Hebrews 7 -- The Gamechanger

The writer of Hebrews throws his biggest curveball at his Jewish readers yet.  He refers them back in their own Bibles to an event in Genesis 14:17-24 where Abraham is blessed by a king-priest of the city of Salem (which would one day become Jerusalem) and Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils of war.  In short, that set up the argument that the non-Jewish king-priest had to have been higher and more important than Abraham.  And by Abram’s having paid that tithe, it was as though all his posterity paid it as well, including the tribe of Levi, from which all the priests came and received their tenth from the people.  So in effect, the priesthood paid a tithe to the king-priest – unheard of in Israel!

Then the writer pulls out Psalm 110:4.  The Aaronic priests served by virtue of genealogy.  When they died, their priesthood ended.  But in the verse in Psalms, God swore an oath, which King David referenced, that Jesus would be a priest forever.  Then by resurrecting Him and giving Him eternal life, God fulfilled that oath.  That means that His priesthood will never end.

This new priesthood did something the old one never could.  According to my commentary, the old one “made nothing perfect.  The people were never able to go into the presence of God in the most Holy Place.  This enforced distance between God and man was a constant reminder that the sin question was not settled once and for all.  But now a better hope had been introduced…. That better hope is the Lord Jesus Himself; those who have Him as their only hope have perfect access to God at ANY time.”

Finally, about verse 25, my commentary says the writer is speaking of Christ’s work in saving saints from the power of sin in His role as High Priest – not so much saving us from the penalty of sin in His role as Savior.  That is the power He uses with us every day.

Father, this slam dunk couldn’t be ignored by the Hebrew nation, yet it was.  You’d made a permanent change – a better one, and they’d not seen it.  Thanks for showing it to us so that we can know the power of our Savior who is our Priest and King.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford