Come, let us return to the LORD.
For He has torn [us],
and He will heal us;
He has wounded [us],
and He will bind up our wounds.
He will revive us after two days,
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence. (Hos. 6:1-2)
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence. (Hos. 6:1-2)
Hosea 6:1-2 reflects an early indicator as to what God had planned. Remember how the Lord opened the scriptures to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24: 27, 32)? It was certainly with a text like this and many others.
Hosea continues confrontational rhetoric with Israel and Judah as to their sin and idolatry, but then gives this beautiful invitation to repentance. To return to the Lord is to leave behind the idols, our attachment to the things made by our hands, and toward faithfulness to God's will as revealed in the law of Moses and fulfilled in a life filled with God's love through faith in Jesus Christ. Love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:10).
Paul speaks of this return as dying to the old self ruled by the flesh (sinful desires) and rising to the new creation ruled by grace. We die with Christ and to sin and rise with Christ to love in Him and for Him (Rom 6:1-11).
The review of David bringing the ark of the covenant from Kiriath-jearim, where it had been kept since the Philistines returned it, is more detailed than in 2 Samuel 6 (1 Sam. 6:21). The focus is one the levitical ordinances on handling the ark of the "LORD of Hosts who dwells [between] the cherubim (1 Chr. 13:2b)."
The authors would have us understand why the ark's presence among them caused both plague and blessing. It all has to do with keeping the commands, laws and ordinances of the covenant. There are clearly defined procedures for whom shall come near the ark and how those Levites will do so. David was not careful to inquire of the Lord on His will (2 Chr. 15:11-13). Once David repented, turned from carelessness about God's will and returned to a careful keeping of the covenant which includes religious regulation of this nature about revering what is holy unto the Lord, then blessing came to Jerusalem.
The writer of Hebrews is speaking to Jewish believers who may be in danger of falling away from Christ and back into the old covenant under Moses. He depicts Jesus as our High Priest making atonement for our sin. But Jesus is not a descendant of Aaron of the tribe of Levi who are the only ones who can serve as priests before the Lord as prescribed in the law of Moses. But Jesus is more akin to a different priestly order...the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews is very bizarre in this handling of Melchizedek because He only makes an appearance in tow places in the Bible. In Genesis Melchizedek is the king of Salem (Jerusalem) and priest of God Most High (Gen 14:18-20). He blesses Abraham after Abram and his men had rescued the captives taken by the kings who came up against Sodom and the other cities of the valley. Then there is a mention of the Jebusite priest in Psalm 110:4. The reference there is simply to say to the Davidic king that he will carry out his rule in a priestly manner, interceding for his people and making atonement for their sins. Just as Melchizedek was priest and king, so shall the king who sits on the throne of David.
The Jebusites held Jerusalem until David won the city. They Canaanites that God wanted dislodged, driven out and even exterminated. However Jebusites do not always show up ion the classic lists of the seven nations God wants driven from the land. So it is odd that Melchizedek is revered so by the writer of Hebrews. Melchizedek has a mythical quality with no beginning or end (Heb. 7:3).
Scholar theorize that there may have been other texts, now lost to history, available to the writer of Hebrews and the audience would also know the person of Melchizedek from these texts. Others feel that the writer is simply taking liberties in interpretation, a technique known as "midrash." It was not uncommon for a rabbi to take a scripture text and interpret a fresh new meaning that is not what was originally intended, but rather speaks to the concerns of the contemporary audience.
In any case Jesus, as a Davidic king, is presented as High Priest in the order of Melchizedek as a means to convince the Hebrews to turn away from the old covenant which is diminishing and to the new covenant in Jesus Christ (Heb. 8:6, 13). In essence the Jews/Hebrews are being called to repent, to turn away from Moses and Levi and turn to Christ Jesus who is superior since He is the eternal Son of God and High Priest. He is forever interceding for us not in an earthly temple, a shadow or mere representation, but in the truest holy place...in heaven's throne room at the right hand of the King of the Universe. Jesus' sacrifice is not temporary atonement with the blood of bulls, but eternal atonement with His own blood, "once for all."
This new covenant in the blood of Christ is superior, to the old covenant. God found fault and promised a new covenant. It is God's will for the Hebrews to repent of law keeping righteousness and turn to God's revealed will in Jesus Christ into a righteousness that comes through faith, trusting in God's mercies through Jesus.
Amen
Thinking of a priest as one who carries the messages of humans to God and generically of a king as leader, we have the ability as Christians to be a priestly leader.
ReplyDeleteI am reading "Hearing God" by Dallas Willard and he was saying the same thing.
ReplyDelete"God calls us a direct and fully self-conscious relationship with Him (as priests) in which we share responsibility with Him (as kings) in the exercise of His authority.