As is well known the Epistle to the Hebrews contrasts that which is found in Christianity with that which obtained in Judaism, and yet while the contrast is made we find in the Levitical types the shadow of the substance that is brought before us in Christianity. Aaron was a priest of the Levitical system, but Christ belongs to another order of priesthood, being "a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," and yet the priesthood of Aaron serves to bring out the character of the priesthood of Christ. Those who became high priests were removed by death, but Christ lives on high, with "an unchangeable priesthood," and "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).
In Hebrews 7:26 we learn of the character of the high priest becoming to those that God has taken up for blessing. He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." The angel that announced the coming of the Lord Jesus said of Jesus, "that holy thing which shall be horn of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35), and prophetically God had said to Him. "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness" (Ps. 45:7).
There was absolute holiness in all that Christ was and did, and in all that He is now in heaven, and as "undefiled" He could challenge the Jews with the words, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46).
Moving in His ministry of compassion and grace among sinners He was nevertheless "separate from sinners," because of who He was in His Person as Son of God, because of what He was in His holy manhood as having a sinless nature, and because of what He was in His walk and ways as answering perfectly to the mind and will of God in all His desires, thoughts, feelings and activities. In wondrous grace He identified Himself with the excellent of the earth in baptism, to fulfil all righteousness, but He was not associated with them as sinners; but having risen from the dead He associated His own with Himself as bringing them into a new place as having His life and nature.
Now He is "higher than the heavens," having taken this place in His own personal right as Son of God, and as having also received it from His God and Father because of what He accomplished on the cross. This is the One that God considers becoming to His people, the One who is caring for them in His present ministry of grace, "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself" (verse 27). He is so unlike the priests of old, being in His own Person "The Son," and He is "consecrated for evermore."
The place that the Minister of the Sanctuary occupies in heaven attests to the greatness of His Person, as also to the greatness of His priesthood. Often has it been noted that in Hebrews 1:3 the Son has set Himself down "on the right hand of the majesty on high" because of who He is as Son of God, and He did this after having "by Himself" made purification for sins. Again, in Hebrews 10:12 the Lord Jesus is viewed as setting Himself down "on the right hand of God," and this because of the greatness of His accomplished work in that He "offered one sacrifice for sins," a sacrifice that needs not to be repeated because of its infinite and eternal efficacy. In Hebrews 12:2 Jesus is set down by God at the "right hand of the throne" in answer to the cross, and its shame, in which He glorified God. In Hebrews 8:1 the Lord is seen as setting Himself down "on the right hand of the throne" in the greatness of His priesthood.
It is in the true tabernacle, of which the tabernacle that Moses pitched was a shadow, that our great High Priest ministers. True is not in contrast with false, but rather that the substance of what was foreshadowed in the material system is found in the true and spiritual system of Christianity. God's dwelling in the tabernacle that Moses pitched was real, for He spoke to Moses from between the cherubim, but it was not a place in which there was approach to God, for although near to God compared to the nations around, the people could not come nearer than the door of the tabernacle, and the high priest could only enter the holiest once a year on the day of atonement to sprinkle the blood on and before the mercy seat.
Although the earthly tabernacle is but a shadow, it serves to illustrate the substance of what now obtains in relation to the present ministry of Christ as the Minister of the Sanctuary. The high priest had his functions in relation to the altar of burnt offering. but he had also his service in the holy place day by day and, as we have seen, the peculiar service of the day of atonement. On the day of atonement he wore the linen garments, but he had garments of glory and beauty in which to appear in the presence of God, even though there is no record of his having worn these garments in the holiest of all. What Aaron did not do Christ has done, for we see Him by faith now "crowned with glory and honour" in the presence of God.
As Minister of the Sanctuary Aaron was a type of Christ, and Aaron's service in the holy place tells us something of the present ministry of Christ. There were three articles of furniture in the holy place, and Aaron's service before God had to do with them all. He had to attend to the lamps on the pure lampstand, he had to burn sweet incense on the altar of incense every morning when he dressed the lamps, and he had to arrange the twelve cakes upon the pure table before the Lord every sabbath.
Aaron was to see that the light of the lamps burned continually, so that the holy place was filled with light, and that the beautiful features of the lampstand were seen within the holy place. This was not a light for the hosts of Israel to see, for the light was hidden from those without by the first veil; it was for the eye of Jehovah in the first place, but also for those who had the privilege to serve within the holy place. There the priests who ministered before Jehovah were able to apprehend what met His holy eye. "Pure beaten olive oil" (Lev. 24:2), the fruit and work of the Holy Spirit, was the light that brought out before God, and those who were near to Him, the features of the lampstand.
The lampstand, all of gold, surely speaks to our hearts of Christ, and the features of the lampstand were its bowls, its knops and its flowers. These would seem to indicate the bud, the blossom and the fruit pleasing to God, and surely these bring before us the evidence of divine life, the fragrance of Christ's life, and the fruit that brings pleasure and glory to God. The lamps were dressed from night to morning by the high priest, bringing before us Christ's work during the night of His absence. Ever since His going on high the blessed Son of God has been caring for His own, both individually and the assemblies of His saints, so that there might be found in them for the pleasure and glory of God His own precious features.
There was not only the dressing of the lamps, but the ordering, or arranging, of the lamps (Lev. 24:4) to secure the desired result of causing the light to shine according to the divine mind. Christ in His perfect wisdom, as the Minister of the Sanctuary, arranges the details of the lives of His own so that the will of God may be carried out, and that His own features might be reproduced in us. Sometimes the snuffers have to be used, in the dressing of the lamps, for the removal of that which would hinder the light shining, and some-times, in the ordering of the lamps, the Great Priest, in His wisdom and love, sets us in a position that we would not choose for ourselves, but where He knows we can best serve the will of God.
This service of the Minister of the Sanctuary is found in Leviticus 24:5-9. It specially refers to God's earthly people Israel, as is seen in the twelve cakes of show-bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. With the pure frankincense upon each row of six, they were "for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Although Israel, as a nation, has been set aside for the present time, God will take them up again for blessing on the ground of the new covenant, "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29).
Though not yet publicly owned by God, Israel is nevertheless ever before His eye. The same blessed Lord who cares for His church still cares for His earthly people Israel, and He keeps them ever before the eye of God in His holy presence. They are not viewed there in their lawlessness and rebellion against God, but according to His purpose for them, and in all the sweet fragrance of Christ whose blood has been shed to redeem them to God. Nor are they viewed as divided into two kingdoms, or as scattered among the nations, but in their twelve tribes, according to God's original thought, and as they shall be when He regathers them in the land He has given them.
Christ's present ministry is in "the sanctuary," or in "the holy places," for He has entered into the immediate presence of God, and it is our privilege to be with Him there. There He appears "in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:24). Our High Priest wears His garments of glory and beauty in the holiest, and we are there with Him for our names are engraven on His shoulders and on His breast. The work of Christ upon the cross and His presence before the face of God have secured a place for us there, and it is in company with Him that we are to enjoy our place in the immediate presence of God.
Israel never had access into the holiest, and never shall, but this is the precious privilege of saints now, therefore we are exhorted to "draw near" as having "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10:20-22). What an immense privilege it is to be able to enter into the very presence of God, and to take account of all that is there. Everything in the holiest speaks of Christ, the gold upon the boards, the various colours of the veil, the ark and its contents, the mercy-seat with the cherubim of glory and the golden censer.
We could not be in the presence of God engaged with that which brings Christ before us without pouring out our praises to God, and without worshipping Him. Nor could we be there without being in the company of Jesus, our "great Priest," who is over the house of God. In God's presence our souls will have a greater appreciation of the preciousness of the blood that is upon the mercy-seat, and before it, and there too we shall know something of the preciousness of Christ through the incense that fills the presence of God.
What a blessed thing it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Minister of the Holy Places, to know something of His present ministry in the presence of God for the help and blessing of His people, but also for the pleasure of His God and Father. How blessed too it is for us to know that He has secured a place for us now in God's presence, and to know that God delights to have us there in the company of His own Son, our Great High Priest.