So. How are you doing? I’d really like to know. Are you learning from this amazing book of the Bible? Have you felt challenged? Confused? Reassured? We are halfway through this study together, and I just want to encourage you to keep on going. Some of the sweetest chapters are yet to come. We have much to learn about faith in God and how to keep our focus on Jesus. I am so glad we study together. It makes it so much richer to hear from others and to know that we’re studying and growing together. Thanks for being faithful, friend. You’re developing your faith and growing in that Christian maturity that is so important simply by meeting with God in His Word each day. Well done.
So now, let’s talk about clinging to the familiar when God has asked us to let go of it. You see, that’s really what is being discussed here in chapter 7. The first readers of Hebrews were Jewish Christians. They were absolutely used to priests and animal sacrifices and all the rituals that went with that part of the temple worship. And here they are, knowing Jesus was the final Sacrifice, finding themselves still kinda “stuck” in the rituals that no longer actually apply or are needed. We don’t struggle in the same way, but struggle we do.
A contemporary example would be the music in church. We all have our favorite types of music, right? If we grew up with hymns and an organ, getting used to drums is … a bit of a stretch. If we think people should dress up for church, sitting next to young people in sweat pants with tattoos might be … hard. Or are we used to a certain pastor’s way of preaching and suddenly he has retired or perhaps a new pastor is now on the team. He is different. Yet, if he is preaching God’s Word faithfully in his own style, that needs to be okay. If the words to new praise songs glorify and honor God and are faithful to Scripture, that also needs to be okay. And it should always be okay to welcome people who visit or attend our churches regardless of their sense of fashion. Right? God looks at the insides. Yet, we can get mired in what feels comfortable and familiar, instead of asking God to see what new thing He might be doing through the next generation. Let’s be careful not to elevate traditions to the place of Biblical truths if that’s not where they belong.
My verse: Hebrews 7:4, “Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle.”
My response: Before the priesthood was established, this mysterious priest, Melchizedek, appeared. And Jesus, You who came long after the priesthood was established, are much greater than him. Thank You God for Jesus – the final high priest, who was also the lamb of sacrifice and the conqueror, the Lion of Judah, triumphing over the grave. The old is gone. The new has come!! No more endless deaths and killings of animals. Once and for all, You paid my horrific debt. Hallelujah!! All glory to You, Lord Jesus.
