Divine Protection — From God Himself

As I read through the Law of Moses, I’m so grateful that I don’t live under the Levitical system, where I (and I’m quite sure, you as well) would need Divine protection from God himself. We simply don’t think of God’s righteous wrath like that, but in the days of the Exodus, God had to make it plain to this new nation, the Israelites, that he was utterly holy, and that certain violations of his holiness meant death for both priest and people if they violated that holiness. Fast forward to today, and thank God for Jesus, our Great High Priest who, on the cross, bore the full measure of God’s righteous wrath that our sin deserved. Jesus is all God’s people will ever need to keep them safe — from their own sin and from a holy God. Yes, thank God for Jesus, the One Mediator between God and us!

The Journey// Focus: Numbers 18:5-7

The Lord said to Aaron, “You are responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting. But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.”

To begin with, I am thankful that I don’t live under the Levitical system, where I (and I am quite sure, you as well) would need to be protected from the Holy Presence of God. We simply don’t think of the righteous wrath of God like that, but in the days of the Exodus, God had to make it plainly clear to the Israelites that he was holy, and that certain violations of his holiness meant death for both priest and people if they violated that holiness. Thank God for Jesus, our Great High Priest who bore the full measure of God’s righteous wrath on the cross.

Yes, at just the right time, Jesus showed up and changed it all. There’s a new sheriff in town, friends, and we don’t need to protect ourselves anymore. Jesus will do it!

So with that in mind, since you are a believer in Jesus Christ, or at least I assume, I am going to fast-forward past this section and point you to the book of Hebrews, where we find the New Testament’s reinterpretation of the Old Testament Levitical system. Hebrews 7:15-16,19 says,

Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life — he lives! — ‘priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek’ … Jesus! — a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place. (The Message)

You will have to read this whole chapter, slowly and absorbingly, I might add, plus several chapters surrounding this one to grasp what the writer of Hebrews is getting at, but here is the gist of it: He is going to great lengths to remind his readers that Jesus is all they will ever need! He is the all-sufficient, indestructible one, our Great High Priest.

The problem was, the Hebrew believers to whom he wrote were facing increasing hostility for their faith in Christ, and some of them were being tempted to fall back in line with the old Levitical system. So the writer sets out to convince them of the superiority of Christ’s priesthood over the Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices. One of his strongest arguments was that even way back before God gave these instructions to Moses, the father of the Hebrew faith, Abraham, even gave tithes to Melchizedek, a type of Christ, thus proving Jesus is greater than the Hebrew system.

Throughout this entire letter, the writer makes a splendid and convincing case for Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest. Among the many things that he teaches about the priesthood of Jesus, here are three that ought to encourage you today:

First, as a high priest, Jesus is on your side. Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this hope [in Jesus] as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.”

Knowing that Jesus is on your side gives you an incredible emotional and spiritual strength to live the victorious Christian life, especially during trying and tempting times. And while you may not think about it much, he actually protects you from the utter holiness of God—a holiness that cannot tolerate even a single, “small” sin.

Second, as a high priest, Jesus will provide the power for you to stay the course. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

You ever wonder what Jesus is doing now? That verse clearly says he is continually before the Father, representing your cause. What a thought—Jesus is your personal intercessor making sure the Father, rather than punishing you as you deserve for the sins you have committed, is granting you everything you need to stay faithful and live victoriously.

And third, Jesus is more satisfying than any other temporary fix that you might be tempted to trust. Hebrews 9:27-28 says, “And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.”

Trusting in any other religious system, even the Levitical system of sacrifice, would be settling for an infinitely distant second best. In fact, if you were to put your trust in any other, you would be relying on a system that frankly cannot do a thing to give you eternal life. And it was never intended to do so. Rather, it was intended to show that ultimately, it was only Jesus who could save!

Do your realize what good news this is? Jesus is your personal high priest, and it doesn’t get any better than him. You need fear neither the power of sin nor the righteous wrath of God. So bring your broken, sin-prone, unworthy life to him, he has made you and keeps you perfect through his once-for-all sacrifice.