What Was the Role of the High Priest? How It Points to Jesus
When I read about the high priest’s garments and sacrifices, I need to consider what God was teaching Israel through them. These instructions governed how guilty people could approach a holy God. The high priest represented the nation, but he was also a sinner who needed atonement himself. Hebrews explains how Jesus fulfills what that ministry anticipated, giving us access to God that Aaron could never secure permanently.
God Appointed the High Priest
God assigned sanctuary service to the tribe of Levi and chose Aaron’s family within that tribe for the priesthood. Israel had many priests, but one high priest represented the nation. Aaron, Moses’ brother, was the first. Neither he nor Moses devised the arrangement; the LORD appointed the office and told them how to prepare Aaron for it:
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;”
Before Aaron could minister, God specified his garments and anointing oil, along with the sacrifices and bread for his consecration. Aaron could not choose a ceremony that suited him and expect God to accept it. The LORD had appointed the office and told him how to approach. That provision helps us understand the gospel, in which God gives us both the Priest and the sacrifice in His Son.
The earlier instructions in Exodus 29 use the Hebrew verb qadash for hallowing the priests, meaning to set apart or consecrate. Being set apart did not make Aaron sinless. God included sacrifices in the ceremony because the priest himself needed atonement:
“And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish,”
God required unblemished animals, so Aaron could not substitute an offering God had declared unacceptable. Their death and blood confronted Israel with the seriousness of sin. Personal goodness could not qualify Aaron for his office. Before ministering for others, he needed sacrificial blood for his own sin. Jesus differs from him in this essential respect: the eternal Son became truly human without ceasing to be divine, and He remained entirely without sin.
The other priests offered sacrifices and cared for the sanctuary, but the high priest had a particular responsibility on the annual Day of Atonement. He alone carried out the appointed ministry within the Most Holy Place. Even his access was governed by God’s instructions and the blood he was required to bring.
The Tabernacle, the Garments, and Representation
The tabernacle was the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness. A worshiper could enter the outer court, while priests served in the Holy Place, the first room. A veil separated it from the Most Holy Place. As a person approached the place of God’s special presence, the restrictions became greater.
Behind the veil stood the ark, a gold-covered chest containing the Testimony, including the covenant tablets given to Moses. Its gold cover was the mercy seat, overshadowed by cherubim. God told Moses that He would meet and speak with him there:
You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
God chose to dwell among His people and give them His word, but His nearness did not make their sin harmless. The veil restricted their approach, and blood would be brought behind it only as He commanded. The mercy seat and the veil both belonged to His arrangement. He was providing a way for Israel to approach Him while teaching them to take His holiness seriously.
I cannot appeal to His kindness as though worship were whatever makes me feel close to Him. The old covenant instructions taught Israel that God determined how they could approach Him. Under the new covenant, Christ fulfills what that earlier ministry anticipated and opens the way to the same holy God.
Aaron’s garments also identified his responsibility to represent Israel. God called for beautiful garments whose design expressed holiness and judgment. The ephod, a priestly garment, had two onyx stones on its shoulders, engraved with the tribes’ names:
“Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold. And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders as a memorial.”
Every tribe was represented by name. Aaron carried those names before the LORD as a memorial, and the breastplate placed them over his heart:
“So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD continually.”
The shoulders suggest the responsibility he carried, while the position over his heart suggests personal care. He represented particular people before God, not an anonymous crowd. His ministry could not cleanse their consciences permanently, but it helps us understand Christ’s finished offering and continuing care for the people He represents. The One who has opened the way knows the people who come through Him.
Blood and the Day of Atonement
Sin deserves death, and promises to improve cannot remove its guilt. God supplied the provision He required:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
The words “I have given it to you” show that blood atonement was God’s provision. Israel was following His instructions, rather than devising sacrifices to bribe Him into mercy. He accepted these offerings within their covenant setting, teaching His people that their guilt required atonement. Animal blood could not finally remove sin or complete redemption, so the sacrifices pointed toward a greater offering.
The Hebrew kaphar can mean to cover or make atonement. In Leviticus, this language describes God’s provision for dealing with guilt through sacrificial blood. A substitute died according to His command, so the worshiper could not simply ignore his sin or decide for himself how to address it. We need to understand that setting before considering how Christ fulfills it.
Leviticus 16 begins by recalling the deaths of Nadab and Abihu after they approached the LORD in a way He had not commanded. Aaron could not enter within the veil whenever he pleased either. For the Day of Atonement, he bathed and put on the prescribed holy linen garments. These were the clothes for going inside the veil, rather than the ephod and breastplate described earlier.
Aaron first offered a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household. He brought incense within the veil so that its cloud covered the mercy seat, then sprinkled the bull’s blood as commanded. Afterward, he killed the goat offered for the people’s sins and brought its blood within the veil. The atonement included the sanctuary and altar as well as the priests and congregation, because the uncleanness of sinful people affected even their place of worship.
But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;
Paul summarizes the restrictions: the high priest ministered alone on that annual occasion, bringing blood for his own sins as well as the people’s. “Once a year” refers to the annual observance. Leviticus 16 prescribes more than one entry through the veil as the high priest carries out the required ministry. Even the man representing Israel needed mercy, and his service had not fully opened the way into God’s presence.
The two goats in Leviticus 16 pictured both atonement and removal. One was killed as a sin offering. Aaron confessed the people’s sins over the living goat, which was then sent away into the wilderness, carrying their guilt away from them. God taught Israel that sin needed to be dealt with before Him and removed from His people. Yet the Day of Atonement returned every year because those sacrifices had not perfected worshipers forever. Their repetition showed the continuing need for a sufficient offering.
Jesus supplied that offering by voluntarily giving Himself to be slain as the perfect, sinless sacrifice. Wicked people inflicted His bodily suffering and death as He willingly gave His life for our sins. His sacrifice was complete through His shed blood and death before He was buried and rose bodily from the dead. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son remained united in redemption. Christ’s offering obtained the eternal redemption to which the earlier sacrifices pointed. The study on Life Being in the Blood examines this provision further.
From Aaron to the Order of Melchizedek
Death also removed the priests themselves from office, so others had to replace them. Neither that succession of priests nor their repeated offerings could provide the permanent cleansing from sin that worshipers needed:
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Paul calls the Law a shadow because its priests and sacrifices anticipated what Christ would fulfill. God taught Israel through that ministry, so we cannot dismiss Leviticus as meaningless ceremony or resume its sacrifices as though Jesus left His work unfinished. Later in Hebrews 10, Paul contrasts priests standing at their repeated daily service with Christ seated at God’s right hand after His one offering. Jesus lives forever and needs no successor, and His completed sacrifice never needs to be repeated.
Jesus came from Judah, rather than Aaron’s family. His priesthood follows the different order announced in Psalm 110:
The LORD has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
Genesis 14 records Melchizedek meeting Abram after Lot’s rescue. He was priest of God Most High and king of Salem, later known as Jerusalem. He brought bread and wine, blessed Abram, and received a tenth from him. Paul explains in Hebrews that the lesser received blessing from the greater, and that Levi, as Abraham’s descendant, was represented in Abraham’s giving of the tenth. Melchizedek’s priesthood therefore takes precedence over the line that would come through Levi.
I believe Melchizedek was the preincarnate Son of God, appearing before He became human. Such an appearance is called a Christophany. Hebrews calls him king of righteousness and king of peace, and describes him as without father, mother, or genealogy, with neither beginning of days nor end of life. It also describes him as made like the Son of God. Those details lead me to identify him as Christ. Others understand him as a human king-priest whose biblical description forms a type, a pattern anticipating Christ. The study on Melchizedek develops the argument more fully.
The change of priesthood also requires a change in the law governing the office:
For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
The men who succeeded Aaron belonged to his family and served in an earthly sanctuary, carrying out the sacrifices repeatedly. Christ’s priesthood is eternal and belongs to Him permanently. He fulfills what Aaron’s ministry anticipated, rather than becoming another priest who will eventually need replacing. We cannot continue the Levitical arrangement under new names or blend the two orders as though they were interchangeable.
Jesus Christ, Our Great High Priest
Paul urges the readers of Hebrews to hold fast because they have this great High Priest. Under pressure to draw back, they needed assurance grounded in Him rather than in the strength of their own resolve:
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
An earthly high priest passed through a veil into a room made by human hands. Jesus has passed through the heavens into God’s true presence. He entered the heavenly sanctuary on the basis of His own blood and completed offering. As the Son of God who became truly human, He is qualified to represent us and bring us to God:
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
If my conscience is troubled, I need to remember whom God has provided. I do not have to assemble a record of recent obedience before I can ask for mercy. Christ’s sinlessness also does not make Him indifferent to my weakness:
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
A fellow sinner cannot accomplish the rescue sinners need. Jesus can sympathize with us without sharing our guilt, and His sinlessness qualifies Him to save. Paul follows that description with an invitation to seek His help:
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Boldness means confidence in the Priest God provided. If I have sinned, I should confess it and seek mercy instead of staying away until I can show God a better week. Christ has opened the way for people who need His help. We can be confident of His welcome while treating Him with reverence.
At Jesus’ death, the veil in the Jerusalem temple was torn from top to bottom. The later temple, like the wilderness tabernacle, had a veil restricting access. Its tearing showed that God had opened the way:
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
I understand its tearing from top to bottom as God’s work, rather than an entrance people forced open for themselves. Hebrews explains the access God has provided through His Son’s blood and body:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
The way is new because Christ fulfills the old order, and living because He rose from the dead. The reference to His flesh directs us to the real body He gave. We can approach God because He has accomplished atonement for our guilt through that sacrifice. Paul therefore calls believers to draw near in faith:
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Full assurance means taking God at His word about His Son. We can be honest about failure while trusting that Christ’s provision remains sufficient. He has not asked us to deny the sin or manufacture a better spiritual mood before seeking Him.
His Intercession and the Believer’s Priesthood
Christ’s sacrifice is complete, while His priestly care continues. His eternal life means that those who come through Him are never left without representation:
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Intercession is His continuing representation of His people on the basis of His completed offering. Jesus is not persuading an unwilling Father to be kind. The Father sent Him, the Son willingly gave Himself, and the Spirit applies that finished work. Their purpose in salvation is united.
John uses the related term Advocate for Jesus, the righteous One who represents us before the Father. He writes so that Christians will not sin, while directing those who do to the help they have in Christ:
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
John does not tell the believer that a fresh sacrifice is needed after every failure. Christ is the propitiation for our sins, meaning that through His perfect sacrifice our guilt is dealt with and God’s righteous requirements concerning sin are satisfied. Jesus does not have to suffer repeatedly in order to continue helping His people.
The rest of 1 John 2:2 extends that provision to the whole world. Jesus died for every person, and God’s offer is genuine even though people can resist and finally reject Him. Those who repent and believe are forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit comes to live within them and seals them for the day of redemption. Every genuine believer is eternally secure, but that security does not permit lawlessness. A superficial profession without new life cannot establish that someone belongs to Him. Soteriology: The Study of Salvation examines these truths more fully.
Having received mercy, believers are also able to offer spiritual sacrifices through Christ. Peter calls us a holy priesthood:
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
These sacrifices are acceptable “through Jesus Christ.” When we pray, give generously, praise God, or obey Him in our daily responsibilities, we are responding to mercy already received. None of that service atones for our sins or supplements Christ’s offering. He has brought us near and made us acceptable, which is why we can serve.
No earthly priest or pastor can repeat Christ’s sacrifice or become an additional mediator for sin. Church leaders rightly teach, shepherd, and pray for people, but their work does not complete His atonement. Baptism is an important act of obedience, and communion remembers the sacrifice He offered once for all. Neither repeats the cross, and no institution or ritual can supply something missing from it.
My Final Thoughts
Aaron carried Israel’s names into an earthly sanctuary and brought blood, but he remained a sinner whose service needed repeating. Jesus is the sinless, eternal High Priest who offered Himself once and opened the way to God. I can draw near because my access rests on His blood. When I fail, I can confess my sin and seek His mercy without wondering who else must intervene or what further sacrifice God requires. That confidence should bring reverence and gratitude into my worship, and a willingness to obey the Savior who has brought me near.