Hebrews Chapter Five, Melchizedek's Order

 

Hebrews 5:10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” [11] of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

 

Verse 9 iterates how Jesus, being perfected in His resurrection, became salvation’s author, or our “aitios: that which (literally) causes something to happen,” to all who obey Him. He is called by God according to Melchizedek’s order, not Aaron’s: a contrast we have been having explained since Hebrews 5:4.

Christ’s priesthood reflects Melchizedek’s priesthood, not the Aaronic priesthood under the Law. The author wants us to reflect upon each respective order: its genesis and function, and will expound this comparison for the next two chapters until we reach Hebrews chapter 8 where we read, “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: we have such a High Priest,” Hebrews 8:1.

 

To achieve that point, however, the next two chapters are a parenthetical break as the writer details the order of Melchizedek against the Aaronic priesthood in chapter 7, while pausing through chapter 6 to critique his hearer’s ability to comprehend doctrine. This critique, which owns some robust language that has unsettled many readers of this epistle, begins with verse 11.

 

The writer and his co-authors (note the “we have much to say”) state that there is much to tell about Christ and His association with the order of Melchizedek. And while this point is obviously very important, he sets it aside for a moment to address a different need. He expresses disappointment to the Hebrew Christians he is addressing; and he ascribes the issue of this topic being hard to relate to their hardness of hearing. The Greek word for “dull” is: ”nothros.” It means, “slow, sluggish or indolent.” However, the word does not imply moral blame, but rather the inborn sluggishness that comes with natural life. There is a hint of exasperation in this verse. The writer had certain expectations from his audience to meet him on his level, so to speak, and when he was made aware that they had not attained to his level, he diverted from his topic to address more fundamental issues. Like a good student can’t learn calculus until they master basic arithmetic, these Jewish Christians were about to receive an impromptu ABC’s lesson in Biblical theology. Here is the hallmark of a good teacher: he doesn’t pander to his readership, but he recognizes genuine weakness and meets it with answers and aid. He isn’t haughty, but he is sincere and to the point. He admits that the topic is difficult for them to absorb because they are dull of hearing.

 

This same term, nothros, is found in James where he writes that, “every man be swift to hear, slow (nothros) to speak, slow (nothros) to wrath,” James 1:19. In this instance, James suggests that slowness of responsive speech over a judgment, and slowness to anger over words spoken should be normative, part of man’s disposition made in the image of Christ. The writer of Hebrews negatively connotes this disposition with our natural, fallen penchant for having difficulty grasping truth, spiritual or otherwise. In the case of the Christians being informed through this letter it would be doubly hard since their roots went down into Judaism, the Law of Moses and temple worship.

 

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

 

Again, beginning with verse 11 there is a shift in tone and theme for a spell. The remainder of chapter 5 and all of chapter 6 are devoted to re-teaching the disciples what he calls “the first principles” or the fundamentals, of Christianity. The idea behind the first principles implies their importance. First can be rendered, chief, paramount, main or original. These are the foundational teachings, rudimentary but invaluable to the understanding of a believer’s faith.

 

One cannot build a house any-which way we see fit. There is a foundation, a framework that needs to be laid down first and foremost. Something concrete that the weight of the house may settle comfortably and safely upon as you build upward. The foundation may slip out of sight and be utterly forgotten in the higher, more aesthetically pleasing portions of the house, but its importance remains vital, and its removal would at once cause collapse. Theologian or doctor of divinity, everyone needs the fundamentals of the Christian life.

 

The writer chides his readers a little. They have, he says, been Christians long enough to be teachers like him. This suggests that they aren’t babes in Christ at least as far as the passage of time is concerned. But time hardly matters in terms of faith. There are saints that burn like the sun, having only been so a comparatively short time to other saints that stagnate with complacency. These saints fall into this castigation. He goes on. Though old enough believers to teach, they require further lessons, or rather, to be taught all over again the elementary lessons of the church. The writer selects the phrase, the oracles, or prophecies of God. In its entirety, these saints were guilty of needing to be taught “the first principles of the oracles of God.” What are these first principles? He is not remiss in sharing. In Hebrews 6:1, 2, we read these foundational principles are, “repentance from dead works and of faith toward God...the doctrine of baptisms…laying on of hands…resurrection from the dead, and…eternal judgment.” We’ll address those verses shortly, God willing.

 

The result of this spiritual torpor is that the Christians have come to need milk, as opposed to solid food. That is, as a baby draws milk from his mother’s breast, so these Christians need to be spoon fed the word of God by an able teacher and are not skilled enough in the word to rightly divide it independently. Babies need milk from their mother because they have no ability to feed themselves. Solid food suggests growth, maturing in the faith and not requiring mother’s milk or coddling any longer. We have developed into saints that can examine God’s truth for ourselves and by the indwelling Holy Spirit comprehend its message with a clarity that permits us to share with others. To share with others? Of course. Our Lord does not want us creating a theological repository of Biblical truth only to horde it in our heads and not dispense it to others. That is why the writer told these saints that by this time they (plural, all of them in one form or another) ought to be teachers of the word.

 

We can further conclude from the beginning of verse 12 that there comes a time in the expectation of a teacher that his disciples graduate, so to speak. “By this time,” the author tells them, “you ought to be teachers.” The time varies, as already noted, but it should ALWAYS arrive. Does that mean every Christian is called to be a teacher? Not in the most strict sense. Generally, however, all Christians ought to be able to impart knowledge of God and to share the gospel of salvation with the lost. We read in 2 Timothy, for instance, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also,” 2 Timothy 2:2. Or, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach,” 2 Timothy 2:24. We can begin to see why the writer, personally familiar with this audience, might have had lingering frustration. Not with the men in particular, but in the slowness of progress they were proceeding in. He feared stagnation, or backsliding into Judaism since the formal structure of legalism provided tangible boundaries and visible cues to follow.