Day 1
HEBREWS 5
Every high Priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
This means that every High Priest in the Old Testament 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.
Jesus has gone through what we are going through. Therefore, He understands our weaknesses and temptations since He has experienced them just as we have. At the beginning of chapter 5, we see that a human High Priest must be able to empathize with the people and offer a sacrifice for their sins. Only because Jesus was fully human, He was able to fulfil this role.
The high priestly character of Jesus is further explained in this chapter.
Day 2
Hebrews 5
. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
To become a High Priest, you do not apply for the job; rather, God calls you. You then become the go-between in the relationship between God and His people. That means you need to know God well, and you need to know the people very well. One of the most important duties is to help guilty offenders obtain forgiveness from God, and so sacrificing for sin is a major responsibility. However, you must first bring people to the point where they accept that they have sinned. To achieve this, you must be approachable and empathetic with the sinner, without becoming a sinner yourself. But this is not particularly difficult for the Priest, as he has fallen into similar sins before and was forgiven. It is no surprise, then, that before sacrificing for others, the Priest must first admit his own sin and sacrifice for himself before doing so for the sins of others.
Day 3
Hebrews 5
5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high Priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”[a]6 And he says in another place, “You are a Priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”[b]
Jesus was appointed to be our High Priest by the Father. It was not a role He forced Himself into. Given that, as God, He knew its implications, it could not have been a position He eagerly sought, but His life and obedience led Him to accept it.The Father confirms His relationship to Jesus as His Son so that we have no doubt about how He qualifies to deal with our guilt. This means He not only knows our weaknesses, but He also knows the Father’s love for us. Additionally, the Father confirms that His Son is not a Priest in the order of the Levites; He belongs to a different order. Melchizedek appeared long before Levi was born. This suggests that Jesus can fulfil the Priestly role even better than the Levitical Priests.
Day 4
Hebrews 5
7 During the days of Jesus’’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high Priest in the order of Melchizedek.
There is clear proof that Jesus acted as a Priest. He prayed for Himself and His disciples with fervency, fully acknowledging that only the Father had the final word on whatever He faced on earth.
Secondly, He suffered just like the people He was dying for. He was fully obedient to the Father, just as Priests are required to be. This obedience is how He became perfect and is now the source of salvation for us, the guilty. The days of His flesh were painful days because He was fully human and subject to our limitations and suffering. You can then see how He was made a Priest of a higher rank by His Father—demonstrating priestly attributes that surpassed the Levitical Priests.
Jesus prayed in a special and fervent way, and His prayers were answered according to the Father’s will. Do you see how He taught us obedience? He knew the Father and could ask for favour, but He was determined to do whatever the Father wanted, no matter how painful. That is true obedience with no excuses. This is why He is the perfect Priest, with no limitations in accomplishing all that we now ask of Him as our Priest. The first proof relates to the nature of the prayers Jesus offered and their responses. The second concerns His obedience and its connection to His movement towards perfection. We trust in a gracious God, but we must obey His instructions, however difficult, just as our Master did. This obedience is only possible if we fully entrust our lives to Him and believe He can handle whatever calling comes our way. Intellectual belief in God is not enough. We must trust Him enough to surrender our lives to Him fully. We must believe in God’s goodness to us. We must also believe in His mercy, which never runs out, no matter the guilt we bring to Him or how many times we seek His forgiveness.
Day 5
Hebrews 5
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
We claim to fully trust in God, yet at times we are sluggish in our belief. Do we truly believe that Jesus is our Priest who intercedes for us? The main problem is that we have chosen not to listen with interest. The writer tells us we cannot understand because we have become dull in hearing. We are a disappointment because, given our time in Christianity, we should understand more than we actually do. Have you ever experienced that frustration with the people you mentor, or even with your own children? This is God telling us that we are a disappointment in our level of understanding the gospel.
How is it that we are still in the baby class spiritually and content with receiving milk-level teachings? The difference between a baby Christian and a mature one is the practice of the Word, not just hearing it.
The practice of the Word helps us grow our spiritual muscle so that we are able to stand firm, no matter how crafty the devil becomes. But if we remain as baby Christians, it means we keep repeating the same class, which disappoints our Father. Of course, elementary truths are critical, and we must learn and practice them before moving on to more mature topics. Do you discuss topics that baby Christians cannot understand before helping them grasp the basics? We must all aim to learn and practice the basics, then move on. Could we be practising evil while thinking it is good? That is a sign of spiritual immaturity. The audience to whom the author of Hebrews is directing his teaching about Jesus’ Priesthood, which is difficult to explain, had become sluggish in their hearing and forgetful of even the basic elements (Hebrews 5:12).
Day 6
Hebrews 5
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
The author tells us about the abilities of those who feed on the milk of the Christian faith. He writes that those who live on milk are unskilled in the word of righteousness because they are still children. In this context, milk refers to the elementary truths of our faith (Hebrews 6:2).
This message about baby Christians is a warning to both of us as individuals and to our Pastors. God is not happy when we choose not to grow spiritually. Being dull of hearing means you are not paying attention to the discipline that God has given you. It is also a message to those who lead people to the Lord: we must disciple them so that they fully understand the basics before moving on to higher levels.
What about the Pastors? They need to learn that you should not give a baby Christian a ministry to lead, for they have not grown enough to know right from wrong. Give them time to grow.
Day 7
Summary of Hebrews 5
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