Hebrews 6:13-7:28

Last time on...

The whole point of this sermon-like letter is to show that Jesus is greater. Jesus is greater than prophets, Angels, Moses, Aaron. He then began talking about how Jesus is a greater high priest, but he took a few minutes in chapter 6 to warn his readers about falling away. That’s what we studied last time.

That section can be summarized as this: if we continue to just ‘feed’ ourselves on the elementary truths of the faith, or baby milk, our faith will eventually wither. And if it begins to wither, there is a real danger in falling away. And if we fall away, there is an even greater danger in not being able to return! The author ends the section with this very important sentence.

Hebrews 6:11-12 “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Are you struggling with your faith? Imitate those who came before us! In the next section the author is going to give us a very familiar example of someone who ‘through faith and patience inherited the promises.’ and it’s going to be Abraham.

From the example of Abraham, the author is going to then return to his conversation about Jesus being our great high priest that he started in chapter 5.

Things to consider.

The original audience reading this letter were Jewish Christians who were tempted to abandon their faith in Jesus and go back to the old way of things. To Gentile readers like us, the conversation on priesthood may not be as significant. That’s not to say it isn’t significant, but we’ve never lived under the Old Covenant and its priests.

Nonetheless, this passage still bridges some important gaps between the Old and New Covenants theologically. Most importantly, the author of Hebrews is going to tell us a lot about who Christ is through his High Priestly role.

Interpretation elements to consider

Types

Before we dive into the text, I want to briefly explain what a ‘type of Christ’ is because it’s going to be important as the author discusses an OT character named Melchizedek.

As we know, the Old Testament points to Jesus. This happens in a variety of ways. One of which is types. Most ‘types of Christ’ are people that we find in the Old Testament narrative. These people display character traits or similarities to Jesus - they themselves serve as a signpost or a prophecy to Christ.

Some are obvious, like King David - the King born in Bethlehem, rules his people justly, conquers his enemies, ect. and King Solomon - Rules in Peace and Wisdom. All of those are traits of Jesus, which makes these people types.

Some are less obvious, as we will see today with Melchizedek.

Some are ‘better’ types than others I would say. And an entire person’s life (which includes sin and is often told in the narrative) doesn’t disqualify someone from being a type. A ‘type of Christ’ isn’t Christ himself - it’s simply a way to show that these people lived or did something in a way that resembles and points to Christ.

Order

The other interpretation element I want you to be aware of is order. Specifically, chronological order of events in the OT.

Jewish theology in the New Testament put a lot of weight on the order of events. Typically, if something comes first, it’s is greater. This is especially true for births.

The firstborn has the highest rank (we’ve seen this in Hebrews already, applied to Jesus).

Beyond the firstborn, order of birth also determines rank. We see this with Jesus and John the Baptist (who was born first) when John says, “He who comes after me is greater than me, and I am not worthy to untie his sandles.” (typically this would be said of someone who came before John, not after.)

Similarly, the people were shocked when Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Not only is Jesus claiming to be God in that statement, but he’s claiming to be greater than Abraham because he was ‘before’ Abraham.

For our discussion today, this birth order will be significant, but so also will be the order of the promise, law, and covenant. This isn’t new - Paul talks about this in his letters as well, particularly how the promise to Abraham is greater than circumcision because it came first.

Hebrews 6:13-20: Can we trust God?

Perhaps you’ve found yourselves like the original audience of this letter: for whatever reason, maybe this Jesus thing just doesn’t seem to be cutting it and you’ve been tempted to walk away from Him. To some extant I think we all have.

While these believers are dealing with external forces tugging at them - familiarity, persecution, cultural intrique - they also are probably asking themselves, “When is God going to fulfil his promise and send Jesus back? Its been almost 30 years.”

For those of us who have been waiting for 2000 years, we might be able to sympathize with them.

So the author of Hebrews not only reminds us to look towards those who have already patiently waited, but he points us specifically to Abraham, who knew a thing or two about patiently waiting on God.

Hopefully you’re familiar with the story of Abraham. Two key parts play a factor here: When God first promised to give Abraham a son (which then took 25 years to happen), and then when he told Abe to sacrifice Isaac to test his faith (after, God ‘doubled-down’ on his promise).

The second part, the sacrifice of Isaac, is what the author of Hebrews want to draw our attention to.

“If you’re struggling with holding on to the hope that God has promised, just think of Abraham, who waited 25 years for the initial fulfilment of the promise - but then never actually lived to see the whole thing come to fruition. And yet, it did. His descendents were numerous and took over a land as God promised.”

Moreover, for those of us who may be feeling pressured to abandon our faith, think of how much pressure Abe underwent for his! I think most of us would rather die by the sword, than kill our own child. And yet, Abraham was willing to do just that.

The central focus of this section isn’t on Abraham though - it’s that when God makes a promise, He keeps it.

God swears by himself, since there is nobody greater than Him.

In the case of Abraham, God ‘doubled-down’ on his promise (I think this is what is meant by ‘two unchangeable things’ he said i twice!)

God cannot lie! It’s impossible!

Two things: the author said God confirmed this promise to Abraham by an oath, this is going to be very important for the next section.

But second, notice how he says that all these events took place because, “God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise…so that we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

Who are the heirs of the promise? That’s us! So the author telling us that when we read the story of Abraham - those events weren’t just for Abraham - they were done so that you and I would be able to look back and have an example of God keeping his promises!

This is incredible, and showcases the foreknowledge of God, and also his love and kindness of thinking ahead to provide examples for us to turn to when we need encouragement.

And what does this illustration of God fulfilling his promise to Abraham also point to for us? “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

God keeps his promises. And he has promised us a hope of salvation through Jesus, who has ‘gone before’ us into the heavenly tabernacle.

Notice the implication of this - Jesus is a forerunner so that we can follow him. Under the old system, only one person, once a year, could enter ‘behind the curtain’. But our Lord and Savior has entered in before us, paving the way for us to follow him there.

Hebrews 7: Melchizi-who?

The author ends chapter 6 by telling us that “Jesus has become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” This is is transition back into what he was previously talking about in chapter 5. This passage is a bit long winded, and can be convoluted - you know preachers! But it is very important to our Christology that is our theology of Christ.

Do you know who Melchizedek is? It’s okay if you don’t - he’s kind of easy to miss. His story takes up a grand total of two verses in the Old Testament! In fact, the author of Hebrews spends more time talking about him than even Moses does!

Genesis 14:18-20 “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”

That’s it! But there is also an important line in Psalm 110 that the author of Hebrews has already mentioned.

Psalm 110:4 “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.””

The author is going to exegete both of these passages to show us how Jesus is a greater high priest, and what that all entails.

Hebrews 7:1-10

The first three verses are the author showing us that Melchizedek is a type of Christ:

His name means ‘King of Righteousness’ (the same name can be given to Jesus).

His title, King of Salem (which was the old, old name of Jerusalem) means ‘king of peace’ (so also a title that can be applied to Jesus, who is also striclty speaking king of Jersusalem).

According to the text in Genesis, Melchizedek suddenly appears, and then disappears - we have no record of his parents, or anyone after him. And so in a literary sense, he has ‘no beginning nor end of life’. That ‘resembles the Son of God’ who has no beginning nor has an end - thus both are a ‘priest forever’.

It’s important to note that this isn’t implying that Melchizedek was some ‘superhuman’ who really wasn’t born, and really didn’t die. The author is imply using what the text gives us as a comparison.

Finally, Abraham gave a tenth of his tithe to this King of Salem. You don’t just give your money to anyone. They have to be someone pretty special.

Why? Because according to the old law, only the Levitical priesthood could take tithes. And yet, two generations before Levi was even born, we see Abraham giving a tithe to a non-Levitical priest. And as we talked about at the beginning - order is important - so if the Levitical priests were great, how much greater is Melchizedek and anyone who is a priest like him.

The author ends this section with a little bit of a joke by saying, “One might even say that Levi himself paid the tax, since he was in Abraham’s loins at time of payment.” (An astute observer would also realize that this could technically apply to Jesus too, and the author realizes this.)

The whole point of this section is to show that the priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the Levitical priesthood. The next section will be showing how Jesus is a member of the Melchizedek priesthood.

7:11-14

Now we get into some realistic questions about the OT law and its purpose.

Perfection: it’s this idea of completeness, or wholeness. The author has already applied to Jesus himself earlier. Now he discusses it in the content of the Old Covennant

The Old Covenenant couldn’t bring ‘perfection’ to those under it. That doesn’t mean it was bad! Pefection just wasn’t it’s purpose. The purpose of the Law was to usher us to Christ who can complete us.

And so there are a couple things going on here: Psalm 110:4 was written well after the law was given, and tells us that another priest (in the order of Melchizedek) will be declared.

Well if the Old Law could lead to perfection, why was a new priest needed? As the author notes - a new priest implies that a change in the law is needed as well. And so none of this should be a surprise - anyone who thinks or thought that the OT was ‘all there was’, should have known from Psalm 110:4, that it wasn’t. A new priest, and a new covenant were eventually coming.

The author is making the case that that new priest, in the order of Melchizedek is Jesus! There’s just one small hiccup...

Jesus wasn’t a Levite. He was from the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe. So he couldn’t be a priest...

(Notice how the author says that it is ‘evident that our Lord was descended from Judah’. We of course know this from Matthew and Luke, but as evidence for Jesus historically, this line tells us that Jesus’s ancestory was well known!)

7:15-28

To anyone who points to the tribal problem, the author of Hebrews responds with, “Not so fast my friends!”

It’s true that Jesus wasn’t a Levite - so he wasn’t a priest on the basis of a ‘legal requirement concerning bodily descent’. Instead, he’s a priest in the likeness of Melchizedek - and on what basis of not a legal requirement? An indestructible life.

You see, the text tells us, as the author noted earlier, that Melchizedek in a sense ‘didn’t die’. And neither does Jesus - who rose from the dead an lives forever! Therefore, Jesus is qualified to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

And this isn’t a shock - Psalm 110:4 clearly says, “You are a priest forever”

And so, the Old Law is done away with because it was ‘weak and useless’ (it couldn’t perfect us), and a new, better hope, is ushered in which allows us to draw near to God. Amen!

Indeed this wasn’t the issue with the Old Covenant - it protected us until Christ came (Paul says this in Galations), but itself was never able to bring us close to God, perfect us, or truly take away our sins.

But Jesus isn’t just a priest like Melchizedek, and therefore a greater priest, because he lives forever - Jesus was made a priest by an oath.

Remember we saw how important this oath taking was in the story of Abraham earlier. As important as God taking an oath is, he didn’t take an oath when declaring Levites priests.

But according to Psalm 110:4 The Lord declared Jesus a priest with an oath: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.””

And notice that because Jesus was declared a high priest by an oath, ‘God will not change his mind.’ This is an important difference because the author has just argued that God did change the covenants - but this second covenant, with Jesus as high priest will never change.

So this call comes full circle: This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. God has decreed that Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek and the guarantor of a new and better covenent through an oath. And we know from Abraham, that when God makes an oath/promise - he keeps it!

If we find ourselves questioning our faith, we have hope that God keeps his promises, and that’s something we can take straight to the bank if we stick with Jesus.

Hebrews 7:23-28

This last section, having established that Jesus is a high priest of a new covenant, serves to show how Jesus is greater than the old high priests.

The #1 problem with the old priesthood was that they died. So they couldn’t hold their office and ‘intercede’ for everyone. The Jewish Historian Josephus claimed that between Aaron and the fall of Jerusalem in 72 AD, there were something like 83 high priests.

Jesus though, is a high priest that lives forever. So he is a priest permanently ‘because he continues forever’. And why is that important? Because that means he’s able to save those of us who draw to God through Him, completely.

Some translations say, ‘uttermost’. It’s a difficult word to translate. But it means ‘completely’ or ‘for all time’. Basically, what the law was powerless to do (make us perfect), Jesus is able to. I think the author intended a double meaning here: Jesus lives forever, therefore our salvation is forever, but it also shows that our livelong sanctification process (this idea of being made righteous, holy, sanctified) is trustworthy - our priest won’t die in the process! Instead, he ‘always lives to make intercession’ for us.

Finally, there are 5 traits the author lists that Jesus has as a high priest that makes him different and greater:

He is holy (different, righteous, pius.)

He is innocent (no moral wrongdoing).

Unstained (No sin).

Separated from sinners (likely referring to his being in heaven right now, as implied by the next one)

Exalted above the heavens (Jewish theology believed in different ‘heavens’ with God dwelling in the ‘highest heaven’ (see Paul’s vision of going to the ‘third heaven’). Here the author tells us that Jesus has ascended ‘through the heavens’ and is now in God’s presence - this will be discussed more later.)

Finally, the old priests have to offer sacrifices daily, and first for their own sin. (This is in the present tense, which means the author knows that these things were still happening in the temple as he wrote). Jesus on the other hand, doesn’t need to do any of that - because he himself was the sacrifice.

Conclusion

This has been a long-winded way of saying that Jesus Christ is our perfect high priest, who ushers in a new covenant that is superior to the old, just as he is superior to the old priests! We have our confidence in this hope because God declared it all with an oath, and like we learned from Abraham: God keeps his promises.