Hebrews 5:1-6 – Jesus is Greater Than the High Priest – He was called and chosen by God

Session 11 – August 17, 2020 – Men’s Morning Hebrews Haverim

Our Men’s Haverim group is reading through and discussing the book of Hebrews during the months of August and September. For more information, see this blog post.

In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”

Hebrews 5:5 New International Version

Summary:

• The High Priest is selected and appointed from among his people to represent them before God and to offer gifts and sacrifices.
• The High Priest understands the weaknesses of the people and offers sacrifices for his own sin and theirs.
• However, the High Priest must be called by God – Jesus was specifically called by God as His Son. That he was called and chosen by God as His Son puts him in a position higher than one called to serve as High Priest.
• Jesus is also appointed forever, as a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Other Thoughts:

• The author again refers to verses in the Psalms to validate his argument that Jesus is chosen by God and called his son. Psalm 2:7 is a messianic message about God installing his king in Zion and calling him his son, which the author interprets as God calling Jesus His Son. Psalm 110:4 is also a messianic verse where David says in the first verse of the psalm: “The Lord says to my lord”, a verse Jesus later says refers to himself. The psalm talks about how the Lord God will “make your enemies a footstool” and the Messiah will rule and conquer his enemies. In verse 4 the Lord God tells the Lord Jesus “you are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek”, which we’ll learn later is a higher-order, ancient, eternal priesthood.
• The High Priest and the Son share an understanding of our weaknesses and can deal gently with us, who are both not fully understanding (“ignorant”) and are sinful (“going astray”) because they both understand our weaknesses. However, the High Priest and the Son differ in important ways that make the Son superior to the High Priest:

High Priest	Jesus
– selected from among his people	– called and chosen by God
– replaced when he dies	– resurrected and seated at God’s right hand
– makes an annual sacrifice for sins of the people	– sacrificed himself once for all sin
– offers a sacrifice first for his own sin	– had no sin
– called as High Priest	– called as Son

• When the High Priest made the annual sacrifices for the unknown sins of the people on Yom Kippur, he first made a sacrifice for himself, then pulled the curtain back and placed an incense censer into the Holy of Holies to create a smoke cloud so that he would not inadvertently see God between the cherubim on the ark of the covenant. By tradition, the Levites would tie a rope around his ankle so that he could be pulled out if anything happened to him. While this appears to be a practical measure, it also may indicate a lack of faith, but certainly shows a lack of confidence in approaching the throne of God. As we saw in the last section, because of the Son’s sacrifice, we have confidence in approaching that throne!
• While the High Priest prepared for the annual sacrifice by sacrificing for his own sins, creating a smoke shield, and tying a rope around his ankle, Jesus prepared for his sacrifice by praying and committing himself to his Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• How do you lack confidence in approaching God, and how can you pray more boldly knowing the Son’s sacrifice for you?