HEBREWS 7:1-28 - No Turning Back

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago while we were in Kentucky, the church got an email from a regional representative of Living Waters, Ray Comfort’s evangelistic ministry. He said that he was corresponding with a woman living in Jefferson County who was looking for a church to attend, and wondered if we would be willing to help her with transportation. I wrote back saying we’d be happy to get in touch with her and figure out a way to get her here to Bethel. But then, the next day I got this response back from the Living Waters rep:

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, the gal I’m talking about is really stuck on a few things. She doesn’t want to attend a Church that celebrates “Easter”, she thinks it should be called, “Passover” and says Churches that celebrate Easter on Sundays are not Biblical... She’s caught up in some legalism but obviously doesn’t see it. It doesn’t look like she’s interested in attending your Church, unfortunately… (Email correspondence, 03/07/2024)

Truth be told, she’s not alone, is she? There are many Christians who have taken an unhealthy—and in some cases, even destructive—view of the believer’s relationship to the Old Testament.

Now, to be clear, it is important for us as Christians to understand the Old Covenant roots of our salvation; as one author puts it:

True Biblical Christianity would not exist without its Jewish/Hebrew roots. The Jesus Christ of Christian faith was born of a Jewish mother, into a Jewish home, in the Jewish town of Bethlehem, which was in the Jewish province of Judea. He spent his childhood and young adult years in the Jewish synagogue. When he came forward to announce that he was the long expected Jewish Messiah, that announcement was made in that synagogue setting in Nazareth. It was the Hebrew Jewish prophets who predicted the coming of God’s Messiah… (Mottel Baleston, The Hebrew Roots Movement: Good or Bad? - personal correspondence)

So it is very important for us as Gentile Christians to understand and appreciate the Jewish and Hebrew roots of our faith.

However, there is a caution here. Because while it is spiritually profitable to understand, for instance, the different Jewish Holy Days and their Messianic significance, some Christians go beyond learning about them and believe that we must observe them. Some go so far as to insist that worship be carried out on the Sabbath Day—Saturday—and refuse to associate with any church that worships that day, choosing instead to form their own house-fellowships of like-minded people. Some refuse to use the name Jesus and insist on Yehoshuhah or some other variation. There are some who even insist that they are “Torah-observant”, refusing to eat non-kosher foods or wearing mixed fabrics, and so on. In its extreme variations, some “Hebrew Roots” enthusiasts have even been known to dismiss or radically reinterpret the Apostle Paul’s writings in the New Testament, or even question the deity of Christ Himself. (Baleston, ibid.)

I know that all of this sounds familiar to many of you, because you know people who hold to this type of relationship to the Old Testament and the Law of Moses. Any positive good that might have come out of an interest in learning about the Hebrew/Jewish foundations of our faith has been rendered null and void by this deceptive and spiritually dangerous false teaching.

And so how do we discern the truth? Where is the line drawn between spiritually profitable study of the Hebrew roots of Christianity and a falling away from Christ back into slavery to the Law? This is the question that the writer of Hebrews answers for us here in Hebrews 7. And what he says in this chapter is that

There is nothing to be GAINED by a Christian that RETURNS to the LAW

Here in Hebrews 7, our author returns to the main thread of his argument—the superiority of Christ over all His rivals. You’ll remember from a couple of weeks ago the author lays out the superiority of Christ as the last High Priest that anyone would ever need—here in Chapter 7 he picks up that theme again. Many of his readers were beginning to think about going back to their Jewish roots all the way—that if they really wanted to be close to God, if they really wanted to be partakers of the promises of God’s covenant people, they needed to go back to the Covenant of Abraham and Moses, back to the Levitical system of sacrifices and feasts and observances.

But the writer of Hebrews shows them that they cannot go back to Abraham to find a superior relationship to God because

I. Abraham SUBMITTED to a superior KING (Hebrews 7:1-10)

Look with me at verses 1-3 of Hebrews 7--

Hebrews 7:1–3 (LSB)

For this MELCHIZEDEK, KING OF SALEM, PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, who met ABRAHAM AS HE WAS RETURNING FROM THE SLAUGHTER OF THE KINGS and BLESSED HIM, TO WHOM ALSO ABRAHAM APPORTIONED A TENTH PART OF ALL, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is 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, he remains a priest continually.

Now, here is one of the reasons why we say that the Old Testament is a prerequisite course for understanding Hebrews. In order to unpack this mysterious figure of Melchizedek, we need to go back to what we are accustomed to seeing about the kings in the Old Testament. So first off—he is the King of Salem, which was the ancient name for the city of Jerusalem. “Salem” comes from “shalom”, which means… peace. So The King of Peace is reigning in Jerusalem. And the writer points out that his name means “King of Righteousness” or “Righteous King” (melech—king, zadok—righteousness). So the Righteous King of Peace reigns in Jerusalem. (Is this starting to sound familiar?)

And when we read about the other kings who reigned in Jerusalem in the Old Testament, what are we always told? A typical example comes from the record of Jehoshaphat’s reign:

1 Kings 22:41–42 (LSB)

Now Jehoshaphat the son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi...

What are we told—his father’s name, his mother’s name, and how long he reigned:

1 Kings 22:50 (LSB)

And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

But when Melchizedek appears, what do we learn about his genealogy? Nothing! Now that doesn’t mean (as some have speculated) that Melchizedek had no parents, or that he was some sort of angel or spirit or something—or even that he was a pre-incarnate appearance of God the Son—verse 3 says that he was “made like the Son of God, [remaining] a priest continually.” So the author of Hebrews isn’t saying that King Melchizedek was an appearance of Christ, he is saying that

Melchizedek was a TYPE of CHRIST (vv. 1-3)

These Jewish Christians were contemplating going all the way back to their Jewish roots because Christ did not offer them as close a relationship to God as they could have through their connection to Abraham. So the writer shows them that even if they go that far back to Abraham himself, all they will find is him submitting himself to the eternal priest-king of righteousness himself! And by giving a tenth of all his spoils from his victory over Chedorlaomer, Abraham was demonstrating his submission to a greater king than himself. There is nothing to be gained for a Christian who wants to go back to Abrahamic roots—go back to bow at Father Abraham’s feet and you will find he is already kneeling at the feet of Christ!

The author presses his point even further in the following verses:

Hebrews 7:4–5 (LSB)

Now observe how great this man was TO WHOM ABRAHAM, the patriarch, GAVE A TENTH of the spoils. And those indeed of the sons of Levi, who receive the priest’s office, have a commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brothers, although these are descended from Abraham.

Hebrews 7:9–10 (LSB)

And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

Not only did Abraham already submit to the King of Righteousness, but in him so did the entire Mosaic Law! This is because

Abraham was the FEDERAL head of the LEVITES (vv. 4-10; cp. Romans 5:19)

The Latin word where we get our word “federal”, foedus, literally means “covenant”—the idea here is that what Abraham did when he paid tithes to Melchizedek represented his descendants’ paying tithes as well.

The concept of “federal headship” is central to Biblical theology, because it is also the reason we share in the guilt of our father Adam’s sin—he was acting as the head of the entire human race:

Romans 5:12 (LSB)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

And—thanks be to God!—the concept of federal headship is also the way we participate in the righteousness of Christ:

Romans 5:19 (LSB)

For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be appointed righteous.

So this is the basis of Hebrews’ point that you cannot find a superior righteousness by going back to the Mosaic Law and its sacrifices, because all of the Levitical priests have already submitted to Christ! There is nothing to be gained by a Christian that returns to the Law—Abraham (and by his headship, all the Levitical priests of Moses as well) have already submitted to the eternal King of Righteousness and Peace!

But the author of Hebrews isn’t done—after demonstrating that Abraham submitted to a superior king, he builds off of his point about the Levitical priesthood in verses 11-21 to demonstrate that

II. Aaron was SURPASSED by a superior PRIEST (Hebrews 7:11-21)

Hebrews 7:11 (LSB)

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

The Levitical priesthood was the way the people received the Law of Moses—through the sacrifices, the feasts, the ceremonial purities, and so on. But the author is clear—that priesthood was imperfect! He says it again more directly in verses 18-19:

Hebrews 7:18–19 (LSB)

For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect)...

Here is another reason why there is nothing to be gained for a Christian who wants to go back to so-called “Hebrew Roots” of observing the Law of Moses in regard to feast days, kosher foods, and so on: That was all meant to be a temporary system! The Levitical priesthood descended from Aaron was always meant to be a placeholder—look at verses 12-15:

Hebrews 7:12–15 (LSB)

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek,

The perfected priesthood does not come through one who possesses Levitical DNA from Aaron—the perfect priesthood belongs to

One who possesses an INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFE (v. 16)

Christian, what point is there in going back and identifying with a priesthood of Aaron and the Levites, when that priesthood has been retired? You are not getting a closer relationship with God by keeping kosher and celebrating New Moon festivals and learning how to sound a shofar—you are massively downgrading! Because every one of the priests who administered that Covenant are rotting away in their graves. Pick up all of the implements of the Old Law of Moses because you think you will find a deeper, more vibrant, more life-giving Christianity in them, but all you will have in your hands is dead men’s tools. The priests of Aaron and their works cannot bring you life because they couldn’t live long enough!

You do realize, don’t you, that there are vast swaths of Torah that it is impossible to keep today? Because the focal point of all of the sacrifices and festivals and worship of the Torah was the tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem. For instance Every male is required by Torah to present himself at the tabernacle (Temple) three times a year—how’s that work since the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70? The only traditions you have left to you are the traditions of rabbinic Judaism, which are the very “traditions of the elders” that Jesus preached against! The priesthood of the Law of Moses was kept and preserved and defended by men who are all dead now. The only priesthood that can avail for you now is the one kept by the Priest Who cannot die because He has already conquered death!

Jesus Christ is a superior priest because He is one who possesses an indestructible life, and because He is

One Who promises a BETTER HOPE (vv. 19-22)

Look again starting in verse 18:

Hebrews 7:18–22 (LSB)

For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER’”); so much more Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Remember how we saw earlier in Hebrews 6 that God has staked the glory of His Name on your salvation—He must keep His promise to save you because His reputation depends on it, and He will not allow His Name to be diminished. The author comes back to this here in these verses, quoting again from Psalm 110:4

Psalm 110:4 (LSB)

Yahweh has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

God never swore an oath to confirm the priesthood of Aaron—in fact, his priesthood failed at the destruction of the Temple. But the priesthood of Christ can never fail—it has been confirmed by the One Who cannot lie, the One Who has staked His glory itself on the eternal priesthood of the ever-living Son of God!

And so the writer asks his readers: Why are you considering going back to that? There is nothing to be gained by a Christian trying to return to Abrahamic roots or Levitical priesthood or so-called “Hebrew Roots”, because

III. Jesus SAVES by a superior COVENANT (Hebrews 7:22-28)

Hebrews 7:22 (LSB)

so much more Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Through the rest of the chapter, the writer lays out two specific ways that the priesthood of Christ is superior to anything that can be gained by “downgrading” back to the Old Covenant. First, unlike the Levitical priests descended from Aaron,

His INTERCESSION can never FAIL (vv. 23-25)

Hebrews 7:23–25 (LSB)

And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

There had to be a long line of priests descended from Aaron and Levi, because they kept dying off! And not only that, but when you consider the totality of their lives, they only spent a fraction of their time actually presenting intercession for the people. They had to sleep, they had to eat, they had to care for their own families, they had step aside due to sickness or old age. Levitical priests could only intercede for you before Yahweh while they were alive, awake, and not doing anything else.

But your High Priest, Christian, never ceases interceding for you! He doesn’t only get around to you once a month or so and start sorting through all your prayers and petitions and repentances to bring to his Father; He doesn’t neglect you while you get buried under temptations and falls before He starts pleading for you--He does it immediately! There is no prayer or petition or cry for repentance or pleading for help that He does not immediately hear and present to His Father! (And you’re saying you’d rather go back to waiting in line for your turn with the Levitical priest of Moses’ Law because that somehow makes you a “more authentic Christian” In what reality is that true???)

And will you consider also that, even when the Levitical priests were standing before the altar to make sacrifices for sin, half the time they were atoning for their own sin! So even when you did get your turn with the priest, you only got fifty percent of his intercessions! The other half were for himself! That’s the point of verse 27! Your High Priest, Christian

Hebrews 7:27 (LSB)

...does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people...

Your High Priest saves by a superior covenant because

His SACRIFICE will never be REPEATED (vv. 26-28)

Hebrews 7:27–28 (LSB)

who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Go home and read the first five chapters of Leviticus—the whole book is the same, but just start with the first five chapters. Let it open your eyes to the sheer toil that was involved in the Levitical priesthood—constantly slaughtering animals, separating the fat from the lean, carving out the thigh, burning this animal on the altar, that animal outside the camp, finger-painting blood on the altar just so, shoveling the ashes, presenting offerings of grain and bread and cakes, cleansing utensils, carrying wood, hauling water—it never ended, because the sin of the people was never fully removed.

And somehow you think those covenant sacrifices were more “pure” or “holy” or more spiritual than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross? The Levites presented those sacrifices for centuries, and never got to the end of them. Messiah Jesus, on one Friday afternoon accomplished more—and perfectly—than all of the thousands of Levitical priests ever did.

So the writer of Hebrews asks his readers: Why would you want to go back to that? How is the one-time, once-for-all sacrifice of the very Son of God Himself— “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (v. 26)—somehow less glorious to you than a weary, blood-drenched, sin-riddled, frail Levite slitting the throat of his fiftieth goat for that day? There is nothing to be gained for a Christian who wants to return to that Law, that priesthood, those roots.

Remember the old saying about visiting New York City? “It’s a nice place to visit, but… [you wouldn’t want to live there…]”. In the same way, Christian, there is so much to learn about the Jewish background of Messiah Jesus, so much to learn about the richness of the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith; so much to marvel at and such depth of meaning to be plumbed in the feasts of the Old Law and how they point ahead to the Messiah; such poignant and beautiful and admonishing truth to be gleaned from seeing and savoring the Old Covenant promises of life fulfilled in Yeshuhah ha Meschiach. It’s a wonderful place to visit—but there is no life there! Even for Jewish believers, who have grown up within Judaism, when they come to Christ while embracing all of their Jewish heritage (as is right and proper)—even they do not look on their Jewishness as making them more saved by Christ than any Gentile!

The only life for you, Christian, is found in Christ’s fulfillment of and completion of the Law of Moses. And if your delight is in learning about the Jewish soil of our faith and how the millennia of covenant faithfulness to God’s people under Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses and David is all gloriously fulfilled in Jesus Christ, then it is a good thing to learn and embrace.

But see to it, beloved, that you do not fall into the trap of believing that any of this will make you a more biblical Christian. You are not somehow “closer” to God because you use the Name Yahweh or prepare a kosher Sabbath dinner at sundown on Friday. The Apostle Paul makes it unmistakably clear that such things have nothing to do with your acceptance before God:

Romans 14:17 (LSB)

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

You have no call to look down on other Christians because they eat shellfish or go to work on Saturdays or wear cotton-wool blend sweaters, because God has made it clear that Jews as Jews and Gentiles as Gentiles are EQUALLY REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST:

Ephesians 2:14–15 (LSB)

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace,

You cannot make yourself more beloved by God by calling Him Yahweh and (badly) blowing a shofar at the beginning of your worship services. You cannot be more holy than other believers by separating yourself into little house-fellowships of “Torah-observant” believers. You cannot be more redeemed by the blood of Christ by anything you do or learn or by any Hebrew/Jewish distinctives you embrace. Your only plea for righteousness before God is not by your works of the Law, but by your trust in the perfect obedience of the One whose sacrifice never needs to be repeated, and Whose intercession for you will never cease for all eternity—your Perfect High Priest of the Eternal Covenant sealed by the Unbreakable Oath of Almighty God—your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LSB)

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________