Tuesday Novemeber 5

Ezekiel 12:1-14:11

Hebrews 7:1-17

Psalm 105:37-45

Proverbs 27:3

 

And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.

Hebrews 7:15-16

 

The law is very clear when it comes to requirements for priests. They must belong to the tribe of Levi, they must conduct themselves in a certain manner, they must wear specific clothes, they must follow an exact procedure when it comes to purifying themselves and then everyone else. This system was put in place by God as a way for people to be cleansed of their sins. There was one problem with this system: with every new sin that people commit, they have to keep going back the priest if they ever hope to be forgiven. It is a never-ending cycle of sin and atonement, back to sin again. These priests were the people's only means to be made right with God. 

 

In Hebrews 7, Paul describes a priest named Melchizedek who once encountered Abraham and blessed him. I don't fully understand who this man was and what made him so important to Abraham. But Paul makes some very interesting comparisons between Melchizedek and Jesus. Both are described as priests but are very different from the priests of the tribe of Levi. The part that jumped out to me was in verse 16: these two were considered priests not because of their ancestry, but because of their power. The priests of Levi had very limited power to actually free the people from their sins because they themselves were sinful people. Jesus, on the other hand, is God in the form of a human who lived a perfect sinless life. He was put to death and then conquered death by coming back to life 3 days later. This High Priest is the ultimate mediator between people and God because He is God. He can offer a true freedom from sin and death because He Himself conquered sin and death and He allows us to share in that victory. It didn't matter that Jesus was not of the line of Levi. What matters is that He has the power of an indestructible life.

There are countless examples from the Old Testament that point forward in time toward Jesus, like the priest Melchizedek. Thank God for the High Priest Jesus who has the power to bless us beyond what we can imagine!