- [Jon] The story of the Bible begins in a garden temple
with a couple, Adam and Eve, as God's royal priests.
- [Tim] They're supposed to partner with God
to take care of creation
and this place where Heaven and Earth are one
is filled with God's blessing.
- [Jon] But Adam and Eve were led astray
by a deceptive creature
and exiled from God's presence.
Their vocation as priests is lost
and with that, all humanity descends into violence.
But God promises that a new royal priest will come
to lead them back into the blessing of Eden
by sacrificing himself.
- [Tim] So later on, we meet a new couple,
Abraham and Sarah.
God promises that through their family,
the royal priest will come
to restore the Eden blessing,
not just for them, but for all the nations.
And so it's this family that grows to become the Israelites.
And they eventually journey to Egypt
and then become enslaved under the violent rule
of King Pharaoh.
- [Jon] So God appoints a man named Moses
to represent him to Pharaoh
and to mediate on Israel's behalf.
- [Tim] Moses confronts Pharaoh
and then leads Israel out of slavery and into the wilderness
where they eventually come to Mount Sinai.
And here God appears to all the Israelites,
inviting them to become a kingdom of priests.
- [Jon] So he's inviting everyone to be priests
like Adam and Eve were priests in Eden.
- [Tim] Right.
But it turns out the people are afraid of God
and they don't want to come close to God's presence
and so Moses goes alone up to the top of the mountain.
- [Jon] And up there,
Moses famously gets the ten commandments,
the first two being worship Yahweh alone
and don't make idol statues.
- [Tim] And Moses sees some really amazing things up there.
First, he sees God's heavenly temple,
and then also a blueprint of it called, "the pattern."
- Ah right, the plans for the construction
of the tabernacle.
- [Tim] Yeah, it's designed as a symbolic model of Eden,
a place where Heaven and Earth are one.
Then Moses sees something else,
the pattern of a glorious human figure.
- [Jon] The high priest who will work in the tabernacle.
- [Tim] Right
and only this priest can go in and out of the sacred space
on behalf of others.
He's dressed in white,
he wears a crown and is glowing with jewels.
He's an image of the royal priest that we're waiting for.
- [Jon] And yet,
the man who's called to be Israel's first high priest
is the brother of Moses, a man named Aaron.
- [Tim] And while Moses is up seeing all of this,
down at the foot of the mountain,
Aaron is misleading the people
by making an idol statue of God.
- [Jon] So the soon to be high priest
is breaking the first of the ten commandments.
- [Tim] Yes.
And so God gets angry and he tells Moses
that he's done with these people.
He'll just start over with Moses.
But Moses stands before God
and he intercedes for the Israelites.
He even offers his own life
as a sacrifice for their sins.
- [Jon] And while God doesn't take Moses's life,
he does forgive the people like Moses asked.
- [Tim] And so when Moses comes down from the mountain,
he's shining just like the High Priest
that he saw in his vision.
It's like, he's the real priest
that his brother was supposed to be, but failed.
- [Jon] And from here, the tabernacle is built.
- [Tim] And then Aaron's family is installed
to the priesthood.
- [Jon] But really, even after this bad start?
- [Tim] Yeah and actually things get even worse.
God gives Aaron and his sons really precise instructions
on how to act as the priests.
And then on their first day on the job,
Aaron's two sons violate God's commands.
And because they're in a place of great privilege
and responsibility, God deals severely.
- [Jon] They die inside the tabernacle.
Things are not looking good for the priesthood of Aaron.
- [Tim] Right, both Aaron and his sons have failed
in their priestly role
and this begins to make us think,
maybe God's people need a different kind of priesthood.
- [Jon] Maybe one that's more like Moses
who surrendered his very life over to God.
- [Tim] Yes and while Moses is great,
he also fails to be fully obedient to God
and so both he and Aaron die outside the land
promised to Abraham.
- [Jon] So Moses was only an image
of the kind of priest that God's people will need.
- [Tim] Right, we're still waiting for this
ultimate royal priest who will intercede like Moses
and offer his life for the failures of others.
- [Jon] The Israelites eventually make it
into the promised land
and there they appoint a king and establish a kingdom.
Perhaps now God's Royal Priest can arrive.
- [Tim] Then this brings us to King David
and his story is what we're going to look at next.