We Will See Jesus as Priest!--by Linden Malki

In the earliest descriptions of God's dealing with man, it is direct. God was there in the Garden at the beginning, and the relationship, even after the Fall, was "one on one". We see Cain and Abel bringing their personal offerings to God, and God meeting them. We see Noah called by God to build the ark, and after the flood, bringing an offering. God's communication with Abraham was personal, even conversational. The first recorded mention of a "priest" bringing an offering on behalf of another person in Scripture is in Genesis 14, where Abraham, returning from a rescue expedition, is met by a mysterious man called "Melchizedek, King of Salem." One possibility is that "Salem" is the city that became Jerusalem; or it might be a figurative name: "Melchi" is a Hebrew root for King, "Salem" is Peace, and "Zedek" is Righteousness. Somehow this person is a representative of the Hebrew God, and Abraham gives him a tenth of what he recovered from the raiders he had been chasing. We never see him again, and have only a mention in Psalm 110 and then a description in the book of Hebrews (chapters 5-7) where he is described as being a "priest forever" because we know nothing about his background or his later life. 

The contrast is with the priesthood that we see for most of the Old Testament, based on Moses' brother Aaron. Moses is told by God to ordain Aaron and his sons as priests, to oversee the Ark of the Covenant, that contains the law given to Moses by God, and the tabernacle (and later the Temple) built according to instructions given by God, as the place that God will meet with the priests and accept the offerings of the people. Aaron and his descendants were people, with their flaws and sins--and had to make atonement for themselves as well as the people. With first the Tabernacle and then the Temple in Jerusalem, the priests became a major organization, based on the tribe of Levi--especially Moses' and Aaron's families and descendants. They were the custodians of the Temple, the teachers, the advisors, and judges--and the ones who offered the sacrifices of the people for the people. The royal family of David was from the tribe of Judah, so they was little overlap between the priestly authorities and the government, but they advised each other and power shifted between them depending on circumstances. It was not actually a theocracy, until the Maccabee rebellion in the 160 BC's, when the ruling family was the priestly family. Under the Romans, the next layer of authority below the Roman governors or puppet kings was the religious establishment. The priests and Sadducees--descendants of Zadok, Solomon's High Priest--lost their function (and often their lives) during the rebellion against Rome in 65-70 when the city and the temple were destroyed. 

Jesus, being of the Judean House of David, was not part of the priestly establishment; in fact, they considered Jesus a rival who should have operated under their authority. He did fulfill the role of priest in that he did preach the word from God to the people, and was a connection between God and His followers. This is most marked in John 13-17, when he told the disciples who He really was and prayed for them. The writer of Hebrews builds the concept of Jesus as a heavenly High Priest forever, which is closely related to the concept of sacrifice. 

As the church grew and needed leadership, a priesthood developed partly to replace the political vacuum as the Roman empire collapsed. One of the legacies of the Reformation of 15th Century and later in Europe was the concept of a "priesthood of all believers", that each Christ-follower has the right to approach God for himself, that we can minister to each other, and we do not need any intermediary before God except Christ Himself.