visible interface between the Father and man (Ge 1:1-4; Jo 1:1-5). He is the complete essence of the Father in bodily form (Jo 14:8-9; Col 2:9). The Bible gives us the mind of God when we allow ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit apart from denominational biases (1Co 2:14; 2Ti 3:16-17). Let us look at this in more detail.
The most important covenant in the Bible is the Abrahamic Covenant which God first mentioned after Lot separated from Abraham (Ge 13:14-16). God said that Abraham’s descendants would be as the dust of the earth in number. When God ratified the Covenant with Abraham, God told him that his seed would be as the stars in heaven; Abraham’s belief was counted to him as righteousness, his salvation moment (Ge 15:5-6, 17-21). This duality of peoples was reiterated again when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to demonstrate his love to God and faith that God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary (Ge 22:9-18; He 11:17-19). In fact, this was a hint at the cost salvation would cost God; His Son who agreed to be the sacrifice for the Bride of Christ. In addition, God informed Abraham, and us, that He had ratified this covenant with Himself, Abraham was put to sleep and witness this ratification in a vision. Thus, man would be the beneficiary but not a participant in God’s salvation plan; God will provide Himself, His Son, as the sacrifice (Ge 22:8).
After 430 years Abraham’s descendants were slaves in Egypt. God demonstrated nine signs challenging the government of Egypt, the religion of Egypt and the people of Egypt to recognize Him as God and let His people go. When they refused, God sent as judgment the Death Angel, as He had previously promised, to slay every first born in those homes that had not spread the blood of a lamb as instructed – The first Passover. God led them to Mount Horeb and gave them the Ten Words; His moral law (Ex 20:1-21). Later, God gave the civil and ceremonial laws to Moses later which the people ratified binding themselves to Him in the world’s only true theocracy (Ex 24:1-11). We will primarily concerned with the moral law. Notice that when the people heard the voice of God, they cringed and asked that He not speak to them again except through an intercessor, Moses in this instance. This is the birth of the earthly people God promised to Abraham.
However, contained in the ceremonial laws was the institution of the Levitical priesthood, the Tabernacle, later to be the Temple, the articles and the sacrificial rituals. All these were administered by fallen people who did not grasp its true purpose (1Ti 1:8-11). The law was designed to teach people the depth of their sinfulness and the utter futility of pleasing God through empty rituals that did not cleanse sin from man’s nature (He 7:18-19). Their only alternative was to repent and seek the mercy of God apart from the law (Ps 51:16-17). Indeed, since all people born from Adam were conceived in iniquity, they could only express their true nature which rejected God and His truth (Ro 1:18-25). Sinful people then substituted elements of creation and the imaginations of their fallen minds for the truth of God; i.e., worldview. Those who rejected God, and later Christ, were the descendants of Abraham’s earthly seed who would be rejected of God. However, those who repent and seek God will find salvation and join the ranks of Abraham’s heavenly seed; both Jew and Gentile.
Paul teaches in Galatians that the Law was man’s tutor to teach mankind of sin and the elemental principles of the world which would prepare everyone to receive the message of Christ; both Jew and Gentile (Ga 4:1-7). Further, Paul teaches by parable the division of Abraham’s descendants into two groups (Ga 4:21-31). Hagar, slave woman, gave birth to Ishmael was a metaphor for earthly Jerusalem and the continuing cultic Jewish worship system. While Sarah, free woman, gave birth to Isaac, the son of Promise. She represents heavenly Jerusalem. All those who accept Christ’s salvation are of heavenly descendants of Abraham with the promise of eternal life in Christ in the New Jerusalem (Re 21:1-4). But, what of the Levitical priesthood?
Levitical Priesthood was temporary
The Law Covenant was a Parenthesis
Christ was to be the propitiation for all sins; those back in time and for all in the future until the end of this creation (Ro 3:24-25). The term propitiation represents both the sacrifice and the Mercy Seat where the blood of the sacrifice was to be presented (He 9:1-5; 1Jo 2:2). Jesus offered His blood in Heaven which contained the true articles of worship which the Temple in earthly Jerusalem only contained a shadowy copy. Just as only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holy annually to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat, so also only a High Priest in Heaven could do this. By deduction Christ had to be such a High Priest (He 2:14-18). Indeed, Christ has become a High Priest after the likeness of Melchizedek who met Abraham returning from rescuing Lot. No details are given of Melchizedek’s priesthood; it is simply a fact. Melchizedek was not Christ for he was King of Salem {early Jerusalem} and Christ will be king as an heir of David. Just as no details were given of Melchizedek, no details were given in the Old Testament of the priesthood of Christ (He 6:19-7:7). Abraham recognized the priesthood of Melchizedek and paid tithes; thus, the Levitical priesthood in absentia also paid tithes recognizing the superiority of Melchizedek’s priesthood compared to their own. Thus, the earthly Levitical priesthood passed away as it was enslaved to the Law and kill the Messiah sent to teach them how to understand the Law and humble themselves to God (Mt 5:2-26).
Christ as High Priest Envisioned by
John on Isle of Patmos
John gave us a description of Christ as High Priest (Re 1:9-16). Since He is eternal, never to die again for sins, His salvation and His priestly office is also eternal. His sacrifice satisfied the Father as was witnessed by the cherubim represented on the lid of the Ark. These defend the holiness and righteousness of God. If one is not holy they intercede without mercy. Notice, the Mercy Seat had no mercy for the sacrifice who became sin for us (Ps 22:6-8).
The duality of the Abrahamic Covenant, dual covenants of Law and First Fruits, dual priesthoods and duality of peoples proceed from earthly, fleshly and temporary to a heavenly, spiritual and permanent salvation apart from the Law though both the Law and Prophets are witnesses to God’s righteousness contained in Christ and shared with His people who live by faith (Ro 3:21-22). Even the very first verses of Genesis depict this opposing duality. Creation began as chaotic darkness; yet, when the Light appeared He began imposing order until Creation was made ready for man who was made in the flesh but in due time will receive a spiritual body for eternity (1Co 15:42-49). The Bible closes with the Spirit and the Bride, all believers in Christ, saying, “Come…” What hinders you from coming?