Hebrews 7:1-19 (01/22/2024)

Hebrews 7:1–19

1 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, 2 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,” 3 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. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. 11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

v. i-iv

Hebrews 7:1–4

1 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, 2 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,” 3 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. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

In this part of Hebrews, we begin to see a mystery unravel (in a sense) as we try to discover the identity of this mysterious figure from the Old Testament: Melchizedek.

Here’s what we learn about him from these first four verses:

He is the king of Salem (king of peace).

He is priest of the Most High God.

He met Abraham (this slaughter of the kings is talking about how Abraham had to rescue his nephew, Lot, from some kings and engaged in battle with other kings to defeat them) and blessed him.

Abraham gave him 10% of all he had.

He is the king of righteousness.

**The most important characteristic** His life has no beginning and no end (by now it’s starting to get obvious who it is).

He is the Son of God.

He is a priest continually.

He is great.

With all these clues, I think we know that this is an early picture of Jesus, considering that this Melchizedek figure must be eternal but also able to take on a body. Even before the New Testament, there were these ideas of One who was able to take on a body despite being eternal, which I think makes the claims of some look foolish when they say that Christianity became pagan by preaching the Trinity and the idea therein that Jesus was God. It’s an idea that has always been there, and we just decided to call it Trinity—one God, three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Anyways…Jesus says that Abraham does see Him at the end of John 8 (“he saw it and was glad”, I think I mentioned this last Monday) and since Abraham was glad, this might correlate to the fact that Abraham gave Him a tithe, or a tenth, of all he had. I guess I’ll mention tithes here: the tithe is biblical, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to give exactly 10% of all our money to God; we’re in the New Covenant. That doesn’t mean we can just get away with giving God the bare minimum; we should be giving *more* than 10% if we can. But, more than any fixed amount, we should be a cheerful giver to God, like 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, and like Abraham did to Melchizedek.

v. v-x

Hebrews 7:5–10

5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

Here, the author of Hebrews connects Melchizedek’s priesthood with the Levitical priesthood. In the Levitical priesthood, the tithes were given to Levi (see Numbers 18:21).

Numbers 18:21

21 “Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.

Levi is compared to his great-grandfather Abraham in the moment that he gave his tithes to Melchizedek. It’s saying that even though the Levites received the tithes of the other eleven tribes of Israel, Abraham’s tithe applied to him, too; in simpler terms, it’s as if Abraham and all his descendants gave that offering to Melchizedek. This is trying to point out that even though the Levitical priesthood was good, that it was inferior to Melchizedek’s priesthood. Anyone who’s been here for most of the series remembers that the first 3 chapters showed how everyone was inferior to Jesus. This is the first time that we see anyone else being shown as superior to anything else. This is just more and more evidence for the clear fact at this point that Melchizedek is Jesus. We see this in verse 8, where it is said that the Levitical tithes were given to mortal men (they were going to die eventually). On the other hand, it is witnessed that He lives! Melchizedek did not just die like Abraham did; he lives!

v. xi-xix

Hebrews 7:11–19

11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

Here, the author of Hebrews will use another Old Testament passage, this time from Psalms 110:4, which says:

Psalm 110:4

4 The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

We’ll only focus on the second part of this verse because the author of Hebrews also does an exposition of the first part of the verse in verses xx-xxviii.

The point that the author makes here is that Jesus did not have to be from Israel’s priestly tribe, the tribe of Levi, to be our Great High Priest. In fact, if the Levitical priesthood was sufficient, who is to be “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”? The author makes the case that it makes more sense for Jesus to *not* be from the priestly tribe, that he may be much more in the order of Melchizedek in the sense that He doesn’t need a law to follow because He has already perfected it through the New Covenant. He annuls, or voids, the previous covenant (why? “because of its weakness and unprofitableness”) But Jesus brings in a better hope that draws us nearer to God. We’ll see this when we get deeper into Hebrews: Jesus tore the veil that separated us from God’s presence; that which was only accessible by the High Priest once a year is now accessible by anyone—*anyone*—who calls on the name of the Lord. So let’s pray, and after that, I’ll announce something quick...