Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Priest"-a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. "Wherefore," says the Apostle, "in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be made a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people 1." "Consider,' says the same writer, "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus"." Again, in the same Epistle; "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession 3."

This typical analogy, on which St. Paul pointedly insists throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews, properly and repeatedly calling Jesus the High Priest of our profession, is strongly marked, both in the character of the archi-sacerdotal office, and in the ministrations annexed to it. The Urim and Thummim, by which the Divine will was manifested to the High Priest, were far from being indistinct shadows of the plenitude of that manifestation of it, which Christ should display; and we may remark, that as the Urim and Thummim were lost with the first temple on account of the sins of the people, and as the Tirshatha Nehemiah desired, that the most holy things. should not be eaten, until there

1 Heb. ii. 17.

2 Heb. iii. 1.

3 Heb. iv. 14.

arose a High Priest with Urim and Thummim, the symbol never returned, but Christ appeared possessor of the reality, veiling the effulgence of the Godhead in humanity. That these stones on the pectoral of the High Priest were forcibly typical, we are assured by the application of them or similar in the Apocalypse to the New Jerusalem.

The High Priest, as the spiritual representative of Israel, was deemed equal to Israel collectively; Christ also is the Head and fulness of his Church and the providence of God ordained that He should come at a period, when the office was dwindled to nothing, and often procured by bribery, so that his just claims to it became evident to the Christian, in exact proportion to the want of right, which those, who held it in Jerusalem, could assert. The High Priest was washed or purified with water; Christ was baptized in the Jordan; on the lower part of his tiara the High Priest wore a plate of gold, called also the crown, on which were engraven the words Holiness to Jehovah'. To Christ alone belong the golden crown, ("And I looked," says St. John, "and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle 2") and

1 More properly Holy to Jehovah.

2 Rev. xiv. 14.

that crown of glory, which He shall give to the just. He hath also on his vesture' and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS; —so, that if we inspect the minutiæ, the typical resemblance is most perfect.

If we regard the High Priest in his ministrations; if we advert to the sin and trespass-offerings, to the peace-offerings and various oblations; if we examine the ceremonies at the day of expiation, and at the feast of tabernacles, the same original reference to an end, which was accomplished by Christ, will every where rise to view. The fasting, with which the High Priest prepared himself for the act of expiation, calls to mind that fast, to which Christ submitted after his baptism, before He commenced his mediatorial office, before He prepared the way for the atonement, which He offered for the sins of the people. And that the type might be more full, the ashes of the red heifer were sprinkled on the head of the High Priest. Two goats were selected, the one to be sacrificed, the other to be driven in the desert, and a calf and a ram were slain in expiation of his own sins, and those of his brethren. His entrance into the Holy of Holies, and the sprinkling of the blood of the bullock and sacrificed goat on

1 Rev. xix. 16.

the mercy seat are types not to be mistaken; they point to Christ, who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, who gave Himself a ransom for many. To this also the entrance of Jesus Christ into heaven once for all, presenting his own blood to the Almighty Father in atonement for our sins, has been appropriately compared by the Apostle; and the character which on that one day was exercised by the High Priest, Philo conceived to have partaken of the Divine and human, to which we certainly cannot fail in finding the antitype. Thus was the High Priest to a certain extent a Mediator between God and man on account of his intercession for the people. Moses on account of the covenant made between God and Israel-perhaps also, as the Psalmist says, on account of having stood in the gap -was so styled in the New Testament; but in Christ, as the Intercessor for sin, as the Mediator of the New Covenant, we find the type in each branch most amply completed.

JOSHUA has always been allowed to have been a type of the Messiah. The two names are synonymous-Joshua and Jesus. Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land, as Jesus does the Christians into glory-Joshua triumphed over all the enemies of Israel, as Jesus did over his enemies when upon the earth, and is now triumphing over those of his faith.

Joshua allotted to each tribe a place in the land of promise; and Jesus ascended into heaven, allotted twelve thrones to his Apostles, and is preparing a place for his faithful followers'.

SAMSON was a strict and perpetual Nazarite, and a type of the Messiah. Samson was the son of a woman accounted barren-Jesus was the son of a virgin. An angel proclaimed the birth of Samsonat the birth of Jesus angels appeared unto the shepherds, announcing his birth. The angel in the history of Samson said, "That he should be a Nazarite unto God 2"-Jesus lived with more than the purity required from the Nazarite, and anti-typically fulfilled every object of the Nazarite's separation. The angel in the history of Samson foretold, that he should deliver Israel-the angel in that of Jesus, that he should save his people. The Spirit of God is said to have moved Samson-the Spirit descended like a dove upon Jesus. Samson killed the lion, destroyed the Philistines, removed the gates from the city, and at his death, subdued his enemies - Christ at his death overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil.

1 The names of Joshua and Jesus were the same, though the later Jews call Jesus Yeshu. As Joshua was a type of Christ, Moses may have had a typical intention in the change of name from Oshea to Joshua.

2 Judg. xiii. 5.

« PreviousContinue »