He is the High Priest

By Yolandie Mostert (June 2023)

 

His lips are lilies, dripping with liquid myrrh. (Songs 5:13c) 

We find plenty of wonderful Scriptures and truths about this facet of the character of our King. He is not just any high priest, the Father named Jesus a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

Symbolism

The meaning of the symbolism in this verse in Song of Songs is as follows:

Lips speak of holy and pure words of truth that comes from His mouth.

The trumpet form of a lily in the context of speech, refers to the voicing of proclamations. Lilies in Song of Songs also refer to holiness.

Myrrh always points to death and the laying down of a life. Because of the death of Jesus, resurrection power could flow through Him. We read in Hebrews 8 that every earthy high priest was appointed to offer sacrifices. Jesus also had to bring a sacrifice and He brought Himself.

Because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ (the myrrh) He can now intercede with proclamations of atonement in holiness and truth (trumpet form of a lily).

 

Grace

In Psalm 45, the song that captures the love between Jesus and His bride, we read the following:

Grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever. (Ps 45:3b)

His words are full of grace. It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of spiritual performance where we try to achieve a certain standard of goodness or holiness in order to be acceptable to the Lord. Our King is gentle in heart. Yes, He is holy too, and He is righteousness, which is why He requires holiness from us. After all, He paid with His Blood to make it possible for us to worship Him in holiness. But He has mercy on our humanity; we must just not use it as an excuse for fleshliness. Let’s look at a verse that often gets quoted partially or out of context.

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. (1 Joh 2:1)

John starts the verse saying that we are not supposed to sin. In the previous chapter we read how we are being cleansed when we confess our sins. When this continuous cleansing and holiness become our way of life and we then find ourselves in a situation where we sinned, we are not without hope. Then we have Jesus Christ as our righteous advocate with the Father.

 

Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Heb 2:17-18) 

He has compassion with our humanity. Regardless what we are struggling with, whether it’s unbelief, fear, bondage, pain or even addictions. He is full of mercy when He looks at us. Not just to have sympathy and then leave us be, but in order to help us. Here is also a lesson for us. Man can so easily use his humanity as an excuse for sin or to remain in bad habits. This is not what this Scripture teaches us. He is merciful in order to help us.

 

The priestly order of Melchizedek

Now I would like to take a moment to share a bit about the priestly order of Melchizedek. The writer of Hebrews has quite a lot to say about this and quotes Psalm 110:4, where it was first proclaimed. The whole Psalm is a powerful description of Jesus Christ as a ruler, warrior, high priest as well as a judge.

where Jesus has entered [in advance] as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Heb 6:20) 

I encourage you to read the whole book of Hebrews slowly and prayerfully. It contains so many depths and truths about this subject, it will not be possible for me to fit everything into one message. A while back the Holy Spirit started to press this priestly order on my heart. I realise that there are a lot of hidden treasures that we have to find. Each one of us must pray for revelation and knowledge in this regard. Just a word of warning: there is also a lot of nonsense out there about this; please stay within the truths of Scripture and in the leading of the Holy Spirit.

 

Here is a summary of Hebrews 5:5-11. Jesus did not elevate or appoint Himself in the role as High Priest. It was through His obedience unto death, that He became the source of eternal salvation. We read that Jesus had to learn obedience through what He suffered. Here is another lesson for us: sufferings that relates to the laying down of our will, teaches us obedience. For those that are obedient to Him, He is the source of eternal salvation.

The writer of the letter says that he wanted to share deeper truths about this priestly order, but could not because the people became sluggish and lazy to digest solid spiritual food. Every time when I read this, I cannot help to wonder what else he wanted to share.

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.” As He also says in another place: “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK,” of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (Heb 5:5-11)

 

Where does it come from?

We have to go back all the way to Genesis 14 to see what this priestly order entails. We find two short verses in this chapter. Abraham just returned after an attack on the kings that invaded Sodom and captured the people including his nephew, Lot.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth. Gen 14:18-19) 

This man, named Melchizedek, was both a king and a priest. It’s in contrast to the Aaronic priestly order where they were only priests and where the kings came from a different bloodline. Jesus Christ is not a high priest according to the Old Covenant, the Aaronic priestly order, but He is both King and High Priest. He rules and He intercedes. This is what the priestly order of the New Covenant looks like. And both functions happen from the position of the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110).

Let’s continue with Hebrews chapter 7 where Melchizedek is elevated as a type of Jesus Christ. The glory of the New Covenant was announced and manifested in the events of Genesis 14 long before the final cutting of the Old Covenant happened at Mount Sinai and long before the priestly order of Aaron was initiated.

When we realise this, we cannot help but to stand amazed at the planning of God and how He weaved in the finest of details over centuries.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of all [the spoil]. He is, first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, which means king of peace. Without [any record of] father or mother, nor ancestral line, without [any record of] beginning of days (birth) nor ending of life (death), but having been made like the Son of God, he remains a priest without interruption and without successor. Now pause and consider how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils. (Heb 7:1-4)

 

The main point

I’ve said a lot of wonderful things up until now, nevertheless meaningless without a practical application. The writer of Hebrews gives us the main point in chapter 8. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. Because He is also a King and because the Father exalted Him, He ministers by interceding from that high position of power and authority.

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. (Heb 8:1-2) 

 

Practical application

We find the practical application for us two chapter later. Jesus paved the way into the Holy of Holies. All of us are able to enter that deep into the Tabernacle; it’s not reserved for just a small exclusive group. I’ve explained this in my previous message named: Thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. The Son of God paid with His Blood. He has already made the way. What an insult to His face when we choose to play in the shallow water of fleshliness when the veil was torn and we are able to discover all the depths hidden in Him?

 

We love to quote the verse about us allowed to enter boldly in His presence, but then we stop there. I want to read the whole paragraph. Context is extremely important when we study the Scriptures. We err when we quote a verse here and a verse there.

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, and having a High Priest over the house of God, 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. 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. 

For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.  (Heb 10:19-27) 

 

Everything written in Hebrews chapter 1 to 10, gives us understanding as to why may boldly enter the Holy of Holies. The only way is through the Blood of Jesus Christ, not our good deeds.

Then, there is a way for us to enter. We cannot just enter in arrogance or as we want to. Our hearts must be true and we must enter through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s not all. Our hearts must also be washed in the Blood of the Lamb. It starts when we become born again and then we continue with the cleansing (Rev 7:14). Another thing that happens when we become born again is our baptism in water. With this I mean the baptism of believers – immersion in water after we came to belief.

We find further instructions in this passage that should follow in obedience after we received the wonderful privilege to may enter in. We have to remain in the faith, love one another, encourage each other to do good works, we have to be faithful in our assembling together and exhort one another when we see wrong habits. As we are approaching the day when Jesus will return, we must be even more vigorous in our supporting each other. Can you see how our vertical relationship with God will always be influenced and will have an influence on our horisontal relationship with people?

Lastly, when we then, after receiving all of these privileges, reject the precious Blood of the Lamb in rebellion and by wilfully sinning, then there is nothing more to do for us. What more must Jesus do? He has already provided everything we need and made it accessible to us. It is possible to lose our salvation. There is no such a thing as once saved, always saved. There is a line that can be crossed and then our Advocate and High Priest becomes our Judge.

 

Jesus Christ – our High Priest

His lips drips of myrrh. He is interceding for us. He was the perfect sacrifice that we may be allowed to follow Him as our Forerunner. Each one of us are called to a life in the Holy of Holies. Everything is in place, we just have to enter in. When our hearts are true and we yearn for this, but we struggle and our circumstances, past, pain and bondage hold us back, we have a solution. We can stand with boldness before Him. His throne is a throne of grace. There we will find mercy and grace and He will help us.

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. 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. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:14-16) 

 

Links

To listen to the introduction, as well as the Word I’ve received by the Holy Spirit concerning this series, please click here.

The audio version of this message is availalbe on our telegram channel: https://t.me/+1hYU7h46Jj1hZDc8

Part 1 – Who is the Bridegroom (background)

Part 2 – Who is your beloved?

Part 3 – He is my beloved

Part 4 – Hy is Light

Part 5 – Hy is Holy

Part 6 – Hy is the Warrior and Avenger

Part 7 – He is the Conqueror

Part 8 – He is the Head

Part 9 – The Set-Apart One

Part 10 – He is Unchanging

Part 11 – He is the Zealous One

Part 12 – He is the Judge

Part 13 – He is Love

Part 14 – He is Unfathomable