Royal Priests of Eden

so if you lived in ancient israel one of the most important places was the tabernacle the tabernacle was a sacred tent that the israelites carried as they journeyed to the promised land and it was sacred because it's where the heavenly presence of israel's god lived on earth and the tabernacle had an important design to show just how special it was there's the outer courtyard then an entry room into the tent and it leads into the center of the tabernacle the holy of holies god's personal throne room and it's guarded by these heavenly hybrid creatures called kervim notice the closer that you get to the center the more sacred the space becomes the people who work in the tabernacle are called priests and they care for the sacred space offer sacrifices on behalf of israel and announce god's blessing over the people yeah these priests represent god to the people and they represent the people to god so think of both the tabernacle and the priests who work in it like gateways that link together heaven and earth and this is why the tabernacle was eventually brought up to settle on a mountain because mountains are where earth meets heaven now one thing that's missing in this tabernacle that you would find in every other ancient holy space are idol images that physically represent the god oh right israel's god explicitly commanded them to not make any idle images and that's because in the bible all humanity is god's image this is what we learn in the first pages of the bible where adam and eve in hebrew their names mean human and life they're called god's image which means they represent god in his holy space and that holy space is a garden in a land called eden yes and the story is designed to show that eden is the reality that the later tabernacle symbolized and pointed back to for example look close at the descriptions of eden there's the larger region on the land that's called eden but then within eden god plants a garden and then in the center of that garden god plants the tree of life the design of eden matches the tabernacle design yes and there are details in the eden story that are developed much later in the bible showing how eden is on a high mountain because they're in a place where earth meets heaven exactly and god tells these humans to work and to keep the garden these are the same words that are used later in the bible to describe what priests do in the tabernacle so adam and eve are god's image and are like priests working and worshiping in a type of heaven on earth temple yes they represent creation before god and as god's image they represent god to all of creation and they do all of this in this sacred space that's saturated with the life and presence of god and so god tells them to rule creation on his behalf they're like priests who embody god's heavenly wisdom and rule here on earth you could call them royal priests exactly now this whole setup the royal priests in god's presence where there's abundance and life in the book of genesis this is called god's blessing but it doesn't last very long no humanity is deceived by this rebellious creature they're unsatisfied with being images of god and so they make a grab at being god ruling creation on their own terms and so god exiles them from the garden and god places caribbean at the door of eden to guard the way back in this is tragic humanity has given up the role god made them for but it's not the end the rest of the biblical story is about god's mission to undo this tragedy so that humans can regain access to the heaven on earth place where they can finally become god's royal priests it all begins with a promise that god makes to adam and dave that he will raise up one of their descendants to rule over and defeat that deceiver god says that this coming descendant will strike the head of that deceiver but also be struck by it so this priestly figure will restore god's blessing by offering up his own life like a sacrifice but this is still just a promise yes and so in the next story we find the next generation outside of eden two brothers at the door of the garden are offering sacrifices to god kind of like priests maybe god will accept these offerings and they can get back into eden but sadly one brother cain gets angry because god favors his brother abel's sacrifice and so cain murders his own brother then cain is exiled even further from eden and from god's blessing and over time cain's anger plunges humanity into widespread violence humans really need that coming royal priest to rescue them yes and that's the hope that this whole story is designed to generate and so in the next few videos we're going to explore the theme of this coming royal priest throughout the story of the bible we're going to see how the stories of abraham and moses and david all point forward to jesus who is the ultimate royal priest jesus the one who will restore the blessings of eden so that all humanity can become the royal priests that we're made to be ruling the world together on god's behalf [Music] so you

Channel: BibleProject

Views: 164,104

Rating: 4.9810429 out of 5

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Id: K60TAYja110

Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/orionsbelt05]

I can't find it right now but I remember stumbling across a version of the astronaut meme where John (in the front) was saying "Wait... it's all Genesis 1&2?" and Tim is in the back saying "Always has been."

[u/TheStranger234]

About the topic of priesthood, I just want to point out the book: Created to Draw Near by Ed Welch. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0847RX8MF/

That book is really good. Reading it sometime ago, and I listened to it again. If there's a new believer in my church, I would point this book as one he should read.