Lesson Notes on the Book of Hebrews

Lesson 3 - Jesus - a High Priest Who’s Higher than Aaron

• So what's with the rebellion against God?
• Doesn’t rebellion always bring judgment?
• Got the picture - but what’s this about a High Priest?
• Hey, who’s this Melchizedek?
• Come on, what’s with Melchizedek?
• You know, I’m having trouble getting this

So what’s with the rebellion against God?

Remember the last lesson? Jesus is better than Moses, for Moses was a faithful servant in God's “house” but Jesus is the Son over God’s “house.” In the Old Testament Moses led the Jewish nation, and the term “house” refers to that group. The “house” over which Jesus sits as Son includes New Testament believers, according to verse 6. We won’t get into the question of how the Jewish nation of the Old Testament relates to the church of the New Testament. The writer simply says that we are God's house if we “hold fast” in faith.

Yeah, but how does faith fit in? Weren’t all Jews in Moses day part of the nation, the historical “house of God”? Yes - and no! Politically, ethnically the anwer is Yes. Spiritually, the answer is No. Remember the “Rebellion”? I don’t either, and I’m a lot older than you are! The rebellion he’s talking about here is when the Jews rebelled against Moses and refused to fight their way into the Promised Land (see Numbers 14). When they rebelled God slammed the door shut right in their faces. The rebellious nation had to spend the next 40 years in the desert until everyone 20 years old and older had died!

OK, suppose you’re a first-century converted Jew who’s decided to turn your back against Christianity and rejoin the synagogue. The Sunday before you are going to quit the church you hear the leader read Hebrews. Then it hits you - you are just like that first generation whom Moses led out of Egypt. You are rebelling against Jesus, someone far superior to Moses. God slammed the door in the face of those people - what about you? Has he slammed the door in your face? Have you crossed the “point of no return?”

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Doesn’t rebellion always bring judgment?

This is a fair response, and the writer anticipated that some of his readers might jump to this conclusion and think that God had slammed the door in their face as well. That's why he quotes from Psalm 95, not Number 14. Most of the Psalms were written roughly 500 years after Moses. This particular Psalm is a poem of invitation - “Come, let us sing . . . .” “Come, let us bow down. . . .” “Today, do not harden your heart.” God's invitation is still open, but He will severely judge those who reject it.

Do not be like that first Exodus generation, warns the author. Do not presume upon God and continue in rebellion. As long as we have physical life we are within reach of God’s mercy. But if we continue rejection His invitation we run the risk of failing to enter His promised rest (4:6). That’s why the writer urges his readers and us to “be diligent” to enter God’s rest (4:11).

In the first part of Chapter 4 the writer builds on this theme - Don’t be like that rebellious generation. Accept God's invitation to enter His rest. He doesn’t let his audience (and us!) off the hook. God will judge rebellion, and judge it harshly. Right now, however, He’s extending an invitation to us. We can accept it to our benefit or ignore it to our peril.

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Got the picture - but what’s this about a High Priest?

What? You want me to get to the main topic? Actually, the high priesthood of Jesus is the main topic of Hebrews, though you’d never know it from the first four chapters. The writer is a sly fox, sneaking up on his prey! His main goal is to get in his readers’ face with a direct challenge - how dare they turn their backs on Jesus after what he did for them on the cross. How dare we turn our our backs, even a little, on our commitment to Christ after what he’s done for us on the cross. Oooops - now I've gone from teaching to meddling, but that’s where the writer is heading.

The sharp-eyed among you noticed that back in Chapter 2 (verse 17) the writer made a quick reference to Jesus as a high priest. Now he smoothly moves from his exhortation in Chapter 4 into his explanation in Chapters 5-10. It’s a smooth transition, but the subject is anything but smooth!

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Hey, who’s this Melchizedek?

Wait - don't jump too far ahead, you quick reader, you! We need some history first, some Moses-type history. The Jews of Moses’ day traced their ancestory back to a man named Jacob to whom God gave the name Israel. He had 12 sons from whom came the Jewish nation of Moses day.

A big part of God’s covenant with Moses - you do remember the Mosaic Covenant, don’t you? OK - click here if you don’t - was the Tabernacle rituals revolving around feasts and sacrifices. As part of this covenant God chose the descendants of Levi, one of the 12 sons, to be priests. They were God’s go-betweens, agents who acted on His behalf. He also chose Aaron and each first-born son after him to be High Priests.

I know, this is starting to sound like a textbook - but stay with me - or go back and read Leviticus. There or here you’ll find that the most special day in Israel’s annual cycle of national feasts and sacrifices was the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest offered two special sacrifices, one for his sins and one for the sins of the nation. He took some of the sacrificial blood and entered into the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle (more on this later) and sprinkled the blood before God.

OK - now a question. Look back at the genealogies of Jesus as given in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Could Jesus have been a high priest? Could he have been a priest? No way! His genealogy reaches Jacob/Israel through another son - Judah.

Now suppose you heard someone speak of that “great American patriot Benedict Arnold" or that “supreme patron of human rights and religions freedom Emperor Nero.” Those contradictions (“oxymorons” if you want to sound intelligent) are as jarring to us as “Jesus our high priest” was to the first readers of Hebrews.

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Come on, what’s with Melchizedek?

All right, all ready - now you have enough to understand why Melchizedek pops in here and why he is absolutely vital to understanding what Jesus is and did. Psalm 110 states that the Messiah would be a priest, but not one whose priesthood was based on Levi and the Mosaic Covenant. The Messiah’s priesthood would be based on Melchizedek who briefly appears in Abraham's story in Genesis 14:18-20. Yep - three whole verses! But the “hero” of this short anecdote serves as the basis for Jesus’ priesthood.

So what does all this mean? It means that Jesus is fully qualified to serve as a priest, indeed, a high priest. He was perfectly human, learning obedience through suffering, praying and crying aloud to God as he did. As a priest he was fully qualified to offer sacrifices on our behalf and to serve as a connector between God and us.

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You know, I’m having trouble getting this.

And you are not alone. Even the original audience of Hebrews had problems with this concept - check out Chapter 5, verse 11 and following. Hopefully your problem isn’t their problem. They had problems because of their lack of spiritual growth. The author chides them, pointing out that based on time and their experiences they should be teachers. But they're still in grade school, eating their milk and cookies. Most of Chapter 6 is a slap in their spiritual faces designed to get their attention and drive the lessons home.

I hope your problem is one of history, not sin. We can work through the history thing, checking out footnotes in study Bibles, reading overviews of Old Testament history, and the like. The problem of history is easy to deal with.

We can work through the sin problem, too. Remember Chapter 4 - God's still extending His invitation to us to return to Him if we’ve left. This can be more difficult, though. We'll have to abandon our pride, confess our sin, and change our attitudes and actions. None of this is easy, but it is all necessary if we’re serious about getting back on track with Christ. But based on what we've read so far, it's the only reasonable thing to do.

Reasonable - not not easy. Yeah, I know - more than I'll admit this side of heaven. Nothing in the Bible says living a fully committed life is easy. It simply claims that it's worth it!

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