followHIM - Hebrews 7-13 Part 1 • Dr. Philip Allred • Nov 6 - Nov 12

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

How does the Melchizedek Priesthood help us come unto Christ? Dr. Philip Allred explores the salvific nature of the Melchizedek Priesthood and why Jesus is the “High Priest of Good Things to Come.��Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/new-testament-episodes-41-52/YouTube: https://youtu.be/b9qn4uvwMMMFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYPlease rate and review the podcast!00:00 Part 1–Dr. Philip Allred00:17 Introduction of review of Hebrews 1-601:47 Introduction to Dr. Philip Allred03:09 Jesus as Redeemer in Hebrews04:27 President Oaks and revelation while studying the scriptures10:19 Hebrews as tool for revelation11:25 Returning to God’s presence14:39 Hebrews 8 establishes a relationship15:57 Israelite narrative20:30 Review of the Tabernacle25:18 Messages of Christ26:37 Contextualizing Gethsamane and Golgotha28:12 C.S. Lewis and the Atonement working backwards30:08 Day of Atonement33:17 Advocate and temple parallels39:04 President Oaks and taking His name upon us42:38 Ordinances create relationships46:10 Ideas for teaching for families47:48 Dr. Allred shares a personal story about his dad50:37 End of Part 1–Dr. Philip AllredThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignAnnabelle Sorensen: Creative Project ManagerWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my first class co-host, John. By the way, John, we're back for another week of Follow Him. First class. Scouting was great. Yeah. Yes, we're back. That's about as far as you got, huh? Okay. John, we are going to be in the second half of the book of Hebrews. We spent last week with Dr. Matt Gray. John, what stood out to you? What's something you remember from our lesson? Okay, first of all, I just remember Hebrews being more elevated than other epistles of Paul. He even had to read it a little slower.

I was surprised at how often Hebrews quotes the Old Testament. It's like every other sentence. And if you don't know your Old Testament very well, you might miss the point of the book. One point stood out to me though, which was in Hebrews chapter two, John, you remember this. At the end of Hebrews chapter two, we tied it into Alma seven. I know you love Alma seven as much as I do. And here is like almost an extended version or extra footage for Alma chapter 7 in Hebrews 2.18. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. That feels right out of Alma 7, doesn't it? John, we're joined today by a wonderful scriptorian, a friend of mine. We're

here with Dr. Phil Allred. Phil, what are we looking forward to today for the second half of Hebrews? Wonderfully, the author of the book of Hebrews is bearing a twin witness of Jesus Christ. He is our hope because he took on us the same nature as we have. That was developed in chapter two. Again, in chapter four, we have this high priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, all points tempted like as we are, and just amazing to think, wow, Jesus gets me. Wonderful. John, Phil is new to our podcast.

Can you introduce him to our listeners? Love this introduction. Dr. Philip Allred was born in Ankara, Turkey. Wow. I don't think we've had another Ankarite. I can't remember an Ankarite being on our show before. He served his mission in Osaka, Japan. Philip was sealed to Jennifer Lindemann and is blessed with three beloved and remarkable children and a wonderful son-in-law.

He taught for seminary and institutes and BYU-Idaho for 23 years and served as the chair of religious education. He has degrees in political science, BYU and Idaho State University, and theology at Notre Dame. He was a faculty member at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies in 2015 and 2016. His teaching and curriculum emphasize the eternal family and the Pearl of Great Price. His published work includes lifelong discipleship keys in Deuteronomy, parenting in the Book of Mormon, contextual word studies in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, and internal authorship within the Book of Mormon. Phil, we are grateful that here at BYU that we got to steal you away from Rexburg and bring you down to Provo. That'll warm me up, you know, five, six degrees.

Phil, how do you want to start this? Well, I would like to just begin with a quick witness. I just feel all scripture points us to the Savior Jesus Christ, but I have a special place for me in my heart and my mind about how the book of Hebrews bears this compelling witness of the totality of Jesus Christ's redeemership. That's probably not a word, but it should be. Redeemership. This record is weaving together these two compelling but often mistakenly mutually exclusive properties. And that is that we've got this supreme power and we've got an unfathomable sympathy all wrapped up in one person in Jesus Christ. And I'm just so grateful

that our redemption and our reconciliation require both of those. We need his potency and we need his mercy. We need his once and for all sacrifice, as well as his ongoing ministry in our behalf. Truly, in this way, he is our help and our hope. I love him, and I'm honored to visit together about him as he's been revealed and as he is revered in the book of Hebrews. I pray that his spirit will teach us and all that will join us. As we jump into the verses, we'll do a quick thing with chapter 7, but I feel impressed to kind of start with an experience I had as a missionary in Japan when then Elder Oaks was at a conference. Elder Oaks stood and was addressing the missionaries. And this, I believe, was in

Ibaraki, Japan. He was asking us about our scripture study. And he says, you know, you ever been reading the scriptures and you found yourself kind of zoned out, like you maybe even turned the page, but you come to and you realize you have no idea what you just read. We're all sitting there going, oh, I think that happened this morning. It's never happened to me, John. I don't know about you. Oh, well. The other of us that are mortals.

Yeah, this is happening too. I was really intrigued because he says, you know, what do you do when that happens? You've zoned out and you don't know what you just read. Some enterprising elder raised his hand., I go back, Elder Oaks, I make sure I found where I last remember reading. And I figured, oh, okay. Elder Oaks blew my mind when he said, please don't do that. Wasn't it important what we were reading? And then he proceeded to share this, which has just literally changed my approach to scripture. He said, the scriptures are a medium to revelation. They're like a portal to the spirit. Instead of going back over the black and white words on the page, why don't you go back over

the frames of your mind? What was it that you were thinking about? But when he said that, it just did a whole paradigm shift thing. My worldview just was like, what? Because I'm so used to, especially in the scholastic realm and everything, that words, we're going to get all these questions about them, et cetera. And truly, they are significant. But what he taught me there, and then he's published later, his scripture reading and revelation article in the Ensign back in, I think it was 1995. Just really interesting.

But I love what he says in this unpublished devotional that he gave at the Salt Lake and Davis counties seminaries, but is published in Scripture Study, The Power of the Word Teacher Manual. He says, we have continuing revelation in our church because the scriptures do not have a specific answer to every possible question. We say that the scriptures contain the answers to every question because the scriptures can lead us to every answer. They, the scriptures, will put us in a position where we can obtain inspiration to answer any doctrinal or personal question, whether or not that question directly concerns the subject we're studying in the scriptures. Then he said, this is a grand truth not understood by many. When he was saying, go back over the frames of your mind, it evoked a skill in me to practice, which is okay. So I've just realized I zoned out. What was I thinking

about? I was here and I was here and I was there. Oh. And he said, often in that thought process chain will be an invitation of the Holy Ghost to be on the errand of the Lord. You'll usually have been thinking about someone in your life. You can reach out to them or some problem you're working over, and now comes some inspiration about what to do. I want to begin there because as we do with any text to make sure that while we are mining the text and we're working the information, we also know there's kind of a meta experience that can be happening with the spirit. And as we take track of that and record and then respond to those promptings, we will be led on his errand to many wonderful things. I love that. Phil, you think like Elder McConkie.

He said, quote, I sometimes think that one of the best kept secrets of the kingdom is that the scriptures open the door to the receipt of revelation. One of the best kept secrets of the kingdom. And you know it, Phil, you have it. Thanks to President Oates. The idea that you're reading and your mind goes off, he doesn't mean off to home or school or I forgot to pay the electric bill. It means you start thinking of other spiritual things and that that could be the spirit communicating with you.

I like that idea in section 50, he that teacheth and he that receiveth understand one another, that the Spirit is the thing that carries the message. And you put yourself in a frame of mind for revelation when you're in the Scripture. All things what you should do. The point of Elder Oaks is all things, my wife's name is not in the Scriptures. I love my wife's name, it's Jennifer, but I could not flip open and say, okay, I'm Marian. It's not there. My major's not in there. There's a bunch of things about my life that are actually not in the written word. The art of using the tools the Lord has given us, which include the written word, to put ourselves in position to receive all things what we should

do is powerful to me. Yeah, I think so, Phil. So many of us want personal revelation, but we may forget that it can come through just sitting down with the word, with your scriptures, just begin reading, look at phrases and words and see if that revelation starts to flow. I'm glad you're saying this because you can hear sometimes a checklist answer like pray and read your scriptures. No, that's a good answer because you're putting yourself in that frame of mind where you're opening the door to revelation when you're praying or reading your scriptures. But you're putting yourself in that arena so that the Lord can communicate with you. It is a good answer. You might not find the answer in there like you're saying, Phil, but you're opening yourself up to inspiration where you may find more specifics or something more tailored to your situation. Is that right?

I've got so many neat experiences where I've had my scripture pencil. I've had maybe my laptop open. I'll post it. No folded over a piece of paper is my bookmark. And I've got little notes in there. Oh, this idea. Oh, this errand, this thing. And then I just put a little box by it and I check it off when I've followed up on it or done something with it. And it's just been a true blessing. And it's a skill. I think President Oaks, then Elder Oaks, was inviting us to engage in the skill of engaging the scriptures in a way that really is revelation. Well, I've just offered that as we begin, because in a thick text like Hebrews, it can be almost discouraging to say, I've read this for decades, as we, I think all have. And it just still keeps like the onion

on peeling things. If I'm just in arrival mode and I've got to get it and I got to get, this is the perfect way to have it. Then I get frustrated and I kind of just like, ah, it just becomes this opaque thing. Instead, if I see it in this way, it's a portal. What is the Spirit teaching me now? What can I do right now that will draw me closer to Father, closer to the Savior, closer to those I'm supposed to love and want to love more than I do? And how do I use this to those ends? That's why I wanted to begin there. Love it. The scriptures are a portal. I love that. We're going to get information from the text, but it also puts you in a frame of mind where it's important. I love that.

And Phil, thank you for thinking that I have read the book of Hebrews for decades. That was very nice of you to say, as we all have, because I thought, as you do, you're right. I have been reading this for a decade. Over and over. As Dr. Gray helped us with Hebrews chapter 7 and laying out this architecture of the atonement, this reversal of the fall and going back into God's presence, this is our way back home. That takes power that we don't have. This is why in the first few verses, you've got the whole Melchizedek material that was covered nicely already. And then we've got this new priest. We got the Melchizedek work, and that's meshing into Jesus as this, quoting Psalm 110, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Then is introduced in verse 11 and verse 19 of chapter 7, the word perfect. And we hit on that last time nicely, and it does come

from that Greek word teleos, teleology, et cetera, as the study of what a thing is for, what's the object of a thing, what its end, when it was created, what was it designed to accomplish. The perfection in this regard is the perfection of a mode, a ritual mode of ordinances that would connect us with God so that we could progress back into his presence. This gets kind of exciting because then all the ordinances come into play as they are helping me, capacitating me, literally renovating, transforming me, converting me as a person on my way back into his presence to be able to not only see his face, but also to dwell with him and engage in the work that he does.

This is beautiful because another way to put this teleos is made adequate for a necessary task. We're being capacitated to do a great work. And whether that work is to stay in our marriage, be a great spouse, to stay in my state as a single person and hang on, hold on until the promises get fulfilled. We'll see that in chapter 11 in the Hall of Fame of Faith. We're going to see some amazing individuals who all are holding on, moving forward at the same time, but holding on until the Lord fulfills all those promises. The idea is that we are being made adequate in the meantime. We are being capacitated to the great work of the eternities of which

mortality is a preparation, a practice, and a wonderful opportunity to engage in his work on his behalf. And there's a lot of things along the way that he's parked there for our blessing, including the high priest who's opening that way before us. I like toward the end of 7, and this will conclude our review of 7, a quick review. He makes the point that Jesus actually wasn't of the Levitical line. This would be really odd to see a Judahite operating in the functioning of this Levitical order, right, of moving back into the presence in our behalf. But what's fun is he says it's about worthiness. It's Jesus's worthiness. You were born into it if you're Levitical. You're born into that. You may like it, dislike it, whatever. That's just what we do. It's our family

line. But this is an elective thing. This is Jesus saying, no, Father, I will do thy will. I will always do thy will and will always defer to thee. We have these kind of dialectics playing out in a beautiful way. I just love that about chapter seven. What we go into now is a section of 8, 9, and 10, which really developed this ritual, ordinal, kind of Levitical pattern of moving from outside the tent into the inner part, then to the inner place, the holy place, and then into the holy of holies. Chapter 8 is contrasting heaven and earth, and in some ways contrasts our heart and our mind versus just the ritual, establishes a relationship over, say, maybe just a recipe. In verses 1 through 6 of chapter 8, we now see Jesus ministering in the heavens. This is chapter 8, verse 1. We have such a high priest

who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. This is his ascension. He is now in that place, able, as the Book of Mormon says, to claim his rights of mercy, ministering there in the true tabernacle, verse 2. We get this wonderful picture of, we've got an earthly pattern or shadow, look at verse 5. This is a shadow of heavenly things that we've got here. It was according to the pattern that was shown in the mount that Moses made it. So there's this heavenly temple, which kind of prefigures our movement from the fall and our inadequate state through a process of renovation, transformation into not only God's presence, but God's likeness and his glory. There's Jesus ministering from this throne in heaven.

And I love that throne imagery, just for fun, on a personal note. I don't know about you, but thrones kind of scare me. People on thrones, they're like super powerful and often capricious. Yeah, and they can cast you away with one glance. Yeah, right? Away with a fellow. I was like, oh, it makes me nervous. But if it's Jesus in the express image of father, that changes my view of the throne.

And now I see the throne in its power for me, not in its power potentially against me. It becomes an interesting move. And our culture doesn't help us with this. Our current culture has probably been the culture always. The Babylon set up shop right next to Zion every time, as President Benson and others have always said. But I think our culture really is anti-establishment, anti-authority. You guys messed up the world, and we've got to fix it, and it's got to look different than this. Instead of saying, well, wait, this is a shadow of the true thing, and Jesus is there ready to do that true thing in the highest way in our behalf.

Don't judge him and don't judge father's plan by mortal failures. In verses seven through 13, we get this offering that was made to Israel. So here's one of those historical moments where it failed. The first covenant verse seven didn't work. The Israelites, they had their chance at Sinai and this will be returned to again in chapter nine, didn't work. The Israelites, they had their chance at Sinai. And this will be returned to again in chapter 9 a little bit. This author is weaving in an understanding of what happened, the narrative of the ancient Israelites when they were coming out of Egypt. They had a chance to have a better shadow and pattern than they ended up with. What happens is, here's this quotation in chapter 8 of Jeremiah 31, where the author now of Hebrews is saying,

remember, Jeremiah said, the days are coming, verse 8, I'm going to make a new covenant. Well, why would you have to make a new covenant? It must have been because it wasn't great. And why wasn't it great? Well, God made it. It should have been great. It wasn't great because the people rejected the great one. In verse 9, it's not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant. I had an original covenant, so I couldn't regard them in the same way. They wouldn't let me help them in the same way. This is that passage in the Joseph Smith translation of Exodus 34 that's really helpful that says the original tablets had the order of ordinances,

the higher order that would renovate the soul. Here in chapter 8, we have this reference to something so cool that he wanted to have happen, but they wouldn't let him do it in verse 10. And that is, this is the covenant that he wants to make with us. In verse 10, I will put my laws into their mind. I will write them in their hearts and then says, I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people, meaning it's relational. This is not just ritual. This is not just spiritual or whatever we tack onto those terms. This is, I want to be your God. I want to be your dad. I want you to be my kids. I want us to have a real relationship. And it's beautiful here because he's saying, I can do this. And he says in verse 12, I will be merciful to

your unrighteousness. The Savior knows us so intimately. He gets why we're unrighteous. He gets what we're struggling with. And he's saying, I want to have a relationship. And these ordinances and this whole play that we're doing here, if you will, of the temple movement from outside in, from being estranged to being an absolute relationship is one that we can have faith in because he will understand us. He will bless us and help us because he knows us and vice versa. As we come to know him, it does that changing in our hearts. I can't do the same things like I did before because I know him. Phil, I've noticed, we talked about this a little with Dr. Gray last week, that the author of Hebrews assumes the reader knows a lot about the Old Testament, the tabernacle,

the high priest. As we're going along here, if we can become more of the audience that this was intended for, because the person reading is going to say, oh, I know all about the high priest and the tabernacle. And some of us reading are saying, I don't know that much about that. And that's where the author goes next is almost, I think, anticipating that. We'll read a fair amount of key passages, I think, that will be able to help the modern reader get a little more familiar. Yeah, or we could just tell everyone to go re-listen to all of our episodes, John, from the Old Testament.

Yeah, maybe at 1.5 speed. Yeah, 1.5 speed. Go all the way back. Start over and just do a couple hundred hours worth of work. Chapter 9, is that where we move to next? Yeah, that's exactly right. It gets kind of interesting because, as we know, ordinances are physical. I think we talked a little bit last time about Section 84, that in those ordinances, the power of godliness is manifest.

This Old Testament tabernacle was an Aaronic order. Every fall prior to the Feast of Tabernacles, where you have the beautiful jubilee, 10 days before that is the Day of Atonement. And this Day of Atonement ritual that we read about in Leviticus 16 is really significant. In chapter 9, he now says, okay, let's review what happened on that day. Not any day at the tabernacle, but that day at the tabernacle. On this day, unlike all other days, the sacrifice was not burnt on the altar. And that's going to be important for our author, because on this one day, this is the unique thing that happens on the Day of Atonement.

It is not burnt in and on that altar within the tent. It's deliberately outside the tent. Now, I'm going to park that for now as a, ooh, interesting, what's happening there. We'll get to that, but that's going to be up later in a few chapters and particularly in 13, because it has a discipleship meaning. It has a relevance to us as disciples. If we're going to be with and follow Jesus, this is an important thing to know. Phil, correct me if I'm wrong here. You've got your three areas. You've got the outer courtyard, then the tent with the two rooms inside of the tent, the holy place and the holy of holies. And the holy of holies, if I remember from last year, is never used except for this one day.

Is that right? This is what's happening next in chapter nine. It's so cool. In verse seven, this is your point, Hank, that on the day of atonement into the second, meaning that holiest of holies, went the high priest alone, keyword alone, once every year. And that the only way he could access that was he had to bring blood with him. He had to bring blood with him. And this blood then apparently parted the veil. This blood offered access into this holiest of holies. But in this case, the author is saying

that's going to be a problem because in order for this veil to not just close up again, you're going to need to have a sinless sacrifice that in a sense is going to break that veil, which we saw at the Savior's passing when the veil of the temple was rent top to bottom because it was a sinless sacrifice. And this author picks up on that. Verse 11, he says, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come. There's that great title again, immortalized by another talk from Elder Holland, right? He says he, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building building neither by the blood of goats or calves but this by the blood of christ by his own blood he enters once into the holy place and that

obtains eternal redemption for the rest of us he's the high priest that goes in and rends the veil for the rest of us it now stands open for everyone else to come in. Now let's turn to Leviticus chapter 17. And I think that this is right after the day of atonement. Leviticus 16 is the day of atonement all fleshed out and discussed. We'll do some more with it later in chapter 13 of Hebrews. Right after that, now chapter 17, Moses here, the Lord speaking to him in verse one says, you're going to get Aaron, you're going to do these things. And then if you skip over to verse 11, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. And then he does this, he kind of explains and kind of doesn't explain. He just says, apparently a truth,

the blood makes an atonement for the soul. Now this stands as one of those kind of truths that is not fully explained, but there must be some eternal property going on that God knows. And maybe he couldn't even tell us and it would make any sense to us. But some amazing thing is happening by which we now can have absolution of our sins, that the eternal punishment and weight of those sins is taken away in Jesus and this blood. And this is the blood that breaks the veil. You bring any other blood, and it only parts the veil temporarily for one alone on a given day. But if you bring Jesus's blood, now we've broken it open and he doesn't want to be there by himself. He's saying, I broke this open.

We can all be there together. He's passing the heavens so that we can all pass in the heavens and be with him. The Holy of Holies is open for everyone, not just our one person. John, Phil, I think this might be a good point for me to just do a little shout out to Daniel Smith. He's a friend. He's created a YouTube channel called Messages of Christ. If you're looking for some extra material on the Old Testament tabernacle, what Daniel does is he goes through how you can find Christ in the ancient tabernacle. One of these videos, I think the video with the most views, six million views, is Solomon's Temple Explained. And I think he has a video on Yom Kippur where he

walks through that day. And it's a very visual thing. Daniel, if you're listening, we love you. Go to Messages of Christ. Find the YouTube channel. He does some pretty incredible work. I don't know if either of you have seen these videos, but they're masterful. Fantastic. I am familiar with that. And that's a wonderful grab for people to be able to visualize this. In this setting, it's hard to kind of paint the word picture, but that's perfect. I think it's in the book of Matthew where it says the veil of the temple was rent. This is the physical symbol of when this all happened. At the crucifixion, this is where all could come into the temple now. So we'll just skip forward to those verses and then we're going to contextualize it and come back to it.

But you're exactly right. If we go to chapter 10, this interior kind of description of the temple and all come back to it, but you're exactly right. If we go to chapter 10, this interior kind of description of the temple and all the pieces in it, and then Jesus being playing that part now, but not in a temple, because we know his sacrifice took place on Golgotha and began earlier in his sufferings in Gethsemane, et cetera. We continued throughout that, but this is playing out in a structure. Now the writer, perhaps Paul, of Hebrews says in verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. See, he's hearkening to that idea that, oh, you watch the high priest go in with the blood of goats or bullocks or ox, but now you saw Jesus with his blood. He went into the holiest. Verse 20.

Now there is, because of this, a new and living way. Living because the veil is rent and he's holding it open. To put it another way, the gates of hell have not prevailed. He burst those gates and those bands. And they now are open. So this new and living way through the veil for us, and then we're going to do more with this in a moment that has something to do with his flesh. His flesh is now open that way before us. Our listeners are probably going, yeah, that's what I learned in the modern temple endowment is that Jesus is the veil and we go through him to be restored to the presence of the Father.

Excellent. So we're Jesus bringing his own blood in and then apparently satisfying the Leviticus 17, 11 property of eternity that it takes the blood to atone. I just love this from Elder Clark G. Gilbert at his BYU devotional. This was in February of 2022. And he's quoting C.S. Lewis, and he's pulling on the Chronicles of Narnia, which was C.S. Lewis's kind of fantasy analogy of Christ. Aslan is that figure. And he says, it means, quoting Aslan, that though the witch knew the deep magic, there's a magic deeper still that she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time, but if she could have looked a little further back into the stillness and the darkness before time dawned, she would have known, and then quote, that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backwards. You think about the

beauty of that and the power of that is that not only is the veil now opened in a new and living way, but it's retroactively going back and it's taking all of our loved ones all the way back and saying, we now have done a thing in this with Jesus and his blood that bursts all seven bands of that book and lays open all of the lives of all of father's children and makes a way for them to enter back into his presence, to be on his mercy seat and meet with him, join with him in eternity and the beauty of his life there for us. It's just amazing. That's beautiful writing. Some people are writers, huh, Hank? Yeah.

But isn't that beautiful? And this is the author saying, okay, we've got this kind of approximation and we've got this object lesson. The only day that they would come fasting in ancient Israel, you would fast for two occasions. It would be bereavement. Someone had died. You could possibly also fast for some kind of a national tragedy or these kinds of things. But by and large, that would often include bereavement. The only other time

you would fast is the Day of Atonement. You would come fasting and you would watch this play out. You would not be able to see, but you would know that the veil, you might be able to see if you had the right seat. You could see the veil to the holy place part and there goes the high priest in there. And then you just kind of have to wait and go, well, he's processing through the rest of that room until he gets to the next veil. With this blood, he's going to be able to part that veil, but it's going to close behind him. And then we hope he meets with God for us, and that we did good. And we come fasting, that that would be a good experience. We have the beauty today, and because of Christ opening up this new and living way, we can all enter his house. His

house is open for everyone. And it's because of the gift of his son. And I'm so incredibly grateful for that, as I know we all are. My appreciation for that is growing and growing. And this book helps me with it. If you look at verse 18, so we're in chapter 9, we get this reminder that this is a repair, if you will. This is whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. So you have this issue of being estranged from God and that the blood is now reopening the relationship. It's that object lesson of seeing someone else have a relationship with God, but I get to have the relationship with God. Jesus has now restored my ability to be close to him, my ability to go into his presence. That gets so cool. Let's go in 24. Christ has not entered into the holy

places made with hands. The author is saying, don't misunderstand. He's not saying that the atoning work happened in Herod's temple. It didn't. It wasn't in those sacred precincts there of the Levitical order. He's having a different experience, which we'll deal with in chapter 13. Verse 24, Christ has entered into heaven itself, and he is there appearing in the presence of God for us. Now, what's super important here is to cut away to D&C 45, because if Christ has entered into the heavens and is there ministering, like actively ministering for us, then section 45 is the latter day restored view of what that looks like. Okay. I just love this and it won't take us long, but it's super powerful to me. And it's one of my most sacred passages of scripture. Probably verses three, four, and five. Yeah. Now again, the warning, we're going to start earlier because there's a little bit of a

warning. And the warning is fits in with the book of Hebrews because remember, historically, we've had a people that rejected this. They got out of Egypt, but they didn't want to get into God's presence. They were glad to get out of some kind of bondage, but they weren't interested in the relationship with God. They wanted a comfortable life, if you will. The author's really working in Hebrews to say this was the problem with those back in the day. In 45, he says, look, verse 1,

hearken, all you people of my church, the kingdom has been given. Give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens and all the hosts. And in chapter 11 with the creation, et cetera, verse 2, this is section 45, two. I say, hearken unto my voice, lest death overtake you in an hour. You think not the summer be passed and the harvest ended, but your soul's not saved. When all are doing and in all our living, there is a harvest. And this fits with the festival Yom Kippur at the end of the harvest season and everything. It's all wrapping up. Okay. We lived our lives. Do we get to go into God's presence? Have we got a relationship with him? How has it gone? In verse three, knowing that warning in the context of that warning, listen to him who is the advocate with

the father. There is Christ in heaven at the throne with father. He is pleading your cause. He's not only this powerful individual, your cause is his cause. And he's pleading that, and he says, behold, Father, it's my judgment, interestingly, but he says, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin. Well, that's a really interesting thing to say at my judgment, because he can't be pointing at me. He can't be talking about me, but he's saying, Father, don't look at him. Look at me. See me. I did no sin and you were well pleased with me. And Jesus is saying, Father, I know the law.

I have listened to you teach about the law. I have fully complied with the law and I have brought the perfect sacrifice. And this blood now of whom thou was given that you could be glorified. I bring it now in verse 5, And the only thing that is required in verse 8 for me, who cannot bring a sinless life to the table, I can't. I lost that decades ago. The only thing I can bring in verse 8 is apparently the only thing that's required.

And that is in verse 8 is apparently the only thing that's required. And that is verse 8. I came into my own. My own did not receive me, but as many as did receive me, I gave power to do many miracles and become the sons of God. He's hearkening to the John chapter 1. And then he says, even to them that believed on my name gave I power to obtain eternal life. Apparently Apparently, the only thing I can bring is my willingness to believe. Because everything else I bring is a problem. It's fallen short. It's a sin or it's a broken law. It's sins of omission, sins of commission.

But I can bring belief in Jesus. And I think that's shorthand for whenever you get a reference to the name of Christ, there are ordinal implications of that. We take on his name at baptism. We continue to take on his name in the sacred precincts of restored temples. You have that authority of the priesthood in his name. All of this being done, when I believe, I believe in him, but I also then manifest that belief by engaging in the covenant path that he has established for me. I love that passage because if I'm not being looked at, then I have hope in my judgment. And I know I'm putting that really starkly because hopefully over time I'm getting

to be a better person. I'm actually transforming with his help and I'm doing less sins. I'm doing better. But at the end of the day, if he's not looking at me and he's looking at Jesus, how do you think my judgment's going to go? And this is why Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 is so powerful. He says that the righteousness of God was made sin for us so that we who were sinful could be made the righteousness of God. It's what they call the admirable exchange. The admirabilis commercialum. It's this amazing exchange where I was the sinner, but now I get to be looked at as if I was Jesus. As if it's my blood that he's bringing and it's sinless.

It's the beauty of the atonement of Jesus Christ that says, I have overcome the world for you. Be of good cheer. Come to me. My blood will open the way. And it's a new and living way, as we saw there in chapter 10. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow, but my favorite nickname for the Savior has always been advocate. That's why I really love these verses here. An advocate, an intercessor, they indicate three parties. I'm going to advocate for you to someone else. One time I googled Jesus advocate and I found a painting by Harry Anderson, which for me, section 45 looks like the script to what's happening in this painting. I had always imagined at the judgment standing, because it talks about a standing a lot,

and I know there's different kinds of judgments, and it sounds like we're standing alone, but this and that painting sounds like, as you've said so beautifully, the Savior isn't talking about what we did. He's talking about what he did. This painting, this Harry Anderson, the Savior has his arm on the shoulder of this

man, his arm around him. You read this here, spare these, my brethren, that believe on my name, my sisters that believe on my name. Put that with that visual, if you can find it. It's beautiful to read. And then I'm thinking too of Mosiah 26, 18, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name, for in my name shall they be called and they are mine. When we go to the sacrament table, where we actually hear the priest say about his blood, which was shed for them, what did we just read? Hebrews 9, 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. When we go to the sacrament table, this is one way of demonstrating our willingness to take upon us the name of Christ. That's what we signify when we reach out our covenant hand and take the sacrament, that we're willing to take upon us the name of Christ and always remember him and keep his command. You're tying in all of these things beautifully.

I love it. The 1985, I can't remember if it's April or October, President Oaks, one of his earlier general conference addresses was taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ. And he explores five ways that that plays out in the sacramental prayer. And the first three are fairly straightforward. Most of us would probably get a good sense of that. But then four and five, he says the word willing, that's signifying something that's yet in the future, even though we got baptized and are in the covenant path, that we haven't actually done the next two, four and five. And they are that we're saying, I will go to the temple. I will get to these ordinances. I will do what the high priest, now Jesus, the high priest,

the great high priest, has now opened that living way. I'm now going to take advantage of that. That curtain stands open for me. I will go and I will enter. And then the fifth one is that I will, with him, enter into heaven. I will qualify by believing in him and taking on his name. I will become a celestial candidate through his grace and his blessing and his help. I love that. That's great. As we now transition to chapter 10, in verse 1, he reminds us, now this Levitical law, the original Aaronic order, it just was a shadow. It was just an object lesson. It couldn't really do what we wanted. And skip down to verse 4.

It's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away our sins. I mean, just think about it. That doesn't work. Amulek said that in the Book of Mormon. Couldn't be even a man that did this. It has to be a God. It has to be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. In verse 5, when he comes into the world, he says, look, sacrifice and offering. And now he's quoting

Psalm 40 and he quotes and he says, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, meaning God doesn't really love sacrifice and offering, but he prepared a body for me. Because if the law is that you have to atone with blood, then the atoner has to have a body that can give the kind of blood that works. Because the blood of goats couldn't do it, and the blood of oxen couldn't do it, and the Aaronic priesthood couldn't do it. But I have to prepare a son with a body that can generate the blood that will work once and for all for everyone. That's such a beautiful thing. And then he says, now burn offerings for six and sacrifice or sin. You don't have any pleasure in that. He doesn't love that. Verse seven, then said, I lo I come. And he's quoting from a volume of a book written

that we don't have. It's a quote from a lost book of scripture, if you will. And he says to do thy will. Oh God. So clear. This is Jesus. May the cup pass from me. This is far beyond what I even thought. And Jesus apparently had the highest thoughts of any mortal. And it was way beyond what he thought when the weights are coming upon him. He's saying here in Psalms, but it's prefiguring Jesus clearly saying, thy will be done. You've given me the body that can do it. I have in the incarnation, I have in the condescension, I received from Mary and I received from Father the properties that would make the blood that would atone based on the old laws, if you will, to quote C.S. Lewis again, the oldest magic of all in the cosmos. I've given you a body that can do that and you have the will and did it. Think about Jesus receiving that body and then doing

this great work. Go to 10. So by the witch, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and it's for all. Verse 16. This is the covenant, again, quoting Jeremiah. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days. This is the days when it was the Aaronic order only, the Levitical order only, when it was the law of Moses only. He says, after those days, I will put my laws into their hearts and their minds. I will write them. Oh, okay. It's relational.

This is all about coming into his presence now and becoming a person like him over time. I don't know what this is worth, but in terms of a discipleship move that I have felt inspired to do, whenever I'm partaking of an ordinance, I recognize that it is a power that God has given on the earth by which I can become a new creature in him. I can be changed. He can do something with me that I can't do just by myself, by my sheer grit and willpower, if you will. In that ordinal moment, I will say, Heavenly Father, wilt thou write thy law upon my mind and my heart? And not only do that, I beseech thee and I plead with thee, write thy law in my mind and in my heart. Almost like we sing in the hymn, take my heart and seal it because I'm prone to

wander. I know myself and I'm prone to wander. I give thee my agency. One of the first talks by Elder Bednar as an apostle, he gave to the church educational system employees, the instructors. He talks about the process of getting something in your head down into your heart. We get to decide if we want it to go from just our ears or just an idea here to the actual heart where we're transformed or made in his image. And he will not force. That is sacred ground to him. Like Revelation, he knocks on our door. I got to open that door. What does that look like? It often looks like me on my knees saying, write thy law on my mind and in my heart. I want

thee to be my God. I want to be to thee a person. And this is the book ending in chapter 8 and in chapter 10 to the fact that in chapter 9, Jesus did give his blood. He did break the veil and it is now done. The question, will I, this is why I think he bookends it, the question is, will I allow him to do what he always wanted to do? And that was to be close to me and help me become like him. And we could be true family together. It's in that context then that he says, don't forget. Now we have boldness. Verse 19, because of this, all of this, this, all this argument, all this framing, all of

this picturing, and this is why we this framing, all of this picturing. And this is why we have boldness to enter into the holiest. And it comes by his blood. See, when I get nervous about my salvation and about how I'm doing and everything, he's saying, look, think of me. It frees me up to have a normal mortal life where I'm here to learn by experience. I've got to learn to taste and prize the good because I've experienced the evil. And sometimes I've even done evil. And he says, I got you. I got you covered. And that kapur, right? The covering, the kaphar to cover. I mean, that just is so beautiful. And it gives us liberty to live. It's such a gift that pays now and ultimately

into the eternities. Let's say we were trying to share this with our children because this is pretty heavy stuff. We could probably say that Paul is taking all of the things these people had experienced with the ancient temple and saying, Jesus, that was all a shadow pointing to Christ. And now Christ has fulfilled all of that that was pointing toward. And by his blood now, we can all enter into God's presence. That's exactly right. And I think an even shorter cut to it in some ways would be perhaps to take them to John chapter 10, where the savior says, I'm the shepherd. We're going to use the sheep metaphor. Kids could probably really get that. He basically uses a different term, but it's the same exact idea as in verses 19 and 20. And he says, I am the door. I'm the door. He says it twice in verse 7

and in verse 9 in John chapter 10. Peter also says a very similar thing in 2 Peter chapter 1, where he says he opens up an entrance. That's probably really easy for kids to understand. There's lots of ways to do it, but those are scriptural ones that would fit right nicely here. And I think we can all relate to times when we thought there was a brick wall stretching to infinity, top and bottom in front of us. And something we needed very much was on the other side, but there was this wall in front of us and we could see no way through it, beyond it. And he opens that to us. And we have instances in our lives where he has. I had an instance where

I was doing dumb things as a teenager. I had come home and I was late and I was embarrassed. There was a strange car in the driveway. And I thought, oh, what's on? I'll just, I had this foreboding, like, oh, something bad has happened. And my mom meets me at the door and she says, the home teachers back in the day, home teachers, the ministers are here. They're giving dad a blessing. I'm like, what? And my dad had had various health troubles throughout his life. In my teenage mind, I thought, oh my gosh, this is it. And I wasn't here and I was off doing stupid stuff and I was late and all those thoughts. I lived in the basement. I went down those stairs and I was pacing around and I was mad. I was angry.

I was this dumb teenager. I just yelled out to God. You couldn't even call it a prayer. I just yelled. I was mad. I'm thinking, what? I'm the one at fault here, but I'm mad. Somehow you're there, God. I'm like, who am I to demand anything? But I know it was inspiration because there's no way I had any confidence to do that. But I said, if you're there and if everything I'm being taught in church is true, then two things are going to have to happen. Number one, dad's going to be okay. And number two, he's going to know I've prayed for him. And that we had this conversation. Now, that's a crazy thing.

All I can say is I know that he told me to pray this. So I walk up the stairs from the basement to the garage. Literally every step, I'm doubting. I'm worried. What if it doesn't happen? I just put God's existence on the line. If it doesn't happen, what will that do? Literally every step, I have to push it aside and say, no, I believe God is there. And I believe

he has all power and he can do this if he wants to. And I've felt inspired to pray that this is what he wants to do. I go up the stairs from the garage into the house to my master bedroom where my parents were. And there's a long hallway. So every step, every moment, I'm kind of, and I'm bouncing off doubt, bouncing off faith, bouncing off doubt, bouncing. And I go up the hallway. And just as I enter into the actual bedroom and my dad, he's sitting up and he says, son, I'm all right.

And I want you to know I heard your prayers for me. And I went over and I hugged him, but I was really hugging my dad. You only do those things if and when the Spirit moves upon you. And even though I was living beneath my privileges, a sweet, kind Heavenly Father said, let me just give you some evidence here. And this will help us get into chapter 11 in a second, but let me just give you some evidence. You can't see me in this case, but you're going to know I'm here. Now the opportunity is in your court. What are you going to do about that, son?

What are you going to do with this evidence now? Wow. Thank you for sharing that. That was beautiful. Please join us for part two of this podcast.