Hebrews - Part 18 New Priesthood, New Law (Hebrews 7:11-19)

We are in Hebrews 7, and just a reminder, the book of Hebrews is primarily, generally speaking, a polemic in a sense, about the value of the new covenant over the old covenant, faith over works as pertaining to our salvation, in particular our justification, and Jesus Christ over everything. And so what the author, who I propose is Paul, but I wouldn't argue about that because I'm not scholarly about it, but the author is arguing for us and with us in a sense, but for us, that the forms of religious worship that were important and useful to the old covenant, which existed to reveal things about Christ and about the new covenant, those forms of worship are obsoleted. And one of the reasons is because now the better has come, the new has come.

And the first century Jews were struggling to understand this fact and praise the Lord, because had they all figured it out, maybe we wouldn't have a letter to the Hebrews. So before we get a little too critical of first century Christians, we should keep in mind that after 2000 years, we're probably making mistakes that they look at us, well, if they could, and they'd say, wow, you guys are really stupid. So let's be humble about the fact that We probably have more blind spots than they do, and they had less revelation.

But again, praise the Lord, because he is forgiving and gracious of all these failures and weaknesses we have. But let's be diligent to try to fight against those things. So I will begin in Hebrews 7.11, and I will be reading from the ESV today. Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? for when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well for the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar for it is evident that our lord was descended from judah And in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests.

This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. for it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek for on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness for the law made nothing perfect but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God so it's hebrews 7 11 to 19 so now i will offer some commentary on this passage we begin in verse 11 the author says if perfection had been attainable through the little biblical priesthood what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than the one named after Aaron? This is his argument he's about to present after having explained that Melchizedek was greater than the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood. So Aaron being Moses' brother through whom the priesthood was started.

And the point he's trying to make is that there wouldn't have been a need for another priest whatsoever to come had there been perfection attainable through the Levitical priesthood. So having already established that Jesus has come, and then having already established through the quotation, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, which the people of this time would have known, Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. Jesus fulfilled Psalm 110 verse 4 and even said so to the Pharisees.

This has been one of the more quoted verses even of the Bible in the New Testament. And Psalm 110 being, I've heard, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament altogether. and so the the argument here isn't to prove that that jesus came it's already established that he came it's already established he proclaims himself to be a priest after the order of melchizedek the argument here is simply why would he have come after the order of melchizedek if the levitical priesthood would have been all that was needed and if the Levitical priesthood is not all that was needed the argument is then it not needed at all anymore now that the new has come And so it's actually a sophisticated argument, in my opinion. It doesn't seem simple.

I don't think this is the kind of thing we would figure out, in fact, without special revelation. even as I even as I explained it I'm thinking it's it's this is lofty logic that I don't think we would have worked ourselves to God had to help us to see this so the first point I want to make is that in the beginning of this verse and then the rest of the verses are the argument itself but in the beginning there's a parenthetical and Hebrews is I mean if it had a subtitle it'd be the parenthetical epistle. The epistle is nonstop argument after argument for something, and then little rabbit trails or side notes. And it's one of the reasons I would agree when people say this may have been a preached sermon that was transcribed, because it's so common for preachers to say something and then kind of go off on a little rabbit trail, we call it, and then to come back.

But in the parenthetical in Hebrews 7-11, the verse says, for under it, the people receive the law. And so we have some words there that when we're trying to understand scripture, we have to do some, you know, exegetical work, but we have to understand grammar, we have to understand language. And this is one of the things that in your family worship, this is your chance to not only practice it, and not only family worship, but private, but in your family worship to show your wives, to show your children, whoever else you happen to be leading maybe at your church, that there is value in mastering language and understanding some of the details of it so that you can read the scripture.

Because it says for under it, Well, what's it? That's the first question. That one I think is easy. It refers back to the Levitical priesthood. But you'd be surprised when you're working with children, especially, that they don't think these things through sometimes. They just read the words.

And a lot of times, if they don't understand what happened, they just move on. And that's normal for children. but we wanted people to understand that it refers back to its antecedent which would be the levitical priesthood so what the parenthetical is really saying is for under the levitical priesthood the people received the law well now we have to ask ourselves what is the law the law in scripture is used to describe a number of different i won't say different necessarily but it's used to describe nuanced versions of some something sometimes when the scripture refers to the law it's simply referring to the moral law of god which we usually characterize as the 10 commandments at least summarize there sometimes when the scripture refers to the law it's referring to god's judicial laws that he has given to israel so that israel could govern itself until jesus came sometimes when scripture refers to the law it's referring to the ceremonial law which i'll just reveal i think that's what's in view here and the ceremonial law were the ceremonies that the Levitical priests would go through in order to perform all of their duties in the temple. And so when they would go to the altar and they would sprinkle the blood and the way they sacrificed the animals and the way that they dealt with all of the ceremonial cleansings and basically everything in the law that had to do with here's how the priests approached God to be mediators for the people.

Sometimes when the scripture referred to the law, it's actually just referring to the whole law. Sometimes it's referring to basically all the books Moses wrote. So when Jesus says the law and the prophets, it's referring to everything Moses wrote, everything the prophets wrote, and some were sprinkled in theirs, including all the Psalms. Psalms and and Proverbs were written by prophets in the sense, not that they're future telling all the time, but that they were written by those who were receiving revelation from God to give that revelation to men.

So we have to ask ourselves, and it helps us understand other Christian traditions, what do we need and what does the author mean here when he says, for under it, the Levitical priesthood, the people received the law. If what it means is that they received the whole law of God, meaning all of God's rules, statutes, ordinances, precepts, commandments, then when you read in verse 12, for when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well, you can easily see how, I would say, good Christian men, with whom I disagree, but who are still nevertheless faithful, God-fearing people, have come up with the idea that the whole law has been abrogated or done away with, abolished in a sense. That in the New Testament period, they would say there is a change in the priesthood and there necessarily a change in the law So therefore we don follow the Ten Commandments anymore as our rule for living as Christians because the Ten Commandments would be either the law that in view or at least part of the larger block of law that God has given And so this is where you get people who generally, these traditions would be considered the new covenant theology that is actually a very new theology that has been proposed.

Also, a lot of dispensationalists would describe this verse this way, where what they would propose is that there's a change in priesthood. Jesus is now our mediator between God and man, and we don't follow the law of Israel anymore. Basically, we don't follow all the laws that were written in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Exodus. this. Even the Ten Commandments are just, they're just a historical marker, we can recall, but we don't follow them with any kind of precision as if those are over us.

We follow laws that are in the New Covenant, and so then they go through the Gospels, they go through, well, they actually consider the Gospels more Old Covenant, but they go through the New Testament, the letters from Paul, and they find the commands that are there. And what they find is that we're to worship God, we're not to be idolaters, excuse me. We shouldn't blaspheme and use coarse language.

We shouldn't murder. We should honor those in authority over us. We shouldn't steal. We shouldn't lie. Coveting is bad. And for the most part, most of these people land on the fact that, well, we still have the nine basic commandments other than the fourth one of the 10.

And so that's one of the big differences between what we'd call reformed theology and some of these other theologies, which is that, at least the way I would define it in reformed theology, we're Sabbatarian. And it's one of the reasons is that I don't think the Ten Commandments is in view here. I don't think that God meant the laws I gave Israel were just for Israel and pretty much nobody else.

And now you have a new law and you're going to figure that out basically only by reading the New Testament. I disagree with that. I know some people that have that very robustly and well thought out. At one point, I would have told you I did. And I don't believe that's the case. So I was just giving you that just for understanding, because I think sometimes we look at people that disagree with us, and we think of them as like really far off the truth.

Like, well, you guys must not even be reading the same Bible as I am. And I think we could be more charitable than that to realize, well, they are. They're interpreting it differently. And they actually have some reasons that maybe make sense in particular, you know, in English, we only have certain words we can use that some of us don't know the Greek and Hebrew to answer certain questions.

I think here in verse 7 or verse 11, chapter 7, that what it's saying is if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under the Levitical priesthood, the people received the ceremonial law. what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron I think it refers to the ceremonial law because what's in view here is the Levitical priesthood and their specific duties the moral law transcends we'll say the the written giving of it the ten commandments weren't created on Mount Sinai when they were etched into stone. When they were etched into stone, they were given to Moses, revealing to Moses this perpetual universal law that had always been. These are manifestations or revealings of the morality of God.

And when God etched them into stone, that was making a statement as well. These things are way more permanent than everything else I'm going to give you, Moses. And so the Levitical priesthood is from the beginning, and obviously temporary and incomplete priesthood, just in the sense that it was only given to a small portion of the world. And if God intends to save the whole world, and I mean that not in every person everywhere sense, but all of the elect from all parts of the world, then a Levitical priesthood that was specific only to a little teeny tiny nation in the Middle East would not be sufficient and never could have been sufficient.

So now that we know in the New Testament here, by the time we're in Hebrews 7, we're aware that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. We understand these things, that Gentiles are getting saved too, and that the Levitical priesthood in no way could have possibly been God's intention for how the whole world would function. And so the ceremonial laws that you can read about throughout the first five books of the Old Testament, or really the second through fifth book more, the ceremonial laws that were given were intended just for the Levitical priests to live a life and to perform their actions and their duties in such a way as to exhibit how difficult it is for a man to go to God.

The point of it wasn't to save people. the point of it was to show people how difficult it is to get to God. We know this from verse 19. So when we see in verse 19, where we're reminded the law made nothing perfect. Again, I'm going to say it's the ceremonial law in view here. The Levitical law the intention was actually to show people that it is so hard to get to God so that when the true Messiah came people would recognize him as what all of those ceremonial aspects of washings and the blood and all the different ways that the Levitical priests had to function.

These were all pointing us to the perfect Messiah who would fulfill all these things. And it would make people who were Christian in their heart, people who believed in God, had the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, it would make them long for a mediator who could really help them. And so I think what we need to understand is that there were real God-fearing Jews, for lack of a better phrase maybe, there were real God-fearing Jews in the Old Testament, And these people were searching for the perfect, unblemished, unspotted lamb to bring to the sacrifice.

And you needed to have a sense of your own unworthiness and your own unholiness to come to God even then, like we should now. But the difference is, is we in 2000, you know, the 21st century, we wake up in the morning and we hear about Jesus, the perfect Savior. and it's like, oh, okay, good. I've got a mediator. I've got a perfect lamb of God. These people didn't have one yet.

All they could do is look forward to the fact that there is no way that the sheep that I just brought is really going to cleanse my sins. A person with any understanding of their own unholiness, their own unworthiness to come to God would not have thought, well, I just brought my best. There's no way God's turning me down. There would have been a bit of fear there even, but by faith, they brought their lamb to the priest.

The priest mediated between them and God according to the way God had proposed it ought to be done. And then they were temporarily cleansed, at least in the flesh. And they were left with a longing for a Messiah who would cleanse them completely, that God would provide the lamb that was actually spotless and perfect. And we do believe that people would have understood this well enough to believe it and be saved because by God's spirit, he would grant them that hope.

This is why Jesus was so harsh on the Pharisees in his earthly ministry, because what he really criticized them for nonstop was, if you understood the scriptures, you would recognize who I am. like Jesus didn't act like well I know the old testament's cryptic and there's a lot of types and shadows and those things are hard to figure out he didn't do that he was like if you knew it you'd believe in me it's that simple there was no excuses there was no oh you know I know it's difficult if you believed it you'd see who I was but so if perfection had been attainable verse 11 through the Levitical priesthood, for under that priesthood, the people received the law, the ceremonial law I'm proposing. He's saying, what further need would there have been for another priest to come? Why did a priest come after the order of Melchizedek rather than the one named after the order of Aaron?

So then he argues, he says in verse 12, for when there's a change in the priesthood, there's necessarily a change in the law as well. So this is just part of the application of this. He's letting them know, hey, if there's a change in priesthood, You don't need to be doing all your Levitical ceremonies anymore. You don't need Levitical priests. You don't need to go through all these detailed things that Jesus fulfilled for you.

This is what Jesus fulfilled. This is what Jesus has done so that we don't have to do it. Not the moral law. Jesus did not murder, so now you could be free to murder. But Jesus fulfilled all of the precepts of that ceremonial law so that you, you don't even have to know what they are, frankly. I mean, you get saved without reading Leviticus, without reading Exodus.

So in verse 13, he reminds us, for the one of whom these things are spoken, Jesus Christ belonged to another tribe, the tribe of Judah, which is explained in the next one, from which no one has ever served at the altar. He basically just says, look, Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. So he was a Jew, but he wasn't a Levitical priest Jew. He wasn't Aaronic.

He was from the tribe of Judah. No one from Judah has ever been anything to do with a priest. Read verse 14. It's evident. We know this. we have evidence that our Lord, Jesus Christ, was descended from Judah. And in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests.

We can probably say this about all of Jacob's kids, but Judah was wicked too. It's not like Jesus came from the pure line either. Not that there really was a pure line, but there were better brothers. There were better tribes in obedience. and you know judah judah did some weird stuff and i don't even want to get into it jesus wasn't a priest according to the flesh he was not eligible even that's the whole point he's trying to make and so we have this this evidence that jesus was descended from judah and moses never said anything about priests and now he says this becomes more evident and we have to ask ourselves again.

Well, what? What becomes more evident? Because when you first read this, you see in 14, for it's evident that something happened. And then he says, this becomes more evident, and your brain wants to connect verse 14 and 15 as what he's talking about. I think verse 15 is referring back to verse 12 and 11, which 11 and 12 are kind of one one thought was a bit of an application.

So when he says this becomes more evident when a another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, what he's saying is this, that has become more evident, is that if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, there wouldn't have been any further need for another priest. And that when there's a change in priesthood, there is necessarily, it is required that you have a change in the law now that the priesthood has changed. so looking at verse 15 if you in your mind take verse 13 and 14 and maybe block them out or or just think of them as a parenthetical and you could even read at 7 11 and 12 and 15 and you can see the flow of the argument better for when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well verse 12 and 15 this this change in priesthood and law change, this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek. So now we have another priest that's risen, Jesus, which we know, who has become a priest, verse 16, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent.

Jesus wasn't descended from Melchizedek. He was descended from Judah. but how did Jesus become a priest? On what basis did Jesus become a priest and was eligible? It says, but by the power of an indestructible life. And if you have any hope today, it's Jesus's indestructible life. The reason why it was really hard for people when Jesus died was that Savior wasn't helpful to them in their mind. jesus needed to be alive to be able to be a mediator for others i'm getting some noise back i don't know who jesus need i got it muted i think jesus needed to be alive to be a mediator for you if jesus wasn't alive right now you'd be dead in your sins his life is indestructible yet he died And so this cannot be referring to his earthly life.

His earthly life certainly was subject to death. His indestructible life is the fact that he's the eternal son of God. Jesus Christ lives forever to be mediator. And this is highlighted for us in verse 25, which is what we're leading toward. And I don't think we'll get there today, but where we're told consequently. So because of all the things I just said and the things that we're going to read next week or two weeks, consequently, his indestructible life, he's able to save to the uttermost.

He can save every single person who comes to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. So whereas on a daily basis, your Levitical priest that you normally would bring your sacrifice to could be dead. He could die in the act of trying to help you out. Jesus will never die. His life is indestructible. It's unblemishable.

It cannot be touched. But his earthly life, you know, could be. His earthly life was able to be affected. And thank God for that, because we also needed a sacrifice. And that's the amazing thing about Jesus being the priest and the sacrifice for us, is that he could be the perfect priest ever living to intercede on our behalf, but also he was also the perfect sacrifice.

And there was no Levitical priest who could sacrifice himself for even his own sins, let alone the sins of others. And so we're reminded now of the point of this, you are a priest forever passage in Hebrews 7, 17. It says, for it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now we see a little more of the why. This is part of the decree of God.

Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father, is declared a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and his life is indestructible. and Melchizedek shows us that there is a better priesthood than the one that we were given as a picture of how to come to God and how to be cleansed of our unholiness and so we have this hope now that this forever priest not only will be our priest forever but he never was not that same priest after this order that God has come up with, and according to the counsel of his own will. And so the Levitical priesthood then becomes totally useless. And that doesn't mean that God made a mistake.

It doesn't mean that it wasn't useful for its purpose, but it's useful to the salvation of sinners, or useless to the salvation of sinners, it's useless in giving you a mediator to come to God when it comes to actually seeing your sins forgiven. And now that the priest after the order of Melchizedek has come, who has an indestructible life, we don need to follow the ceremonies that were given for the purpose of the Levitical priesthood pointing to the difficulty it is to come to God And so the author tells us for on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness So in case you thought I was harsh calling something that God created useless, God called it useless also. And then he tells us, for the law made nothing perfect.

I'm going to say it's the ceremonial law. that can certainly be applied in a broader context in a sense that you know the moral law is not going to make you perfect either all it will do the moral law as well as the ceremonial law is reveal to you how far short you fall of god's standards and so we're told on one hand the former commandment is set aside these levitical laws are just set aside. They're not unprofitable to read about. They're still scripture, but it's weak.

It's useless. It didn't have the power to bring you to God. And he says, but on the other hand, so now we have two sides he's giving us with just this whole book and just this and this, one's better than the other. He says, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. So he tells us now you can draw near to God. You really weren't drawing near to God before when you were going to the Levitical priests.

You were performing the earthly actions that you had to perform, but now you're actually drawing near to God. And instead of just an earthly mediator being the one who went near God on your behalf and just sort of made sure things we're okay temporarily you have a ever-living hope in a mediator with an indestructible life which is what qualified him to be the priest for all people and so in verse 20 we'll continue a little bit he says and it was not without an oath he says for those who formerly became priests were made without such an oath but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.

And so we'll continue in verse 20 next time. But it's just this idea that this is a more serious level of priesthood, a more permanent level of priesthood. And this is one that the priest won't die. The priest can't make a mistake and disqualify himself. The priest won't get too old and just have to stop doing it. The priest won't ever get to the point where he won't be able to perform the duties because the duties have gotten too difficult for him.

The priest is a priest forever. And it was made with an oath. God's not going to change his mind. And so for those of you who understand that God doesn't change his mind anyway, we see once again that God makes an oath for the purpose of resolving the controversy. of even in our minds helping us to see what perfection there is in his decree. And we remember from verse 18 or in verse 17 of chapter 6, when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

So this is a reference back to what he's already begun. So Hebrews is very repetitive, and there's a lot of long arguments with some side notes. It says, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. And then in chapter 7, a better hope is introduced in verse 19, and it was not without an oath.

It's referring back to the same thing. It's telling us this is what I meant earlier. There was an oath given. He's a priest forever. And you set your hope on that. Stop putting your hope in anything earthly, even the religion given by God to the Jews, and place your hope solely in the mediation provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will stop there, and I will allow you guys to comment, ask questions, discuss things. just remember to unmute yourselves. I think I ended up muting almost everybody because of some noises I heard. I didn't know where they were coming from. So check to see if you're muted before you talk. Hey, Michael, this is Jason Kluger. Thank you for the talk.

Really appreciate it. It was, yeah, very good. One follow-up question that comes to my mind is if you could, help me understand a little bit better um what is meant by verse 16 the latter half of it where he says by the power of an indestructible life so i understand that the first portion where like you explained not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent refers to the priesthood after Aaron, but by the power of an indestructible life.

Does that refer to the fact that Melchizedek in the Old Testament is spoken of in such a way, such that he's, what's the verbiage? He has neither beginning nor end, something along those lines. It's like He has neither. Yeah, it's something along those lines. Is that what that's referring to? Yeah, I think it's referring to that as well as just in general, just Jesus.

It his life that that really the indestructible one And that makes him eligible to be the priest of this perpetual eternal priesthood albert barnes said by an authority of endless duration or the power of an indestructible life he says so that would be the kjv says that is it was not concerned mainly with outward observances and did not pass over from one to another by death but it was unchanging in its character and spiritual in its nature he says it was enduring and perpetual as a priesthood and was thus far exalted above the service performed by the priests under the former dispensation so it's just the idea that because jesus can't die he's he's a better priest um there's certainly you know you could probably unpack it more but that's the general idea there okay thank you yeah you're welcome good question if you guys are going to be all quiet it's not as enjoyable how about i'll like what from this passage like how does this bring you to worship christ like just let me just give you a teaser question well how does it just make you want to exalt him more even just in your private devotion well michael i thought it was you know you were saying about the new covenant and how we just throw things out, it's, I don't know, it's pretty clear, like, with Jesus's emphasis on, like, increasing the, you know, the sensitivity, say, of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, right, how can you even do that, right, where this, this um this talk of of the law made nothing perfect in verse 19 and on the other hand there's bringing of a better hope through which we draw near to god oh that's clearly jesus and and the law made nothing perfect in the sense that the the sacrifices without Jesus would never have ended, you know? And, but Jesus finished that. I don't know.

The new covenant is this idea that we, you know, that the moral doesn't matter anymore. It's just, it's just confusing to me how they can hold to that. Just whatever. Yeah, I mean, the argument becomes that Jesus placed such a focus on those things just to point to himself as the Savior, that he was, in that sense, just totally focused on showing people their sin.

I do think the law is perpetual. I would say Jesus spent an awful lot of time, like you said, belaboring points about the Ten Commandments and even talking about the Sabbath for it to all just be something that after he was dead, people would figure out, yeah, we didn't need those things anymore. After he was raised, I should say. But it was really, you know, like you said, a good point. he really brought the law out more.

The fact that we couldn't obey it on our own, that meant we needed a savior to enable us to and to love his law. Yeah, sometimes I have a hard time articulating things that I just can't see. You know, like what, why, how? This one comment comes to mind, Michael, and that is, like you had mentioned, really all of Hebrews is a comparison of these two different things.

And I find it helpful, as in other parts of the Bible, I know Jesus in some of his parables, he argues from the lesser to the greater. he compares two things and says well if this lesser thing is this this way and you know paul does this too if this lesser thing is this way then how much more so this greater thing and it seems like he is he's doing um the author of hebrews is doing the very same thing here he's saying well if the levitical priesthood was helpful to an extent not useless obviously um God put it in place for a purpose and it served its purpose in its time. Nevertheless, it's been superseded by this greater thing. And if the Levitical priesthood was useful to an extent, how much more useful, how much better, how much greater is this greater thing that has superseded it?

I don't know, just to keep that in mind. Yeah, that's a good point. most of revelation is god trying to explain to us in some kind of comprehensible creaturely terms something that is beyond understanding for us at that level and so it's always almost a lesser to the greater argument you know it's kind of a common theme isn't everybody just wants to get to work i'm just i can't wait i'm gonna hear from these other guys and they're gonna say yeah i just couldn't figure out how to unmute or something that i don't know so i did one one more comment um if no one else is gonna jump in sorry i'm talking a lot no no worries i appreciated your your comments about paying attention to language being cognizant of and paying attention to language I think that a very very good admonition good thought to keep in mind and something to be conscientious of going forward Like you said not only for our own edification and our own understanding but then also for when we lead and teach our families through these things I think it's very easy, especially early on. We didn't do a whole lot of Bible reading per se as a family when I was growing up.

And I realized as I grew older, things started to become more clear as I came to grasp, and it sounds kind of silly, but as I came to grasp English better, right? I was reading the same text, reading the same words, but it came to mean what it meant to me, as opposed to either being incomprehensible to me or otherwise, excuse me, me misunderstanding it prior to that point. So I just think it's a very, very important point and very good point to keep in mind. yeah it makes you value your you know your son's education right as you're thinking about this little guy that can't read right now one day you hope he'll read the bible for himself maybe even teach it to others right and so you're thinking wow i need to teach him language he needs to know how to look at words and figure out how they all go together you know that's a big deal uh you don't you don't send them off to the government to figure that out right you know that you know this is important and it's important that it's done well i mean those of us with little kids like i'm looking at my little kids like okay you have time to learn greek and hebrew you know you're young enough that that this makes sense for you to do so that by the time you're in your you know, late teens, you can read the whole Bible yourself in the original, you can translate it to a new language for people that don't have it.

You can do the word studies that I can only pretend to do sometimes, because I just, you know, you can look up a Greek word right now. I mean, that takes two seconds in most of the apps, but it takes years of having read Greek poetry and other Greek books to actually start to get an idea of how words were used at this time. And, And, you know, that's why we have to rely on some of these other teachers sometimes.

Right. Well, our sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, they could be understanding these things for themselves at a young age if we train them properly and focus them properly. I mean, if your goal in life is for your kid to play pro baseball, you're going to take him to baseball all the time. Right. Your goal in life is for him to be a godly man and give his life for Christ someday.

You're going to teach him things. You're going to help him do that. And I think that some of us Christian parents can have a little better focus. Yeah, I agree. I think reading is something we oftentimes take for granted as adults. It's something we don't even really think about anymore.

But as you know, now that I have a child of my own, I've come to realize that teaching him to read well is one of the greatest gifts that we can impart to them because of the implications of that down the road. You know, teaching an individual to read well means that they are going to be able to really learn anything they choose to put their minds to down the road, which is, again, the greatest gift that you can give. exactly i mean there's you know somebody created an emoji bible you know and it wasn't it wasn't because some guy was bored one day i mean literally there's there's like almost a demand for it because because we live in such a dumbed down culture yeah that that reading reading the words of scripture are difficult for people i mean i understand people saying well the kjv is really different from today all right i get that but when the average person that you encounter in the United States, when their educational level places even the NIV above their ability to understand, you now have a lot of work to do just to be able to teach someone something in scripture. I mean, you can tell people all day, hey, man, you should read the Bible.

Well, that doesn't help people around you if they really aren't good readers. If the education they've received got them to the point where they can type LOL and things like that. And there are some people who that's all they can do. And so, you know, this is why I'm all about the gospel and preaching, but I do think Christians should be, you know, doing humanitarian things like creating places.

Like Sunday school was actually started as a place where Christians were teaching poor kids to read. That's where it started. Because, you know, Christians were like, hey, come here, we'll teach you to read, we'll use the Bible to do it. So it's kind of dual purpose, you're learning the Bible, and you're learning to read, now you can go get a job, right?

And, and so I think, I think we can do a lot of those kinds of things as Christians in different cultures. And, you know, bringing people clean water, and some of these good things we can do, a lot of them are very helpful, because without them, people wouldn't even be able to start learning right foundational you know people can't eat it's gonna be hard to talk to them for very long because they're focused on the next meal right so you try to do some smart things too as christians and work together but yeah you teach a kid to read he can learn anatomy he can learn math he can learn auto mechanics. You have to be able to read though for almost everything.

Yep, agreed. You look at the history of Geneva. Before, right before Calvin got there. There are a couple of guys who went there. under, you know, to be teachers, you know, private tutors, stuff like that. And then they were also giving Bible lessons to anybody who'd show up. And that was kind of how the gospel got into those like really Roman Catholic and basically kind of pretty like pagan Geneva and opened the door for Calvin to come in and see what he did there.

Yeah, but, Michael, that, like, people talk about the King James being harder. It's like, well, there is a difference, right, between 400 years of language drift and definitional changes versus you know our public schools can't people teach people how to write their own names you know absolutely and that's part of the fun and because i know how to read and i've been gifted with an education where i mean i read shakespeare i read old stuff and so i can look at the king james now and i can at least say okay well what did that i can the word And I can see the advantage of the King James in a lot of areas too especially with the second person pronoun plural and singular it helpful sometimes But like literally, I just said second person, and my immediate thought was, I wonder if everyone here knows what I mean when I say second person. and the thing I'm not mean to be insulting to you guys, but that's a, that's a common thing that people wouldn't know what you meant. And this is why all the, all the people we look up to, but whenever you read one of these Puritan guys, these guys were, they all did Latin and Greek as kids.

That was just standard because you had to know those things to read Calvin and some of this other stuff. And then what I know from learning other languages is it forces you to think about grammar in a way that you don't you're not forced to think about in your native tongue and and then you start to see like i remember when i took latin i remember realizing oh wow english has all these things too we just we just do it a little different in english and i'm just so used to it it's second nature right but yeah yeah these are good things that why i i happy to happy to talk about it with people and be excited about it I appreciate you guys being here Jesus is worth worshiping, and he is certainly better than everything. And we know that, but the book of Hebrews helps us clearly see that he is.

And so we'll continue in two weeks, starting with verse 20. and now we're starting to get into what I call the really exciting part of Hebrews. I mean, Hebrews is a great book and I know we love all of scripture, but it starts to get really cool right here. And we start to really see some things that are inconceivable without the mind of God revealing them to us.

So Jason Ploeger, you want to pray for our group and then we'll split for the day pray for everybody to get to work and all the things they have to do there a little bit too absolutely dear heavenly father we come before you this morning grateful for this time that you've given us to spend together contemplating and growing in our understanding of your word we thank you for the wisdom that you gave michael this morning that we were edified by We pray that you would guide each of us in our walk with you that we may grow to understand the role that you established for us to play as fellow members of the body of Christ that you would enable us to fulfill those roles well and faithfully. I pray that you would grant us understanding, Father, that we may be diligent to study and pursue knowledge and understanding, praying earnestly for wisdom, Father, knowing that that comes from you. I pray for each of these men this day in our work, that you'd grant us diligence, perseverance, patience where needed, Father, that you'd grant us safety in our travels, that likewise you may have a fruitful and a restful weekend ahead all these things we pray in Christ thank you for listening to Be A Berean with your host Michael Coughlin I am a writer at thingsabove.us and I also have a personal website michaelcoughlin.net you can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures.