In the Old Testament, the High Priest had the names of the tribes of Israel inscribed on the two onyx stones on his shoulders and also on the twelve stones set in the golden breastplate he wore (Exo. 28:9-12). Whenever he went into the Holy of Holies, he brought the people of Israel to God, prayed for them, interceded for them. In the same way Christ as our high Priest (Heb. 2:17) takes care of us today, always interceding for us before God.
The Bible even says that He, due to the process He went through, is now able to symphatize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15) – He understands us, He knows our need, and He takes care of us in love. On the one hand He prays for us, and on the other hand He takes care of our needs according to His will.
Many times our prayers to the Lord are for a lot of things that concern us, our situation, our family, our needs… and we may “have an idea” of how the Lord should take care of us. But the way He cares for us is not according to our thought – often the Lord’s way of caring for us is different from what we desire.
He knows what is best for us, what is good for our being here, and what’s His will for us – according to His perfect will, He cares for us. We may want wealth, health, everything to be perfect; His intention is to gain us more and for us to express Him! We actually don’t know what is good for us, but the Lord knows. He even says that “all things work together for good to those who love Him”(Rom. 8:28).
Christ as our High Priest cares not only for our need & our well being – He cares for God’s desire. Even more: the High Priest cares MORE for God’s need than for our need. This doesn’t mean that we are “neglected” – He takes care of us in the best way, but what is on His heart is God’s need, His desire to be expressed in humanity.
His desire is to have many expressions on the earth in all the localities – He wants lampstands shining Him forth. For this, He regenerates us, edifies us, builds us up in His Body, renews & sanctifies us, transforms & conforms us, and eventually He will glorify us.
Eventually, as we go on in this organic union with the Triune God, His need becomes our need, and our need becomes His need. Thus, Christ takes care of God’s need and our need – to make us part of His corporate / collective expression of the Triune God in the universe! This is our true satisfaction and fulfillment – to be one with God to express God!
