I have been told by my Christian brothers and sisters that the Old Testament was "nailed to the Cross," and that we no longer need to understand it. It is not, they say, binding on us, and therefore we are not beholden to it. They call it "The Law of Sin and Death," because they don't really understand what Paul was talking about.
And, of course, the idea that Paul is difficult to understand is not a new one. In 2 Peter 3:16, the Chief Apostle writes:
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
But the defense of the phrase "The Law of Sin and Death" is a subject for another time, because right now I want to discuss the Value of the Law of God.
Hebrews 7:17 reads:
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
When it does, it is quoting from Psalm 110:4, which also reads:
The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
So, very briefly, who is this Melchizedek fellow?
Melchizedek is mentioned only once in the Old Testament, in Genesis 14:18-20, which reads:
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Now there's a lot more which could (and will) be said about him, but what I want to highlight in this blog is this:
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah. According to the Law of Moses, Priests of Israel could only come from the Tribe of Levi. This means, as my Jewish friends point out, that Jesus would NOT have qualified to be a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem because He was born to the wrong tribe.
But one who is not a priest cannot bring the sacrifice. The Law of Moses explicitly states that those who want to make sacrifices bring their sacrifice "to the priest." Then the Priest would offer the sacrifice.
"But Jesus was killed by the Romans," one might object, "and they were not priests."
In John 10:17-18, we find
17 ... I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Who killed Jesus? Jesus did.
That is, Jesus offered Himself as the Sacrifice.
But in order for the sacrifice to be valid, it must be brought by a priest.
And since Jesus was of the Tribe of Judah, and not the Tribe of Levi, He couldn't be a priest under the old system.
But Melchizedek, who lived and died long before the time of the Patriarchs, was a priest. The Torah says of him: "He was priest of God Most High."
How was Melchizedek a "
priest of God Most High" before the Levitical priesthood was established?
By calling Melchizedek a "
priest" of the True God, the Torah establishes another priesthood, which the Author of Hebrews calls "The Order of Melchizedek."
If the Torah is nailed to the Cross, if the books of Moses are no longer relevant, then the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is invalid. It was nothing more than one more Rabbi dying for making trouble.
But if Jesus really is a Priest, after the Order of Melchizedek, then all of humanity can be saved.
Torah. It's that important.
This is, quite possibly, the single worst argument ever against the name of Jesus, and it gets made all the time. It's only ever directed at "Jesus" or "Jehovah," but nobody ever says anything at all about
