The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 39

King, Prophet, High Priest

Moses talked with God as with a friend, but Moses could never be high priest.

Aaron was the high priest.

Moses was a prophet and talked directly with Yahweh, but Aaron wore the beautiful garments of the high priest into the Holy of Holies where Yahweh was.

Aaron was said to be Moses’ prophet when Moses went before Pharaoh, and Miriam was called a prophetess, but Moses was the one that Yahweh spoke to directly. Even though Moses talked with God friend to friend, Moses could never be the high priest, or a priest at all. Each man, Moses and Aaron, had his job to do. Neither man could do the other’s job.

So, at that time, Moses was prophet, Aaron was high priest, and Yahweh was king. The people looked to Moses to give them messages from the King and they looked to Aaron to lead religious services between them and the King. This was a separation of powers — the principle that America was founded on — between Moses and Aaron. The powers of the prophet or political leader and those of the high priest or religious leader were not centralized in one man. And, over them all was the King, Yahweh.

Miriam and Aaron tried to do a power grab, as people already in power often do. No direct communication from Yahweh to Miriam the prophetess is recorded, but she led the Hebrew women in a dance after victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea. In this power grab, Miriam, for whatever reason, was the one singled out for punishment.

Num 12:1-10
1) Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.
2) They said, “Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Yahweh heard it.
3) Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.
4) Yahweh spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.
5) Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.
6) He said, “Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.
7) My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.
8) With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
9) The anger of Yahweh was kindled against them; and he departed.
10) The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

Leprosy seemed to be the punishment of choice for those who tried to centralize power in their positions. Uzziah was the king who wanted to be a priest. Unlike Miriam, he did not get over his leprosy after one week.

2Chr 26:16-21
16) But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17) Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men:
18) and they resisted Uzziah the king, and said to him, It isn’t for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be for your honor from Yahweh God.
19) Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.
20) Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.
21) Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.

After Israel got human kings, the offices of king and high priest were separate, with no man filling both positions and no woman filling either position. Both positions were inherited by family. A high priest had to be from Aaron and a king had to be from David, in the united monarchy and then in Judah. No high priest could be king because he was from Aaron and not David. And no king could be high priest, because he was from David and not Aaron.

During the time of the Maccabees/Hasmoneans, that family took over the position of both high priest and king or political leader. The office of high priest had been passed down from Aaron to the oldest living son of each generation, i.e. Eleazar, then Phineas, then Zadok, etc. The Maccabees were priests from Aaron not from that high priest line. Since they were Levites, they of course were not of the royal line of David of Judah. So the Maccabees combined the office of high priest and king, and they had the right to neither.

After the fall of Judah’s kingdom, the kings who ruled them were Gentiles — Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. And by Yeshua’s time, the office of high priest was also controlled by Gentile kings, awarded by them as a political prize. The high priests had power because of their position and they were corrupted by the power of that position, but they were not kings, because they were under Rome.

At the time of Christ’s death, Tiberius the pervert was emperor, and the emperor was also pontifex maximus, the high priest of the Roman religion. So Rome did combine the two offices of political leader and religious leader.

We see, then, that in God’s design the positions of political leader and religious leader were never filled by one man. In Rome, both positions were combined, which maximized the power of the emperor and maximized the evil that a man could do. The height of this evil was when the Christianos were martyred because they would not sacrifice to the emperor/high priest.

Finally, there came one man, son of man and Son of God, who could fill both offices of King and high priest without maximizing evil, since He had no evil.

Heb 1:1-3
1) God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2) has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
3) His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

As in the parable of the farmers and the vineyard in Matthew 21 that we read earlier, God sent prophets to speak to His people. They were beaten and killed, so finally He sent His Son. This Son is “the very image of [the Father’s] substance” – like the messenger who had Yahweh’s presence in Him. This Son is “The radiance of [the Father’s] glory” — like the messenger of Yahweh in the flaming bush. And this Son sat down at the right hand of Yahweh.

When Caiaphas the high priest condemned Yeshua to death, that spotless offering was purification for our sins. He who the high priest offered became the high priest who makes the offering.

Heb 2:14-15, 17-18
14) Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15) and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

17) Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
18) For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Caiaphas was not a merciful high priest. Instead of delivering from death, he delivered to death. He who was delivered to death can understand those who are in the bondage of fearing death.

Heb 4:14-16
14) Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
15) For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
16) Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

For our high priest we have Christ instead of Caiaphas. He knows our weakness and knowing Him is our strength. Because of Him, we can go right to the throne of Yahweh, to find mercy and help from God whenever we need it. There are no intervening layers between us and that throne. It’s just us and our high priest, intervening for us there at the right hand of God the Father.

Heb 7:23-28
23) Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death.
24) But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.
25) Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
26) For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27) who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.
28) For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

Yes, high priests had weaknesses. Like human vanity and ambition. Such as this high priest.

Acts 23:1-5
1) Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.”
2) The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
3) Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?”
4) Those who stood by said, “Do you malign God’s high priest?”
5) Paul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was high priest. For it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

Acts 24:1
1) After five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with certain elders and an orator, one Tertullus. They informed the governor against Paul.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia comments on that high priest.

ISBE article Ananias (1)
A high priest in Jerusalem from 47-59 AD. From Josephus (Ant., XX, v, 2; vi, 2; ix, 2; BJ, II, xvii, 9) we glean the following facts: He was the son of Nedebaeus (or Nebedaeus) and was nominated to the high-priestly office by Herod of Chalcis. In 52 AD he was sent to Rome by Quadratus, legate of Syria, to answer a charge of oppression brought by the Samaritans, but the emperor Claudius acquitted him. On his return to Jerusalem, he resumed the office of high priest. He was deposed shortly before Felix left the province, but continued to wield great influence, which he used in a lawless and violent way. He was a typical Sadducee, wealthy, haughty, unscrupulous, filling his sacred office for purely selfish and political ends, anti-nationalist in his relation to the Jews, friendly to the Romans. He died an ignominious death, being assassinated by the popular zealots (sicarii) at the beginning of the last Jewish war. In the New Testament he figures in two passages.

Perhaps Paul did not know Ananias was high priest because Ananias had recently been appointed to that position. This was not the same Ananias or Annas who was the father of Caiaphas’ wife. Like those other high priests, though, he was also the bitter adversary of Christ and the Christianos.

Those high priests had weaknesses, yet they entered the Holy of Holies every year on Atonement. But they were not the real high priest and the Holy of Holies they entered was not the real one.

Heb 9:24-28
24) For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25) nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own,
26) or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27) Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
28) so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.

So Christ, not Caiaphas or somebody like him, is our high priest. He enters not just a tent but the real Holy of Holies in heaven. What does that mean for us?

Heb 10:19-23
19) Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Yeshua,
20) by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21) and having a great priest over the house of God,
22) let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
23) let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

Ritual religion, with big buildings and big services and big positions, cannot get beyond their rituals. Just like the kings over Israel, that which looks so good keeps you from getting to that which is good, and to have the boldness to enter into the holy place.

No ritual religion can give you this.

Heb 12:1-2
1) Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2) looking to Yeshua, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

That is the whole point of this whole book — look to Yeshua, the author and perfecter of your faith, your high priest, your King, who sits on the right hand of God at the throne of God. Don’t ever put any church, denomination, religious leader or anything between you and Him.

In Exodus, Moses was the prophet, Aaron was the high priest, and Yahweh was the King.

Guess what?

In Yeshua, we have all those, the prophet like unto Moses, the coming King on the throne of David, and the high priest, making offering for us at the right hand of God the Father.

Heb 13:10-15
10) We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.
11) For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.
12) Therefore Yeshua also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
13) Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.
14) For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
15) Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.