Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Hebrews 7:15-28
Set – Micah 7; Hebrews 7
Go! – Micah 5-7; Hebrews 7
Hebrews 7:15-28
15 Doesn’t it seem obvious? Jesus is a priest who resembles Melchizedek in so many ways; 16 He is someone who has become a priest, not because of some requirement about human lineage, but because of the power of a life without end. 17 Remember, the psalmist says,
You are a priest forever—
in the honored order of Melchizedek.
18 Because the earlier commandment was weak and did not reconcile us to God effectively, it was set aside— 19 after all, the law could not make anyone or anything perfect. God has now introduced a new and better hope, through which we may draw near to Him, 20 and confirmed it by swearing to it. 21 The Levite order of priests took office without an oath, but this man Jesus became a priest through God’s oath:
The Eternal One has sworn an oath
and cannot change His mind:
You are a priest forever.
22 So we can see that Jesus has become the guarantee of a new and better covenant. 23 Further, the prior priesthood of the sons of Levi has included many priests because death cut short their service, 24 but Jesus holds His priesthood permanently because He lives His resurrected life forever. 25 From such a vantage, He is able to save those who approach God through Him for all time because He will forever live to be their advocate in the presence of God.
26 It is only fitting that we should have a High Priest who is devoted to God, blameless, pure, compassionate toward but separate from sinners, and exalted by God to the highest place of honor. 27 Unlike other high priests, He does not first need to make atonement every day for His own sins, and only then for His people’s, because He already made atonement, reconciling us with God once and forever when He offered Himself as a sacrifice. 28 The law made imperfect men high priests; but after that law was given, God swore an oath that made His perfected Son a high priest for all time.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
I tried to use men to guide you to a better life after the fall. Adam repented in the garden when I came to him and asked what he and Eve had done. He tried to teach his sons right from wrong. Abel got it. Cain didn’t. The world got worse as I tried to get people to teach each other My lessons about good and evil. Finally, I destroyed all of humankind except Noah and his family in a flood.
Noah followed Me and listened to Me. I tried to use him as the springboard for teaching his offspring about good and evil. But he failed to pass on what I taught him to his daughters and one of the first things that happened after the flood, he got drunk on the wine he made and his daughters slept with him.
I raised up Abraham and his children as My chosen people to teach the rest of the world about good and evil and how I wanted them to follow Me and live righteous lives. Abraham failed in some of the tests I set out for him, but in others he was a blessing to the nations around him. His offspring, the Israelites were to teach the world about Me. Instead they followed foreign gods and abandoned Me.
Time and again, I entrusted people to share My word, My commands, My directions and hope for you, but so many times, the lure of the world and its pagan practices that satisfy temporal pleasures pulled you away from Me. I wanted to let you discover for yourself that I am your eternal salvation and your redeemer, but you looked at the shiny baubles that Satan put before you and let him entice you for momentary gain.
I put the priesthood in place to set aside a specific tribe to try to help them understand the importance of remaining separate and holy. I hoped they would understand the importance of purity in their lives by living and working within the tabernacle and Temple. They didn’t. The tabernacle and the Temple became just as corrupt as the rest of the nation with its bribes, merchants profiting from selling sacrifices, dishonest scales, and the injustice within the gates.
So I came to earth as man. I came as one of you to become the perfect priest. I came as one unmarred by sin and evil. I came as the only one who could show you how to live free from evil and unwilling to bow to the temptations that came from every direction. Did I feel the pull of Satan? Yes. As a fully human being, I was subject to temptation just as you. But I never succumbed to them. I was sinless and so I can stand as your high priest.
I know what you go through because I was one of you but I can also redeem you because I was and am perfect, interceding for you as your high priest. Come to Me and I will do it. Repent, turn from your sin, follow Me.
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