A Better High Priest - by Dan Owen - Lectureship 2017
Teachers
Lesson Summary
The class opened with a review of the Old Testament priesthood, beginning with God’s command in Exodus 25:8‑9 to construct a sanctuary where He could dwell. Dan Owen described how God appointed Aaron and his descendants as priests (Exodus 28‑29), yet these men were still flawed, exemplified by Aaron’s role in the golden calf and the tragic deaths of Nadab and Abihu. The teacher then chronicled the progressive corruption of the priesthood through the period of the judges, the reigns of Saul, David, and the divided kingdom, noting the prophetic promise of a faithful priest in 1 Samuel 2:35. Continuing, Owen highlighted the Zadok lineage, the only priestly line deemed faithful in Ezekiel 44:15, and explained how the Sadducees were descendants of Zadok. He traced the high‑priestly succession to Annas and Caiaphas, showing the complete decay of the human priesthood by the time of Christ’s crucifixion. The lesson concluded with a theological contrast between the Levitical blood‑atone system (Leviticus 4:13‑22) and the perfect atonement offered by Jesus, emphasizing that guilt exists in God’s mind and that reconciliation is achieved only through the blood of the Messiah.
Key Scriptures
Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all its furniture, thus shall you make it.
And the Levitical priests, even the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray after their idols, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, for I will be gracious unto them.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.