Why Jesus Forbade Mary to Touch Him: The High Priest & His Blood

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, good afternoon or good evening, whatever the case may be, and I want to welcome our television audience. And if you've never tuned in to us before, or as we hear so often that people go through their remote and they accidentally catch our program, well, I don't think anything happens accidentally, so we trust that God has a reason for it and that you will become a part of our listening audience. So we'd just like to have you take a Bible and study along with us, look up the references and see what the book really says. All right, for those of you here in the studio, if you've turned to Exodus chapter 5, and we'll just pick right up from where we left off, where Moses and Aaron have now confronted Pharaoh, have made their demand that Israel is to leave Egypt for at least a three-day's journey into the wilderness so that they could sacrifice to the Lord their God, and of course Pharaoh rebelled at even the thought of that, and he begins to put on harder tasks upon the slaves of Israel. And the one I like to point out in particular is verse 7, where Pharaoh says, "...you shall no more give the people straw to make brick." Now, I don't know how many of you have heard the term, higher criticism, but higher criticism was that group of theologians beginning in about the late 1800s, especially in Germany, who began to just scoff at certain parts of Scripture that they thought were unbelievable. And this was one of them. The higher critics just scoffed at the idea of using straw to make bricks. Who'd ever heard of such a thing? But you know, as I've said so often in this class, bless the archaeologists, most of them are agnostics and they are atheists or whatever, but at least when they find something that is in line with Scripture, they do report it. And then I think it was probably as far back as maybe the 20s or the 30s, the archaeologists coming out of Europe, working there in the Middle East, found that indeed the ancients did make brick with straw. It was part of the binding part, and so again the critics were silenced. The Word of God is very, very true. And so indeed they had to go out, and now instead of having others bring the elements of their concrete and their mortar and their bricks to them, they had to go out and gather it all themselves and yet maintain what today we would call their quota of production. And so they began to cry. Verse 8, Therefore they cried, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Verse 9, Let there be no more work laid upon the men that they may labor therein, and let them not regard vain words. And the taskmasters of the people, that is of Egypt, went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go get it yourselves. Verse 11, Go ye and get your straw where you can find it, yet not aught of your work shall be diminished. Your quota maintains the same. And so anyway, things keep getting worse, and finally the children of Israel are beginning to wonder whether Moses and Pharaoh really know what it's all about. And they come unto them, and oh, where is it? Verse 22, And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this thy people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered the people at all. Now isn't that common reaction from the human? Here God has said, I'm going to deliver them, I'm going to take them out. Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, Pharaoh in turn lays more burden upon the Jews, and makes life even more miserable, and now they're beginning to wonder, is God going to do what He said He did? Are Moses and Aaron for real? Now let's go down into chapter 6, Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. Oh, God's setting him up. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord. And now verse 3, I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob, by the name God Almighty. Now in the Hebrew that's El Shaddai, and it's unfortunate really that it was translated simply Almighty, because the word Shaddai implies so much more than that. It implies the sustainer, it implies the providing, the provisions, and the, well I always like to include in there, the security blanket. I guess we all know what that is. God was literally the security of His people, and that was all involved in that Hebrew word of deity El Shaddai. And so this is what God says, they've always known Me as El Shaddai, the Almighty God as we've had it translated in the King James, or the All Providing One, but He says by the name of Jehovah, I was not known unto them. Now you remember the name Jehovah implied the I Am. Remember back in Exodus chapter 3 when we studied it a few weeks ago, when Moses asked the voice in the burning bush, when I go back to Egypt and they'll say what's His name, what shall I tell them? What was the answer? You tell them I Am hath sent you. I Am, that I Am is sending you into Egypt, and then you remember we showed you how that Jesus also referred to Himself as the I Am. In fact, I don't know whether we should take time to look at Him now or not, I don't think so, but there are seven distinct names of Jehovah that are intrinsic with God's dealing with the nation of Israel. In fact, the name Jehovah is primarily the name of God as He deals with His covenant people. Now the others, I don't know if I can remember all of them, there are seven of them, but you remember when Abraham found the ram in the thicket when he was supposed to have sacrificed Isaac, and he called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh, which meant God is the provider. And then you go to another one, I don't know if I got them in order now, but you go to Psalms 23, the Psalms that you all know. What's the first verse? The Lord is my shepherd, but in the Hebrew is Jehovah-Rehah, which means Jehovah the Shepherd, and on and on we go. Another one is Jehovah-Repha, where He brought Israel out of Egypt, and with all of their pagan practices they were already plagued with diseases, but He told Israel that if they would be true to His commandments, He would keep them from the diseases of Egypt. And as a result of that, He was called Jehovah-Repha, the healer or the protector from disease. Another one is Jehovah-Nissi, and that goes back to when they had their first war coming out of Egypt, and they ran up against who? The Amalekites, do you remember? And do you remember that when Moses would hold his hands up, the battle would go for Israel, and he'd get tired and they'd fall down, and Israel would start getting whooped. But what happened? Well, her and who was it, Caleb, held his arms up, and they won the battle. Well then as a result of that, the name Jehovah was coined Jehovah-Nissi, our banner. It was Jehovah who won the battle. And then there's a couple more. I think the last one I can remember is Jehovah-Sidkenu, which is translated Jehovah, our righteousness. Now these are all names of deity that were intrinsic with God's dealing with Israel. And then the last one, which is mentioned I think in the book of Ezekiel, is Jehovah-Shammah, H-H-M-M-A-H, which means I am there. Now that, of course, goes clear into the future to when Christ will indeed be ruling on the kingdom on earth, and He will be in their presence. So all these names of Jehovah are wrapped up in that one name, Jehovah. He is everything to the nation of Israel. All right, now then come down to verse 4 of Exodus 6, where he says, I have also established my ... What's the next word? Covenant. Now those of you who have been with me over the whole period of time from Genesis 1, you begin to realize why I spent so much time on that Abrahamic covenant, because all of Scripture is going to rest on that covenant that God made with Abraham. And he again comes back to it here. I have established my covenant to give them, that is the children of the covenant, the children of Abraham, the nation of Israel, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my ... What? Covenant, see? And God will never forget it. Now there are a lot of people tonight that think that God is all through with the Jew. God's forgotten all about His covenants that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and don't you believe it. God has still got His covenants uppermost with regard to the nation of Israel. All right, now then let's go on to verse 6, Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am. There's that same connotation. The I am is the I am is Jehovah, and I will bring you, the nation of Israel, out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will ... What's the next word? Redeem. See, I tell you all the time this is the book of redemption. Here it comes. God says, I'm going to buy you back. I'm going to pay the price to set you free from the bondage of Egypt. Now remember that Paul, as well as other writers of Scripture, also speak of our redemption. We too have to be redeemed. Well in fact, keep your hand in Exodus, let's go all the way back to the little letters of Peter, and the easiest way to find them is just go to Revelation and then come back to the left a few pages, and you'll come through the little letters of John, and you come to 1 Peter 1, verse 18, 1 Peter 1, verse 18, all got it? 1 Peter 1, verse 18, where Peter now writes, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with silver and gold, from your vain conversation, or your manner of living, received by tradition. Now you know, we often think of the Jews being steeped in tradition, but how about people today? It's no different. Oh, they're steeped in the tradition of the fathers, and they think they're going to make it. But listen, tradition isn't going to make anybody make it, and sometimes we have to break some traditions in order to come to the truth of the Scripture. But Peter says here that they were not redeemed according to the tradition of their fathers, or with silver and gold, and then verse 19, but how were we redeemed? By the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. All right, now let's come back on what Paul says about the same Word, and that would be in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Romans 3, and let's begin with verse, oh, I guess 21. Oh, here again, I'd rather go back up a few verses earlier, but we won't take time. Romans chapter 3, drop in at verse 21. But now, in other words, in verse 20, he's talking by the deeds of the law, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Nothing flies in the face of something else in Scripture. It all fits in that overall plan. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that, again, what does it say, believe, plus nothing, there's anything else added. Of course, we always have to know what we believe, for there is no difference. Well, no difference between what? Jew and Gentile. And this is what got Paul in trouble with his Jewish people, that he was maintaining there was now no difference between a Jew and a Gentile. And as we'll see back here in Exodus, as soon as God pulled Israel out of Egypt, what does He tell them? You're different. I'm going to make you different. I'm going to set you apart. And He begins that instruction then that they were not to have anything to do with the pagans around them. They were not to intermarry with them. They were to have nothing to do with them. And you see, this is why it was so hard for the Jews of Paul's day to suddenly come out of that tradition that they were different, and then to have this little Jew say, there's no difference. Can you see why it riled them? But this is the case. He says, there is no difference. Verse 23, for how many have sinned? All. Not just the Gentiles. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now whenever I come to Romans chapter 3, I always remind people that if you're going to be instrumental in bringing someone to a knowledge of salvation, and I think most of you have probably heard of the Roman road, those six, seven, or eight verses that you can use within the confines of the book of Romans to bring someone to a knowledge of salvation. They're so easy to use. Well, I always say you start with this one. This is the very first step of faith on the road to salvation. And what is it? We have to realize we're sinners. Oh, you see, so many people think, well, I'm good enough. And there are a lot of good people. We were just talking about a little while ago. There are a lot of good people, better than I could ever hope to be, but they're going to be lost. Why? Because they have not trusted what God has done. See, and that's the only thing that you and I as believers can claim. It isn't what I do that's going to get me to heaven. Nothing can be done to get us into heaven. We have to rest on the fact that we're sinners. We've fallen short. We're sons of Adam. And so this is the first step of faith, to believe what God says about who? Me. This is what God says about me. I'm a sinner. But this is what God says about you. We're sinners. We're sons of Adam. First step of faith, all right? Then verse 24, but even though God condemns us, we're already sinners, God has also declared that we can be what? Justified. And what's that next word? Freely. No strings attached. Justified freely by His grace through, and here's the reason I came to this verse, through the what? The redemption. The redemption, the purchase price that's been paid for the salvation of everyone if they will simply believe the gospel. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and let's not stop there. There's not a period. Go into verse 25, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. Now we'll explain that word more in detail when we get to the tabernacle in the book of Exodus, because that's where the word propitiation comes into full bloom. So let's pass it for now. Through faith in His what? His blood. I wonder if now might be a good time. We had a good time in one of our classes the other night, and several people came up afterwards and wanted to know if I had that on tape, and I said no, and I couldn't remember that we'd ever even covered it on the television program. So maybe this would be as good a time as any to take a quick look at this whole concept of being redeemed by the purchase price of God, which was His blood. Now remember Hebrews says so plainly, and we won't take time to look at that, but I think I'm going to take a try if we've only got a couple minutes left. Go back with me to John's Gospel, and while you're looking for that I'll remind you what Hebrews says. Hebrews says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission or forgiveness of sin. I mean it's a mandate of God. Now a lot of people may frown at that, that this is a gory concept, but nevertheless God is sovereign, and He can do as He sees fit, and for His own reason He has demanded that there had to be the shed blood. Now of course the animal sacrifices, we're all looking forward to that. They were examples of it, but those animals' blood couldn't take away sin, but they looked forward to the one that could, and that of course was the blood of Christ. Oh, you got John's Gospel chapter 20? Oh yeah, we got time enough. John's Gospel chapter 20. Here's the resurrection morning, and as the custom was, they anointed the body of the deceased with herbs and spices even a day or so after they were buried, and remember they weren't buried underground as we think of it, they were placed in a cave. And so Mary Magdalene, it says in verse 1, on the first day of the week early, no doubt even before daylight, and when it was dark she came to the sepulcher and seized the stone taken away. Now you all know what follows. Peter and John hear it from Mary, and what do they do? Boy, they run full speed for that sepulcher, and again I get a kick out of Peter. He was bigger and clumsier than John, I think John was the athlete, and John got there first, but even more timid, but along comes blustering old Peter, a-huffin' and a -puffin', I can just picture it all, and even though John stops at the door of the cave which is now open, what does Peter do? Boy, he just bursts right on in and looks the situation over. Now when timid John realizes that after all it's safe and everything is a-okay, John joins him in the sepulcher. And they look the situation over in these intervening verses, and verse 5, they look in, they see the linen clothes lying, and then here's where Peter comes and went on into the sepulcher, he too sees the linen clothes lying, and then verse 7, the napkin that was about his head, then verse 8, finally John gets nerve enough and he steps in, and they saw, and then after they saw the evidence, what? They believed. Now up until this time, did these disciples believe that Jesus was going to rise from the dead? No. They had no idea that He was going to rise three days and three...they should have, but they didn't, and so now they see the evidence, and the Scripture says they believe. Well anyway, verse 9, For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. So they leave. Now we pick up Mary. Now this is all in the pre-dawn darkness. And Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher, and sees two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Now I always have to comment to my classes. See all these things were so commonplace in Israel. What would you and I do if we go to the cemetery to visit the grave or decorate the grave of a loved one, and all of a sudden here was a bunch of angels standing around? Well maybe you're a little more strong-hearted than I am, but I'm afraid I'd pass out. And I believe in angels, but I don't believe that they are making visible appearances in our age and time. It's just not happening. But see, this didn't shake her up. She saw those angels, and she communicates with them, and they said, verse 13, Why do you weep? And she said, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Now I pointed out, and we were talking about this the other night, go back, keep your hands here. I think we can leave Romans now, but keep your hand in John, and go back with me to Isaiah chapter 52, and there's a couple of verses back here. I guess there are a lot of people don't know they're in here. In Isaiah chapter 52, beginning with verse 13, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high, as many were astonished at thee. Now watch it, his visage, this is a prophecy concerning Christ, his visage, or his appearance, was so marred, more than any man, and his form more marred than the sons of men. Now you want to remember, what did he go through before he even went to the cross? He went through the scourgings, which literally made a man's back like hamburger. He had the crown of thorns pushed on his head, he had his beard ripped out, and you don't pull a beard out without taking flesh with it. And so we have to realize that he hung on the cross, and the last picture Mary had of him was that. It was awful. Now, come back to John's gospel quickly. Now in John's gospel, Mary looks at this person standing right there, and she says, knowing not it was Jesus, or he says, he speaks to her next in verse 15, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And she, thinking him to be the gardener, said unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, if you have taken him away, tell me where he is, where you have laid him, and I will take him away. And then verse 16, Jesus said, Mary, can't you just hear it? Oh, that voice of endearment, they had known each other so closely for three years, and she recognizes that voice, and now look what she attempts to do. Very human, she was just going to give him a bear hug, and what does Jesus say? He says unto her, touch me not. Now you remember just a few hours later, he tells old Doubting Thomas to touch the wounds in his hands and in his side, so there wasn't anything that contrary, but here he tells Mary, touch me not. Now what's the reason? For I am not yet ascended to my Father. You see what it said? I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to the brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, to your Father, to my God, and your God. I call this the first ascension in Acts chapter 1, the second ascension. Now if you'll come back with me to Hebrews, I think we can explain it. Hebrews chapter 9, now in this chapter Paul is rehearsing the day of atonement, where the high priest would go in on the day of atonement, first with the blood of an animal and sprinkle it back behind the curtain on the Holy of Holies, or on the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, for his own sin, he'd go back and he would take the blood of the second animal, take it in behind the veil, sprinkle it on the mercy seat there in the Holy of Holies, that taking care of the sins of the nation. Now then, you drop down to verse 11, but Christ, being come a high priest, now we have to have a high priest, Aaron was the high priest of Israel, Melchizedek you remember was the high priest of all, as a picture of Christ our high priest, alright, but the high priest Christ went by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, in other words where is it? In heaven, and so into that Holy of Holies in heaven, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood. He entered in once, not just once a year, but once for all time, into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. What did He present in the Holy of Holies in heaven? His own blood. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time on Through the Bible.