He wears a golden diadem with the divine Name engraved on it (Exod 39:30).146 He also wears a golden ephod (vv. 2–7). The ephod is particularly significant not only because it is golden (suggesting divine glory), but in the Ancient Near East, it is now generally agreed that ephods were originally coverings of idols or garments worn by deities.147 The use of incense is also suggestive: “On the stage of the cultic microcosm he is the creator. He is the divine warrior, who is surrounded by clouds of incense (Exod 40:27, 34; 1 Kgs 8:10; 2 Chr 5:11; Lev 9:22–24, 16:12–13).”148 Fletcher-Louis also mentions that he carries “fiery coals, dressed in garb that (according to Josephus B.J. 5:231, Ant. 3:184) symbolizes thunder and lightning, his garments sprinkled with the blood of God’s victories (Exod 29:19–21; cf. esp. Isa 63:1–6, but also Deut 33:2–3; Judg 4–5; Ps 68:8–9, 18).”149 His clothing then makes him, according to Fletcher-Louis, “the true idol, the image (Gen 1:26–27) of the one creator God . . . [he is effectively] . . . the “statue” of the living God.”150 Therefore, just as the statue or image of the deity in the Ancient Near East stood in the sanctuary (being representative of heaven), so Adam in the original creation and the high priest on the Day of Atonement stood in the divine sanctuary as the divine image.151
As God within the cosmic microcosm, the high priest’s actions repeat the work of Genesis 1. Just as sin destroyed God’s original order, so the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement within the cosmic microcosm renews creation. By purifying creation from sin, the high priest prefigured the eschatological renewal of God through the giving of his personal holiness through bloody sacrifice. The work of the Day of Atonement is also suggestive of the role of the divine warrior, who, much like the protevanglium promises, overcomes the negative effects of the serpent in creation. As we will see below, there is a significant connection between high priestly figures in Old Testament prophecy with the theme of the divine warrior.
Cosmological renewal is a theme elsewhere tied to sacrifice in the Old Testament. We should mention in passing, that Levenson has argued that the sacrifice of Passover is strongly tied to the reintegration of the created order.152 Though he does not draw out all the implications of this, we might point out that the plagues of Egypt result in the systematic de-creation of that civilization through the different powers of nature. Such judgment culminates in the return of the Egyptians to watery depths of chaos in the Red Sea (echoing the original creation of Genesis 1 and the destruction of the first creation in Genesis 6–8), whereas the Israelites, freed through the substitution of the paschal lamb, are brought to Sinai. At Sinai they are established as the true worshiping community, and build the tabernacle, the microcosm of the original creation. This furthers reinforces Israel’s identification as the true reconstituted humanity and suggests that the exodus was a recapitulation of creation.153
The priestly mediation was not successful throughout the Old Testament. As early as the priesthood of Eli, the ministrations of the priests were condemned and it is prophesied that YHWH “will raise up for [himself] . . . a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever” (1 Sam 2:35). Though this prophecy might find a preliminary fulfillment in God’s choice of the line of Zadok later in the narrative, as we will see later in the writings of the New Testament (particularly Hebrews), there is recognition that the priesthood would need a final fulfillment and renewal by the Messiah.
Ultimately, the mediation of the priesthood could not hold off the exile. Furthermore, the priesthood could not by its own ministrations communicate holiness, but rather was dependent on God’s presence and justifying power. Beyond the texts in Leviticus we have examined, in Zechariah 3, the Angel of YHWH purifies the high priest Joshua so that cult will be able to function. What this suggests is that the Angel of YHWH is present in (as the kavod) and enables the cult.154 He is also a heavenly high priest in that he cleanses the earthly high priest from his sins. In the same manner that he functions as heavenly high priest, he also functions as a prophet speaking to the patriarchs (Gen 18, 22) and a heavenly king, leading the armies of YHWH (Exod 23, Josh 5, Dan 10).155 Daniel 10:4 in particular suggests that the Angel of YHWH (who here is pictured dressed in the robes of a high priest) is at the same time the leader of YHWH’s heavenly armies (Dan 10:20).156 In this passage, the Angel of YHWH possesses the dual roles of a heavenly priest and king, also held by the mysterious “lord” of Psalm 110.
The heavenly high priest, the Angel of YHWH, also appears to be identical with the “one like a Son of Man” in Daniel 7. As Fletcher-Louis notes, the Son of Man must be a high priestly figure because he undoes all the impurity in creation (symbolized by the mixed animal breeds that come from the sea) by coming on clouds (reminiscent of clouds of incense that the high priest rides within upon entering the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement) while entering into the divine presence.157 He is also given universal dominion (7:14) a prerogative of the Israelite king/Messiah described in Psalm 2:2, and a position held by the protological high priest Adam in Genesis 1:28. This figure must also be identified with the divine kavod, because he comes on the glory cloud, which is a sign of the glorious divine presence from elsewhere in the Old Testament (see Exod 40; 1 Kgs 7–8). Moreover, as a human figure he is pictured in an almost identical way to the vision Ezekiel has of the divine kavod in Ezekiel 1–2.158 Again, all these prophetic visions bear a striking resemblance to the figure that appears in Psalm 110. Here the psalm refers to a heavenly figure who is both the “lord” (v. 1) at the right hand of God and also a “priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (v. 4).159
Not only does the Old Testament suggest that there is a parallel between the earthly high priest and a heavenly high priest who is the Angel of YHWH/kavod, but it predicts an eschatological fulfillment to priestly mediation. We are told in Numbers 25:13 that God has promised the Levites an eternal priesthood.160 Nevertheless, the priesthood still is under the Sinaitic covenant and its curses. If so, then the whole of the priesthood’s failure and sinfulness would logically disqualify them to possess a perpetual priesthood as it did with the house of Eli in 1 Samuel. To maintain the promise of eternal priesthood, God must act to purify creation and to make the priesthood function in a final eschatological act.
Such an implicit eschatological expectation becomes more explicit in the writings of the later prophets. In Malachi 3:3, we are told that God himself will come to purify the sons of Levi.161 The text also tells us that God himself will come to his temple to purify it in the form of the Angel of the Lord: “Behold, I send my messenger [or “My Angel”], and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant [or “Angel of the Covenant”] in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal 3:1, emphasis added).162 This connects with the expectation of the return of God to Zion, found in Isaiah 40 and Ezekiel 37–39.163 In Zechariah 3, we are told that the Angel of YHWH’s purification of the high priest (v. 8) prefigures
