Jesus is the great high priest of a new covenant.
God instituted the priesthood as a gift of mercy for his people. Before the greatest gift of mercy, and the great high priest of Jesus, the wrath of God and God’s judgement and justice was kept from his people through the ministry of the priesthood; and just as God chose kings for himself, God also chose priests.
The priest is someone God has chosen and has set apart and consecrated for himself as holy to minister to him (God) on behalf of God’s people. The priest reminds God who he is, merciful, forgiving and just.
God required someone to minister before him on behalf of his people, someone who would be fully committed to knowing him and revealing to his people who he is. Someone who would present sacrifices before him to create what he required, a holy people before him.
In Numbers 16 several leaders, Korah son of Izhar a Levite and some Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, rose up against Moses. These leaders became upset with Moses for not giving them access to offer sacrifices directly to God and they said to Moses, “you have gone too far! The whole community of Israel is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly” (Numbers 16:3)?
They wanted to know why only Aaron’s sons can minister before God and the Levites in the tent of meeting among the people? Why don’t leaders of the other tribes have access to the sanctuary and most holy places, if Israel is chosen by God and set apart by him, why is there a distinction between Moses and the people, between Aaron’s sons and the people, between Levites and the people, if “the whole community is holy” (Numbers 16:3)?
God knows the hearts of people and those leaders wanted power, leadership and authority. They wanted to take it by force, from Moses, by discrediting his authority. Moses knew that his authority was from God; and that God is the one who choses who he wants, for his purposes. God makes the distinction. It is our duty to be faithful to his choice and obey.
Moses was faithful and obedient to God because of his reverence for God as being holy. The leaders did not have the same humility of heart to reverence God and the things he required as holy to do as God requests, as a follower of him, as someone under the leadership of a higher authority.
Those leaders thought Moses was the authority and wanted to bring him low, but because Moses knew God was the authority he said to them all, let us approach the Lord and ask him to show us who is holy and who he wants to come near to him to minister (Numbers 16:5). Moses knew God chooses to put people in authority, people don’t make that decision for themselves. Moses said to them, before we upset God and put people in places of authority to serve him that he hasn’t chosen, let us ask for his counsel (Numbers 16:5-7).
Because it is God who chooses and God who makes holy, Moses said, let’s ask the one who chooses and who makes holy to show us who is holy and who he has chosen. So Moses and Aaron and Korah and the other 250 rebellious leaders who had disputed about who was holy saying “we are all holy” went to the place where God was, at the tent of meeting (Numbers 16:5-18).
At this time God’s altar was for the priests alone, Aaron and his sons. Those are the people God had chosen and consecrated to himself as holy. Moses knew that he did not need to make a case for God, that God would make the case for himself.
Leviticus 9:7 says that only priests, sons of Aaron are to approach God, anyone else will die, not because of God’s wrath but because God is holy, and you can’t approach him any kind of way. The rebellious leaders knew this, but they regarded God’s word as words from Moses and not institutions that God established.
A priest, a son of Aaron, will minister to God, not a Levite, not any member of the Israelite community, someone God chooses and makes holy will minister before him on behalf of people (remembering that Jesus now is the one God has chosen).
“So each of them took his censer (that is an incense holder) and put burning coals and incense in it and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Separate yourselves from this assembly so that I can put an end to them at once.’” But Moses, as the one God had chosen to minister before him on behalf of the people of Israel prayed to God not to destroy everyone on account of the wickedness of the rebellious leaders and said to the entire assembly instead (Numbers 16:18-21):
If the Lord has not chosen me, nothing will happen to Korah and the people in rebellion against God and who he has chosen, but if the Lord has chosen me, then something wild will happen, the earth will open up and swallow them and everything that belongs to them (Numbers 16:28-30).
“And then, just as Moses said, “the ground under the house of Korah, Dotham and Abiram split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. They went down alive with everything they owned; and the earth closed over them and they were gone” (Numbers 16:31-34).
And then, fire came down and consumed the 250 Israelite men who had risen up against Moses and Aaron to discredit them as the people God had chosen, made holy and set apart to minister to him (Numbers 16:35).
And then, the crowd that witnessed it, all of them turned against Moses and accused him of murder saying that Moses killed the three men and their 250 followers. Because even the people of God did not believe that God had authority over the earth to open and close it, or over the elements to make fire appear and burn the men alive. They also thought that the authority Moses had and the power he had, came from himself.
So they said, you used your power for evil and killed, so you must die (Numbers 16:41-42). Then God appeared and said to Moses, I will put an end to everyone at once, to whomever is against the one I have chosen (Numbers 16:45).
And immediately a plague started killing people who were there and speaking against Moses. So Moses said to Aaron, ‘pray to God for them that he does not destroy them.’ So Aaron lit incense, on his censure to God on behalf of the people and the plague stopped, but not before 14,700 people died (Numbers 16:46-50).
This was to remind the people of God what God had said to Moses, “I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift” (Numbers 18:7), followed by, “anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.”
Moses knew God, he knew that he was the supreme authority, he knew that God establishes institutions for the good of people who serve him, not to destroy; and he knew that all authority belonged to God.
Moses was humble before God and obeyed him and would not let even leaders of the community restructure what God had instituted. God made the priesthood, so Moses, who revered God, would not let leaders change what God had established.
Instead he looked to God to prove that his word was true, that the structure he made was what he wanted and that anyone that wanted to be with God and under his covering should reverence that structure, the priesthood and the priests he had chosen, in his wisdom.
When God selects, anoints and appoints or ordains, his word is final.
In 1 Samuel there is a woman named Hannah who pleads with God for a child and says to God if you give me a son then I will give him to you and he will serve you all the days of his life (1 Samuel 1:11).
Hannah did not know that Eli, a priest, had two rebellious sons and that Eli refused to correct them. That those two sons had no regard for the Lord that they were treating offerings presented to God with disregard for the fact that God is holy (1 Samuel 2:12). They did not understand what holy meant (See: Numbers 4:1-20 and Numbers 8:19, Leviticus 9:7).
Priests are chosen by God to be holy before him. They are not holy in and of themselves or because of something they have done (besides listen to God). Leviticus 21:8 says, “Priests are holy to their God. Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy, and it is I who make you holy”.
Eli’s sons thought that the priesthood made them holy and that because they were priests, they were blameless and could do as they pleased and were irreverent of God and the sacrifices people offered to God.
God desired holy people who would look to him as the one who is holy and makes clean, acceptable and holy. So God said, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind” (1 Samuel 2:35).
Hannah thought she was asking the Lord for a son, but God chose to make Hannah so desperate that she would give her son back to God, not just any son, but Samuel, someone who would minister to God faithfully and not do like Eli’s sons, whatever their heart desired but what was in the heart and mind of God.
Jesus is the great high priest of a new covenant that God has chosen.
Jesus is the great high priest of the new covenant who God has chosen. God is no longer choosing men to be the ones to minister to him. God in Jesus ministers to himself on behalf of everyone who believes in the structure that God has chosen in Jesus to make him the priest above priests. The only one who can atone for sins on behalf of mankind. The only one who reminds God of his delivering power, his saving power and his power to forgive.
Jesus is the king of priests even high priests because he has a different and more lofty title. Jesus sits at the right hand of the father God. He is his mouthpiece; he is the word God speaks and fulfills. It was to Jesus, who is God, and not to priests, even high priests, who are human who God said, “sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalms 110:1).
In this new covenant of Jesus as the sacrifice God has chosen to draw all people to himself, Jesus’ power is confirmed by God, he is ruler over everything, and God has given Jesus this title. God has spoken that whatever he speaks cannot be undone, Jesus is the word that God has spoken that can never be undone. God says, “you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek” (Psalms 110:4). God says that the type of title that his word in Jesus has cannot be defined by the current priesthood, because Jesus God’s great high priest is greater than the Levitical priesthood.
What Jesus’ sacrifice has done for mankind is greater than what priests can offer to God on behalf of people. When Jesus saves, he “is able to save completely” (Hebrews 7:25) because he always lives to intercede for us. All other high priests’ services come to an end in death but “Jesus lives forever and has a priesthood that is permanent” (Hebrews 7:24).
“He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Hebrews 7:27) and this sacrifice has done this work once for all because he is the only “high priest who truly meets our needs one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26).
The new covenant that Jesus is the great high priest of is described in Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 8 when it says:
“If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: ‘you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek’” (Psalms 110:4) (Hebrews 7:11-17).
“The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: ‘The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “you are a priest forever.” Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:18-22).
“Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely (forever) those who come to God through him, because he always lives to interceded for them” (Hebrews 7:23-25).
“Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever” (Hebrews 7:26-28).
“Now the main point of what we are saying is this: we do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being” (Hebrews 8:1-2).
“Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’ (Exodus 25:40).
But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:3-6).
“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: ‘The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbors, or say to one another, “Know the Lord?” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34). By calling this covenant ’new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:7-13).
Jesus, the gift of God and great high priest was a sin offering:
A sin offering to make blameless.
No one is righteous, and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous, righteousness comes through Jesus, this is why it was necessary for Jesus to be a sin offering, to make everyone who believes on him righteous before God.
Romans 3:9-24 says, “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20).
Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit (Psalms 5:9).
The poison of vipers is on their lips (Psalms 140:3).
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness (Psalms 10:7).
Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know (Isaiah 59:7-8).
There is no fear of God before their eyes (Psalms 36:1).
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin” (Romans 3:9-20).
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:21-23).
A sin offering to set free.
Sin encourages the belief that we do not need spiritual authority, nor do we need to obey what that spiritual authority requires or have faith in it. In this way, everyone is a slave to sin, submitting to ideas that are in opposition to God. Jesus says to his disciples that people know how to obey and do obey human laws that oppress them, and are slaves to them, but Jesus says obey God instead through belief in me and let me set you free from the presence of sin in your will.
Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).
Sin encourages the belief that God’s wisdom and power is meaningless and instead boasts and elevates human power and wisdom. Jesus, the gift of God and great high priest was a sin offering that frees from the power of sin to hold our minds captive to thoughts that are resistant to belief in him.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate (Isaiah 29:14).
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:18-21).
Sin deceives and desires wickedness and evil over submitting to God’s authority. Jesus reveals how great God is; that he is able to destroy sin and save from destruction.
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled will every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are fill of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:18-23,25,28-32).
Jesus is able to remove the punishment for sin and the effects that sin has on our lives. The laws of Moses did not have power over the effects of sin, this is why the Pharisees asked Jesus why don’t your disciples wash their hands before eating? Meaning why don’t your followers follow what the law requires to make them clean. Jesus replies to them that what is being cleansed through his sacrifice is not on the body it is in the heart and minds of people.
“Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.’ He went on: ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come” (Mark 7:14-21).
A sin offering that God accepts.
Sin encourages belief that righteousness comes from things that you do, that our actions can justify us before God. Jesus says that faith in him is the only thing that God accepts.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirt, and the Spirt what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:1-6,17-18).
What is sin and why is Jesus, the great high priest, a sin offering?
The nature of sin is rejecting God and God’s path of salvation, choosing to disconnect from the source of life that saves from the penalty of sin. The nature of sin is exemplified in Exodus 32 when the people of God chose to worship what were not gods with the knowledge that there is a God who is greater, when they chose what was human made and called it greater.
The origin of sin is the disobedience and unfaithfulness of man to his Creator that removes the protection of God and leads to death and a life of curses and incurs God’s wrath and separates you from God, the source of life. Sin is lawlessness, believing that you don’t need God or his way of redemption, choosing to be in opposition to God. It is this attitude within us that causes us to be in sin, which is: opposition to God.
The origin of sin is explained in Genesis 3 when the man and woman God created put their faith in things to give them what God had designed for himself to be provider of: basic needs, gifts and wisdom. God said look to me to provide all of your needs, but man said, I will not look to you I will put my faith in what I believe the things of earth can provide me.
Genesis 2:16-17 says God said to them, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:6 says, that “when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:7-10).
This sin food, disobedience and opposition to God, deceived them both. This account is talking about physical food, but the sin that we consume that deceives our thinking and takes us out of the protection of God is disbelief. They believed that they didn’t need to listen to God, that the food could give them the wisdom that they needed in life, that the food could give them the nourishment that they needed in life; that they did not need God or his provision, in fact they desired what God said do not desire.
The sin is this thinking and is what the blood of Old Testament sacrifices could not remove. When they ate the food, they immediately realized their frailty and began making things to make up for their weakness. They realized that they were exposed to the elements (the cool of the day), they realized that they were lacking in wisdom and covering and that they needed a way to protect themselves.
Before they rebelled, God had been their covering and protection from the elements, their wisdom and their nourishment. Their rebellion, sin, gave them guilt and made them hide from God and led them away from God’s presence and protection. Their rebellion, sin, made them believe that they were unprotected and that they needed to protect themselves, even from God.
This is the nature of sin, disobedience and unfaithfulness. God says do not be deceived, you cannot save yourselves, neither your wealth, nor your mind, violence, acts of righteousness or anything you create can save you, choose my new covenant path to life, Jesus and you will be covered by my protection, you will always be in my presence, I will be with you and for you and not against you, I will prosper you, provide for you and supply all of your needs.
Sin is saying to God that you refuse this gift and choose to see as the man and woman saw in the tree that it was more desirable to be in opposition to God than all that God provides, but disobedience and life away from God’s covenant is a cursed life.
“To Adam he said, ‘because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘you must not eat from it’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17). God is saying if you choose to put your faith in the things of this world above me you will work hard and never reap the benefits of it. Even if you gain wealth through your hard work, all the days of your life will be days of pain.
“After, he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). God requires obedience and rejects and cuts off access to the abundance he has from people who do not believe in him. God accepts Jesus and his sacrifice for sin. Faithfulness to trusting in his power to save and authority over your life gives access to the abundant life that God desires to give people who believe and put their faith in who he has chosen to use to save.
Curses through sin, righteousness through obedience.
Because disobedience to God has the power to take the life of all who choose it, God, because of his love and compassion for humanity, has created a path of redemption and the nature of redemption is exemplified in Proverbs 28:13 which says, “whoever conceals (protects) their sins (hides behind the strength of their righteousness, wealth, violence) does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Psalms 51:1-19 says God is a God who has mercy, unfailing love and blots out all of our transgressions, washes away all our iniquities and cleanses from sin. It is God’s nature and desire to have mercy, to free us from the power of sin.
The nature of God’s redemption is also exemplified in 2 Peter 2:9, 4-12, which says that
“The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement (2 Peter 2:9).”
Romans 5:12,15-21 says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increase all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:12,15-21).
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement” (2 Peter 2:4-9).
Free from sin, slaves to righteousness.
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:15-23).
The origin of Jesus, God’s gift of salvation.
“His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But, after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name, Jesus (Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves) because he will save his people from their sins.’
All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) which means ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:18-23).
Jesus, the great high priest of a new covenant, is the son of God and the light of the world.
Joshua 6 tells the account of the fall of Jericho (Joshua 5:13-6:27). Jericho is the first city in the land of the inheritance of the people of God to be given to them after God delivered them from Egypt, led them across the Jordan river, through the wilderness and into the promised land.
Joshua is looking at the city, and as he looks, he sees an angel of the Lord standing in front of him with his sword drawn and he asks him, ‘are you for us or for our enemies’ (Joshua 5:13)? The angel says that he is not for either him or his enemies that he is the commander of the army of the Lord and that he has a message from the Lord for him that God has already spoken the victory over this city for them, that it is already theirs (Joshua 5:14-6:2).
The angel told him that the only thing that you and your army need to do is obey my commands, have the priests carry the ark (chest) that has the covenant (promise) of the Lord in it around the city once a day for six days and have the priests blow trumpets as they march around the city with your army.
On the seventh day the angel tells Joshua that they will march around the city seven times with the promise of the Lord in its chest leading the march and on the seventh time everyone in the company is to shout and when they shout the walls of the city will collapse (Joshua 6:3-5).
“The seventh time round, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city” (Joshua 6:16)! “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city” (Joshua 6:20).
Before this victory, Joshua had sent spies to the city of Jericho to look over the land and see how guarded it was (Joshua 2:1). When the two spies reached Jericho a prostitute, who lived there, named Rahab, let them stay in her house.
The king of Jericho found out that spies from among the Israelites were sent into the city, so he sent people in search of them and when they reached Rahab’s house she hid them and said to the men searching for them, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them. (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof) (Joshua 2:2-6).
So when the wall of the city of Jericho fell the army was instructed by Joshua that “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord, which means the city is to be given to God in an irrevocable way by completely destroying everything in it.
Joshua said, “Only Rahab, the prostitute, and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. So they destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys (Joshua 6:17-21).
“But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things, Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them (Joshua 7:1). After the victory at Jericho, Joshua sent more spies out to a neighboring city to spy out that place and when they returned, they said that the city has so few people they would not need to take very many soldiers with them to capture it.
But when the Israelites attacked the city, they were sent running, thirty-six Israelites were killed in the city and the rest were slain running from their enemies (Joshua 7:3-5). Joshua did not understand why this happened and sought the Lord for guidance and God said to Joshua, “Israel has sinned: they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.
They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies, they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction” (Joshua 7:6-12).
Later it was revealed that Achan had disobeyed God’s word to stay away from God’s devoted things. “Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.’
Achan replied, ‘It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: when I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 2.3 kilograms of silver and a bar of gold weighing 575 grams, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath’.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord.
Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor (which means trouble). Joshua said, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.’ Then all Israel stoned him and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan, they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger” (Joshua 7:13-26).
Song: Psalms 37
When we are unfaithful and disobey, we come under the curse of this sin. Like Achan, we are deserving of the destruction that is destined for everything in opposition to God’s command.
Faith is the hiding place, like Rahab was for the spies. By faith she hid the people of God in her home and away from their enemies and when God’s judgement came to that city, her faith saved her from the destruction that was destined for Jericho. Rahab was among those destined for destruction, her faith hid her. Jesus is this covering that makes blameless and saves from destruction everyone who believes.
Jesus is the message that the angel of the Lord gave to Joshua, the message that all that the victory that God has promised to his people is theirs and that all that we as believers need to do is obey and trust in God’s word. It is not because of our strength or wisdom or righteousness that God gives victory to those who put their trust in him, but to prove that he is God and faithful to his word.
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgement he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12).
Prayer: Psalms 51
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb, you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole, then bulls will be offered on your altar.”
Prayer: I confess that I am not perfect and that your innocence has made righteousness available to me. Help me to walk in righteousness, to accept your sacrifice. Teach me your ways so that I do not follow ways that are sinful, ways that are against you.
Notes: a call to repentance.
My Seed Faith 