Back to Basics

Review

A couple of weeks ago when we left off our study in Hebrews we learned that Jesus was more awesome than Aaron, that His priesthood was superior to the Aaronic priesthood.

We learned that Jesus demonstrated a better position, and a better demonstration of what the priesthood signifies, and that this permits us to draw near to him.

Jesus represented a new kind of priest, yet He fulfilled the four requirements of priesthood. He was human, He offers gifts and sacrifices, He is compassionate, He was appointed by God.

Not Ready

The author of Hebrews called this, a priesthood in the order of Melchizedek, but he stopped abruptly. He says the Hebrews were not ready to get into the full teaching that the writer of the epistle was about to lay on them.

He says, starting in chapter 5.

Hebrews 5:5–14 NKJV

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

So the writer of Hebrews wants to tell them about this Melchizedek, but they are not ready to hear about it. Look at verse 11.

Hebrews 5:11 NKJV

of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

They had become dull of hearing. The Greek here would be more precisely translated as “lazy as to one’s ears” the implication being that someone failed to understand not due to lack of intelligence, but due to laziness, and then he goes on to prove it to them.

Hebrews 5:12–13 NKJV

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

A Bunch of Babies

He says, “look you’re full grown adults but you are too lazy to chew the food that’s being provided to you. You’d much rather lay around being bottle fed these basics because you are a bunch of unskilled babies! What people who are mature require is solid food, and what is maturity? It is those who have been in the Gospel long enough who have developed their spiritual discernment to the point that they can separate good doctrine from bad doctrine.

Beware the Danger

The writer of Hebrews then goes on to encourage them to go beyond the elementary basic truths with which they were so obsessed - it appears that this group of Hebrews had dumbed down their faith so as to make is so simplistic that they were missing the deeper understanding of who God was. He says

Hebrews 6:1–3 NKJV

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

And then he warns them, saying “you need the kind of maturity that will help you persevere in your efforts to live lives worthy of Christ” If not, you run the risk of falling away in a way that represents more than just back-sliding, but it represents going so far that one turns their back completely on their salvation

Hebrews 6:4–8 NKJV

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

The warning is clear, and it is a passage that give the Calvinists all kinds of fits. It doesn’t support their doctrine of eternal security, but it does give a truth. There is a point where you can so badly turn from God that you actually lose your salvation. What is that point? Well it’s beyond the topic of our study today, but let’s suffice it to say if you’re the least bit concerned about whether you’ve crossed that line or not, then you can rest assured that you have not. If you had crossed that line, you would care whether you did or you didn’t.

Be Diligent

He closes by reassuring the Hebrew believers that they believe in them and have confidence that they will be able to achieve this maturity based upon the fruit that they were bearing.

Hebrews 6:9–11 NKJV

But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,

Reminding them that they need to keep that same attitude that they’ve shown up until now ans put it to good measure.

Hebrews 6:11–12 NKJV

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Why We Believe in You

The author encourages the Hebrews by reminding them how God dealt with Abraham. The start of Abraham’s spiritual journey actually started with a promise. A promise that he would make him into a great nation, that his name would be great and that through him all the people of the earth would be blessed. (Gen 12:2-3) Then God expanded on that promise Genesis 17 when He promised an old man that he was going to be the father of many nations, but when Abraham considered his wife’s age (about 90 at the time) he had no faith to believe for it. Think about it, Abraham had already expressed his faith in God’s blessing by leaving Ur of the Chaldeans, and even the first time God told him he’d be receiving a son (Genesis 15:6) but that was a while ago and how is he supposed to trust God now? Surely if God really wanted this to happen for him He would have done so already, and now he’s being asked to believe an impossible promise yet again.

Here the Hebrews were similarly being asked to believe the impossible. But not just to believe it as a one time thing, but to accept it as a way of life, much like Abraham did, for God had shown Abraham that He was capable of doing the impossible. So much was Abraham willing to trust God that when God asked him to sacrifice his own son, Abraham did not waver in his faith.

Genesis 22:15–16 NKJV

Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—

This is the type of faith they were to have, and to strengthen the authority of God’s promises the writer of Hebrews gives his readers something that they can absolutely rest upon.

To the Jew, there are two unchangeable truths. God’s promise and God’s Oath. So critical are these things to the Jew that there is a fundamental of faith taught by the Hebrew sage Maimonides, in his Principles of Faith, taught all Jews to say, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and though he delay yet shall I wait for him.”

The Jews so fiercely believe this that this exact statement was uttered by Jews even as they went to their death in the Nazi gas chambers. It has an oath-like quality that resound in hope that God will fulfill his promise to send Meshiach. Here the Hebrews had witnessed the fulfilment of this word in Jesus and now they needed to trust solely in the faithfulness of the very one of whom this word was spoken.

Now the writer of Hebrews is calling upon the surety of that faith that they held in the soon coming of Meshiach to lead them to faith in the risen and ascended Meschiach.

So what is the Order of Melchizedek?

OK pastor, that’s good and well but who is Melchizedek and what is so special about a priest in this order?

Let’s read it for ourselves.

Hebrews 7:1–3 NKJV

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

So let’s break this down. The name Melchizedek is made up of two Hebrew words. Melech and Tzedik. Melech means King and tzedik means righteousness. So this King of Righteousness was unique in that he was both a king AND a priest! This is something that was not permitted!

There were times in the Bible when the King got too big for his britches and too upon himself duties that weren’t his to take on. The first time was when king Saul got tired of waiting for Samuel and offered sacrifices to God in advance of a battle. What was the result of that?

1 Samuel 13:11–14 NKJV

And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Everyone thinks that Saul was rejected as King because he failed to kill the Amalekite kings, and livestock, but that was just the fulfilment of the sentence that had been pronounced on the king because he failed to stay in his lane and did the job of a priest.

This wasn’t the only time this happened. in 2 Chronicles, we read that King Uzziah tried to do the same thing, and in spite of the fact that up until this point Uzziah had proved himself to be a good king, God judged him immediately and harshly. He became a leper and had to live out the rest of his days isolated from everyone.

Not since the days of Melchizedek has God permitted anyone to sit as both king and priest at the same time. But this was prophesied by another famous king of Israel - David.

Psalm 110 NKJV

A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside; Therefore He shall lift up the head.

Yet in spite of this, the thought that Messiah would also be a priest had escaped the imagination of the Jews. And the writer of Hebrews is here, putting things together for them. He says look! Jesus, our Messiah was much more than we could have imagined. We imagined him to be a king, but he is also a priest!

One last thing I want to point out about this King of Righteousness - this priest-king. This priest-king was also the King of Salem. What does that have to do with anything? What do we know about the Greek language? Why do we call Jesus Jesus instead of Yeshua? Well it’s because the Greeks didn’t have the Sh sound in their language, so Yeshua became Iesua, but that didn’t work because that would be a female’s name in Greek, so they changed the gender of the name the way Greeks often do Iesus. It wasn’t until about 1700 years later that the I was changed to a J to become what we now know as Jesus. Why is that significant? Because Melchizedek is not the King of Salem, he’s the king of Shalem, which is a derivative of Shalayim. The same word that is in the word Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). And that is the word Shalom - peace. He is the King of Righteousness AND the King of Peace!

Putting it All Together

The covenant that the Hebrews were yearning for was inferior in every way! That covenant had mediators, but no one to guarantee the salvation of the individual. In Messiah, however, that provision is made.

Hebrews 7:22 NKJV

by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Just like these Hebrews we often look at our shortcomings, our character deficits our sin issues and we try to deal with it by being better, by trying harder. The point of all that the epistle is pointing out not only to the Jews who were wanting to trust in the sacrifices in the Temple, but to you and me, who want to atone for our sins and shortcomings by trying harder and doing better, is that the only way that we can do better in our relationship with Jesus is to trust in our relationship with Messiah, because that is the only way to achieve that

Hebrews 7:19b (NKJV)

...a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

Let us all cease from striving for perfection on our own efforts and instead enter into the rest we spoke of a few weeks ago. Trust your Messiah, trust the King of Righteousness to make you righteous, trust the King of Shalom to give you peace. And I will let the author of this epistle sum up this weeks lesson.

Hebrews 8:1–2 NKJV

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.