Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.

I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.

This particular passage in Numbers has much to say about Jesus and His saving love, of how He is the City of Refuge for those who realize their guilt before God. During our time in this topic, we will come to see Jesus in geographical places, in types of animals, in historic happenings and in special circumstances within the lives of saint and sinner.

But for now, we want to consider Aaron, the High Priest and how his life (or death) might provide a picture of the Savior we have come to know.

Even as I say we are looking at Aaron, he is simply a representative of the Aaronic priesthood, which by the nature of the participants, was a terminal priesthood. Each high priest that has ever lived in that order has died. Each death of the high priest typified the death of the priestly order. It’s duration, for the priest and the order, was doomed to the grave.

Death. The grave. Terminal.

Each new high priest would die. Good ones. Bad ones. It didn’t matter. Death haunted them and each succumbed to their inevitable end.

So when Jesus appeared, we can be thankful He was not of the priestly order of Aaron, but of Melchizedek. Such a mysterious figure in the pages of Genesis. So little is said, yet the author of Hebrews makes much of what was given to us. For our time this morning, consider the duration of the Lord’s Melchizedekian priesthood.

No (permanent) death. No (permanent) grave. A non-terminal order of priest, that through death, through the grave has been raised to never face death again.

And due to this characteristic of the Melchizedekian priesthood, only One priest will fill that office.

His name is Jesus. And as our High Priest, He is facing God, pleading for our well being, our growth, our sanctification, our salvation, our pilgrimage and our future life with Him.

He is not a terminal high priest, like Aaron and every high priest of the order of Aaron! For that we can and will be eternally grateful.

Thankyou Jesus for being who you are and loving us.

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