But Aaron and his descendants were the ones who presented offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense in connection with all that was done in the Most Holy Place, making atonement for Israel, in accordance with all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.
1 Chronicles 6:49 (NIV)

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is arguably the most contested plot of ground on the earth. If you look at the featured photo you can see that the Al-Aqsa Mosque with its iconic golden dome and its walled courtyard sits perched on top. Many feet below is the uncovered Western wall of the Jewish temple, known as the Wailing Wall where thousands come daily to pray. You might also notice the constructed stairway from the top of the mount (under Muslim control) into the courtyard below (under Jewish control). The “mountain” is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, and the tension is ever-present.

I happened to visit the area during what is known as the 2nd Intifada in which Israel was regularly under terrorist attack. Our group was small. There were only five of us, and so we found ourselves slipping into a tour group of Jewish students to hear more about the Temple Mount, its excavation, and its future. Jerusalem is a popular tourist spot for Christians, Jews, and Muslims and you have to know that tour guides and hosts are well aware of the constituency of the groups when making their presentations. As five tag-along Christians at the back of a bunch of Jewish students, we were treated to the unabashedly Jewish presentation complete with a few jokes that disparaged Jesus and Christian beliefs.

I found it fascinating to learn that among certain Jewish groups, there are intricate plans already established for the rebuilding of a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. The plans even allow for a return to the system of sacrifices and offerings laid out in the law of Moses. My first question was how this was even possible given the fact that only the sons of Aaron could be priests and offer sacrifices and only Levites could perform the other duties of the Temple. All of the genealogical records were destroyed with the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. I casually asked someone how a return to the sacrificial system could even happen since no one knew who were direct descendants of Aaron and Levi. The response was that geneticists are working on that through DNA.

Good to know.

Of course, all of those plans are predicated on the Muslims losing control of the Temple Mount and the destruction of their sacred mosque. And suddenly you have a microcosm of the conflict, rooted in thousands of years of history, that repeatedly spills over into violence to this day.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler focuses on the tribe of Levi. In particular, he gives top billing to the descendants of Levi’s great-grandson, Aaron. They alone were the priests who could offer sacrifices according to the instructions given to Moses. As I meditated on this, I couldn’t help but consider that the Chronicler was sitting in exactly the same position our Temple Mount tour guide was hoping to be. The Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The Chronicler’s generation had rebuilt it. The question I asked after our tour was extremely relevant to the Chronicler and his generation around 400 B.C. It was critical to establish the lines of Levi and Aaron so that the Temple could function properly according to the Law of Moses.

In the quiet this morning, my meditations led, as usual, to the teaching of Jesus. The week Jesus was to be executed He told His followers that the Temple would be destroyed. Exactly one generation later, the Romans fulfilled His prophetic prediction, and with the destruction of the genealogical records, the entire sacrificial system itself was dead and buried. The paradigm completely shifted. As the author of Hebrews wrote:

Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)

As a disciple of Jesus, it doesn’t end there. The shift of paradigm goes a step further. For those who are spiritually in Christ, we are adopted as children of God and thus are children of the King and High Priest, Jesus. This is why Peter referred to all of his fellow believers as “a royal priesthood.” As a member of that priesthood, I am called upon to make a sacrifice, the sacrifice of myself. As Paul wrote to the believers in Rome:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

And as Jesus said,

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

And so, I enter another day on the journey; A priest endeavoring to sacrificially give myself for the sake of others.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.