ON THE VANGUARD

OUR PRIEST, YESHUA
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
Matthew 3:16-17

The baptism of Jesus, in many circles, seems to be just another day. In fact, I would venture to say that we known more concerning the details following the baptism than the baptism itself. True, it is afterward when Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted for forty days while fasting, but if we skip too quick between Matthew 3:17 to Matthew 4:1, we miss a key factor of who He is. I say this because up till only yesterday, I was missing it too. Sitting at my desk listening to teaching CDs I heard something that caused me to go home and search this fact out myself. It was eye opening to me, as I hope it will be to you as well.
Before looking at Matthew, however, we must look at Leviticus. Oh I know; I can hear the moans already. Leviticus is that boring book of rules and procedures. But I dare say without it we may be getting some things wrong in the way we worship our Father. In Leviticus 8 we read of the ordination into priesthood of Aaron and his sons. The ceremony went as such. First Aaron and his sons were washed in water according to verse 6. After clothing him in the tunic, robe, and ephod, he placed the breastplate on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastplate. Next he placed the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the scared diadem, on the front of it. Fully dressed in his priestly robes, Aaron was then anointed with oil (v12). What we do not read in this passage of Leviticus is the final part of the ceremony when the father passes the rite of priesthood on to his son. In addition to these requirements above, the father would announce the son as being his.
You may already be able to see where I am going with today’s devotional, but I want to share it any way. Jesus, Yeshua, is our priest. It was while I was listening to this being taught to me that I saw this fact. I mean, I knew this, but it made more sense. In Matthew 3:15, when John the Baptist tried to sway Jesus from being baptized by him, Jesus responded, “Let it be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” In other words, Jesus was telling John that in order for Him to fulfill each piece of being God’s Son, including the piece about being our Priest, each rule in Leviticus had to be followed. So with that, John baptized Jesus.
Now please don’t miss this. Jesus was washed in the water through his baptism just as Aaron and the priests were washed in the water. Following this, the shaft of light and the dove came down on Jesus representing the oil being poured on Jesus to anoint him, just as Aaron and the priests too were anointed. And then the part of the ceremony I told you about. The declaration of the Father came from heaven, stating that Jesus was His Son, just as the priest would later do as they transferred the office of priest to their sons. Everything was done in order, not one piece missed. And this was all done for our benefit, so that we may have the true Priest, Yeshua, to come before for the forgiveness of our sins. He would later also become our lamb, but in this passage we so easily overlook, He became our priest.