With my latest blog, the question is asked “Why was there a hierarchy in the temple worship to begin with?”
As best I can with stammering tongues, I will attempt to give an answer:
After mankind fell, a curse entered the world. Humans were separated from God. God is holy and cannot dwell in safety with sinful men without destroying them.
After God spoke to them from Mt Sinai, they begged Moses to plead with God to not speak to them again, but to speak through a mediator.
Which God did. Before sin and shame and guilt were taken away, no one could approach God and live. The glory would consume them.
The world was waiting for Jesus.
The temple was temporary. The patriarchy that came into the world in Genesis 3 was part of the curse. It would not be taken away until Jesus took away sin and healed both men and women so that they could love again.
The temple was a pointed pointing to how much was not right in the world yet, and what God was promising at the same time.
The thousands of animals sacrificed at the inauguration would have stunk . The noise and the smell and the sights would have been overpowering – and yet, God still was with his people – in promise and signs,
Already – but not yet. Sin was not yet taken away. The bodies of death not yet removed.
Now Christ has come. The veil is now taken away, because sin is taken away – not just in picture but in reality.
So why aren’t we in heaven yet?
Because these bodies are not fit for an incorruptible world and an incorruptible world is not fit for these bodies. We still long for God’s presence, even though he dwells with us in word and spirit – the day will come when it will be face to face.
The hierarchy and the priesthood and the patriarchy and all of the corruption of the ancient world – including polygamy and slavery – was tolerated by God. Maybe tolerated is not the right word. Maybe “not yet overcome” works better. Jesus had not yet redeemed his people from the slavery of sin and misery – they were still in the bondage to the law, as children are until they come of age. But even then, God was near to everyone who called upon him. He still never turned his mercy away. But the day of salvation had not yet arrived. The curse still held sway.
It still makes us uncomfortable, because a God who is that holy and that pure and that powerful makes us uncomfortable – which is why the temple was necessary in the first place.
But now Christ has come, and we have the Holy Spirit. All the old has been taken away so that the new could flourish. Now we know God in Christ, who descended to us that we might know him. No longer do we know him as people under the curse, or under the bondage of the law, but as heirs to the New Creation.
And the day will come when we will no longer see as through a mirror, but face to face.
My Only Comfort 
love this article especially the summing up with “Christ has come, and we have the Holy Spirit. All the old has been taken away so that the new could flourish.”
then why is patriarchy still tolerated in the church as God’s design and plan? Why are church leaders still hanging on to church governing as if they are in the OT? Why do christians who question patriarchy get blasted and condemned?
It’s a question I continue to ask…
Well right now I’m confronted with a very very patriarchal Justice of the court of BC. Women, clearly make him angry. My daughter makes him angry. Her bright, intelligent hardworking lawyer makes him angry.
My daughter’s case got picked up by a very relevant cutting edge organization who helps , women , lgbtq who are marginalized by disability, discrimination, and unlawful judges. (A major miracle here, in her life) It’s aptly called Women’s Rise Center.
They have taken on my daughters case and are going to the Supreme Court to appeal a bad biased Justice who ruled in my daughters divorce-custody case.
A hearing requesting a stay order was done on Friday. This lawyer was confronted by a quite Hostile judge. She came out of that hearing flabbergasted at his abuse towards her and my daughter. She asked my daughter if he was that bad during trial. The answer was worse.
He actually denied the fact that a paediatrician was a witness in trial. When told there was he was irate.
I just think how hard it is for women in the practice of law. It is difficult with these old school patriarchal judges who despite being presented with law cannot handle it because it comes from a woman, and choose to overlook the oath they took.
We had a man lawyer represent my daughter for one hearing post the Justice learning he was being appealed. He couldn’t even look his colleagues in the eyes. He was embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to shamefacedly leave.
Why do men feel so weak in the presence of women who they believe challenge them? Where does this come from? Eve? Do (did) they rise above with patriarchy because Adam (they) felt -the need to stamp women down because they felt shame that they couldn’t stand in front of women and own their own inadequacy and sin? Here’s looking at you Adam.
Did being banished to tilling the earth , and not languishing in the garden make Adam so disdainful and hateful towards Eve that he had to punish her kind for making him miserable?
Why do men hate women telling them what to do? Is it etched into the DNA of men since Adam?
Was this seed of dominance planted in Adam from forces of evil as soon as his eyes were opened? Was Adam immediately shamed and needed to blame?
Why can’t this judge accept the fact that men can be abusers? Why does he blame the woman when by all accounts the evidence points to the man?
This Justice seems personally stung. I was shocked at his abhorrent behaviour on Friday.
What is it with boys, youth and men? Where are those seeds planted from? How can a tiny innocent boy baby become such a patriarchal prick?
Was there an awaking of inferiority inside of Adam that came when he learned of the knowledge of good and evil?
Was there a “you will never eff me over again”? In Adams heart so much he demonstrated it in front of his son Cain as he grew?
Did Adam beat Eve? He must have been pissed. Sitting around eating beautiful organic produce made in perfection and equally satisfying his palate would be incredible.
Everytime he would sit to eat bug infested rancid food would be a glaring reminder. Working for a grain in dusty, dirty , hot conditions that bled him of sweat down his body.
I can only imagine how hard it was for Eve.
I can only imagine how resentful Adam would have been towards Eve.
As a SA survivor it has brutally tainted me forever. When men use there hatred in their dicks to kill women and children. Men and their dicks (ego) account by far the biggest harm to women and children.
Is this a patriarchal return on Adam’s investment of hate towards Eve after the partook of the tree?
As I read this comment I am brought to John Chapter 5. Jesus walks into a place known as the pool of Bethesda. Scripture reveals that there were a multitude of people there. It was full of those who we sick with every kind of disease, along with those with physical and mental infirmities. In our time frame we would label it a “Homeless Camp of the Sick” It is a place that most upstanding Jew would not step foot in for fear of becoming unclean, and unable to enter the temple.
Jesus walks right through the middle of it and asks a man who has been there 38 years. Jesus says to him “Do you want to get well?” Jesus could of healed everyone in the entire place, but he stops and asks this man what could be considered a rather dumb and hurtful question. The man doesn’t say Yes, heal me Rabbi. He says that when the water is stirred there is no to help me into the pool. Jesus heals the man by telling him to take up his bed and walk and then Jesus is gone.
Jesus healing this man, caused some problems. The man does what Jesus says, but soon is confronted by the Jewish Authorities, who accuse him of breaking the law. Second the Jewish Authorities demand answers about all the details of what happened. After they let him go, we are told that Jesus found him in the temple. Does the man thank Jesus? Does he loudly proclaim the miracle? It almost seems like the man was not happy with Jesus, and goes off to tell the Jewish Authorities who was the Man who healed him and created all these problems for him. From that point forward, Jesus was now the Target of the Jewish Authorities. Why? Did Jesus like to stir up controversy?
No Jesus engages the Jewish Authorities into a conversation of the way God laid out the hierarchy of the Most Holy God and the way mankind was to relate to Him. In reality the Jew did not want Jesus to upset the structure of Authority that they had put in place, because they did not want to change. The gospel goes out to everyone and anyone. Why? Because we are made in the Image of God? Why will many people not listen to God? Because they think they know better than God? Everyone wants to go to Heaven. Even those who say and believe that God will accept me on my terms. Redemption from Sin comes with a price. That price is giving glory to God.