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Earlier I put a post about Melchizedek. It will make Chapters 7 and 8 crystal clear if you read them before today’s read.
This book is from a Jew to a Jew, telling them not to be a Jew. Remember the audience. Since Moses came down the Mountain from Mt. Siani, the Jewish people had a priesthood. Telling them to throw everything they ever knew out the window was hard. So it would be for you and me too.
Verse 1-7- the explanation. I felt like the author says these seven verses without taking a breath! Justifying why the Levitical line did not matter today and ending in verse 7 with…there weren’t even Levites when this even happened!
So let’s put one of the arguments on the table: Verse 11
11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the Law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
Let’s get the conversation out of the way about WHO Melchizedek is:
- Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.
- He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.
- The name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness.”
- also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.”
- Without father or mother,
- without genealogy,
- without beginning of days or end of life,
- resembling the Son of God,
- he remains a priest forever.
So is Melchizedek a Typology or a Theophany?
- A typology is a form of symbolism that is prophetic; for example, in Old Testament typology, people and objects may point to something yet to happen or someone (most often Jesus) who is yet to come.
- A theophany or Christ is a physical appearance of God/Jesus to a human being.
- Non-human form (like the burning bush)
- Human form (like when Jacob wrestled with the man in Peniel)
- Angel form (Angel of the Lord)
I could argue both if I was on a debate team, but I have an opinion of my own. Do you think typology or theophany? I have heard many defend their side and love hearing it.
Back to Hebrews 7 😁
Why do we need a NEW Priesthood??
- 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the Law must also be changed. (It was Changed. From External Law to Internal Law, written on our hearts)
- 16 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
- .18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced,
- 20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 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.’
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Jesus as High Priest:
- one who is holy,
- blameless,
- pure,
- set apart from sinners,
- exalted above the heavens.
- He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day (first for his own sins and then for the people’s sins).
- He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the Law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Chapter 8 is AMAZING. Can I cut and paste the whole thing right here to underline and bold my favorite parts?? Ok, I won’t, BUT I have to do at least one!
I will start with the last verse:
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Now back to verse 8:
“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
This reminds me of Matthew 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Chapter 9 and 10: “Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up.”
Do you miss the OT as much as I do? (I mean studying it, I don’t want to be under the Law)😂
The Tabernacle was just a foreshadow of Christ. That is why the blueprint was set up like a Cross. Not just the furniture inside the Tabernacle, but the arrangement of the tribes by population.
The Tabernacle/Temple worship has been fulfilled!
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Let’s clarify a point: Levitical sacrifices in the OT did not take away sins. However, the faith that the sacrifice was an atonement (a covering) did. Both Covenants relied on faith. However, the Old Covenant was temporary and required continual sacrifice. Salvation is the same before the Cross and After. Your sin was covered by FAITH that the shedding of blood from something innocent covered your sin.
The New Covenant fulfilled all the rituals and regulations of the Law. The Perfect Sacrifice was made to cover the sin of those with faith, but it was done once and for all!
To reject the sacrifice in both the old and the new systems leads to death.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
This is a very serious passage! A reality check!✅
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Reading the Bible - 2021 