A GREAT HIGH PRIEST
Blessing
the People
By J.
C. Philpot
Chapter
Fourteen from the book Meditations on the Sacred Humanity of The Blessed
Redeemer
One important part of the ministration of
the blessed Lord, as the great High Priest over the house of God, we have not
yet touched upon. This is his blessing
the people.
This, we know, was committed to the
typical high priest under the law as one of the functions of his ministerial
office. "Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying. On this wise ye shall
bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep
thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." #Nu 6:23-27. The chief season when the high priest blessed the people
according to this formula was on the great day of atonement, when, after having
carried the blood of the bullock and the goat into the holy of holies, and
sprinkled it on and before the mercy-seat, he laid aside his linen garments,
and, putting on the garments of glory and beauty, showed himself to the people
who were praying without. #Lu
1:10. In all this there was a
beautiful propriety. The high priest had two distinct sets of consecrated
garments. One set was made wholly of linen, which he wore on the great day of
atonement. This was simplicity and purity itself, and as such is elsewhere used
as a type of the pure humanity of the Son of God in the flesh, as #Eze 9:2,11 Da 10:5. The other set of consecrated garments
was worn on days of high and great solemnity; and being made of gold, and blue,
and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, was called "golden,"
or "garments of glory and beauty." The linen garments, then, which
the high priest wore when he offered the bullock and the goat, and took their
blood into the most holy place, were not only typical of the pure and perfect
human nature of the Lord Jesus, but of that nature in its state of humiliation
on earth. Similarly, the garments of glory and beauty, such as the robe of the
ephod of woven work, all of blue, with its hem adorned with bells of pure gold
and pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen, and the
ephod on the breast, with the twelve precious stones on which the names of the
tribes were engraved, #Exod
39 typically and figuratively
represented the glorified humanity of the blessed Lord, which he now wears at
the right hand of the Father.
As, then, the high priest, when he had
laid aside his linen garments, and assumed the garments of glory and beauty,
blessed the people from the court of the tabernacle, so the Lord in his
glorified humanity blesses his waiting people here below from the courts of
bliss. In him, as the church’s risen Head, all spiritual blessings are lodged:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." #Eph 1:3. He is the living Fountain whence all the streams flow to
water his church here below. The ancient promise made to Abraham was, that
"in him and his seed," that is, Christ, as the apostle explains the
word, #Ga 3:16, "all the nations of the earth
should be blessed." Every blessing, then, which the elect enjoy either for
time or eternity, in providence or in grace, comes from him as their covenant
Head. They are blessed in him as they are chosen, adopted, and accepted in him. #Eph 1:4-6. Not to speak of his blessings in
providence, though in these "he daily loadeth us with benefits," #Psa 68:19, how unspeakable are his blessings in grace!
Look at the blessing of eternal life which
hangs before the eyes of the poor way-worn pilgrim in this world of sin and
sorrow, as the prize of his high calling, the prospect of which, at the end of
his race, animates his drooping spirits - this rich and glorious crown, without
which all others would cease to be blessings, is given in Christ. "And
this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son." #1Joh 5:11. This blessing the risen Lord bestows on
his people when he first quickens their souls into spiritual life, for he is
"the resurrection and the life," #Joh 11:25, and
"quickeneth whom he will;" #Joh 5:21; and
the life thus given he ever maintains, for his own words are, "Because I
live ye shall live also." #Joh
14:19. As, then, he ever
lives at God’s right hand, for he says, "I am he that liveth and was dead;
and behold, I am alive for evermore;" #Re 1:18; and
again, "Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them;" #Heb 7:25; he sends down the blessing of eternal life into their
soul. And this blessing of eternal life which he thus bestows has a sweet
connection with the anointing which he received as the consecrated High Priest;
for the droppings of that rich unction went down to the very skirts of his
garments, and falls in regenerating grace upon the hearts of his people, like
the dew of Hermon: "It is like the precious ointment upon the head that
ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of
his garments. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the
mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
evermore." #Ps 133:2,3. How sweet to carry in the bosom the
pledge, earnest, and foretaste of eternal life, and to feel it to be the gift
of God; #Ro 6:23; stored up in Christ, who is himself
"the true God and eternal life;" #1Joh 5:20;
manifested and brought to light in the Person of Jesus; #1Joh 1:2; and firmly secured by covenant oath and everlasting
promise. #Ps 21:2-4 89:34-37
Tit 1:2 1Joh 2:25.
From this ever-flowing and overflowing
fountain of eternal life proceed all other spiritual blessings, as
reconciliation to God by the blood of the Lamb; free and full justification by
his imputed righteousness; deliverance from all condemnation, past, present,
and to come; and, as a consequence of these glorious mercies, manifested pardon
of sin; peace of conscience; fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus
Christ; revelations of his presence, power, loveliness, glory, and beauty; sips
and tastes of his dying love; spiritual affections; heavenly desires; holy
longings after conformity to his image, for grace and strength to imitate his
example and walk in his footsteps, for power to do that which is pleasing in
his sight, and to live to his praise - in a word, all that sweet and sacred
intercourse with the blessed Lord which is the very life and power, sum and
substance of all vital godliness; and without which all religion is but an
empty form, a name, and a notion. It is thus that the reality of the presence
of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father is made experimentally known.
He is seen, felt, and believed in as the Way, the Truth, and the Life; for he
is walked in as the Way of access unto God; sought unto as the Truth, the
knowledge of which maketh free; and cleaved unto as the Life, from whom it was
first received, and by whom it is ever maintained.
Our blessed Lord was to be "a High
Priest after the order of Melchizedec." It will be remembered that
Melchizedec met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed
him. #Ge 14:19. In the same way our great High Priest
blesses the seed of Abraham; for "they which be of faith are blessed with
faithful Abraham;" #Ga
3:9; and as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they walk in his steps who "believed God, and it was
counted unto him for righteousness." #Ro 4:3,12. But
Melchizedec the type could only ask God to bless
Abraham. He could not himself confer the blessing; but Jesus, the antitype, our
great Melchizedec, whose priesthood is after the power of an endless life, #Heb 7:16, blesses his people, not by merely asking God to bless
them, but by himself showering down blessings upon them, and by communicating
to them out of his own fulness every grace which can sanctify as well as save.
Even before his incarnation, when he appeared in human form, as if anticipating
in appearance that flesh and blood which he should afterwards assume in reality,
he had power to bless.
Thus we read that when Jacob wrestled with
the angel - which was no created angel, but the Angel of the covenant, even the
Son of God himself in human shape - he said, "I will not let thee go
except thou bless me." And in answer to his wrestling cry we read that
"he blessed him there." Jacob knew that no created angel could bless
him. He therefore said, when he had got the blessing, "I have seen God
face to face, and my life is preserved." #Ge 32:26-30. To this blessing Jacob afterward referred when, in blessing
Ephraim and Manasseh, he said, "The angel which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads." #Ge
48:16.
Thus, also, our gracious Lord, immediately
before his ascension to heaven, as if in anticipation of the gifts and graces
which he was to send down upon them when exalted to the right hand of the
Father, "lifted up his hands and blessed his disciples;" and as if to
show that he would still ever continue to bless them, "he was parted from
them and carried up into heaven," even "while he blessed them," as if he were blessing them all the way up
to heaven, even before he took possession of his mediatorial throne. #Lu 24:50 51.
As, then, he sits in glory at the right
hand of the Father, he sends down blessings upon his people. He blesses them
"with the blessings of heaven from above, blessings of the deep that lieth
under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, and unto the utmost bound of
the everlasting hills." #Ge
49:25,26. He holds all nature
in his hands; the gold and the silver are his, and the cattle upon a thousand
hills; his is the earth and the fulness thereof; all power is given unto him in
heaven and in earth; he holds the reins of government, doing according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; so that
none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? He is the sun and
shield of God’s people - their sun, ever to be their light; their shield, to be
ever their defence. He giveth grace and glory - grace here, glory hereafter. #Ps 84:11. He makes his strength perfect in their weakness, that
they may glory in their infirmities; #2Co 12:9;
nourishes and cherishes them, as being members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones; #Eph 5:29,30; and communicates to them more than heart
can conceive or tongue express out of his own fulness; for it hath pleased the
Father that in him should all fulness dwell. #1Co 2:9,10 Joh 1:16 Col 1:19. He can see all the designs of their enemies, and defeat
them; all the temptations of Satan, and overrule them; all his snares, and
break them to pieces; all his enmity and malice, and can bruise him under their
feet shortly. He can pity their case when bowed with grief and afflictions; can
hear their sigh and cry out of the depths of trouble and sorrow; and can
stretch forth his hand to deliver them from the worst of foes and the worst of
fears.
And what a matter this is of living, daily
experience, so as to make the presence of Jesus at the right hand of the Father
no mere doctrine seen in the letter of truth, but a very fountain of spiritual
life in the heart. How continually, how, in deep trouble, almost unceasingly,
is the poor, tried, tempted, and afflicted child of God, looking up to this
merciful and faithful High Priest and begging of him to appear and bless his
soul! This is all that he needs. For the Lord himself to bless him comprises
every desire of his heart. One word, one look, one touch, one manifestation of
his love and blood, is all that he wants. But if he did not see him by the eye
of faith at the right hand of the Father, and able to bless him with the
blessing that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it, would his prayers,
desires, tears, and supplications be so directed toward him? If, too, at times
he has been blessed with a sweet sense of his presence and his love, he cannot
rest satisfied without some fresh manifestation of these blessings to his soul.
And how fully adapted and divinely
qualified he is to communicate these rich blessings; for God, by exalting him to
his own right hand, has "made him most blessed for ever;" or as we
read in the margin, "set him to be blessings." #Ps 21:6. He has "prevented him" (or, as the word means,
anticipated him in his wishes and petitions) "with the blessings of
goodness, and set a crown of pure gold upon his head." This is the reward
of his sufferings, for "his glory is great in God’s salvation," and
therefore "honour and majesty has laid upon him." #Ps 21:5. And does he not deserve it all? Has he not "obtained
eternal redemption for us"? #Heb 9:12; and
is he not "of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption"? #1Co 1:30. Is he
not "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth;" #Ro 10:4; and "the author of eternal salvation
to all that obey him?" #Heb
5:9.
How, then, can we doubt that he is
"able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him"? For
what is there which he has not done for their salvation in his finished work?
and what is there which he cannot do in the application of that finished work
to their heart? For we need his present help as well as his present obedience.
When the soul, then, sinks low into trouble or dejection; when troops of sins
come to view, like so many gaunt spectres of the past; when innumerable
backslidings, slips, and falls crowd in upon the conscience, bringing guilt and
fear in their train, how the cast-down spirit will sometimes look at and ponder
over the various cases of those sinners of every shape, and hue, and dye, whose
salvation, without money and without price, is recorded in the word of truth.
How it looks, for instance, at a sinning David, a blood-stained Manasseh, a
dying thief, a returning prodigal, a weeping Mary Magdalene, a denying Peter, a
persecuting Saul, a trembling jailer, the Jerusalem sinners who killed the
Prince of life. And as it views these self-condemned, self-abhorred sinners, so
freely accepted, so everlastingly saved, how it looks up to the Lord of life
and glory that it may receive similar blessings out of his fulness.
It is in this and similar ways that. a
communication is kept up with the risen and ascended Lord upon his throne of
grace; and as he, in answer to prayer, from time to time drops down an
encouraging word into the soul, each fresh discovery of his Person and work, of
his beauty and blessedness, of his grace and glory, raises up renewed actings
of faith, strengthens a lively hope, and draws forth every tender affection of
the heart to flow unto and centre in him. Seeing light in his light, and how
rich and free his blessings are, it cries out with Jabez of old, "0 that
thou wouldst bless me indeed." An "indeed" blessing is what the
soul is seeking after which has ever felt the misery and bitterness of sin, and
ever tasted the sweetness of God’s salvation. And these "indeed"
blessings are seen to be spiritual and eternal.
Compared with such blessings as these, it
sees how vain and empty are all earthly things, what vain toys, what idle
dreams, what passing shadows. It wonders at the folly of men in hunting after
such vain shows, and spending time, health, money, life itself, in a pursuit of
nothing but misery and destruction. Every passing bell that it hears, every
corpse borne slowly along to the grave that it sees, impresses it with solemn
feelings as to the state of those who live and die in their sins. Thus it
learns more and more to contrast time with eternity, earth with heaven, sinners
with saints, and professors with possessors. By these things it is taught, with
Baruch, not "to seek great things" for itself, #Jer 14:5, but real things - things which will outlast time, and fit
it for eternity. It is thus brought to care little for the opinion of men as to
what is good or great, but much for what God has stamped his own approbation
upon, such as a tender conscience, a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a humble
mind, a separation from the world and everything worldly, submission to his
holy will, a meek endurance of the cross, a conformity to Christ’s suffering
image, and a living to God’s glory. Compared with spiritual blessings like
these, it sees how vain and deceptive is a noisy profession, a presumptuous
confidence, a sound creed in the letter of truth, without an experience of its
life and power; and afraid of being deceived and deluded, as thousands are, it
is made to prize the least testimony from the Lord’s own lips that its heart is
right before him.
Looking around then, as with
freshly-enlightened eyes, it sees how the world is filled with sin and sorrow;
how God’s original curse on the earth has embittered every earthly good; how it
has marred the nearest and dearest social relationships; how trial and
affliction, losses, crosses, bereavements, vexations, and disappointments enter
every home, and especially that where God is feared; how, amid these scenes of
sorrow and trouble, all human help or hope is vain, that it is dying in a dying
world, and must soon pass away from this time-state, where all is shadow, into
eternity, where all is substance. As, then, the gracious Lord is pleased to
indulge it with some discovery of himself, shedding abroad a sweet sense of his
goodness and mercy, atoning blood, and dying love, it is made to long more and
more for the manifestation of those blessings which alone are to be found in
him. For his blessings are not like the mere temporal mercies which we enjoy at
his hands, all of which perish in the using, but are for ever and ever; and
when once given are never taken away. They thus become earnests and foretastes
of eternal joys, for they are absolutely irreversible. When Isaac had once
blessed Jacob in God’s name, though the blessing had been obtained by guile,
yet having been once given, it could not be recalled. He said, therefore, to
Esau, "I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed." #Ge 27:33. So when the Lord has blessed his people with any of those
spiritual blessings which are stored up in his inexhaustible fulness, these
blessings are like himself, unchanging and unchangeable; for "he is in one
mind and none can turn him;" "The same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever." Those whom he loves he loves to the end; and his gifts and calling
are without repentance; #Ro
11:29, for he never repents
of having bestowed them, as everlasting love is their unvarying, unceasing
source.
But
these blessings have more than sweetness of their present communication. They
stretch forward as well as reach backward; look into eternity to come, as well
as from eternity past. By their communication and manifestation his people are
made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, for these blessings have
a sweet sanctifying influence. Thus, believers in Jesus are said "to
rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory;" #1Pe 1:8; and having a hope of seeing him as he is,
to "purify themselves even as he is pure." #1Jo
3:3. Spiritual blessings are not like mere doctrinal opinions, which
often leave a man just where they found him - a slave to sin, self, Satan, and
the world. They have a blessed sanctifying influence upon the heart. They
prepare the soul for glory; they are earnests and foretastes of it, and are an
enjoyment beforehand on earth of the delights of heaven. Thus, their effect is
to separate the heart with its affections from the world; to subdue and crucify
a worldly spirit; to mortify pride and covetousness; to cause the conscience to
be tender and alive in the fear of God; to make sin exceedingly sinful, its
remembrance bitter, and its indulgence dreaded; to draw forth a spirit of
prayer and supplication; to open up the scriptures in their spiritual meaning;
to encourage holy meditation; to feed the soul with choice fruit out of the
word of truth; to breathe into it that spirit of faith which gives life and
feeling to every gracious movement Godward, and in a word, to communicate,
maintain, and keep alive that inward holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. Can earth show a more blessed sight than a believer upon his knees
before the throne of grace, looking up to the most blessed Lord at the right
hand of the Father, and his sympathising High Priest looking down upon him with
love in his heart, pity in his eye, and blessings in his hand? These are,
indeed, for the most part but rare seasons, and are often sadly broken through
and interrupted by coldness, carnality, and death; but it is only in this way,
however long the interval or dark the mind in the intermediate season, that
fellowship is maintained with Jesus as the great High Priest over the house of
God, and he experimentally made the soul’s all in all.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.