DAY 315

CHRIST’S COMPREHENSIVENESS

Jeremiah 50 and Hebrews 7-9

I indicated yesterday that I wanted to talk about Hebrews 7-8 today. It makes more sense for me to talk about 7-9. Before I do that, Jeremiah today writes of Babylon and I will write about it tomorrow.

I have not written very much about Hebrews, not in any way to help you get a sense of just what the Letter to the Hebrews is all about. Let me try to give you a little information about the letter, and then comment specifically about these passages.

It is a little harder to pinpoint the author of this letter, and the letters audience. Thought to be written between 60 and 90 AD, we also know that it quoted in another book that bears the name 1^st Clement, and we know 1^st Clement was written in 95 AD. So for that work to have referenced the Letter to the Hebrews leads most scholars to push the date of its writing more towards the 60’s than the 90’s—so pretty early. It appears to be written to people in Italy.

It is viewed as having an outstanding literary style and written with a high degree of rhetorical skill in the model of Hellenistic prose. It refers to the Old Testament 29 times directly and 53 other times there are clear allusions to the Old Testament—and the Old Testament translation is the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a translation of the Old Testament in Greek that dates back to the time of ~320’s BC (think about how the Jewish people were scattered two centuries earlier so that over time some of them did not know the Hebrew language).

And while it can be a confusing letter—as it is constantly comparing Jesus to Old Testament rituals and events—what is not confusing is its theme. It really has one theme—the Supremacy of Christ.

·         Chapters 1-4 speak to the supremacy of the Person of Christ

·         Chapters 5-10 speak to the supremacy of the Priesthood of Christ

·         Chapters 11-13 speak to the supremacy of the Power of Christ

Before I get to chapters 7-9 I just want you to think back to the Leviticus and all the priestly duties. The priesthood, and all their responsibility to lead the sacrifices, was of huge importance to the people of Israel. The system of sacrifice was in many ways a grace from God so that the people might maintain their relationship with Him. And yet it too had suffered from the mixing in of other religions, and corruption.

In chapters 7-9 we read of a number of aspects of how Jesus is the perfect priest who has offered the perfect “once for all” sacrifice. There are the references to Melchizedek, the “king-priest” mentioned in Genesis 14 with Abraham. Melchizedek is a person that we do not have much, if any knowledge of. Yet he is highly esteemed; Abraham paid him a tithe. You might say he is viewed as the model of the good and holy high priest who is also a king—and if he is, the point of course is that Jesus is more so—for he is Christ.

In chapter 9 we also have the point made that what Jesus did on the Cross, He did once and for all—it is finished. Here we see the promise given in Jeremiah 31 fulfilled and directly quoted—the new covenant written on the heart. In Jesus it all comes together: the sacrificial system, the need for a just and holy king, and the joy of having the perfect priest, the perfect mediator, who has gone between God and humankind. The Letter to the Hebrews seeks to show Christ’s comprehensiveness.