“Do you have a minute?”
The young woman at the mall kiosk approached eagerly, hoping to entice passerbys with her product. As I glanced at her small booth, I noticed the slick display included everything needed for renewed energy. Everything that is, except a chair.
As I skirted past her counter, I remembered a Biblical work place without available seating. Adorned with a gilded, golden lamp stand and life-sized angels guarding the mysterious mercy seat, the temple never provided chairs for it’s ministers. “Every priest stands daily,” says the writer of Hebrews (10:11).
The girl at the mall kiosk stood because her employer wanted to make sure she remained busy. The absence of proper seating in the tabernacle was for a slightly, different reason. Their priests simply never completed the work. “Every priest stands daily…offering…the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:11). They never got finished.
Day after day. Month after month. Year after year, they kept the rules. But, “the Law…never by the same (continual) sacrifices year by year…(made) perfect” (Hebrews 10:1). Obviously, regulating religion wasn’t the balm for a clear conscience (Hebrews 9:9). So, over and again, the priests continued their endless task, upright on their feet.
All that standing kinda wears you out, doesn’t it?
But notice the difference when Jesus ministered. “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins…sat down” (Hebrews 10:12). He has perfected “for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). “It is finished!” He announced (John 19:30). Your sin problem has been resolved permanently. Your guilt has been eliminated for all time. And when He returns for us, He is appearing “a second time for salvation without reference to sin” (Hebrews 9:28). Hallelujah!
It was the “obedience of the One” that made us righteous, not our own rigid adherence of the law (Romans 5:19). So, even though I know that “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh”, I still have reason to shout out my thanks to God (Romans 7:18, 25). I still mess up, but “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Isn’t that great news?
Today, the Jewish priests are still standing at the temple to minister. The lady is probably still standing at the kiosk at the mall. But, praise the Lord, Jesus has sat down at the right Hand of the Father. “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). No matter what your situation says, “let us hope fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Let’s believe!
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