We have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season. The lights, the decorations, the festive meals with family gatherings all make for a time that seems to rejuvenate us. It’s easy to enjoy this time when we celebrate Christ’s birth.But it’s hard for some to leave the touching manger scenes to see what Jesus ultimately came to do. We take comfort in the coming of the baby, but His death on the cross is hard to understand— until you know WHY He came to die.This week, we’re going to look to Jesus as our High Priest. Hebrews 2:17 says “(Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful HIGH PRIEST in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”Explaining why Jesus came to be our High Priest is an important part of the message of the book of Hebrews. But to understand that we need to remember a couple important points.God created us in His image and He gave Adam and Eve a beautiful place to live — the Garden of Eden. It seems that God came to the garden to walk and talk with that first couple. Everything was perfect—but sin entered in.Our sins created a WALL that separated us from God, because God is a holy and righteous. Now when God chose the Israelites, He had them build a tabernacle, a tent for worship. This was a statement that wanted them to know that He wanted to be with them, and He desired to walk with them and talk with them.And in that tent, there was a special place where the Ark was kept. So God was pictured as being in that special room, the Holy of Holies. Now God actually wasn’t “living” there, as you can’t put God in a box, and there’s no building on earth that could hold Him, but that was the symbol God wanted them see.There was a curtain that separated the special place from the rest of the temple. It signified that no one was to enter into that room. So no one could ender that place, except that once a year the High Priest would enter. But before he could do that, he had to offer a sacrifice for the people’s sins. Then he would take the blood from those sacrifices into the Holy of Holies. He ...
