Many may be baffled by this, and some may even disagree, but if you allow yourself to step away from what secular history has told you about the religion of Judaism, you will realize that their is truth in what I am about to share.
Let me begin by stating, there is absolutely nothing “Jewish” about God's revelations to Moses at Mt. Sinai. Everything Moses wrote that God instructed him to write, was distinctly Hebraic. NOT Jewish.
The Jewish religious tradition was born in the late second temple period, by the Pharisees. There are 613 laws that God handed down to Moses, called the Torah. These laws were to guide the nation of Israel and, as Paul told the Galatians, to be a tutor and disciplinarian to guide God's people to their Messiah, Christ Jesus. However, the Pharisees added what is known as the Mishnah, which is an oral tradition of commentaries on the Mosaic Law.
These commentaries include hundreds of man-made rules and traditions that were elevated to the same level of Scripture. Thus, if you broke one of the man made rules, then you were considered guilty of violating the Mosaic Law. Jesus confronted them on this by pointing out their hypocrisy in Matthew Chapter 5 & 23.
For God commanded, saying, "Honor your father and your mother". and, "He who
curses father or mother, let him be put to death." But you say, "Whoever says
to his father or mother, Whatever profit you might have received from me is a
gift to God - then he need not honor his father or mother." Thus you have made
the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah
prophesy about you, saying: These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And
honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they
worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
Matthew 15:3-9
The Pharisees were supposed to be the keepers and interpreters of the Mosaic Law. Yet the many rules and traditions they added turned it into a man made legal document, that allowed them to scam God's people. I tend to believe that most of the lower class common folk in the Jewish communities must have thought God and His Priests were crazy, as they probably shook their heads over some of the silly rules, and how they were interpreted and applied? I can see them asking,
However, as bad as that was, there was another problem with the religion put in place by God through Moses. This one had to do with the way the Pharisees and Sadducees had thumbed their proverbial finger into God's proverbial eye, by destroying the succession of the High Priesthood. A succession which God Himself ordained.
We read in Chapter 8 of Leviticus, that God ordained only the descendants of Aaron to be the rightful heirs to the High Priesthood. Sometime after the return from captivity, it was not your genealogy that helped you become the High Priest. Nope, instead it became a position won by bribery, or by having a close relationship with whom ever the power was controlling the region. The last High Priest from Aaron's lineage was probably Jashua.
By the time Jesus walked with the Disciples, the high priesthood fluctuated between Annas and Caiaphas. The decision of who would be High Priest was decided by whomever the Roman governor wanted. By this time Aaron's descendants were just attendants of the building. It is doubtful that the political appointees, who were in and out of office with every whim of the Rome, were ever God’s High Priests.
So the removal of Aaron's descendants from the High Priesthood, put an end to the true Hebrew religious order which God Himself had set in place.
may minister to Me as priests; for their anointing shall surely
be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.”
Exodus 40:15
Now I get to how John the Baptist would become the last High Priest. We read in Luke 1:9 that John's father, Zacharias, was chosen by lot to perform the act of offering at the altar of incense.
So it was God's decision, that Zacharias was chosen to burn the incense before the LORD. This job was specifically given to Aaron the High Priest, and only the High Priset. Thus even in future generations, the only one allowed by GOD to burn incense was a the High Priest who was a direct descendant of Aaron. No on else was allowed.
the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall
burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn
“And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it,
a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
Exodus 30:6-8
It must be pointed out, that God was so serious about this, that twice He punished those who violated the commandment. The first time was when Aaron son's, Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized profane fire.
put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before
the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from
the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
Leviticus 10:1-2
The second time was when king Uzziah tried to burn incense and GOD struck him with leposy for life. Mind you, we are told that "Ussiah did what was right in the sight of the LORD." So he was one of the good Kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Yet he violated God's command on who has the right to offer incense.
temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his
hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the
priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead.
2 Chronicles 26:16 & 26:19
This is why God chose Zacharias to be in the Temple offering incense. Zacharias was a descendant of Aaron, thus God wanted him in the Temple offering incense when His Angel visited and told him that his elderly wife Elizabeth would be with child, and the child's name would be John. Now John's wife, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron. Another interesting aspect of this is, the name of Aaron's wife was Elisheba, which is the same as Elizabeth.
priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife
was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luke 1:5
This is huge, because when you put all the facts on the table, you can clearly see that John the baptist was uniquely qualified to be a High Priest. He was a child of pure Aaronic Priestly stock, who was specifically sent by God, via a miracle pregnancy to parents who were childless and in their advanced years. Luke 1:7. John would also become a pure Nazarite, because he never cut his hair, never touched dead bodies, nor did he ever drink wine, and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Luke 1:15 John would become be a priest-prophet that would minister in the spirit and power of Elijah. Luke 1:17
John was the most qualified man in history to not only minister to God, but to also mediate things of men before God. Just compare John the Baptist's credentials to the credentials of the imposters who were High Priests of those days. From the womb, John was a Spirit-filled Hebrew, Levite, Nazarite, Aaronic priest-prophet. While the others were pretenders propped up by their father the devil.
want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."
John 8:44
Consider this, Christ came to not only die for our sins, but first He had to restore the priesthood for the symbolic prophecy to be filled. Thus after John the Baptist was gone, He could properly assume the position as the last true High Priest. In this case, in the order of Melchizedek.
Think about it. It makes perfect sense that John the Baptist was the true High Priest who was the rightful heir after his father Zacharias. As such, the true High Priest of God would baptize Jesus. The scene of Jesus baptism would be what Aaron did to his sons to sanctify them so they could minister to the Lord in His house. You can also see this as the transition ordained by God.
tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. And
thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and
sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office."
Exodus 40:12-13
When you consider the facts. This puts a new perspective on John’s statement
John's priesthood was decreasing while the priesthood in the order of Melchizedek was increasing. John was not a Jew, he was a Levite. A descendant of the father of the Hebrews, Abraham, and a member of the twelves tribes of Israel chosen to be a blessing to the whole world. It seems obvious why God would bypass the religious leaders in everything His Son did. Beginning from the day He was born, God ignored those tending His Temple, and instead notified the shepherds in the fields that His Son has arrived. Instead of going to the Satan's High Priest of the Temple to be washed and anointed, He sent His Son to the High Priest in the field to be washed and anointed. The very High Priest God chose to be born from the Aaronic line as He commanded at Mt Saini. Instead of having Jesus join the Priesthood to be ordained so He could preach in the Temple to His sheep, Jesus went straight to the fields to tend His sheep.
Thanks to John's High Priesthood, Christ was able to fulfill God's command on the proper transfer of the High Priesthood. Eventually Christ would ascend into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of God as our forever High Priest. Then in 70 A.D., God allowed the false priesthood of the Pharisees to end forever. Something Jesus predicted when he told the disciples about the coming destruction of Herod's Great Temple.
disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things?
Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left
here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
Matthew 24:1-2
Jesus knew the Temple and the sacrificial ceremonies had to be stopped, because He would forever satisfy the need to atone for man's sins. The destruction of the Temple ended any chance of there ever being a descendant of Aaron from ever assuming the High Priesthood again. Thus John the Baptist was the last Aaronic High Priest there would ever be.
I pray those who have ears to hear will, hear His voice and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen