God continued to show the contrast between the sons of Levi and Melchisedec. The sons of Levi were to receive the tithes of the people and they were to live from those tithes. Those tithes were there to support the Levites and to maintain the house of the Lord.
The law of God taught that they were to collect the tithe. They were also sons of Abraham, but their work was to serve the Lord in the work of the Tabernacle/Temple. The other 11 tribes were not to be jealous of them. God chose the Levites for this important work.
In verse 6 we read that Melchisedec, who was not a Levite, received tithes of Abraham. He also blessed him. This was interesting. God made a point of this in our text.
In verse 7 we learn that this was not a contradiction, even though the less is blessed of the better. In verses 7-9 we are reminded that the Levites, who were God’s appointed priests for the nation of Israel were not born yet in the days of Abraham. Abraham, with the seed of Levi and of Aaron still unrevealed, paid tithes to Melchisedec. Did Abraham understand the significance of this event? We are not told.
We know that God was making this distinction in the book of Hebrews. The first recipients of this letter were Jewish saints. They would be familiar with the Old Testament. They certainly would have known of faithful Abraham. They also knew of the Levites.
God was showing them of the superiority of the priesthood of Melchisedec. He had no earthly lineage. He had no date of birth or death. He just showed up in the Old Testament and was spoken of here in our text. God spoke very highly of him.
As we mentioned, in verse 9 we are told that the Levites, who received the tithes, payed tithes to Melchisedec in Abraham. This was some 400 years before they were chosen to be the family of the priests.
In verse 10 we are further reminded that the Levites were still in the loins of Abraham, when Melchisedec met him. Abraham did not even know the names of the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob was not born then yet either. In fact at the time referred to, Isaac, the promised son that God spoke of with Abraham, was not yet born.
God demonstrated His foreknowledge. He knew what He was doing. He did not make any mistakes. What He was revealing is that He has the power to change the order of things for His glory. He did that with the priesthood.
In verses 11 and following, God continued to show the contrast between the Levitical system and that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not a priest after the order of the Levites. He was a priest after the order of Melchisedec.
God was pointing out that perfection does not come through law keeping. We cannot work our way into heaven or eternal life. We cannot become sons of God through works. The danger that the saints were facing was that of the Judaizers. They were false teachers who insisted that law keeping was necessary to earn heaven. The Judaizers would never enter heaven. They had managed to gain a powerful place of influence in the first century, but they were wrong. There are many religions that still follow the deception of the Judaizers today. The Catholics do as well as the United church and Anglicans, etc. It is a futile effort to think that we can somehow outsmart God and trick Him into receiving people who reject His only way of salvation.
In verse 12 we are further reminded that the priesthood was changed by God. Since the priesthood was changed, there was a need for a change of the law as well. Nothing in the Bible happens by accident.
In verse 13 we are also reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ came from a different tribe than the Levites. Jesus Christ came from the tribe of Judah. No other tribe but the Levites were allowed to offer sacrifices before the Lord.
You may recall that King Saul offered sacrifices because he grew impatient with Samuel. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin. Samuel rebuked him for his sin and the kingship was taken away from his family.
We also know that Uzziah, who was a king of the lineage of Judah, tried to offer incense before the Lord. The priests tried to stop him but he would not listen. God stopped him by making him a leper until his death. He hurried out of the Temple when that happened.
The Levites had important duties to fulfil in the Temple. However, Jesus was not a Levite. Yet He replaced the Levitical system. Verse 14 tells us that Jesus came from the tribe of Juda. Moses said nothing of the priesthood coming from Judah. What was God doing here? Was there some mistake?
God had His reasons. Jacob was directed by God to remind his sons that the sceptre would be given to Judah’s descendants. The priesthood would also be transferred to the tribe of Judah in Jesus Christ. He is so much better than the Levites and that system.
The Levitical system had its place. It was ordained of God. However, when Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood there, and then rose again the third day and ascended back up to glory, that old system was finished. In A.D. 70 the Temple was destroyed and there has not been a Temple in Israel since that time. There is no need for the Levitical priesthood since that time.
Jesus Christ fulfilled all the typology. He is The Prophet, Priest and King. He alone can do what the Levitical system could never do. He can forgive sins and take them out of the way. The blood of bulls and goats could not do that. The Levitical priests were kept busy receiving the offerings of the people and killing thousands of animals on the altar as an atonement for the sins of the people. Once every year for hundreds of years they had to take of the blood of the bullock and of the goat into the holiest and make an atonement for themselves and for the people. Yet all that blood could not remove their sin. That was all a pattern that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The saints then needed to understand that and the saints now need to understand that. It is very important to believe what God says. He does not make mistakes. He provides salvation through repentance toward Him and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only way.
Pastor Bartel