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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 62.
And so dear brothers and sisters who
belong to God and are partners with
those called to heaven, think carefully
about this Jesus whom we declare to be
God's messenger and high priest, for he
was faithful to God who appointed him
just as Moses served faithfully when he
was entrusted with God's entire house.
But Jesus deserves far
more glory than Moses.
Just as a person who builds a house
deserves more praise than the house
itself for every house as a builder,
but the one who built everything is God.
Moses was certainly faithful
in God's house as a servant.
His work was an illustration of
the truths God would reveal later.
But Christ as the son is in
charge of God's entire house.
And we are God's house if we
keep our courage and remain
confident in our hope in Christ.
That is why the Holy Spirit says today,
when you hear his voice, don't harden
your hearts as Israel did when they
rebelled, when they tested me in the
wilderness there, your ancestors tested
and tried my patients, even though
they saw my miracles for 40 years.
So I was angry with them and I said,
their hearts always turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.
So in my anger, I took an oath.
They will never enter my place of rest.
Be careful then.
Dear brothers and sisters, make
sure that your own hearts are
not evil and unbelieving turning
you away from the living God.
You must warn each other every
day while it is still today.
So that none of you will be deceived by
sin and hardened against God for if we
are faithful to the end, trusting God just
as firmly as when we first believed, we
will share in awe that belongs to Christ.
Remember what it says today when you
hear his voice, don't harden your
hearts as Israel did when they rebelled,
and who was it who rebelled against
God even though they heard his voice.
It wasn't at the people Moses let out
of Egypt, and who made God angry for 40
years, wasn't at the people who sinned,
whose corpses lay in the wilderness and
to whom was God speaking when he took
an oath that they would never enter.
His rest wasn't at the
people who disobeyed him.
So we see that because of their unbelief,
they were not able to enter his rest.
God's promise of entering
his rest still stands.
So we ought to tremble with fear that
some of you might fail to experience it
for this good news that God has prepared.
This rest has been announced to us
just as it was to them, but it did them
no good because they didn't share the
faith of those who listened to God for
only we who believe can enter his rest.
As for the others, God said
in my anger, I took an oath.
They will never enter my place of rest.
Even though this rest has been ready since
he made the world, we know it is ready
because of the place in the scriptures
where it mentions the seventh day.
On the seventh day, God
rested from all his work.
But in the other passage, God said,
they will never enter my place of rest.
So God's rest is there
for people to enter.
But those who first heard this
good news, failed to enter
because they disobeyed God.
So God said another time for entering
his rest and that time is today.
God announced this through David
much later, and the words already
quoted today when you hear his
voice, don't harden your hearts.
Now, if Joshua had succeeded in giving
them this rest, God would not have spoken
about another day of rest Still to come.
So there is a special rest still
waiting for the people of God.
For all who have entered into God's
rest, have rested from their labors just
as God did after creating the world.
So let us do our best to enter that rest.
But if we disobey God as the people
of Israel did, we will fall for the
word of God is alive and powerful.
It is sharper than the sharpest
two-edged sword, cutting between soul
and spirit between joint and marrow.
It exposes our innermost
thoughts and desires.
Nothing at all.
Creation is hidden from God.
Everything is naked and exposed
before his eyes, and he's the
one to whom we are accountable.
So then since we have a great high
priest who has entered heaven,
Jesus, the son of God, let us
hold firmly to what we believe.
This high priest of ours understands
our weaknesses for he faced
all of the same testings we do.
Yet he did not sin.
So let us come boldly to the
throne of our gracious God.
There we will receive his
mercy and we will find grace to
help us when we need it Most.
Every high priest is a man
chosen to represent other people
in their dealings with God.
He presents their gifts to God and
offers sacrifices for their sins.
And he is able to deal gently with
ignorant and wayward people because he
himself is subject to the same weaknesses.
That is why he must offer sacrifices
for his own sins as well as theirs.
And no one can become a high priest
simply because he wants such an honor.
He must be called by God for
this work, just as Aaron was.
That is why Christ did not honor himself
by assuming he could become high priest.
No, he was chosen by God who
said to him, you are my son.
Today I have become your father.
And in another passage, God said
to him, you are a priest forever.
In the order of Melchizedek, while Jesus
was here on earth, he offered prayers and
pleadings with a loud cry and tears to
the one who could rescue him from death.
And God heard his prayers because
of his deep reverence for God.
Even though Jesus was God's
son, he learned obedience
from the things he suffered.
In this way, God qualified him as a
perfect high priest and he became the
source of eternal salvation for all those
who obey him, and God designated him to
be a high priest in the order of Melek.
There is much more we would
like to say about this.
But it is difficult to explain,
especially since you are spiritually
dull and don't seem to listen.
You have been believers so long now
that you want to be teaching others.
Instead, you need someone to teach you
again, the basic things about God's word.
You are like babies who need
milk and cannot eat solid food.
For someone who lives on milk
is still an infant and doesn't
know how to do what is right.
Solid food is for those who are
mature, who through training
have the skill to recognize the
difference between right and wrong.
So let us stop going over the basic
teachings about Christ again and again.
Let us go on instead and become
mature in our understanding.
Surely we don't need to start again
with the fundamental importance
of repenting from evil deeds
and placing our faith in God.
You don't need further
instruction about baptisms.
The laying on of hands, the resurrection
of the dead and eternal judgment, and
so God willing, we will move forward
to further understanding for it is
impossible to bring back to repentance
those who were once enlightened, those
who have experienced the good things of
heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit who
have tasted the goodness of the word of
God and the power of the age to come.
And who then turn away from God.
It is impossible to bring such
people back to repentance.
By rejecting the son of God,
they themselves are nailing
him to the cross once again and
holding him up to public shame.
When the ground soaks up, the falling
rain and bears a good crop for the farmer.
It has God's blessing.
But if a field bears thorns
and thistles, it is useless.
The farmer will soon condemn
that field and burn it.
Dear friends, even though we
are talking this way, we really
don't believe it applies to you.
We are confident that you
are meant for better things.
Things that come with salvation
for God is not unjust.
He will not forget how hard you
have worked for him and how you have
shown your love to him by caring
for other believers as you still do.
Our great desire is that he will keep
on loving others as long his life
lasts in order to make certain that
what you hope for will come true.
Then you will not become
spiritually dull and indifferent.
Instead, you will follow the example
of those who are going to inherit
God's promises because of their
faith and endurance, for example.
There was God's promise to Abraham since
there was no one greater to swear by.
God took an oath in his own name saying,
I will certainly bless you and I will
multiply your descendants beyond number.
Then Abraham waited patiently and
he received what God had promised.
Now, when people take an oath, they
call on someone greater than themselves
to hold them to it, and without
any question that oath is binding.
God also bound himself with an
oath so that those who received
the promise could be perfectly sure
that he would never change his mind.
So God has given both
his promise and his oath.
These two things are unchangeable
because it is impossible for God to lie.
Therefore, we who have fled to him for
refuge can have great confidence as we
hold to the hope that lies before us.
This hope is a strong and
trustworthy anchor for our souls.
It leads us through the curtain
into God's inner sanctuary.
Jesus has already gone in there for us.
He has become our eternal high
priest in the order of Melek.
This Melchizedek was king of the city
of Salem and also a priest of God most
high when Abraham was returning home
after winning a great battle against the
kings, Melek met him and blessed him.
Then Abraham took a 10th of all he had
captured in battle and gave it to Melek.
The name Melek means king of justice,
and King of Salem means king of peace.
There was no record of his father
or mother or any of his ancestors.
No beginning or end to his life.
He remains a priest forever
resembling the son of God.
Consider then how great this melek was.
Even Abraham, the great patriarch of
Israel, recognized this by giving him
a 10th of what he had taken in battle.
Now, the law of Moses required that
the priests who are descendants of
Levi must collect a tithe from the
rest of the people of Israel, who
were also descendants of Abraham.
But Melchizedek, who was not a
descendant of Levi, collected a tent
from Abraham, and Melek placed a
blessing upon Abraham, the one who had
already received the promises of God.
Without question, the person who
has the power to give a blessing is
greater than the one who is blessed.
The priests who collect
tithes are men who die.
So melek is greater than they are
because we are told that he lives on.
In addition, we might even say that
these Levites, the ones who collect the
tithe, paid a tithe to Melek when their
ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him.
For, although Levi wasn't born
yet, the seed from which he came
was in Abraham's body when Melek
collected the tithe from him.
So if the priesthood of Levi then,
which the law was based, could have
achieved the perfection, God intended.
Why did God need to establish a
different priesthood with a priest
in the order of Melek instead
of the order of Levi and Aaron?
And if the priesthood is changed, the
law must also be changed to permitted.
For the priest we are talking about
belongs to a different tribe whose members
have never served at the altar as priests.
What I mean is our Lord came from
the tribe of Judah and Moses never
mentioned priests coming from that tribe.
This change has been made very
clear since a different priest who
was like Melchizedek has appeared.
Jesus became a priest, not by meeting
the physical requirement of belonging
to the tribe of Levi, but by the power
of a life that cannot be destroyed.
And the Psalmist pointed this out
when he prophesied, you are a priest
forever in the order of Melek.
Yes.
The old requirement about the
priesthood was set aside because it
was weak and useless for the law.
Never made anything perfect.
But now we have confidence and a better
hope through which we draw near to God.
This new system was
established with a solemn oath.
Aaron's descendants became priests
without such an oath, but there
was an oath regarding Jesus.
For God said to him, the Lord has taken
an oath and will not break his vow.
You are a priest forever
because of this oath.
Jesus is the one who guarantees
this better covenant with God.
There were many priests under the
old system for death, prevented
them from remaining in office.
But because Jesus lives forever,
his priesthood lasts forever.
Therefore, he is able once and
forever to save those who come to God.
Through him, he lives forever to
intercede with God on their behalf.
He's the kind of high priest
we need because he is holy and
blameless, unstained by sin.
He has been set apart from
sinners and has been given the
highest place of honor in heaven.
Unlike those other high priests, he does
not need to offer sacrifices every day.
They did this for their own sins first
and then for the sins of the people.
But Jesus did this once for all
when he offered himself as the
sacrifice for the people's sins.
The law appointed high priests who
were limited by human weakness.
But after the law was given, God appointed
his son with an oath, and his son has
been made the perfect high priest forever.
This concludes today's
Immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.