Hebrews Chapter Five, Learning Obedience

 

Hebrews 5:7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, [8] though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

 

We begin this passage with the phrase, “in the days of His flesh.” The writer draws our attention back to the gospels that record Jesus’ life prior to, and past, His crucifixion and resurrection. Turning to the Gospel of Luke, specifically chapter 22, we can read of Jesus’ prayerful agony in the garden of Gethsemane, at the Mount of Olives. We know that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven from this same mount, Acts 1:12.

Hebrews Chapter Five, According To The Order

Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” [6] As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”;

 

The two citations quoted by Hebrews’ author to demonstrate Christ’s calling to the office of High Priest belong to Psalm 2:7, and Psalm 110:4, respectively. Just as Aaron was called in Exodus 28:1, so too was Jesus called by the Father, and did not take the mantle of priesthood upon Himself.

Hebrews Chapter Five, Called By God

 

Hebrews 5:4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

 

We are informed that no man may take the honor of high priest to himself, but must be called by God. The Greek word for “honor” is, “tee-may” and means “a value.” Rendered more plainly, it would mean what an object is valued at.

Hebrews Chapter Five, As For The People, So For The Priest

 

Hebrews 5:2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. [3] Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.

 

Because the high priest is chosen from among men to minister on behalf of his brethren he can commiserate with their weaknesses. The author tells us that the high priest can exercise compassion on those who, through ignorance, go astray.

Hebrews Chapter Five, Taken From Among Men

 

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

 

We find in Exodus, “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest,” Exodus 28:1. Aaron’s lineage was chosen of God to be ministering priests in the tabernacle. The priests acted as mediators between God and man, accepting the sacrifices of the penitent in God’s name (by the authority He vested them with) as a token that his sins were atoned for, or covered over.

Who Is The Lord?

 

Have you ever considered what Jesus asks in Luke 6:46? Our Lord laments and wonders, why does mankind bother calling Him Lord if we have no intention of obeying Him? It is a fair question, and one that should infiltrate our minds as we consider our Christian walk, or for some of us, the absence of a Christian walk.

Hebrews Chapter Four, The Throne of Grace

 

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Verses 14 and 15 describe Jesus the Son of God as our sympathetic High Priest, having gone into the Heavens on our behalf. The purpose of the High Priest was to serve God for the sake of offering atonement for His people, and so the writer commends our Lord as the ultimate High Priest, the Aaronic priesthood being a type of Him who was to come.

Hebrews Chapter Four, The High Priest Of Our Confession

 

Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

 

As chapters 1 and 2 dealt primarily with contrasting the angelic order to our Lord, chapters 3 and 4 broach the Old Testament patriarch and Lawgiver Moses. Moses can hardly be mentioned without thinking about the Decalogue and the Levitical priesthood. Of course Moses’ cousin Aaron was the first high priest chosen by God of the tribe of Levi. To this tribe the priestly ordination remained throughout united Israel. 

Hebrews Chapter Four, All Things Exposed

 

John, bearing the same testimony as Paul, writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us,” 1 John 2:19. Who is the “they” John refers to that apostatized from the church?

Hebrews Chapter Four, The Dividing Word

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

 

Chapter four has been building to verse 12, which is a cornerstone in the epistle of Hebrews. Verse 1 begins with the promised rest God offers, with a warning to fear that any saint may appear to come short of it. Verses 2 and 3 contrasts the hearers who rebelled and listeners who believed.

Hebrews Chapter Four, Commending Diligence

 

Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

 

The word diligent can be defined in a number of ways, but context tends to dictate proper translation. In this instance, a fitting synonym to provide elucidation would be conscientious. In fact, Oxford defines “diligent” as, “careful or conscientious in carrying out a task or duties.”

Hebrews Chapter Four, Resting Or Working

 

We are told that God speaks of another day even after the settlement of Canaan’s conquest. This appeal to enter God’s rest ironically (or providentially) came at the time of Israel’s zenith when David reigned over the kingdom.

Hebrews Chapter Four, Man-Made Righteousness

 

Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. [9] There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. [10] For he who has entered His rest has himself ceased from his works as God did from His.

 

There seems to me a companion passage to what we are currently reading found in Romans. Recall that the author is addressing his Jewish audience, former Judaists familiar with the the Torah and sacrifice, who would be especially interested in and versed with the many illustrations the writer is currently employing. These historical events and Scriptural references would, from the perspective of authority, mean very little to the Gentile worshipers entering into the Christian church since the nations outside of Israel were not partakers of its commonwealth, Ephesians 2:12.