When are you in your element? The human soul is at home in God.

“As a jeweller engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree. And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the LORD. (Exodus 28:9-12, 29)”

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)”

Who cares? Definitely not the ancient Greek gods. The Greek gods lived carefree lives – literally. This is the highest pinnacle of paradise in Ancient Greek thinking: to live carefree. And so they invented gods that corresponded to their highest ideals. These gods ate, drank, had sex, and didn’t care about anyone else except when they were induced to by sacrifice, good behaviour, or self-interest. Doesn’t this sound like paradise to us modern folk too? To live free of care, like a god?

This is why man-made religion has ‘priests’. Priests are necessary because the gods don’t care. So their role is to offer sacrifices to the gods to garner their attention and beneficence and get the reluctant god to deal with our cares. Maybe a secular equivalent would be a good financial advisor or financial institution. If we depend on money for security, we need an expert to care for it so that we can retire with as much money as possible and hopefully live a carefree life. (Money does take some cares away, but it replaces them with many others.)

The God of the Bible is very different to human imagination, both ancient and new. In ancient times God appointed (people didn’t) a High Priest who carried the names of His people on his shoulders. This High Priest shouldered the cares and burdens of God’s people. He also had the names of God’s people on His heart. God called it a ‘breastplate of judgement’. All of this was an early picture of what Jesus Christ came to do hundreds of years later.

God so loved and cared for His people, without any one ever asking Him, He freely sent His Son to be our High Priest. Jesus Christ carried God’s people on His shoulders – not a nameless entity or vague number, but the personal names of people who belong to God. Jesus so ‘shouldered the responsibility’ that He ended up carrying His own cross and dying on it – because He carried the sins of His people.

And Jesus takes His people into His heart by bearing their judgement. As a High Priest, He carried them so near to His heart that He died from the weight of their cares – the sin that brings such misery and separation from love. And His heart was broken. But God raised Him from the dead, and now Jesus lives forever at the Right Hand of God, as a Perpetual High Priest pleading with God on our behalf.

Jesus is our High Priest who bears our names before God and our names are engraved on His heart. By appointing His Son to bear our names, God shows that He receives us as He receives His Son! God treats Jesus and Christians as one.