The Past Tenths

Hebrews 7:4-10

H P: Brothers and sisters, continue to consider the supremacy of Christ's continual great high priestly office. We consider that office by considering the Truth, the Tenth, and the Testimony.

Introduction

The Christian faith is not about feelings. It is not a blind faith. It is an intellectual one, one we must consider and apply to our lives. As Christians we are to greatly consider the truths of the whole of Scripture.

Verse 4 gives us the hinge word: "Now consider how great this man was."

I. The Truth (v. 4)

Explanation

"Now consider how great this man was: even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder to him." (Hebrews 7:4, CSB)

Abraham, superior to Moses, Levi, David, Solomon, and all the patriarchs, is the one who tithes to Melchizedek and is blessed by him, proving Melchizedek is greater. The writer regards it as axiomatic that the act of blessing implies the superiority of the one giving the blessing.

Illustration

Abraham gives a tenth to Melchizedek but refuses the spoils of the king of Sodom. Both offers meet him in the same scene of Genesis 14.

Application

As spiritual seed of Abraham we too must not be indebted to this world, and so are free to give what is honorable to the Lord. Abraham gave the best, the top of the heap of the spoils.

Lindsay: "What we do for God should be done to the very best of our ability. What we offer to God should be the best at our disposal."

II. The Tenth (vv. 5-7)

Explanation

"The sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a command according to the law to collect a tenth from the people... But one without this lineage collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. Without a doubt, the inferior is blessed by the superior." (Hebrews 7:5-7, CSB)

Martin: "Consider first, as we saw in Hebrews 7:3, Melchizedek possessed a life-powered priesthood, while the sons of Levi had a law-powered priesthood."

The Levites received the priestly office by the law's appointment (Hebrews 7:16) and received tithes from fellow Israelites solely by the law's appointment (Numbers 18:21), not because of spiritual superiority but because the law required it. No covenant statute required Abraham to pay tithes to Melchizedek. Melchizedek was not a priest with rights granted by divinely given legislation.

The point in Hebrews is that Melchizedek’s parentage and origin are irrelevant to his priesthood.

John F. MacArthur

Illustration

Even Abraham, who himself carried out priestly acts, bows to the greater priest. Scripture never formally names the patriarchs priests, no office, no sanctuary, no installation, yet they functioned as priests, clustered around altars. He built altars and called on the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:7, 12:8, 13:4, 13:18). He offered sacrifice in the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) and cut the covenant animals (Genesis 15). He interceded for Sodom (Genesis 18) and prayed for Abimelech, whom God calls a prophet who would pray and heal (Genesis 20:7). Even with all these priestly acts, Abraham tithes to and is blessed by Melchizedek. The one who functions as a priest acknowledges a superior priesthood.

Application

The one whose life is full of worship still bows to the greater priest. So must we.

III. The Testimony (vv. 8-10)

Explanation

"In the one case, men who will die receive a tenth, but in the other case, Scripture testifies that he lives. And in a sense Levi himself, who receives a tenth, has paid a tenth through Abraham, for he was still within his ancestor when Melchizedek met him." (Hebrews 7:8-10, CSB)

Lea (Holman New Testament Commentary, gen. ed. Max Anders): "Since Levi was Abraham's great-grandson and was unborn when Abraham met Melchizedek, he could be described as already in Abraham's loins. Biblical thought accepted the idea that an ancestor contained within himself all of his descendants."

Viewed through solidarity, Levi paying tithes through Abraham is more striking than Levi's right to receive tithes from others. The tribe whose whole identity is built on receiving the tenth is caught, in its father Abraham, giving the tenth. The receivers become givers, and whoever receives from the tithe-receivers must be greater. Levi's own signature privilege is turned upward to Melchizedek, proving his superiority even more clearly.

Illustration

Aaron and Moses were both from the line of Levi (Exodus 6:16-20: Levi, Kohath, Amram and Jochebed, Aaron and Moses). So Aaron, head of the Levitical priesthood, was himself in Abraham's loins paying the tithe to Melchizedek alongside Levi.

Martin calls the individualism of Western society a "philosophical handicap": because we think individualistically we are ill-prepared when Scripture speaks corporately. Western man regards himself as possessing legal independence with reference to the actions of others. Our motto is, "I am my own man." It is ingrained in our psyche that no one has the right to act for me or make me responsible for others' actions without my permission. But the Bible affirms God has made us accountable for the acts of others in some things.

This reflects imputation: Adam's sin imputed to us, and Christ's righteousness imputed to us. Romans 5:12, God deals with men not only individually but corporately, through our divinely appointed representatives, our federal heads (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:22). As the 1689, chapter 6, puts it: "They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath."

Imputation versus transmission: imputation is legal, the guilt of Adam's first sin credited to your account because he stood as your federal head. Transmission is organic, the corrupted nature passed down the bloodline by ordinary generation. Guilt is imputed; nature is transmitted. In Adam, guilt is imputed to all his natural posterity; in Christ, righteousness is imputed only to the elect, united by faith. The hinge: saving grace is neither imputed down a bloodline nor transmitted. Christ's righteousness is imputed to the elect by faith, never by natural generation. The covenant of grace does not run along natural generation; children are not in the covenant by birth. Consequence versus guilt: consequences ripple down (Exodus 20:5), but guilt is not inherited beyond the one federal exception of Adam (Ezekiel 18:20; Deuteronomy 24:16).

Application

It is only God who determines what is passed down to one's posterity. An individual's posterity is genuinely affected by the actions of their parents and forefathers, and it can spread down. But if this went as far as determining belief in Christ, that would be an error, because it removes the individual's responsibility to repent and believe the gospel.

Conclusion: A Type of Christ

We can look at Abraham's actions toward Melchizedek and, seeing what came after, look back and see how God used it to prefigure and foreshadow Christ.

Owen: "For he lays down this general principle, that what the scriptures conceal of Melchizedek, it doth it to instruct us in the mystery of his person and ministry as a type of Christ." Owen is not stating that Melchizedek is eternal, but that there is no mention of his death in Scripture. That silence is what types him to Christ.

Owen again: in the outward administration of God's worship it pleased God to use frail people. He could have used angels or perfect created beings, but he used us, the frail. He chose "poor, infirm, frail, tempted, sinning, dying men," and he makes it evident that his own power and nothing else gives efficacy and success to all gospel administrations.

Charge: Brothers and sisters, continue to consider the supremacy of Christ's continual great high priestly office. Come and offer the great high priest that which he is due.