Melchizedek: A Priest Out of Nowhere Look at Genesis 14:17-20 Anyone intending to approach God must do so through Him alone, thus rendering the Old Testament ritual cultus obsolete and even blasphemous. He must prove, using only Old Testament scripture, that Jesus is our only priest, not only during his life, but for all time. We will see the reasons for his strong stand in the section "So What?" Now let us see his argument. This way they would have "double coverage" and they would avoid persecution from fellow Jews for denying Judaism.Īccording to the author of Hebrews, this solution was intolerable. Since they could not be sure that Christ was the only ordained priest, they felt it could hardly do any harm to offer sacrifice in the temple as well. However, for the reasons mentioned above, they were not sure where they stood in relation to ritual Judaism. Along with this, they probably believed that He would return to rule the world. They are willing to admit that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel. The Jews to whom the book is written are apparently somewhat confused as to what they believe. In other words, even if Jesus had been a priest, He would not have been one after His ascension. This would mean, according to Old Testament law, that someone should take over to perform the services in the temple. 7:13,14.) This means that according to Mosaic law, Jesus lacked the first requirement for priesthood.īesides this, even if the readers of Hebrews granted that Jesus was a priest, He was no longer on earth at the time the book was written. However, Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi but from the tribe of Judah. The author of Hebrews intends to show that Jesus is in fact the only ordained priest that God has for believers.
DEATH NOTE RULES BASED ON JESUS HOW TO
The book of Leviticus is written to instruct the "levitical" priests on how to perform their service. This family was the family of Aaron and in addition, Aaron's tribe, the Levites. When God established His covenant with the Jews at Sinai, he chose one family to act as priests. We see this principle at work very early in the story of Job (42:7-9). They would give sacrifice to God which symbolically atoned, or paid for the people's sins. These men were chosen by God for the office. For this reason, God ordained that certain men who were ritually cleansed in a special way should approach him on behalf of the people. Holiness means God is totally separate from fallen man and, in a real sense, unapproachable. Such a person was necessary because of the Holiness of God.
The priest was a go-between or an intercessor between man and God. Based on Old Testament teaching, these people were raised with firm convictions that a priest was absolutely necessary in their relationship with God.
We today can hardly understand the importance of this office to the Jewish people for whom the book of Hebrews is written. The issue at hand in this passage is priesthood. For this reason, we will have to start with some background considerations. They couldn't understand, and it will be even harder for us to do so, since we have none of the Jewish liturgical background they did. Therefore, the author rebukes those of his audience who have no taste for meat (5:11-14) and who are therefore immature. Yet, these are surely two of the richest passages in the whole of Scripture. When reading these two passages, Christians can easily become totally confused and give up.