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Introduction**
So, with Deanna graciously sharing with us about OCC and Todd giving us the church finances update, we don’t have as much time as usual for our study, so we won’t make it all the way through .
We’ll instead just hit on the first few verses, which make for an overview of things the author expounds on later.
As I hope you remember, the author had begun a discourse on the High Priesthood of Jesus back in chapter 5.
But then he detoured to exhort his readers to move beyond the milk and to the meat of God’s Word in chapter 6.
There, he challenged them to make a course correction and move on to maturity.
So, that’s what we talked about last week in chapter 6.
Now, he dives back into where he was going with the discourse of chapter 5 on Jesus as the Great High Priest.
In that discourse, he said that Jesus’ priesthood was greater than that of the Aaronic priesthood.
To advance his point, the author quoted from to reveal that Jesus’ priesthood was according to the “Order of Melchizedek.”
Do not read below:
Hebrews
The Aaronic Priesthood had a beginning … it began when God instituted the priesthood from among Israel after they had left Egypt and before they entered Canaan.
Under this priesthood, the priests offered sacrifices for the people, but they also had to offer sacrifices for themselves.
That is because they, like everyone else, were sinful.
So then, they had to deal with their own sin before they could deal with the sins of others.
There was another priesthood that pre-dated Israel and pre-dated the giving of the Law of Moses.
We are introduced to this priesthood in .
There we are told that Abraham, after rescuing his nephew Lot from a confederacy of 5 kings, met with Melchizedek.
Let’s read that text now.
Genesis
Melchizedek was the king of Salem and priest of God Most High.
He brought out bread and wine to share with Abraham and he blessed Abraham.
And Abraham gave Melchizedek a tithe of all his plunder from his battle with the 5 kings.
This is the last of the priestly order of Melchizedek that we hear until and then here in Hebrews.
The other order of priests that we read about in the Bible is the Levitical priesthood.
The priesthood of the tribe of Levi was conventional to the the Jewish nation.
They had been selected by God to serve Israel in the tabernacle.
God had selected the first High Priest of this order … and that was Moses’ brother, Aaron.
And the High-Priesthood was passed down as each High Priest died.
The priests had served God for centuries.
But now the writer of Hebrews points out that their priesthood has ended.
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The Levitical priesthood had pre-dated the rulership of kings in Israel.
Of course, God was the original King of Israel, but the people desired a king like the other nations had.
And God gave them Saul, who was very much like the kings that other nations had.
After Saul, there was David, who was a man after God’s own heart, and then Solomon who would rule in peace and build the Temple.
But overall, the majority of kings turned out to be greatly flawed if not absolutely wicked.
As prophesied in , authority and rule would be in the hand of the tribe of Judah.
But when the Messiah came, the scepter of rule departed from Judah and rested in the hands of the King of Kings where it still resides today.
Likewise, the High-Priesthood came to an end.
And though the human institution would not end for several years after this letter was written, the High-Priesthood came to an end when the Great High Priest, Jesus offered the better sacrifice.
Of course, the Levitical line of Priests came to an abrupt end with the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.
But in reality it ended with Jesus’ better sacrifice.
So, Jesus is Great High-Priest according to a priestly order that pre-dates the Levitical priesthood.
And Jesus is King … independent of His human genealogy through the tribe of Judah, since He was, as pointed out ... “In the beginning.”
Do not read below:
According to the Mosaic Law, priests were not kings … and kings were not priests.
:!
To defend his point about the end of the High-Priesthood, and to prove that the order of Melchizedek is superior to that of Aaron, he presents three arguments.
To defend his point about the end of the High-Priesthood, and to prove that the order of Melchizedek is superior to that of Aaron, he presents three arguments.
According to the Mosaic Law, priests were not kings … and kings were not priests.
One was by the tribe of Levi … priests … and the other by the tribe of Judah … kings.
In the Jewish mind, the two roles could not meet.
And whenever a king took it upon himself to perform the duties of priest, scripture testifies to the fact that God judged them.
Only in Jesus Christ who fulfilled the law, and in pre-Law Melchizedek were these 2 offices combined.
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As students of the Bible, you probably recognize that name Melchizedek.
And
The name means “King of Righteousness.”
He is also called, “King of Salem” … Salem meaning “peace” … so He is King of Peace.
Jesus Christ is our High Priest AND King.
But Psalms and Hebrews says that Jesus, “Was a priest forever.”
His priesthood is everlasting!
The High Priests according to the law were priests for life, but they all died and the priesthood was then passed down.
The reason Jesus Christ can be “a Priest forever” is that He belongs to the “order of Melchizedek.”
The Bible records no beginning for Melchizedek nor the end of his life.
And that is not because Melchizedek did not die.
There is no reason to believe that Melchizedek was anything more than a mortal priest and king of Salem.
Some say that Melchizedek and Christ are the same person … that Melchizedek was a Christophany … a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.
But if Melchizedek was Christ … then the author here is comparing Christ to Christ and that seems to make his point moot.
And, in fact, we’ll see in that Melchizedek was, “Like the Son of God.”
There are several people in the Old Testament who were “Like the Son of God” … or we could say “Types” or “Foreshadowings” of Christ.
There is Joseph, of whom the Bible records no sin, though he was a sinful man.
He was also not believed by his brothers, sold into Gentile hands, and made ruler of everything.
And there is David.
He was “30 years old when he began to reign” just as Christ was 30 when He entered His public ministry … and David defeated Israel’s enemies, just as Christ has done for us.
Both Joseph and David foreshadowed Christ in many other ways, and there are others such as Adam, Noah, Job, the Passover Lamb, Gideon, Isaac ...
… Really, the list is pretty long and we’ve gone into depth on this subject before, so let’s move on.
I think Melchizedek was a man of whom the Bible records no beginning and no end, only that he had the office of Priest and King as a TYPE or Foreshadowing of Christ to come.
My point is that scripture by design only gives us details about Melchizedek that support his foreshadowing of Christ ... His priesthood and Kingship.
If you were asked to name the most important people in the Old Testament, I doubt that Melchizedek’s name would be on your list.
In fact, if you were asked to name ANYONE in the Old Testament, I doubt Melchizedek would even be a third tier choice.
He’s mentioned only twice in the Old Testament … with Abraham in a couple of verses in and later with one sentence in Psalm 110.
But the Holy Spirit reached back into the Old Testament and used those two brief mentions to present a most important truth.
That truth is this … the priesthood of Jesus Christ is superior to that of Aaron because “the order of Melchizedek” is superior to “the order of Levi.”
And along those lines, Melchizedek was a man of whom the Bible records no beginning and no end, and that he had the office of Priest of El Elyon (God Most High) and was King of Salem (Peace.)
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Now, as I mentioned earlier, Jesus Christ was of the tribe of Judah, as the genealogies of the Gospels attest to.
Jesus was born of the seed of David, the tribe of Judah.
Jesus was born of the seed of David, the tribe of Judah.
He was of the royal line, yet his Kingship pre-dated Judah.
Jesus was born of the seed of David, the tribe of Judah.
His human lineage was of the proper line for kingship, BUT He could not have served as a priest because He did not belong to the tribe of Levi.
Jesus was born of the seed of David, the tribe of Judah.
So then, He became the sacrifice on earth that He might become the High Priest in heaven.
All of these things will be further developed starting here in chapter 7 and continuing through chapter 10.
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Whereas we touched on it briefly with chapter 5, the writer now pursues this commentary on the High-Priesthood of Jesus with gusto.
Here in , the author addresses the superiority of the order of the priesthood of Melchizedek.
Then in chapter 8, the author gets into Christ’s better covenant.
And with chapter 9, the author gets to Christ’s better sanctuary.
Chapter 10 then concludes with the better sacrifice of Christ.
Some important concepts we’ll look at his morning from the 1st 4 verses are: Who is Melchizedek, His position, The meaning of His name or title, The place known as Salem, and the Typology associated with Melchizedek.
Prayer: Lord, as we embark to study your Word, we ask that our hearts would be open to receive all that You have to say to us.
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