{"id":7150,"date":"2020-09-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=7150"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:49:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:49:39","slug":"hebrews-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=7150","title":{"rendered":"Hebrews 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

7\u00a0<\/strong>For this\u00a0Melchizedek, king of\u00a0Salem, priest of\u00a0the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>He is without father or mother\u00a0or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God did not allow the kings of Israel to be priests and the priests to be kings.\u00a0Melchizedek, who was the\u00a0king of Salem\u00a0and\u00a0priest of the Most High God\u00a0was an unique exception.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>See how great this man was to whom Abraham\u00a0the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers,[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0though these also are descended from Abraham.\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>But this man\u00a0who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed\u00a0him who had the promises.\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one\u00a0of whom it is testified that\u00a0he lives.\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The priesthood of Levi received tithes from Israel as a\u00a0commandment. Abraham\u00a0voluntarily<\/em>\u00a0gave tithes to Melchizedek. This makes Abraham\u2019s\u00a0giving<\/em>\u00a0to Melchizedek greater than Israel\u2019s\u00a0payment<\/em>\u00a0of tithes to the priesthood instituted by Moses. The Key word is Voluntary and not instituted. We must be willing to give the things that are already the Lords. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus Compared to Melchizedek<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

11 <\/sup>Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 <\/sup>For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 <\/sup>For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 <\/sup>For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 <\/sup>This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 <\/sup>who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 <\/sup>For it is witnessed of him,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are a priest forever,
    after the order of Melchizedek.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18\u00a0<\/sup>For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside\u00a0because of its weakness and uselessness\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup>(for\u00a0the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand,\u00a0a better hope is introduced, through which\u00a0we draw near to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0The law does a great job of setting God\u2019s perfect standard but it does not give the power to keep that standard.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 <\/sup>And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 <\/sup>but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
\u2018You are a priest forever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22\u00a0<\/sup>This makes Jesus the guarantor of\u00a0a better covenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overwhelming superiority of Jesus Christ \u2013 proves He is worthy and able to be our guarantee. Do you have this Guareantee in you heart? Do you trust and believe that Christ is the only way. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23 <\/sup>The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 <\/sup>but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 <\/sup>Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost[b<\/a>]<\/sup> those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26\u00a0<\/sup>For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest,\u00a0holy, innocent, unstained,\u00a0separated from sinners, and\u00a0exalted above the heavens.\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup>He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily,\u00a0first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this\u00a0once for all when he offered up himself.\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup>For the law appoints men\u00a0in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made\u00a0perfect forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When He offered up Himself it was a\u00a0willing<\/em>\u00a0offering. \u201cOh, this makes the sacrifice of Christ so blessed and glorious! They dragged the bullocks and they drove the sheep to the altar; they bound the calves with cords, even with cords to the altar\u2019s horn; but not so was it with the Christ of God. None did compel him to die; he laid down his life voluntarily, for he had power to lay it down, and to take it again.\u201d (Spurgeon)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7151,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7150\/revisions\/7151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}