Hebrews 7 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hebrews 7:1-3

1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means ‘king of righteousness’; then also, ‘king of Salem’ means ‘king of peace’. 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever.

A. Find Out:

1. Who was Melchizedek? v.1a
2. What did he do? v.1b
3. What did Abraham do in return? v.2a
4. What does his name mean? v.2b
5. What strange things are said about him? v.3

B. Think:

1. What about Melchizedek’s name makes him like Jesus?
2. What about Melchizedek’s position makes him like Jesus?
3. What about Melchizedek’s actions makes him like Jesus?

C. Comment:

     Melchizedek was a strange person in Jewish history. All they knew about him was what we find in Gen 14:18-20. They knew nothing of his background, who his parents were, who his family was, where he came from. In that there are similarities with Jesus, the Son who came from heaven. But they also knew nothing of what happened to him after the incident with Abraham. For all they knew, he never died. he was a mystery. More similarities. So much for his life.

     His name meant righteousness and peace and he was king of both. So was Jesus. He was both king of peace and the priest of God. So was Jesus. He blessed Abraham, and similarly Jesus blesses all of Abraham’s descendants by faith. He received from Abraham and so Abraham’s faith descendants also give to Jesus.

     The writer will go on to explain how Jesus is a priest although not coming from the tribe of Levi, but of Judah. He is starting to build his theological case now, using Melchizedek as a parallel. This priest- king also had no connection with the Hebrew tribe of Levi, but he was never the less a priest of God. That priesthood was earthly and often failed. This priesthood is quite different, is mystical but real. it is greater than the Levitical priesthood, and that is the point the writer is making.

D. Application:

1. Jesus didn’t come from the tribe of Levi but was never the less a priest, a much greater priest.
2. Jesus was a king coming from the royal tribe of Judah.

Passage: Hebrews 7:4-10

4 Just think how great he was: even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! 5 Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people – that is, from their fellow Israelites – even though they also are descended from Abraham. 6 This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8 In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. 9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, 10 because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.

A. Find Out:

1. What had Abraham done in respect of Melchizedek? v.4
2. To what then does the writer compare this? v.5
3. Yet what was different about Melchizedek? v.6
4. Who is greater than whom? v.7
5. What does the writer then suggest? v.9
6. How does he thus reason? v.10

B. Think:

1. What right had God given to the Levitical priesthood?
2. Yet from whom were they descended?
3. How did the writer thus order the two priesthoods?

C. Comment:

     Remember the writer is seeking to show that Jesus was a priest (in the way he ministered), even though he didn’t come from the tribe of Levi, and that the priesthood that he belonged to was greater than the Levitical priesthood and, by implication, should be the one that the Jewish Christians should now follow rather than the Levitical one.

     His argument is fairly simple and straight forward once you re-order it: the Levitical priests were all descended from Abraham. Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek, and so, in a sense, the Levites had offered a tithe to Melchizedek, which makes him the superior one. More than that, Melchizedek had blessed Abraham and, in a sense, had therefore blessed his descendants, including the Levites. When a blessing is given it is always the greater blessing the lessor (e.g., God blessing man, or a father blessing a son). Thus it is clear, he argues, that the priesthood of Melchizedek is superior to that of the Levites, and as Psa 110 identifies the Messiah as a priest in the order of Melchizedek (v.4), it means that Jesus is greater in his priestly ministry than the Levitical priests were in theirs. Jesus is superior to angels, and to Moses and now to the Levitical priesthood. The writer continues to show that Jesus is greater than any other the Jews could consider.

D. Application:

1. Jesus’ ministry was that of a priest, bringing man before God.
2. Jesus is greater than any other and deserves our entire worship.

Passage: Hebrews 7:11-16

11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood – and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood – why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. 13 He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What question does the writer now raise? v.11
2. What does he say must happen and when? v.12
3. What does he say about Jesus? v.13,14a
4. What was the problem about that? v.14b
5. On what basis doesn’t Jesus come? v.15,16a
6. So on what basis does he come? v.16b

B. Think:

1. How was the Law and the Priesthood linked?
2. What is he implying, therefore, about the change of Priesthood?
3. How is Jesus’ priestly ministry shown to be different here?

C. Comment:

     This is really a link passage, one that prepares the way for what is to follow. The writer has already said that Jesus’ and Melchizedek’s ministry is greater than the Levitical priesthood’s ministry, and now he adds two further dimensions to his argument.

     First, he speaks about the Law and the priesthood. The Law drove people to God, to seek Him through the sacrificial system, for the forgiveness of their sins and for cleansing from them. The trouble was that they needed to keep on doing this for it did not help them to improve and to become perfect. In the writer’s question he implies that there was a need for another law and another priesthood because the old one was inadequate for making men good.

     Next, he speaks about the genealogy of the priesthood. The old Law said that priests had to come from the tribe of Levi, but Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. Melchizedek hadn’t come from any tribe of Israel and yet the prophecy says Messiah shall be like Melchizedek. Jesus’ claim to priesthood, as the writer sees it, comes therefore, not from being a member of a particular tribe or family, but simply because his own life is indestructible and he can go on and on acting as a priest for all future generations. That is what the writer is working towards.

D. Application:

1. The old Law couldn’t make men good. Jesus can!
2. The old priest was limited. Jesus isn’t!

Passage: Hebrews 7:17-22

17 For it is declared:

‘You are a priest for ever,
    in the order of Melchizedek.’

18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:

‘The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind:
    “You are a priest for ever.”’

22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

A. Find Out:

1. What now happens and why? v.18
2. For what two reasons? v.19
3. What distinguished the two priesthoods? v.20,21a
4. What had God promised the Messiah? v.21b
5. So what results? v.22

B. Think:

1. In what way was the Law inadequate?
2. What is the foundation stone of Jesus’ priesthood?
3. Why is his priesthood better than the old one?

C. Comment:

     For the people of Israel, first in the wilderness and then in the promised land, God gave them the Law, part of which was the sacrificial law so that when they sinned they would come and acknowledge their sin and make a sacrifice by way of a) saying sorry and b) of transferring the sin to the offering (note, they placed their hand on the head of the animal to identify with it and it with them and for the ritual transferring of the sin to the creature which died in their place). The only problem, as we’ve said before, was that it didn’t help them stop repeating the sin. In that sense that priesthood acted as go-betweens between the people and God, for sins that kept on being repeated. In that sense the regulations were “weak and useless”.

     When Jesus came, God promised through the prophetic Psa 110 that He would make the Messiah an eternal priest. That was quite an amazing prophecy and the Jews hadn’t really known what to make of it. A priest who goes on and on for ever? One who is established by a promise of God? Why the old priesthood wasn’t even brought in by God’s promise? No, this is a better covenant that actually changes people, brought in by a priest of a new order, a priest who will go on and on, on the same sure basis for ever. This is Jesus!

D. Application:

1. The covenant with Jesus means we are changed by His Spirit.
2. We are also set free from the power of sin by releasing from having to constantly come bringing guilt offerings. We are free!

Passage: Hebrews 7:23-28

23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives for ever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

26 Such a high priest truly meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect for ever.

A. Find Out:

1. Why were there many priests? v.23
2. How is Jesus different? v.24
3. Why is he able to say completely? v.25
4. How is he described? v.26
5. How did the old priests sacrifice and how does Jesus? v.27
6. How were what sort of men appointed and how Jesus? v.28

B. Think:

1. What are the characteristics of the old priesthood?
2. What are the characteristics of Jesus’ priesthood?
3. How does this affect us today?

C. Comment:

     The writer relentlessly pursues the argument to show how much greater Jesus is that the old Levitical priesthood. The old priests all grew old and died, and another had to follow in their place. The old priests were weak and had to offer for their own sinfulness. Then they had to keep on offering for the repeated sins of the people.

     Jesus, by contrast, is seated in heaven and lives for ever. Therefore we have just the one priest. Because he is in heaven, he can make constant intercession with the Father on our behalf (see also 1 Jn 2:1,2). Jesus is the holy and perfect Son of God, so he doesn’t need to offer for himself. The Law required men to be appointed from the appropriate family, to act as priests, but Jesus holds the position and fulfils the task by the clear prophetic promise of the Father.

     The result of all this is that we today do not need to come, repeatedly bringing sacrificial offerings for our sin. Jesus has presented the one offering of his own body (for he is the Lamb of God – see Jn 1:29,36 & Rev 5:6,9). We don’t come to a high priest who is like us, or who changes as one passes on to the next. No, we come to our Saviour and Redeemer who is our high priest who intercedes to the Father on our behalf. We could have no one better!

D. Application: 

1. Jesus offered the sacrifice of himself. There is no better offering.
2. Jesus is our high priest. There is no one better to speak up for us.