Hebrews 6:20-7:10 - Jesus Has A Better Priesthood

We're getting into some meat over these next five days.

If you've ever wondered, maybe in your Christian walk, if you're like, man, is this really all there is? Is it this simple? This week is for you.

If you've ever been like, man, you know it's been a little bit deep over the past five episodes in Tabernacle Talk. We're going to dive a little bit deeper. Get your spiritual submarine, because we're going in into Hebrews chapter seven today.

And we've been going through this book that's written to some believers. They've undergone some persecution. They've had people that they were assembling together as a church with that have abandoned them and have gone back to Judaism.

Some people are wondering if they should follow them out. The author is writing to let them know, no, no, don't abandon Jesus.

He is the entire point of everything that we believed and everything that we hoped for and everything that we read in the Old Testament. It was all pointing to Christ. And so that's where we find ourselves today.

The author is finally getting into some of that meat that he was telling them, hey, I want to tell you guys about some of these deep things.

So last episode, we were talking about how Jesus is the forerunner for us, that he was the high priest that went into the heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly holy of holies, into God's very presence.

And instead of it being in the earthly tabernacle or temple where the children of Israel and their high priest once a year would sprinkle the blood in that holy place, Jesus went into the heavenly holy of holies and he put his blood there.

And that is a once and for all payment for sin. That's something we'll learn about more in chapters nine and ten of this book. And I'm going to start in verse number 19.

And then we're going to go through about chapter seven and verse number ten. Depending on time, we may or may not go to the end of chapter seven today. But scripture says this, Hebrews chapter six and verse number 19.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner because he has become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

All right, now we're going. Okay, super great author, but most of us are not Jewish people. We have not spent our entire lives memorizing and hearing about the Old Testament scriptures.

And so we've got a few holes in our understanding, and I would love to elucidate a little bit of what he's talking about. So we're going to take a quick peek back at Genesis 14.

We're actually going to be in this passage of scripture this coming January, if I remember correctly. And this coming January, we're going to look at the life of Abraham. And I think it might include the life of Isaac as well, that particular series.

It's like Genesis 12 through 24, is where we're going to be from January through about Easter. And then after Easter, we'll pick up again in the Gospel of John. So Genesis chapter 14, verse number 1.

Abraham has come from Babylon, and he over the course of like 10, 12 years, followed God's call into the land of Canaan, what we would know today as Israel. And he's there. He has come with a few of his family members, including his brother's son.

His brother had died, and so his brother's son Lot had come with him, and Lot's got some kids, and we'll hear more about his story in January.

But Genesis 14 says this, In those days, King Amraphel of Shinar, King Ariok of Elisar, King Shadolamur of Elam, and King Tidal of Golim waged war against King Berah of Sodom, King Bersha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Adama, and King Shemeber of

Zebuim, as well as the king of Bela, that is, Zohar. All of these came as allies to the Sidum Valley, that is, the Dead Sea. They were subject to Shadolamur for 12 years, but in the 13th year, they rebelled.

That is, a bunch of the little kingdoms in the land of Israel, they were subject to a king that was kind of near where Babylon was at, that he ruled over all of those kingdoms. Like, they were subject to him, they had to pay taxes, whatever.

They were subject to him for 12 years. In the 13th year, those people in the area of Canaan, Palestine, Israel, they rebelled against the Mesopotamian king. Verse number five.

In the 14th year, Shadolamur and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Refaim in Ashteroth, Karneim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Amim in Shavah, Kyriathim, and the Horites in the mountains of Seir as far as El-Piran by the wilderness.

Then they came back to invade En Mishpat, that is Kadesh, and they defeated the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar. Okay, basically, they come through and they're beaten everybody.

Everybody's getting, they're being handed heavy losses.

Verse number eight, Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is Zohar, went out and lined up for battle in the Sidum Valley against King Shadolimur of Elam, king Tidal of Goim,

king Ammophel of Shinar, and king Ariyach of Elisar, four kings against five. Now, the Sidum Valley contained many asphalt pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Some fell into them, but the rest fled to the mountains.

So they lost, they're booking it out. The four kings took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went on. They also took Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, for he was living in Sodom and they went on.

Okay, all of this, this is like the kingdoms of the world. They do their thing. But they captured Abraham's nephew.

Verse number 13, one of the survivors came and told Abram, the Hebrew who lived near the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Escol and the brother of Iner. They were bound by a treaty with Abram.

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled his 318 trained men born in his household, and they went and pursued as far as Dan. That's to the very, very north of Israel.

So this is going from kind of the Dead Sea region all the way to the top of Israel. And he and his servants deployed against them by night, defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobah to the north of Damascus.

So I don't know if you know much about the geography of Israel, but they went a super far way, defeated them at night, sneak attack in the very north of Israel, and then continued to pursue them or basically like drive them out, kick them out even

north of the capital of Damascus, what I think during this time would be called Aram. Verse number 16, He brought back all the goods and also his relative Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the other people.

So, God's given him an amazing victory over these kings, over these armies that had just made absolute mincemeat of everyone else that they had gone through, but God was with Abraham and was caring for him and helped him to rescue these people who

had been captured. Verse number 17, After Abram returned from defeating Shadolimur and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Shavah Valley, that is the king's valley. Now, here's where we're going to do.

Verse 18, Melchizedek, king of Salem. Okay, well, we haven't read that name before. Like, where did Melchizedek come from when all these other battles were happening?

Salem is the, it's a shortened version of the word that we would know, Jerusalem. So here's this king, and he's the king of this city that will a couple, you know, hundred years into the future become the capital city of Jerusalem.

So here's this person, and he is called the king of Salem, which is like, shalom, peace. So he's called the king of peace. His name, Melchizedek, is basically like a king of righteousness.

So his name means king of righteousness. His title that he's given is he's a king of peace, and he, I'm continuing here in verse number 18, he brought out bread and wine.

Hmm, I wonder if there's someone else in scripture that brings bread and wine to us. If there's someone that's mentioned as being the bread of life. If there's someone that in his last supper ate bread and drank wine with his disciples.

I wonder. Then verse, the end of verse 18, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest to God Most High.

Okay, he's a king. He's also a priest. And what's interesting here is most all other priests, at least Israelite priests that we read about in the Old Testament, it's always mentioned like what their lineage was.

Because you had to have some tie in the Levitical priesthood back to Levi. And specifically back to like Aaron and one of Aaron's descendants, because Aaron was that first Israelite high priest. And so you had to be descended from him.

You couldn't just like randomly choose to become a priest. It's not like nowadays where, you know, if someone wants to become a pastor, their dad doesn't have to be a pastor. Like they go through training.

They, you know, serve at a local church. Maybe they serve as perhaps like on staff and then become, you know, a pastor or assistant pastor or something like that. Didn't work like that in ancient Israel.

You had to be born into this this priesthood. But for Melchizedek, he's got no dad mentioned, no mom mentioned, no ancestor mentioned. It's just King of Righteousness, King of Peace brings out bread and wine and is a priest to God Most High.

Melchizedek blessed Abram and said, Abram is blessed by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you.

Okay, so he's pronouncing a blessing over Abram, who would later be named Abraham. He's pronouncing a blessing from God over Abram. Well, that's very interesting for reasons that we're going to look at in just a second in Hebrews chapter 7.

It says in verse 20, and Abram gave him a tenth of everything. How interesting that Abram gives a tenth, what we would know today as a tithe. I do want to give one little clarifying statement.

And it might come up at the end of the episode as well. A tithe is not what you give to the Lord. Like what you give to the Lord is just that.

It's either your gift, your offering, something like that. Unless you really are giving 10% of, you know, either your gross or your, I forget what the other phrase is. You'll have to forgive me.

But if you're giving like 10% of the money that you made this week at your job or this month at your job, that's a 10th. That is a tithe. It is 10%.

Tithe isn't just like a catch-all title. So I've seen some people misunderstand that before, but wanted to bring some clarity. If you're giving 12%, that's not your tithe.

That's a tithe and a fifth of a tithe. That's not what that is. Or if you're giving like 2%, that's not a tithe.

That's a gift to the Lord. It's an offering. But the word tithe means a tenth.

So I just wanted to get that out there. OK, so now we've heard about this Melchizedek. He's not mentioned as having any family.

He just pops onto the scene and pops right off. And we never like interact with him again until we get to Psalm 110 and verse number one. I'm turning over there very briefly.

Psalm 110 and verse number one, where David said this. He says, this is the declaration of Yahweh to my Lord. So there is someone that David is saying, like, there are two people here.

He says, this is what Yahweh, if you've got most of our English translations have it as like small caps, L-O-R-D, Yahweh.

If you've got like a, you know, old American standard version from the turn of the previous century, I might say like Jehovah or something like that. He says, this is the declaration of Yahweh to my Adonai, Lord or ruler.

So, there's two people here and this is something that God is saying to someone else that David as a king in Israel is viewing as superior to him. So, there's something interesting going on here.

Of course, the New Testament lets us know, hey, this is Jesus. He says this to, Yahweh says this to David's Adonai, to David's ruler, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Yahweh will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, rule over your surrounding enemies, your people will volunteer on your day of battle. In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, the dew of your youth belongs to you.

Yahweh has sworn an oath and will not take it back. You are a priest forever according to the pattern of Melchizedek. So, this is the second time that this person, this person's name shows up.

And it's God saying to, who we would know from the very beginning of Hebrews, this is God saying to Jesus, this is the Father saying to the Son, you are not just like this descendant of David who's going to rule on the throne of Zion or Jerusalem.

You're not just going to be the king of Salem, the king of peace, the king of Jerusalem, but you are also going to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So, now let's dive into Hebrews 7.

Now that we have all of that background, now what the author is telling us is going to be very, very helpful. Okay, verse 20.

Jesus has entered the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, there on our behalf as a forerunner because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He's fulfilling Psalm 110 in what God said about the Messiah.

Chapter 7, verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God most high, met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings. And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.

So the same thing that the Israelites would bring to their priests, Abraham brings to this priest of God most high. The author says, first, his name, Melchizedek, means king of righteousness. Then, also, king of Salem, meaning king of peace.

Without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he remains a priest forever. Okay, there are two ways of understanding Melchizedek.

Either, he is one that is just like Jesus in some ways, that is, that he pictures Jesus, he is a great illustration of what Jesus is like without being Jesus himself, and obviously not like another son of God or something like that, that he's just a

picture. The other interpretation that people have had over the years is that Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, that is, that Jesus appears to show up in Scripture a couple of times other than in the New Testament.

So when there's the fourth man in the fire, in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the one that's standing with them and that he looks like one of the Bene Elohim, one of the sons of God or sons of the gods, a son of the gods,

that the classic belief has been that that was Jesus showing up there with those individuals. Or as you look at some of the ones that are labeled as the angel of Yahweh, the only angel that accepts the worship of people when he's there in the Old

Testament, and the one that speaks for God, that there appears to be some times when Jesus does kind of a sneak peek in the Old Testament. And so there's been some discussion that Melchizedek might be that appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ.

And it would be because of these statements here. Without father, mother, or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life. There are two ways to take this.

Number one is that it's being literal, and that this person, Melchizedek, did not have a mother or father, and was eternal, everlasting, without beginning of days or end of life. And so obviously, who would that describe?

Well, even the angels have a beginning of days, so therefore this must be Jesus. So that's one way to take it. The other way is to take it as what the Old Testament Scriptures were, like, directly told us.

So because this priest didn't gain his, like, priesthood or his authority from who his ancestor was, like all of the Levitical priesthood people would, that they would say, well, Aaron is our ancestor, and so that's why we are priests.

So it could be saying that this person didn't get his priesthood from his ancestry, but by virtue of the fact that, like, God placed him there, that is why he is a priest. And it doesn't mention his dad or his mom or his genealogy.

It doesn't mention when he was born. It doesn't mention that he ever died. And so Jesus is like this person in that Jesus doesn't have a beginning of days, just like Genesis doesn't record for us when Melchizedek was born.

And Jesus doesn't have an end of life, just as Genesis doesn't tell us when Melchizedek died. And so Jesus is a priest.

He's our great high priest, not because he descended from the line of Aaron, but because God himself instituted him as a priest and that Jesus is both the king of kings, Lord of Lords, and he is our great high priest, just like Melchizedek was the

king of Jerusalem, the king of Salem, and he was a priest. Verse number four. Now consider how great this man was. Even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the plunder to him.

The sons of Levi, who received the priestly office, have a command, according to the law, to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brothers and sisters, though they have also descended from Abraham.

He says, okay, all of the Israelites descended from Abraham, but all of the other tribes bring 10% of whatever crops they grow, whatever money they make, whatever.

They bring that to the priests, to the Levites, even though they are all descended from Abraham. Verse number six, 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. So he's saying, Melchizedek is superior to Abraham. Abraham wasn't a king.

Abraham wasn't a priest. And Melchizedek was giving him a blessing. He was saying, You are without something and I am giving it to you.

I am blessing you with this. Verse number eight, In the one case, men who will die receive a tenth. But in the other case, scripture testifies that he lives.

That's Psalm 110, where God tells Jesus, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. That just as Melchizedek is continuing to be a priest, you are continuing to be a priest.

Verse number nine, 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.

It's a super, super interesting thought that the author does not elaborate on, so I would elaborate on it. The thought here is, you know, all of us in one sense kind of exist within our ancestors.

That the genetic makeup that would one day be Levi existed within Abraham. That Abraham passed down to Isaac, and then Isaac passed down to Jacob, and then Jacob would actually have Levi.

And so what the author is saying is, in some way, Levi, through Abraham, he was participating in the actions that Abraham was doing, and Abraham tithed to Melchizedek.

And so it was like the Levitical priesthood tithed to the Melchizedek priesthood, saying, in essence, you are more important than I am. You are superior to me, and so I need to give to you.

And so this is what the author is saying, that because Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, that Jesus' priesthood is better than the Levitical, than the Aaronite priesthood.

So this is the rubber meets the road thing, and we're done for the day, out of time. Here's the point. Don't go back to Judaism, because the Levitical priesthood is not as good as Jesus' priesthood.

And the wonder of wonders that was prophesied in Psalm 110 is now been made like fact. We now understand what in the world God was talking about through the fact that we have our king and priest Jesus. So, don't abandon him.

Instead, turn to him, because he is worthy of everything that we can give.

He says, in essence, like, yeah, you guys can go back to Judaism and pay your tithe to the Jewish priest, but there's actually someone that even the Jewish priest's ancestor, that he paid his tithe to, and that's the person you should be concerned

about worshipping and coming to. So, what's kind of the takeaway for us today? Jokingly, who are you tithing to today? Are you tithing to Jesus or are you tithing to the Jewish priest?

More jokingly. But in all seriousness, like, Jesus is worthy of everything that we can give him.

And because he is a priest that never stops praying for us, that his sacrifice never has to be redone because it was so perfect the first time, and because we're called to come to him, because he's inside the Holy of Holies.

And when we pray to him, we know we have instant access to God through what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.

And if Abraham, you know, a couple thousand years ago, if he was worshiping and exalting this priesthood, this priesthood that God has instituted, may we join in that worship. May we give and be generous to the work of God.

Thanks for tuning in today. I know it was a little bit longer of an episode, but like I told you, this is getting into the meat of it. So tomorrow, we're going to be looking more at Jesus' role as high priest and what that means.

So we've now kind of made the equivalent. Okay, Jesus really is a high priest. He has the right to do so.

God prophesied this in the Old Testament. So now what's the next step? So looking forward to diving into that with you tomorrow.