Hebrews 7:11-22

If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still the need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?  For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.  He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar.  For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.  And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.  For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”  The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.  And it was not without an oath!  Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’”  Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:11-22 NIV).

   In the first six chapters of Hebrews, the author gently prepared his Jewish brothers to receive the radical thesis point that is bluntly stated here: They no longer needed to be under the Mosaic Law; the Messiah has come!  Due to the author’s language, we have to be careful here.  He is not saying that the Mosaic Law was bad.  The Mosaic Law was given by God to the Israelites through Moses.  The purpose of the Mosaic Law was important.  As Dr. Neil Lightfoot stated, “It made beginnings, taught basic principles, awakened impulses, foreshadowed and pointed the way...”(1).  And I think more than anything, God’s purpose was to show the Hebrews, and ultimately the world, that we people cannot save ourselves by our own efforts.  There is no sacrifice we human beings can make which will bring the complete forgiveness and a permanent uniting with God.
   As the history within the Old Testament continues after the Mosaic covenant was made by God with the Israelites, there is a consistent pattern which involves people straying, and the Israelites endured as a nation solely due to the mercy of God.  The pattern within the book of Judges is one example.  After the death of a judge, the Israelites would start doing all kinds of wrong stuff.  The consequence of straying from God would be that they would lose His protection, and they would then be conquered or terrorized by a foreign country.  They would put up with this agony for a period of time, but then they would cry out to God for help.  Then God would raise up a “judge,” who was a leader in many senses, including military, and this judge would bring about a victory over the foreign conqueror or oppressor.  Then Israel would know peace for the rest of that judge’s duration as judge.  Yet guess what?  As soon as the judge died, the tragic past would repeat itself.  This goes on and on.  Peace that could have been enjoyed by the Israelites was forfeited time and time again, until the people cried out to God when in agony.
   Now that the Messiah was sacrificed as the Lamb of God on the cross, the Mosaic Law is no longer necessary because Jesus furthered the Law and Jesus fulfilled the Law.  The Messiah paid the price of spiritual death for all people, thus now a new covenant is available.  The Mosaic Covenant: If the Israelites would obey the Mosaic Law, then they would live long and prosper in the land that God procured for them.  The New Covenant: If a person believes in Jesus the Messiah, then he or she has eternal life.  This is because the atoning death of Jesus made it possible for people to be forgiven of sins permanently, in contrast to the temporal forgiveness under the Mosaic Covenant.  Thus receiving Jesus is being forgiven of all sins, and is being united with God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Being united with God, indwelled with the Holy Spirit, a person is enabled to become a more and more loving person.  Thus by being loving, a person who believes in Jesus is able to truly love, the foundation of the Mosaic Law.  In a totally different manner, the author of Hebrews is stating what Paul stated in his Epistle to the Galatians; a person who believes in Jesus is not under the Law, rather he or she lives by the Spirit.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), 144.

Hebrews 7:4-10

Just think how great [Melchizedek] was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!  Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people--that is, their brothers--even though their brothers are descended from Abraham.  This man, however, did not trace his decent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.  And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater.  In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.  One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor (Hebrews 7:4-10 NIV).
  The authority of the priesthood of Melchizedek is secured even though it preceded the Levitical priesthood within the Mosaic covenant.  Abraham did not just give anyone a tenth of his plunder after all.  And Abraham, the grandfather of Levi, was blessed by Melchizedek, which illustrates the authority of Melchizedek.  Melchizedek's priesthood foreshadowed the Messiah in a more general way, yet Hebrews is explaining the nature of the Melchizedek priesthood even superseded the Mosaic priesthood.  How?  The priesthood at it's core requires reliance on God!  Just because a Levite was in the lineage of Aaron did not mean his heart was committed to God.  God called to the priesthood, as it states earlier in Hebrews 5:4, yet a person could accept or reject that calling.  The same holds true today with a callings from God.  And any calling from God requires a reliance on God for blessings to result.
  Again, looking back at Hebrews 5:4-10 in conjunction with this passage we learn the plan of God was for Jesus to be a forever high priest in the order of Melchizedek!  A person who receives Jesus, God the Son, will receive the forgiveness of sins from Him who is the High Priest.  Jesus gave Himself as the sacrifice.
Hunter Irvine

Hebrews 7:1-3

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.  He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.  First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace."  Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever (Hebrews 7:1-3 NIV).
   Ever since hearing Abraham's story as a young Christian at age 25 listening to a sermon on the radio on a Sunday afternoon after church in Arlington, Virginia, I have recognized Abraham as a person whom God used to begin a covenant with an ethnic group which would come to be known as Hebrews (and then also Israelites and Jewish), a covenant which would lead, over two thousand years later, to the gift of salvation offered to all human beings thanks to the mercy and grace of God.
   Yet how often do you hear of Melchizedek?  I have been a Christian for 24 years, and I have attended church on a Sunday morning oodles of times, and I have never heard a minister talk about Melchizedek.  What better day than today to learn of a person of upmost importance!
  I recommend reading Genesis 14:17-20.  On one hand I see why Melchizedek does not get much attention.  The record of him is brief.  He was not involved in a big battle, and the narrative mentions him no more after he received a tenth of Abraham's goods.  Yet there is much reason for him to be highlighted.  First, it is the first time in the Bible we are introduced to a "priest," is it not?  And this priest blesses Abraham.  Note that bread and wine were what Melchizedek the priest offered to Abraham.  And last but not least, note that this priest is also a king.  He is a king of Salem, which would apparently become Jerusalem.  Ladies and gentlemen, four thousand years ago, a priest blessed Abraham, and God still uses that blessing today to teach us that God was at work way back in human history to prepare humankind for a Savior by foreshadowing a permanent high priest.  The Messiah would be the High Priest and the King of Heaven.
  Why do we need a high priest?  A priest was a person designated to make sacrifices on behalf of people.  Why do we need sacrifices to God?  The separation which happened when Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden resulted in the need for a sacrifice, the only manner to bring about the possibility of reunification.  There needed to be the payment of a penalty of death for the sins of us all.  God requested sacrifices even from the first family on earth.  Abel and Cain both presented sacrifices before God in response to God.  We do not have many details in our ancient Scripture, yet we know the main point that Abel and Cain both offered sacrifices to God, though one was correct, an animal offering, and the other was not, a produce offering.  So here in the day and age of Abraham, we have a priest.  As the author of Hebrews points out, we do not know much about this Melchizedek.  If the man was around today, someone might approach Melchizedek and ask, "Who made you priest?"  Yet the author of Hebrews has the answer: God.  Just as God made Aaron a priest, and required that priests be in the linage of Aaron under the Mosaic covenant, over five hundred years before, God made Melchizedek a priest even though he was not in any special lineage.  Moses, the prophet who wrote the first five books of Scripture, tells us so way back in what is now the fourteenth chapter of Genesis.
   Dr. Lightfoot makes the astute observation; "Of course, the author does not mean that Melchizedek was some kind of mysterious being who had no part in human history.  On the contrary, Melchizedek was a real person.  He was without father or mother with respect to his priesthood" (1).  In the most eloquent of ways, the author of Hebrews is telling us the incredible fact that though the "Old Testament" was foreshadowing a Messiah who would be a King and High Priest, He did not have to be of the flesh and blood of certain parents.  Radical?  The Messiah had to be in the lineage of David, which is why Matthew even started his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus, yet the baby in the womb of Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  And the Messiah had to be the High Priest, but he did not have to be in the lineage of Aaron, because God was foreshadowing a Messiah going all the way back to around 2100 B.C. by a priest named Melchizedek who was from the town of Salem, which would be the birthplace of Jesus over two thousand years later as the babe of Mary.  The author of Hebrews boldly identifies Jesus as the Son of God, and as such, as was stated by the author of Hebrews earlier in Hebrews 5:6 and 5:10, Jesus is the High Priest.  Wow.  And fortunately for us, Hebrews will continue to elaborate on this key subject.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today; A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), 138.

Hebrews 6:16-20

Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.  Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.  God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.  He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:16-20 NIV).

   This morning I was reading a commentary on Hebrews for aid for this blog commentary, which was written by Dr. Neil Lightfoot and entitled Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews.  Dr. Lightfoot passed away less than two years ago at the age of 82, and he had an incredible career as a professor at Abilene Christian University, (a Churches of Christ university, which I only note to distinguish from my Alma mater which is interdenominational).  He also was a successful writer and a committed preacher.  The book was published in 1976, and in the preface of this book he states, "It has now been some years since I began.  The bulk of this work was done before 1970, but until now I have been unable to bring it to a close....To my friends who have encouraged me, I say, 'Thank you.'  May God bless all who read Hebrews and discover in it Jesus Christ Today." (1)
   The point I want to make is that a great book takes a long time to produce!  Gaining assistance from such works written by men who have been relying on the Holy Spirit in their study of Scripture is a blessing, and I give thanks for books such as Dr. Lightfoot's work.  I first read Hebrews in 1997 during a challenging period in my life, and reading Hebrews every morning was used by God to bless me during that time.  Yet commentaries should not be the end all, rather the Scripture itself should be the complete end.  I hope this unique commentary can serve to open the door to further learning about Hebrews and a desire to read the entire book yourself.
   So on with Hebrews, this awesome book where our inspired author leaps from the promises of God to Abraham to the identity and nature of a High Priest, because this High Priest has an eternal position.  Dr. Lightfoot states that the two "unchangeable things" are His promise and His oath. (2)  We are being encouraged here to trust God, just as Abraham did, since God is trustworthy.  And we learn that in God's promises to Abraham, God was doing more than promising temporal things to a man from Ur.  God was guiding people towards an eternal promise for all humankind; a promise which would involve a permanent sacrifice.  The Old Covenant, which many of you know that I like to call the Leading Covenant, was leading to a permanent sacrifice which would open up the availability of a personal relationship between God and people.
   What was that permanent sacrifice?  First, it involved Jesus.  Second, He did it on behalf of people, all of us.  Third, He went into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.  Ah, the key!  Once a year, and only once a year, if obeying the Mosaic Law, a Hebrew high priest went into the Most Holy Place, which was behind the veil that separated the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.  I add that in the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the tablets with the ten commandments written on them (Deuteronomy 10:5).  After making a sacrifice for himself and for his family, which also involved putting incense on a fire (Leviticus 16:11-14), the high priest was supposed to do what God originally commanded Aaron to do: "He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it" (Leviticus 16:15 NIV).  He was then supposed to send a second goat, the scapegoat, off into the wilderness to die, along with some other tasks, including burning the bodies of the bull and the goat which were sacrificed, outside the camp (Leviticus 16:18-34 NIV).
   Considering that animal sacrifice is not common in our culture, it is a natural question to ask; What is the purpose of killing animals and sprinkling their blood?  Moses stated the purpose: "...on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you.  Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins" (Leviticus 16:30 NIV).  How is it that killing animals and sprinkling their blood around can cleanse a person from sins?  As we know from Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death..." (NIV).  God was teaching that sins could be forgiven as there was a substitutional death for the Israelites, in this case, the death of goats and bulls.  Moses continued: "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites" (Leviticus 16:34 NIV).  Israelites indeed carried out what is now called "Atonement Day" for many years right in the Temple in Jerusalem.
   The next big question is; "What was Jesus doing behind the curtain?  He was from the tribe of Judah!  The high priest must be from the tribe of Levi, and of the family tree of Aaron.  Jesus should not go behind that veil.  He will die, again!
   The resurrected Christ did not die again.  In fact, Jesus will not die again!  When incarnate on earth, meaning when Jesus was in flesh, Jesus was fully God and fully human.  So being fully God, He could have gone into the Most Holy Place any time He wanted.  Yet the plan of God, a plan for a permanent sacrifice, unlike the temporal and limited sacrifice of animals, was for the Messiah to be the Sacrifice.  Jesus was the Lamb of God.  Instead of the blood of a goat on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, God had the blood of God the Son shed on the Cross.  This was the only sacrifice which could bring the forgiveness of all sins offered to all people.  This was the only sacrifice whereby sinful humanity could be eternally saved.  We are going to continue learning in this book that this is because Jesus was perfect, and that Jesus made not only a physical sacrifice yet also a spiritual sacrifice by His death on the cross.  When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain which separated the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, "was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51).  People can now be in a personal relationship with God, who is Spirit, as Jesus revealed as recorded in the book of John.  Jesus, resurrected and alive in heaven today, has become the High Priest forever.  The Lamb of God made the Sacrifice, and now He is glorified as High Priest.
   In response, I feel compelled to pray: Holy Father, thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus, a sacrifice that brought more pain, despair, and agony to Jesus than we can imagine.  Thank You Jesus for doing that for us.  May we recognize You were God before all time, and that You are now glorified as the High Priest of heaven.  It is through the loving name of Jesus I pray.  Amen.
Hunter Irvine

(1)  Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), 6-7.
(2) Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1976), 131.