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.