Lesson 14 – Jesus, the Superior Priest
Read Hebrews 7 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.7.esv

In the last lesson we saw how Melchizedek was made to be a picture of Jesus Christ. We saw both how things we weren’t told about him as well as those things we do know can be important elements about seeing Jesus. Again, be careful not to take this farther than God wants us to, but be careful to truly see Him.

In the last part of chapter 7, we see how this picture of Jesus being a priest like Melchizedek rather than like Aaron is so important. Melchizedek was a king as well as a priest. This was not true in Aaron’s case. In fact, in the Jewish line as it was set up by God Himself, the priests came from the Tribe of Levi, but God had promised that the Tribe of Judah would be where the kings would come from. Someone from the Tribe of Levi could not be a king, nor could someone from the Tribe of Judah be a priest.


God made this picture of Melchizedek for the very purpose of showing that the priesthood He set up with Aaron as the first High Priest was not the final order of His plan. He wanted to demonstrate that the commandments He gave, around which the Tabernacle worship was set up, had a purpose, but that method would be set aside for something greater later. As we are reminded in verse 19, the law could make nothing perfect. We could not be saved by the law. But just as the law and Aaron’s priesthood were tied together, so would Jesus and His role as a priest-king be tied to a different kind of sacrifice and a different way of intercession for the people.

Aaron made intercession for the people with the blood of animals. That intercession was a temporary solution for the one who had broken a law. But Jesus makes intercession for the people with His own blood, and His intercession is a permanent solution to the one who has broken any of God’s standards. Where Aaron’s sacrifice was temporary, Jesus’ sacrifice is permanent. Aaron the priest could bring his service before God only once a year as a religious rite; but Jesus brings His service before God any time we need Him, and because He is also a King, His right to judge or forgive also extends to every part of our standing before God.

 Aaron was also a human, and when he died, his son had to take over for him. Jesus will never die again; there will never be a replacement for Him. One priest might do things differently than another did – but with Jesus we know that His ways will never change or the rules be modified. We can count on Him. And as God completed His perfection in Jesus by allowing Him to go through the trials of earth, so we can also count on Him making us perfect when we reach Heaven.