John Mark Hicks

The Order (or Manner) of Melchizedek

This “King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him”; and to him Abraham apportioned “one-tenth of everything.” His name, in the first place, means “king of righteousness”; next he is also king of Salem, that is, “king of peace.” Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

See how great he is! Even Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their kindred, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man, who does not belong to their ancestry, collected tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had received the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case, tithes are received by those who are mortal; in the other, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

Melchizedek only occurs in three places in Scripture:  Genesis 14:18-20, Psalm 110:4, and Hebrews. Hebrews 7:1-10 is based on Genesis 14:18-20, and the sermon called Hebrews quotes Psalm 110:4 five times in 5:6; 6:20; 7:3, 17, 21. Melchizedek, a priest-king, appears in the narrative of Genesis out of nowhere and then disappears. He was an emissary of the Most High God who blessed Abraham and to whom Abraham paid a tithe. Then, in Psalm 110, seemingly out of nowhere once again, the king who sits at the right hand of God is invested with an eternal priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. Yet, this rather obscure figure in the Hebrew Bible is central to the preacher’s explanation as to why Jesus is a legitimate and authentic High Priest. How does that work? But who is Melchizedek? Why is he the focus of the preacher’s argument in Hebrews 7?

Throughout both Jewish and Christian history, many have expressed diverse opinions about the identity of Melchizedek. They range from a Canaanite priest-king to an angelic redeemer to an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ (Christophany). I will not take the time to pursue every angle in this space because it would take a full-length book. However, it is important to understand the intellectual and apocalyptic climate of first century Judaism to grasp the significance of the preacher’s use of Melchizedek.

There are four key sources for understanding how Melchizedek was pictured in first century Judaism [For a thorough look at these sources, see the thesis by Chad Bird or his summary in a Youtube video.] One, Qumran (in 11QMelchizedek from the Dead Sea Scrolls), regarded this priest-king as an eschatological (end-time) angelic figure (perhaps even one of the “sons of God” who is also called “El” or “Elohim” or the Archangel Michael) who will liberate the people of God from their enemies at the final Jubilee on Yom Kippur. Another source, 2 Enoch 69-73, presents Melchizedek as a prodigy child born from a dead mother and without a father and born with a badge of priesthood on his chest. The child was taken up into heaven to escape the corruption that brought on the Noahic flood. Once the earth was cleansed, Melchizedek returned to earth to reestablish God’s priesthood upon the renewed earth. The other two, Josephus and Phil of Alexandria, regard Melchizedek as a human Canaanite priest-king. For Josephus, Melchizedek is the first to officiate as priest, founded Jerusalem, and build the first temple there (Jewish Wars 6.10.1). For Philo, Melchizedek is God’s own priest in Canaan as an expression of God’s logos (reason). Philo understands Melchizedek allegorically so as to say something about God’s presence who brings our passions under control through God’s righteous reign in our hearts (Legum Allegoriarum 3.79-82).

Given these diverse perspectives on Melchizedek, speculations abounded as to his meaning and significance. In addition, Psalm 110 was widely believed to refer to the Messiah, a king descended from David who would also be a priest-king. In fact, Psalm 110 is the most widely and often quoted text from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, and it is the most cited text from the Hebrew Bible in Hebrews. The Messiah, in other words, is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The same person is both king and priest.

Hebrews 7:1-3

Significantly, Melchizedek is not contrasted with Jesus like he is with the angels in chapter 1, Moses in chapter 3, or the Levites in chapter 7. Rather, Melchizedek is compared to the Son of God, whom the preacher identifies as Jesus the Messiah. Melchizedek resembles the Son of God. The angels are servants (angels serve and worship the Son), Moses is an earthly figure (Moses is faithful in the house), and Levites are mortal humans (Levites die) while in contrast the Son of God is king, heavenly, and divine.

Melchizedek is compared to the Son of God; he resembles the Son of God.  That resemblance highlights the contrast with the other figures in the sermon (angels, Moses, Levites). In what way, however, does Melchizedek resemble the Son?

First, Melchizedek is a priest-king. Aaron was priest but not king. Moses was the leader of Israel but not a priest. Angels are not priests because they are not human. But Melchizedek was both king and priest, and this resembles the Son of God who is both Christ (King) and High Priest.

Second, Melchizedek’s name and territory reflect Messianic themes. His name means “king of righteousness” (or the Hebrew could mean “my king is righteous”), and he is the “king of Salem” (or king of peace). The latter is an allusion to Jerusalem, and the former is a Messianic title. The combination of righteousness and peace in connection with a royal figure is thoroughly Messianic in flavor.

Third, the description of Melchizedek as “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” resembles the Son of God in terms of his eternal function as priest. This is a key point in the sermon.

But to what does that series of five negatives refer? In general, it speaks to the eternal nature of the order. Melchizedek and the Son resemble each other in that they are both priests without genealogical authentication. Both have become and remain priests because their priesthood is unmediated, that is, it is not based on genealogy or descent. Their priesthood is rooted in God’s call rather than their genes. Yet, exactly how do we construe this language?

There are three major perspectives with some variations within each. One perspective hears this language as a reflection on what Genesis 14 does not tell us. The narrative is silent about Melchizedek’s genealogy, about his father and mother. He pops into the narrative and pops out of it, leaving no trace of his origins (beginnings) or end, unlike other major figures in Genesis for whom have both genealogies and notations of their death. The preacher may be simply referencing the lack of information we have about Melchizedek in comparison to what is required of the Levites. At the same time, this point is not explicit in his argument, and there are figures similar in terms of silence about such matters (e.g., the king of Sodom in Genesis 14).

Another perspective argues that the preacher means this quite literally. Consequently, Melchizedek is a divine figure, perhaps even an appearance of the pre-incarnate Son (a Christophany). Nothing in the Genesis text indicates that this is the case as the narrative pictures Melchizedek as a human king alongside other kings (like the king of Sodom). Moreover, the Son of God becomes a priest through his incarnation, which would not be true of his person in Genesis 14 if this were a Christophany. It seems Melchizedek and Christ are distinguished in Hebrews 7:15-16.

A third perspective suggests that the preacher is drawing on the cultural significance of Melchizedek in the thinking of his audience and Judaism as a whole. In other words, he uses Second Temple speculation about Melchizedek with which his readers are familiar to make his point. “Without father, without mother” may allude to the story in 2 Enoch (no father, and birthed from a dead mother). Without beginning or end may refer to the angelic figure in the Qumran document. His audience was probably immersed in these speculations about Melchizedek. In this perspective, the preacher is not speaking literally but reflecting various traditions about Melchizedek to make his point about Jesus, the Messiah.

Perhaps he is saying something like that the Melchizedek you are expecting based on speculations like what appear in Qumran or 2 Enoch is, in fact, the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah. Paul Ellingworth paraphrases the text it this way:  “You find Melchizedek a great and fascinating figure, and you are right. He reminds us Christians of the Son of God himself. He is in any case greater than Abraham and everything Abraham inaugurated. Thus Scripture itself points to semething [sic] higher, and incidentally even older.”[1]

Hebrews 7:4-10

If Melchizedek resembles the Son of God, then he teaches us something about the Son’s relationship to Abraham and the subsequent Aaronic or Levitical priesthood. This establishes the superiority of the Melchizedekian priesthood over the Levitical priesthood. Three arguments highlight this point, and each of them are about the relationship between Abraham—the father of the nation of Israel and the one who received the promises—and Melchizedek.

First, Melchizedek precedes Aaron and the Levitical priesthood. More than preceding him, however, the one whom Melchizedek resembles lives while the priests of the Levitical order die. They are dead, but the Son of God is not. His priestly order is forever, but the Levitical one is not. This does not mean that Melchizedek was a priest forever but that the Jesus was a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Second, Abraham—and Levi who is in the loins of Abraham as his descendent—paid a tithe to Melchizedek. In other words, Abraham served and honored Melchizedek rather than the other way around.

Third, Abraham received a blessing from Melchizedek, and “the inferior is blessed by the superior.” Abraham recognized the greatest of Melchizedek as God’s priest in Canaan.

If Melchizedek is superior or greater than Abraham, and Melchizedek resembles the Son of God, then the Son of God is superior or greater than Abraham. If the priest-king Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, then he is also greater than the Levi and all those who descended from him. Thus, the priestly order of Melchizedek is greater than the priestly order of Aaron and Levi.

If perfection does not come through the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7:11), from where will it come? It will come through the order of Melchizedek, and Jesus, the Son of God, was called into that order by God to reign as a priest-king and secure salvation for the people of God. That is the next move in the preacher’s argument (7:11-28).

[1] “’Like the Son of God’: Form and Content in Hebrews 7,1-10,” Biblica 64 (1983) 262, as quoted by Bird.

We Are Confident of Better Things in Your Case

For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.

Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

This section of the sermon falls into two distinct but connected parts.

1. The preacher says (6:4-12), “It is impossible to restore again . . . [those who] have fallen away . . . [but] we are confident of better things in your case . . . to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end.”

• The preacher says (6:13-20), “When God made a promise to Abraham . . . he swore by himself . . . [because] God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose . . . [Therefore] we have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor . . . Jesus . . . having become a high priest forever.”

The first part (Hebrews 6:4-12) both warns us about the danger of apostacy and encourages us to cultivate good fruit in our lives. The second part (Hebrews 6:13-20) assures us that God’s purpose and promise remains secure. To embrace the full assurance of hope, we must trust in God’s unshakable purpose in God’s promise to Abraham and its realization in Jesus the Messiah, our high priest. Trusting that promise, we imitate those heirs who faithfully endured the wilderness of life and did not fall away.

One of the more difficult sentences in Hebrews is the opening line of this text: “It is impossible to restore again to repentance . . . [those who] have fallen away.” Some doubt true believers can fall away, and others think “impossible” means one is permanently excluded and without any hope.

Who are these who have fallen away for whom it is “impossible” to renew again to repentance? Were they authentic believers? Or did they only appear to be believers but proved otherwise through the trials of life. As if to give an emphatic stamp of their authenticity, the preacher describes them in four phrases, the latter three are expositions or characerizations of the first one.

• Enlightened
  • Tasted the heavenly gift
  • Shared in the Holy Spirit
  • Tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come

The preacher piles one characteristic on top of another as if to say, “Yes, these were real believers; they were shared in our life together, and they were truly connected to God and our community.” Enlightenment is another way of describing conversion, which is apparent from Hebrews 10:32.  They tasted (experienced) the “heavenly gift” or grace of God. Heavenly describes, of course, what belongs to Mt. Zion, the city of the living in Hebrew 12:22 and the goal of faithful pilgrimage in Hebrews 11:16. To “taste” is not to get a sip but to fully experience something as when Jesus tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). They were partakers of the Holy Spirit, that is, they shared communion with and partnered with the Holy Spirit (see the use of the word in Hebrews 3:1, 14). These believers not only experienced the goodness of God’s promises but also the presence of the future in their lives. They knew the power of the age to come through their own experiences as believers.

But they fell away. They no longer experience this reality because they no longer continued in faith. But this is no mere weak faith or simply a lack of faith. Rather, it was hostile turn that is characterized as recrucifying the Son of God and treating him with contempt. This is the result of their “falling away,” which is no mere drift or neglect but a rejection of the Messiah and God’s promises. “Crucifying again” and “holding him up” are present tense participles that modify the impossibility of repentance. Some suggest, though many dispute, that the participles have the meaning of “as long as they continue to recrucify Jesus and hold him in contempt, it is impossible to restore them to repentance.” In that case the impossibility lies not in some kind of metaphysical incapacity but rather in the ongoing rejection of the Messiah. That is one possible way to read the language—it impossible for them to repent because they are still engaged in crucifying the Messiah. Whatever the case, their definitive and public rejection of the Messiah makes their repentance “impossible.”

This “falling away” is real. They were once true believers in full communion with God, but now they are hostile enemies recrucifying Jesus by their rejection of him. As long as they remain in this state, it is impossible to restore them. In other words, this is a practical impossibility rather than an ontological or metaphysical one. Given the circumstances, it is impossible. Might those circumstances change? Yes, though I think the strength of the language suggests it is unlikely or that it is “practically impossible” (it would be quite unexpected) to renew their faith in the Messiah. They have rejected God’s anointed.

It is important to notice that the preacher speaks in the third person about those who have fallen away. The group he is addressing, where he typically uses “you” or “we,” is not part of the group that has fallen away. They may be in danger of that, particularly if they continue their regression and neglect the salvation God has offered in Jesus. But, at the moment, the preacher is confident that his audience/readers will persevere and following the path of previous faithful believeers.

The agricultural metaphor in Hebrews 6:7-8 suggests how one might discern the condition of the field, that is, the lives of people. Nourished by rain, some soil produces a useful cultivated crop of food, which God blesses, but other soil produces worthless “thorns and thistles” whose end is the fire. Rather than producing fruit, it now produces thorns and thistles. The question, then, is what are you cultivating in our lives? What is the fruit of your life—a useful crop or worthless “thorns and thistles”? This suggests, it seems to me, that one discerns the current state of their spiritual journey, at least in part, by noticing the fruit the soil of our hearts have produced in our lives.

How do I know if I am one of those who have fallen away? Have I sinned in such a way that it is impossible for me to return? We look at the fruit of our hearts. Do we want to return? Or, have we firmly and finally rejected the Messiah? A weak faith is not a rebellious faith. The desire to return or the struggle to stay means that we have not reached a point of no return or impossibility. If we are struggling to endure or seeking to believe, we have not reached any stage of “impossibility to return” (whatever that may mean). If faith is struggling, it is alive; it is a living faith though struggling and perhaps weak but faith nonetheless.

This is some harsh and disturbing language. In the wake of the preacher’s complaint that his audience was “dull of hearing” and should have been more mature than they are, the preacher might anticipate that he is discouraging them rather than warning them. While he does lay a serious warning at their feet, he also immediately offers an encouraging word. While some fall into the category he has just described, he does not believe his audience is there. He is, in fact, confident of better things in their future.

The preacher expresses this confidence within the framework of his love for them. He calls them, “Beloved” (agapetoi). He earnestly seeks to persuade them to endure through the perseverance of their faith that will yield good fruit, just as it has done in the past and still does in the present. He is hopeful for them even though he warns them about the potential for a frightful future.

God knows their past faithfulness. They have served “the saints” through their good works and love, and they still do. It is not only a past faithfulness but a present one. Though some have drifted away and others have not matured as they might be expected to do, the preacher wants them to continue to serve and to do so with diligence or earnestness (or zeal) that translates into a full assurance of hope. In other words, continue to persevere in faith (along with its good works and loving service to others) in imitation of those who have preceded you. Imitate the perseverance and endurance (or patience) of those who inherit the promises.

The word “promise” in Hebrews 6:12 is the second time it appears in Hebrews. The first time was in Hebrews 4:1 referring to the promise to enter God’s rest. Its appearance here provides an opportunity to ground God’s unchangeable purpose in God’s own character and to specify a particular promise God made to Abraham: “I will surely bless you and multiply you” (Genesis 22:16-17).

In that text, God swears by his own being, “By myself I have sworn,” says Genesis 22:16. God swore this oath to Abraham. God’s promise is unalterable and immutable. God’s purpose is certified by the oath, and the promise is fully trustworthy. God will do what God promised. It is guaranteed. God’s word is faithful, and God’s sworn oath is even more so—these are the two immutable realities that ground the promise.

That immutability is, therefore, grounded in God’s own immutable character. It is impossible for God to lie, that is, God’s statements will not prove false, and God cannot swear by anything greater than God’s own name or life. It is impossible that God could have lied; God speaks truth. That truth is the ground of our hope.

Yet, what is the promise that the preacher has in mind. Clearly, he thinks of God’s sworn oath to Abraham is a promise God has kept and will keep. God will not break covenant with Abraham. Though this illustration of a sworn oath is important and meaningful, it is not the focus of the preacher. Rather, another oath that God swore grounds the hope of his audience. It is a further development of God’s blessing of Israel, that is, God swore an oath that the Messiah would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. With that point, the preacher returns to where he left off in Hebrews 5:5-10 before his digression about his audience’s immaturity.

Because of God’s oath to the Messiah, therefore, “we have this hope” which is an anchor for the soul in the storms of life. Jesus the Messiah has passed through the heavens and entered the Holy of Holies behind the curtain to function as our “high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Because God swore it in God’s own name, it is an immutable promise. We have a high priest forever! That will not change, and it is the basis of our hope, an anchor for our souls in the storms of life. Consequently, our hope gives us confidence and empowers our perseverance.

In both Hebrews 5:10 and Hebrews 6:20, based on Psalm 110:4, the preacher identifies Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. God’s own oath has made it so. And now, finally, the preacher will begin to explain what is “hard to explain,” that is, how Jesus can be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, and why that order rather than the Levitical order enjoined in the Torah.

“Dios vio todo lo que había hecho y era muy bueno” (Génesis 1:31a).

“…Maldita serás entre todos los animales…Maldita la tierra…” (Génesis 3:14a, 17b).

Dios creó el orden, la vida y la luz de una tierra caótica, inanimada y oscura. Por acto divino, la vida surgió de la nada, la luz apareció en la oscuridad y el orden reformó el caos. La oscuridad vacía y sin forma se convirtió en una realidad ordenada, empapada de luz y llena de vida.

Dios creó un jardín en esta tierra (Edén) donde reinaban la vida, la comunidad y la paz. Lo que creó fue “muy bueno”. Y Dios descansó en la creación, disfrutando de su mundo y deleitándose en su pueblo. La creación estuvo llena de paz o shalom (en Hebreo).

La historia del Génesis, sin embargo, pasa de la paz a la violencia, de la comunidad a la sospecha, de la vida a la muerte. El caos entra en la experiencia humana, el mal crece en el seno de la libertad y la muerte humana se convierte en una realidad en la tierra buena que Dios creo.

La transición del shalom al caos, iniciada por el deseo humano de autonomía, es a lo que me refiero con “maldición”. Dios usa este lenguaje cuando se dirige a la serpiente y al hombre en Génesis 3. La serpiente está maldita (3:14b) y la tierra está maldita (3:17b).

Este no es lenguaje científico. Es una metáfora de la expansión del caos en la buena creación de Dios. Es una metáfora del quebrantamiento, del vandalismo del shalom (como lo llama Cornelius Plantinga). Es un desvío del propósito divino de vida, paz y comunidad hacia la muerte, la violencia y la tiranía. La maldición de Génesis 3 anticipa la espiral humana hacia la inhumanidad en los capítulos 3-11. La humanidad, diseñada para ser la imagen (representar) de Dios en el mundo como gobernantes en su buena creación. Por el contrario, la humanidad por sus ojos crearon ídolos  que podían alcanzar los cielos y crear un nombre para ser famosos ellos mismos. (Génesis 11:4). La humanidad se convirtió en su propia maldición mientras vivía en un mundo roto.

La maldición, o el quebrantamiento, se representa una y otra vez en el drama humano. Es una historia de muerte, destrucción y deshumanización. En lugar de ser la imagen de Dios, la humanidad creo sus propias imágenes para adorar. Sus imágenes no son meros ídolos de madera y piedra, sino superestructuras de codicia, poder y genocidio. Derramaron sangre inocente. Construyeron palacios a costa de los pobres. Tomaron el poder para el beneficio de ellos mismo. La humanidad alcanzaría el poder y la riqueza a través de la violencia y la codicia.

Esta es la condición humana. Se ha vuelto natural para los seres humanos, prácticamente su “segunda naturaleza”. Aunque los humanos están diseñados para el bien: la paz, la comunidad y la alegría, están deformados hacia el mal: la violencia, la tiranía y la angustia.

Pero la gracia de Dios no nos deja en nuestro dolor y esclavitud. Más bien, Dios actúa para redimir, restaurar y renovar. Lo vemos en Génesis. Adán y Eva tienen hijos, Dios llama a Abraham para que bendiga a todas las familias de la tierra, y Dios guarda para sí un pueblo que bendecirá a toda la tierra. Dios renueva la faz de la tierra con su gracia.

Mi escena favorita en La Pasión de Cristo de Mel Gibson es cuando Jesús, cargando la cruz, cae de rodillas debido a el peso. Su madre corre hacia él y sus ojos se cruzan. Con sangre corriendo por sus mejillas y sosteniendo el símbolo del poder y la violencia romana, Jesús dice: “He aquí, Madre, yo hago nuevas todas las cosas”.

Esta es la promesa de Dios. Será el acto escatológico de Dios en la nueva creación, en los nuevos cielos y la nueva tierra. Allí el viejo orden habrá pasado y la voz de Dios declarará: “Yo hago nuevas todas las cosas” (Apocalipsis 21:5a).

Se acerca el día en que “no habrá más maldición” (Apocalipsis 22:3). No habrá más oscuridad. La gloria de Dios llenará de luz la tierra. No habrá más violencia. Las naciones recibirán sanidad y caminarán a la luz de Dios. No habrá más muerte, ni luto ni lágrimas. El Árbol de la Vida y el Agua de la Vida nutrirán al pueblo de Dios para siempre.

Se acerca un día en que la maldición será revertida, revocada y rescindida.

“Ya no habrá muerte, ni llanto, ni llanto, ni dolor” (Apocalipsis 21:4b)

“Ya no habrá más maldición” (Apocalipsis 22:3a).

[Translated by David Garcia]

A Literary Digression: Faith Seeking Understanding

About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will dothis, if God permits.

One of the most fundamental definitions of theology is an ancient one: “faith seeking understanding.” Believers seek to understand the faith they profess more deeply so that they might more fully practice the faith with healthy (sound) words and good deeds. At this point in his sermon, the preacher interrupts his argument for a side comment. It is one of those asides that a congregation does not want to hear but must if they are to continue the journey of seeking understanding. It is important for them to understand their faith more deeply in order to more securely profess it and persevere in it.

After a generation of living out their faith, some—if not many—had become “dull of hearing” which makes it “hard to explain” the faith in ways that would ground their confidence in Christ. The preacher wants to explore the meaning of Psalm 110:4 (“you are a priest according to the order of Melchizedek; you are a priest forever,” quoted in Hebrews 5:10), but the congregation is not prepared to hear that message. The preacher wants to say a lot about Melchizedek; he wants to speak a “word” (logos, as in Hebrews 4:12). But it is a difficult word that needs some maturity to hear well.

Perhaps the first step in pressing forward with the search for understanding is to recognize where we are. This means we are called to humbly recognize our deficiencies, our prejudices, and our inability to hear well or listen attentively. We may hear the sounds, but the meaning escapes us because we perhaps don’t want to learn, our faith is weak, or we are distracted by the cultural hostility or preoccupations that surrounds us.

The preacher contrasts where they are with where they should be after this much time in the faith. We don’t know how long of period this is, perhaps a generation: something like 20-30 years in the faith. I understand his contrasts as the difference between immaturity and maturity. The following chart represents some of the key ideas in the text.

Immaturity and Maturity (5:11-14)

The distinction is most clearly seen in the contrast between “infants” and “mature,” and this entails various characteristics. Infants need milk, need to be taught, are unskilled, and are untrained. They must grow up. The mature, on the other hand, eat solid food, teach others the faith, are skilled in the understanding of the faith, and employ wise discernment to distinguish between good and evil.

Immature believers are not cast from the community; they are still part of it—and the preacher is even hopeful about them as we will see in Hebrews 6:7-20. Instead of exclusion, they are called to grow up into the faith and become mature. The expectation has been there from the beginning. The danger is not exclusion but weakness. A weak faith may ultimately lose confidence and drift way or reject the work of Jesus altogether.

The community needs mature believers who have the wisdom to discern through their own practice of the faith and who are able to teach others—not only with milk but solid food. The health of the community depends on mature leaders who are skilled in the “word of righteousness” rather than remaining stuck in the first principles of the word (or literally, “the first elements of the words of God”). Both refer to the word (logos) of God. One word consists of the initial principles (perhaps the roots of saving faith in conversion through the gospel), and the other word—which is a deeper grasp of God’s work of redemption—refers, in this sermon, to the preacher’s exposition of Melchizedek (which will begin in Hebrews 7). The word of righteousness is the word of God that more fully explores and explains the righteous acts of God to redeem the world, secure our confidence, and give victorious life over death.

But what are the first principles (elements) of the word? Our preacher explicitly identifies them. The following chart interprets the preacher’s language. Generally, repentance and faith function as a comprehensive description, and the following four elements (baptisms, laying on hands, resurrection, and judgment) are specifications that fall under the initial comprehensive language. It seems to me this is the language of conversion:  faith and repentance, which involves baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment.

Moving from Basics toward Perfection (6:1-3)

The structure of this list is shaped the use of the conjunction καὶ (and): repentance from dead works καὶ (and) faith toward God, teachings about baptisms, τε laying on of hands, τε resurrection from the dead, καὶ (and) eternal judgment.  Repentance and faith are comprehensive descriptions of conversion, but the preacher particularizes those teachings that are important for the experience of conversion:  baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment. More specifically, baptism and laying on of hands are joined together by the particle τε (usually untranslated but functions as a conjunction) and resurrection and judgment are also joined together by an additional use of τε.

This movement is not a movement beyond Judaism but within the Christian Faith. It moves from immature believer in Christ to a matured believer in Christ (from milk to meat). To understand that movement in its full and profound depth one must understand the theological point that lies behind the declaration of Psalm 110:4 about Melchizedek.

As such, “dead works” does not refer to the works of Judaism or the Mosaic covenant, but to sinful deeds that characterize all who come to Christ in faith and repentance. “Baptisms” (baptismon; sometimes translated “washings”) probably refers to the distinction between the various washings that were part of both Jewish, Gentile, and Christian religiosity (cf. Hebrews 9:10). “Laying on of hands” probably refers to the blessing of the Holy Spirit associated with baptism, much like the hands of God (the dove) descending on Jesus at this baptism; the preacher links baptisms and laying on of hands with the particle τε. “Resurrection” refers to the future of believers who share in the resurrection of Jesus himself. “Eternal judgment” refers to the future adjudication of the righteous and the wicked before the throne of God. The preacher links resurrection and judgment with the particle τε.

These six elements reflect the emphases of apostolic preaching in the book of Acts. I think they represent the basic elements of a conversion narrative: repentance from sin, faith in God, baptism into Jesus and the reception of the Holy Spirit, and salvation through resurrection and the function of judgment. This is how believers responded and began their journey in the Christian faith as followers of Jesus.

But it is insufficient to understand the “word of righteousness.” Believers must pursue “perfection,” and the preacher urges them to do so. Building on the foundation of their conversion, believers must journey toward perfection.

I don’t think “perfection” here only means maturity or completeness. While it includes those aspects of our present pilgrimage in the wilderness (we do seek maturity), it points ultimately to the perfection that God will work in our lives through participation in the perfection (resurrection) of Jesus. As perfected people, we will serve as priests in the heavenly courts alongside Jesus. And that is what the preacher wants to explain in Hebrews 7:1-10:18.

For more discussion on this text as it relates to conversion, maturity, and fellowship among believers who disagree about important questions, see my (now ancient) piece from the 1980s.  :-). Here is the link: https://johnmarkhicks.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2009/02/heb6.doc

Priests Are Human

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

            So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

            “You are my Son,

                        today I have begotten you”;

as he says also in another place,

            “You are a priest forever,

                        according to the order of Melchizedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

The first part of the sermon (Hebrews 1:1-4:13) reminded us that God has spoken in many ways through prophets, angels, and Moses, and the Spirit continues to speak through Scripture. At the same time, God has now also spoken by the Son who, though the instrument of creation and the radiance of God’s glory, became human so that he might become a high priest for humanity.

In this second section of the sermon (Hebrews 4:14-10:18) the preacher explores what it means for Jesus, the Son of God, to become a high priest who represents humanity before God. The preacher answers the question how Jesus, descended from the tribe of Judah, can be a priest when only Levites were authorized (Hebrews 5:1-10; 7:1-28). Then he addresses the work of Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 8:1-10:18). The middle section (Hebrews 5:11-6:20) is a digression to motivate his audience to listen carefully and think deeply so that they might flourish as God’s people who have an anchor of hope for their souls.

Hebrews 4:14-16 is sort of thesis statement for the whole second section of the sermon (Hebrews 4:14-10:18). First, Jesus is our high priest who represents us in the heavenly temple (“passed through the heavens”). This points to the work of Jesus as priest in the heavenlies, and it is discussed more fully in Hebrews 8:1-10:18. Second, Jesus is a sympathetic high priest who has been tested in the wilderness of life just as we have though without sin. This points to the humanity of Jesus, which is a qualification for priesthood, which is discussed in Hebrews 5:1-10.

The humanity of our high priest is stressed in two ways. First, our high priest shares our weaknesses; he can empathize with us. He understands our frailties. He knows the pull of temptation and the struggle of testing. Unlike the wilderness generation, however, he was faithful and did not sin in his journey through the wilderness. Second, our high priest has been tested (a theme noted in Hebrews 2:18). This is the word that describes Abraham’s trial (Hebrews 11:17; also Genesis 22:1). It is important to remember that the wilderness generation was tested in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:5-6) which Jesus quotes when he is in the wilderness himself for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11).

Because of this priesthood, we have bold access to the throne of grace. Believers are invited into the presence of God (before God’s own throne) to seek mercy and grace in their wilderness struggles. The verb “approach” is a key word in the sermon, and it appears here for the first time (see Hebrews 7:25; 10:1, 22; 11:6; 12:18, 22). It is a liturgical word that describes the way the Levites drew near to God before the tabernacle (Hebrews 10:1; Leviticus 9:5,7-8; 10:4-5; 21:17-18, 21, 23), and it is used in the context of assembling together in Hebrews 10:22 with Hebrews 10:25. This is a communal act rather than an individual one (though the latter is not necessarily excluded). We draw near to the throne of grace as a community, and we enter the presence of God together.

The preacher turns his attention to the legitimacy of the priesthood of Jesus in Hebrews 5:1-10. He notes two important qualifications in Hebrews 5:1-4: (1) God choses human priests, and (2) God calls them into service. The first is important because priests share the experience of those they represent. They are compassionate and sympathetic with people because they themselves participate in the same weaknesses. The second is equally important. Only God calls people into this honor; they do not appoint themselves. Aaron, for example, was called by God; he was not self-appointed. The high priest is both human and called. And this is also true for Jesus (Hebrews 5:5-10).

Jesus did not appoint himself. Quoting both Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110:4, the preacher locates the calling of Jesus as priest in these two royal Psalms. Psalm 2:7, quoted earlier in Hebrews 1:5, identifies the appointment of Jesus as a royal heir (probably, as we will see later in the sermon) due to his resurrection. It is as the resurrected one, who passes through the heavens, that Jesus becomes a high priest. He was appointed; he did not glorify himself. God called him.

Psalm 110 is also a royal Psalm. It is the most quoted text in the whole New Testament, and it is the most quoted in Hebrews. The Psalm begins with the appointment of the Lord to the right hand of God, which is understood in Hebrews (and throughout the New Testament; cf. Acts 13:33) as the exaltation and enthronement of the resurrected Son. The last line of the Psalm is the important one for Hebrews, and the sermon alone in the New Testament quotes it and builds a theological argument based on it. “You are a priest forever,” the preacher recites, “according to the order of Melchizedek.” As Hebrews 5:10 says, God “designated” or called him a priest; God appointed him to the order of Melchizedek.

Yet, the preacher is not yet ready to take a deep dive into this topic, though he will in Hebrews 7:1-28. He will quote it again in Hebrews 5:10 before he entertains a digression that contains both warning and hope in Hebrews 5:11-6:20. Instead, in Hebrews 5:7-9 the preacher explores the fuller meaning of the humanity of Jesus as a priest.

While he was on earth, Jesus offered fervent prayers “with loud cries and tears” to the Father. While this most likely remembers Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, it may also allude to the totality of his life as he struggled in the wilderness along with the rest of humanity. Nevertheless, the language evokes the garden scene: a cry for life to the one who could save him from death. The preacher says “he was heard” in the light of his reverence and godly acceptance or his obedience. In the light of the rest of Hebrews, it is best to understand this as a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. The Son was heard; that is, he was not saved from dying but saved from death through resurrection.

As a son, he obeyed the Father, and having obeyed, he was perfected with the result that “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” What does perfect mean here? Some suggest it refers to Jesus’s maturity and growth, that is, through the process of life he constantly yielded his will to the Father and thus became obedient. That obedience was his perfection. However, it is important to note that he obeyed, suffered death, and then was perfected. In other words, this perfection follows his death. It is more probably a reference to his resurrected state. And it is as the resurrected Son who becomes the source of eternal (resurrected life) salvation for those who follow him.

The Son was obedient unto death. He shared the weakness of humanity, including death. He submitted to death. But the Father heard his cries and raised him from the dead. He perfected the Son as the new human, as a high priest who could administer eternal redemption and eternal life by sharing his own everlasting life. Unlike the Levitical priests who died but were not raised, the Son died and was perfected (raised).

Consequently, he is a “priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” He lives forever as the resurrected Son, a royal priest over God’s house.

But who is Melchizedek, and what is his priestly order? How does this apply to Jesus? Those are the questions the preacher will address in Hebrews 7:1-28 but first a warning followed by a promise in Hebrews 5:11-6:20.

Headed to the Promised Land with Israel

Hebrews 4:1-13

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

            “As in my anger I swore,

            ‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,

            “Today, if you hear his voice,

            do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. 9 So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Though the wilderness generation in Israel’s past did not believe the good news, the promised rest still remains for believers today. The rest, however, is something more than what Joshua promised or provided. The promised land is more than Canaan; it is a rest in God and a participation in God’s own rest. The promised land is where we presently rest with God in God’s own seventh day rest. We rest with God in the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, Mt. Zion, though we do so as we await the fullness of that rest when Jesus returns for our salvation. Let us, therefore, persevere in faith that we might enter that eternal rest.

This text opens and closes with an exhortation.

• Let us take care that none of you should seem to fail to reach it (4:1b).
• Let us make every effort to enter that rest (4:11a).

The exhortations are combined with warnings.

• For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened (4:2).
• So that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs (4:11b).

The warning comes from the path that the wilderness generation embraced: it was one of unbelief and disobedience. They hardened their hearts and did not trust the promise. Consequently, they disobeyed and failed to enter the promised land. This disobedience is emphasized in Hebrews 4:6 and Hebrews 4:11.

The exhortation comes from the fact the rest still remains. The rest that was promised to Israel is still available. This rest is the good news Israel heard, and it is the good news we still hear when the gospel is preached. It is the good news the preacher in Hebrews offers: the gospel has come to us just as it had to Israel at Sinai and in the wilderness.

The preacher knows this rest still remains because it is part of Psalm 95, which is quoted twice in this section. The first quote identifies the rest: “my rest” or God’s rest. The second quote provides a warning: “do not harden your hearts.” Both the rest and the warning still apply because it is still “today” as Psalm 95 declares. In one sense, it is always “today,” because that is the day of salvation. The offer of the promised rest is always present while the journey continues. Whether it is Israel in the wilderness of Zin, or the Psalmist in the wilderness of sin, or the preacher’s audience in Hebrews in the wilderness of a hostile environment, or ourselves in the present wilderness of cultural shifts, the promised rest remains good news. It is still available for those who trust in God’s promises.

But what is this rest? On the one hand, it is not what Joshua was able to accomplish. Joshua led the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 21:44; 22:4; 23:1) and his work ultimately led to the “rest” God gave David and Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 7:1, 11; 1 Kings 5:4; 8:56). There is a limited sense in which God gave Israel rest in the land. But this is not the ultimate rest to which Psalm 95 refers. The preacher says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day” (Hebrews 4:8).

On the other hand, the preacher grounds the rest described by Psalm 95 in Genesis 2:2-3. On the seventh day, God rested. This is God’s rest (“my rest”). God invites us to enter God’s own sabbath rest within the creation. I suspect this refers to entering God’s own life to commune with God and participate in that rest. But this is not a passive rest. In God’s own rest, God is active in communing with God’s people, filling the earth with God’s people, and sustaining the creation. We enter the rest to participate more fully in that communion. We don’t enter to become coach potatoes or passive observers. Our rest in God is an active one. Yet, still a rest free from the anxieties, toils, and burdens of the wilderness. We will cease from the labors of a world filled with hostility and pain and enjoy the fullness of God’s promised land in the new heaven and new earth.

The last two verses of this reading in Hebrews function as a conclusion to the first section of the whole sermon. Throughout this first section from Hebrews 1:1 through Hebrews 4:11, the speech of God has been the main topic. God spoke through the prophets, God spoke through the angels who mediated the law, the Son spoke to Father on behalf of his brothers and sisters, God spoke through the Son, and God spoke through the Holy Spirit in Scripture. God has spoken in various ways and times and continues to speak.

This speech is the “word of God” in Hebrews 4:12. It is neither a dead letter nor a blunt useless instrument. It is living, that is, it continues to speak in the present as well as in the past. It is active, that is, it works effectively. It is a sharp sword, that is, it opens up our most secret and hidden thoughts in our hearts. The word of God confronts us in our nakedness as nothing is hidden from God. The word of God exposes us.

This word of God comes to us in the embodied life of Jesus whom the original witnesses saw. This word of God comes to us through Scripture as it continually calls us into God’s mission, confronts our sins, and heals our wounds. This word of God is the exhortation of the preacher in Hebrews. His own homily is the word of God. As the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) says, “The preaching of the word of God is the word of God.” When Scripture is faithfully preached, it, too, is the word of God.

God has spoken. The word (logos) of God comes to us in various ways and now especially through the Son. It demands a response, an accounting. Just as the paragraph began with “word (logos) of God,” so it ends with the term logos (word, account). When God speaks the living word (logos) of God, we must respond with our own word (logos).

When God spoke in the wilderness, how did Israel give its own word (logos) in response? When the Psalmist sang his poem, how did the congregation respond with its own word (logos)? When the preacher in Hebrews delivered his sermon as the word of God, how did the assembly respond with its own word (logos)?

When we hear the voice of God, the Spirit who continues to speak through the words of Scripture, what kind of word (logos) will we offer in response? Belief or unbelief? Obedience or disobedience? However we respond, we must give an account (logos).

Therefore, make every effort to come together more frequently to give thanks and glory to God. For when you meet together frequently, the powers of Satan are overthrown, and his destructiveness is nullified by the unanimity of your faith. There is nothing better than peace, by which all warfare among those in heaven and those on earth is abolished (Ephesians 13).

I was recently asked to give a lecture on Ignatius. I choose to talk about his theological understanding of the assembly. I have uploaded the handout from the talk here.

The assembling of Christians is, it seems, on the decline such that only 16% of the US attends weekly and only 30% monthly. Ignatius offers a timely reminder of the importance of regular, frequent assemblies.

In the Wilderness with Israel

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

            “Today, if you hear his voice,

            do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

                        as on the day of testing in the wilderness,

            where your ancestors put me to the test,

                        though they had seen my works for forty years.

            Therefore I was angry with that generation,

            and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,

                        and they have not known my ways.’

            As in my anger I swore,

                        ‘They will not enter my rest.’”

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said,

            “Today, if you hear his voice,

            do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?

“Today,” and it still is “today,” the invitation to God’s rest remains open. Liberated from Egyptian enslavement, Israel was invited to enter God’s rest, but that wilderness generation hardened their hearts in unbelief. But it is still “today” for the generation the preacher in Hebrews addresses, a generation struggling to persevere in faith. Though journeying through their own wilderness, the readers are encouraged to hear God’s voice and follow God’s Messiah into the promised land which is God’s own rest, while it is still “today.”

The first few chapters have emphasized God’s speech. God spoke through the prophets, through angels in the delivering of the law, through Moses, and through the Son. That speech continues in the quotation of Psalm 95:7b-11 as the voice of the Holy Spirit. Divine speech comes to us through the incarnate Son and through the words inscripturated in what we call the Bible. God speaks through the Son, and God also continues to speak through the Holy Spirit in Scripture. The Holy Spirit speaks not only in the past but in the present through Psalm 95 (as well as the rest of Scripture). The Spirit continues to say “today,” and the message still rings out with meaning and purpose.

Psalm 95 begins with shouts of praise as the people of God enter God’s presence with thanksgiving. It extols the work of God as creator, in terms of the sea and dry land as well as Israel’s relationship to God as God’s flock. As their shepherd God warns the people about testing God and going astray. The Psalmist remembers the ordeal in the wilderness when Israel tested God at Meribah and Massah (Exodus 17:7; Numbers 20:13, 24; Deuteronomy 6:16; 9:22; 33:8; Psalms 106:32) and concludes the Psalm with the withdrawal of God’s offer of rest. In his own setting, the Psalmist calls the worshipping assembly of Israel to reject the path of their ancestors and embrace the promise of God’s rest through faith. The preacher in Hebrews is doing the same thing.

Israel’s wilderness experience serves as a warning to not only the assembly of Israel whenever this Psalm was written and later sung, but it also serves as a warning to the generation of Messianic believers who hear this sermon we call Hebrews. It is still “today,” and the voice of the Spirit through the Psalm still speaks.

When quoting the Psalm, the preacher adds a word at the beginning of verse 11, “therefore.” This does not appear in either the Hebrew text or the Septuagint (LXX), which the preacher often quotes (including here). Apparently, the preacher wants to make clear that when Israel tested God in the wilderness, that testing had severe consequences. That generation did not enter God’s rest, that is, the promised land. That generation neither embraced God with their hearts nor followed God’s ways, even though they had seen God’s work in Egypt (liberation) and the wilderness (manna, water, etc.). This resulted in their exclusion from God’s rest, a consequence of their unbelief.

The Psalm is the basis for the preacher’s exhortation in Hebrews 4:12-15. It is still “today,” and if one will hear the voice of God and obey it rather than hardening one’s heart, then the promise of God still remains: you may enter God’s rest.

What is the root problem? The obstruction is an “evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from God.” It is heart-based, not rule based. The problem is not an occasional slip, mistake, ignorance, or occasional sinful acts. The problem is an evil heart that does not believe or trust God’s promises, and this sort of heart leads one away from God. “Turn away” is the Greek term apostenai, which means to remove, depart, or even revolt. It is apostacy, and this is defined not by occasional sins but by unbelief—the unbelief of an evil heart. Whoever fears they have committed apostacy, if their heart is filled with repentance and faith, they have not committed apostacy since they do not have an evil, unbelieving heart.

What is an appropriate response to this problem? Pay attention (“take heed” or “take care”) and encourage (“exhort”) each other while it is still “today,” while the promise still remains in effect. We need community. We don’t walk through the wilderness alone. Rather, we gather together (assembling is assumed as well as the context of the sermon itself), exhort each other, and encourage each other. As a community we recognize the deceitfulness of sin and the danger of hardening hearts.  Sin can suffocate us, delude us, and blind us. We need a community to help us, and when we journey together, we share each other’s burdens and remind each other that we are not alone.

Does the community do this alone? No, we are “partners of Christ” or “partakers of Christ.” We are people who share in who the Messiah is as Son and what the Messiah has done. We are partners and fellow heirs with the Messiah. He does not leave us alone to suffer and die but empowers and enables us to resist unbelief and persevere in faith. The Messiah is our help in times of testing. Just as he proved faithful in his testing, so he can help us in our wilderness testing. In this way, we—as in Hebrews 3:6—hold on to our confidence in Jesus, who is our Apostle and High Priest. We persevere in the boldness of our faith because we know whom we trust and we know what he has done for us.

The leadership of Moses did not prevent those who heard the voice of God in the wilderness from rebelling. The Exodus did not hinder their rebellion. The works of God in the wilderness did not keep them from unbelief. Their disobedience arose from their unbelief. Everyone, we might remember, disobeys throughout their lives in one way or another, perhaps every day of every year. But the problem with the wilderness generation was not simply occasional disobedience, it was a disobedience that arose out of unbelief. These are the people who sinned and fell in the wilderness. They were unbelievers; they did not believe or trust God’s promises.

However, the promise of God’s rest remains—it is still “today.” Yet, the danger also remains. The question is not whether we will occasionally sin or not, or whether we are ignorant of important doctrines or not—both of those conditions are universal among believers. Rather, the question is whether we will continue in faith. Will we maintain our allegiance to the Messiah? Will we persevere in our confidence? Will we follow the Messiah through the wilderness? Is our heart one of unbelief or faith? That is the question; it is about the perseverance of faith, not the perfection of our lives, theology, and works. It is more about direction (following the leadership of the Messiah) than it is perfection. The key is heart-felt faith that seeks the way of Jesus and follows his leadership.

Wes McAdams leads the ministry at Radically Christian. He interviewed John Mark Hicks about hermeneutics, reading the Bible, and the prospects of unity within the Restoration Movement.

You can find the interview here.

Moses and Jesus Compared

Moses prophesied that one like him would come after him (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the preacher identifies Jesus, the Messiah, as that one. To be sure, Moses was a faithful servant among God’s people in the wilderness, but Jesus is the faithful Son over God’s people whose glory far exceeds the glory that reflected off Moses’ face. Consequently, let those who have ears to hear pay close attention to the identity of Jesus and hold on to the confidence and hope Jesus has brought us.

Hebrews 3:1, to some degree, summarizes the substance of the sermon. It opens with a thesis (1:1-4), moves to a transitional exhortation (4:14-16), and concludes with the final transitional exhortation (10:19-26). The parts of the sermon are illustrated and anticipated by Hebrews 3:1.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.” Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. 6 Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

Moses prophesied that one like him would come after him (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the preacher identifies Jesus, the Messiah, as that one. To be sure, Moses was a faithful servant among God’s people in the wilderness, but Jesus is the faithful Son over God’s people whose glory far exceeds the glory that reflected off Moses’ face. Consequently, let those who have ears to hear pay close attention to the identity of Jesus and hold on to the confidence and hope Jesus has brought us.

Hebrews 3:1, to some degree, summarizes the substance of the sermon. It opens with a thesis (1:1-4), moves to a transitional exhortation (4:14-16), and concludes with the final transitional exhortation (10:19-26). The parts of the sermon are illustrated and anticipated by Hebrews 3:1.[1]

Naming Jesus as an apostle highlights that he was sent as a messenger to God’s people. God has spoken through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1), the angels (Hebrews 2:2), and Moses (Hebrews 3:5), and now speaks through the Son, who is God’s apostle. He is superior to the prophets, angels, and even Moses who was God’s servant (therapon) in Israel (the only one so named in the Torah).

Naming Jesus as a high priest anticipates the main theme of the second section of the sermon which emphasizes the nature of his priesthood and how Jesus offered himself to God in the heavenly sanctuary.

Identifying his readers as partners or participants in what God is doing in the world, the preacher reminds them that God has graced them and welcomed them into God’s story so that they might share in the benefits, glory, and mission of the Son. The preacher says we are (participants, sharers):

• Partakers in a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1)
• Partakers in Christ (Hebrews 3:14)
• Partakers of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4)
• Partakers of the discipline of suffering (Hebrews 12:8).

The preacher uses this word to highlight the high nature of our calling and in what sort of world believers participate. It is a heavenly calling, that is, our calling is characterized by the heavenly work of Christ and our own entrance into heavenly spaces. We participate in Christ, and we participate in the Spirit. As we journey through the wilderness on our way to enter the promised rest, we also share in suffering, just as Jesus did, even though he was Son.

This is the Christian profession. We confess Jesus as our apostle and high priest. This may reflect some kind of formal confession, whether at baptism, in the assembly, or some summary of the faith. The focus is the identity and work of Jesus, and this the center of the Christian Faith itself and its central confession.

Moses was the lawgiver, the liberator of Israel from Egyptian slavery, and a prophet who foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah. Yet, the Messiah is worthy of more glory than Moses. Hebrews 3:2-6 compares Moses and the Messiah.

This comparison is grounded in Numbers 12:7. Both Moses and Jesus are faithful. Moses is called a “servant,” and, in the Greek translation, uses a word that primarily describes Moses in the Torah (Exodus 4:10, 11; 14:31; Numbers 11:11; 12:7; Deuteronomy 3:24; Joshua 1:2; 8:31, 33). He is the servant, not merely a servant (as some translations might leave the impression in Hebrews 3:5). Yet, at every point, the Messiah is superior to Moses. This does not diminish Moses but recognizes that Jesus the Messiah is God’s goal and the savior of the world as well as the one who shares the divine nature (Hebrews 1:1-3).

While Moses is a servant in the house, Jesus is a son over the house. The house refers to the people of God rather than a concrete building. The house is the assembly of the Lord in Israel and ultimately the whole assembly gathered around God’s throne (Hebrews 12:23). God in Jesus has built this house, and Jesus is the heir of God’s house. Moreover, Jesus participated in the building of this house; the Son is the instrument of creation (Hebrews 1:2).

Therefore, Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses. This was part of the point in Numbers 12 where Moses is the who had seen God’s glory “face to face.” Miriam and Aaron resented the role Moses had, but Moses is called God’s servant and the one who had experienced the glory of God. The face of Moses shone with glory whenever he met with God. Yet, the glory of the Son is not derived or a mirror but the radiance of God’s own glory (Hebrews 1:2). The glory of the Son is a not only different in degree from the glory of Moses but different in kind.

The preacher is saying, “Listen to Moses, yes! More importantly, listen to the Son!” This is the profession of our faith, that is, Jesus, the Son of God, is God’s faithful anointed whom God sent as an apostle and high priest for our sake. The Son is unique. He is the Son over the house of God. Therefore, hold on to this confession because it is our confidence and hope!

[1] The chart is adapted from Cynthia Long Westfall, “A Discourse Analysis of Hebrews,” available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhsuwwtXwSk at the forty-three-minute mark.