Continually Offered Year After Year - Hebrews 7-10

This is Episode #353 and today we’ll read Hebrews chapters 7-10 together.   Ancient worshippers could never be perfected by sacrifices they continually offered year after year.  

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Transcript

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.   This is Episode #353 and today we’ll read Hebrews chapters 7-10 together.   Ancient worshippers could never be perfected by sacrifices they continually offered year after year.  

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I'm your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me - from the beginning - simply reading God's word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

Hebrews Chapter 7:

The Greatness of Melchizedek

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means king of righteousness, then also, king of Salem, meaning king of peace. Without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

Now consider how great this man was: even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder to him. The sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a command according to the law to collect a tenth from the people — that is, from their brothers and sisters — though they have also descended from Abraham. But one without this lineage collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. Without a doubt, the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case, men who will die receive a tenth, but in the other case, Scripture testifies that he lives. And in a sense Levi himself, who receives a tenth, has paid a tenth through Abraham, for he was still within his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

A Superior Priesthood

Now if perfection came through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to appear, said to be according to the order of Melchizedek and not according to the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must be a change of law as well. For the one these things are spoken about belonged to a different tribe. No one from it has served at the altar. Now it is evident that our Lord came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests.

And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears, who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent but based on the power of an indestructible life. For it has been testified:

You are a priest forever

according to the order of Melchizedek.

So the previous command is annulled because it was weak and unprofitable (for the law perfected nothing), but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

None of this happened without an oath. For others became priests without an oath, but he became a priest with an oath made by the one who said to him:

The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever.”

Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do — first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.

Hebrews Chapter 8:

A Heavenly Priesthood

Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.

A Superior Covenant

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. But finding fault with his people, he says:

See, the days are coming, says the Lord,

when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah —

not like the covenant

that I made with their ancestors

on the day I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

I showed no concern for them, says the Lord,

because they did not continue in my covenant.

For this is the covenant

that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds

and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

And each person will not teach his fellow citizen,

and each his brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,”

because they will all know me,

from the least to the greatest of them.

For I will forgive their wrongdoing,

and I will never again remember their sins.

By saying a new covenant, he has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.

Hebrews Chapter 9:

Old Covenant Ministry

Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves. Behind the second curtain was a tent called the most holy place. It had the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. The cherubim of glory were above the ark overshadowing the mercy seat. It is not possible to speak about these things in detail right now.

With these things prepared like this, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry. But the high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was making it clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing. This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience. They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the time of the new order.

New Covenant Ministry

But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in effect while the one who made it is living. That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you. In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment —  so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews Chapter 10:

The Perfect Sacrifice

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said:

You did not desire sacrifice and offering,

but you prepared a body for me.

You did not delight

in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.

Then I said, “See —

it is written about me

in the scroll —

I have come to do your will, God.”

After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

This is the covenant I will make with them

after those days,

the Lord says,

I will put my laws on their hearts

and write them on their minds,

and I will never again remember

their sins and their lawless acts.

Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Exhortations to Godliness

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus —  he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh) —  and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Warning against Deliberate Sin

For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who has said,

Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,

and again,

The Lord will judge his people.

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way. For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession. So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.

For yet in a very little while,

the Coming One will come and not delay.

But my righteous one will live by faith;

and if he draws back,

I have no pleasure in him.

But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.

Close

The book of Hebrews shines even brighter when you have read the Old Testament.  Specifically, let’s zero in on the first half of the tenth chapter and take a walk down memory lane.  All that blood!  Day after day, sheep, goats, doves, bulls…  Friendship offerings, sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings.  And that was for what?  A million and a half or so people.  Today, the earth is full of more than 7 billion sinners.  The law was NEVER going to bring righteousness because we were NEVER going to be able to pull it off.  And God knew that before time began.  

He wasn’t surprised and He didn’t have to come up with a Plan B when sin continued.  As a matter of fact, it got worse, didn’t it?  Think about it.  All those kings who went from bad to worse and led the people to do the same.  Not that they coulda or woulda done any better on their own.  God gave the law for one reason only and that was to define sin by comparison.  It was a perfect standard - His way - and we could never measure up.  He knew that if He was ever going to spend eternity with us, He would have to step in.  He would have to do for us what we could not do ourselves.  In other words, He would have to provide the perfect once-and-for-all sin offering…Himself.  A new covenant.

And that is explained so beautifully here in Hebrews 10 by recounting the writings of Isaiah, Jeramiah, David, Zechariah, and others. 

Prayer

Let’s pray.  Oh, Father!  Thank You!  Thank for the book of Hebrews, especially as it connects the dots for us.  Thank You for those who have committed to reading Your Word cover-to-cover this year.  Thank You for the understanding that You provide.  But most of all, thank You again for sending Your Son, Jesus.  Without Him, we would have no hope.  Amen.

Okay, you have another reading assignment.  I challenge you to re-read Jeremiah 31:31-34.  Compare it to Hebrews 10 and let me know what you conclude at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will be changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.