For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
It is evident fact that our Lord descended as man from the tribe of Judah through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, of which tribe Moses appointed nothing concerning priesthood but assigned that office to Levi and to Aaron and his sons. Because He is of Judah He is not a priest under the Levitical, Aaronic order, but His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek, made not by carnal commandment but by the oath of God after the power of an endless life, unchangeable and everlasting. A priest arising from Judah required a change of the law that vested priesthood in Aaron's family alone, and that law is the ceremonial law of sacrifices and priestly eligibility, distinct from the Ten Commandments which contain no rule of tribal priesthood and did not need to change. Under that former law He could not serve as priest on earth in the earthly sanctuary, so having shed His blood as sacrifice He began His priesthood after His ascension in heaven itself, the true tabernacle, offering His own blood once for all and ever living to make intercession. Judah being the kingly tribe, He is heir by birth to David's throne while Priest by His Father's oath, now serving as priest-king after Melchizedek's similitude on His Father's throne and not yet as king on David's throne.
Tribal Fact Stated
It is evident fact that our Lord sprang, came, descended and was born from the tribe of Judah. He was a literal man of Abraham's flesh-and-blood kin through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah, and Son of David. He came from Judah although Moses assigned the priesthood to another tribe. He came from Judah, not Levi, and descended from Judah while Moses gave no provision for that tribe to serve as priests.
Of that tribe Moses spoke nothing, gave no provision, assigned no priestly office and appointed no priests concerning priesthood. He assigned the priesthood to Levi and to Aaron and his sons alone, naming no one from Judah as priest and restricting altar service to the house of Aaron in Levi's tribe. The law in view was the carnal law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and condemned any stranger coming near to death.
Reckoning of genealogy by tribe was essential for admission to Aaron's priesthood, for priests of Aaron's order had to trace their genealogy to be admitted to discharge the duties of the office. No man from Judah served at the altar, and to Judah Moses never gave any priestly office. Christ's Judahite origin is therefore in no way material to His priesthood, whereas belonging to the tribe of Levi was a necessity for the other priests, whose priestly lineage was traced by genealogy for Aaron's descendants. His priesthood does not rest on descent traced to Aaron as the Levitical priesthood does but follows Melchizedek, whose genealogy is not recorded, and that absence of recorded ancestry makes Melchizedek stand as the sole representative of his order.
Judah means the actual tribe Judah, not the Jewish race in general, just as David means David himself, not any royal line, and a virgin means Mary in her virginity, with equally explicit and literal fulfillment of prophecies of His life and death. Its lot in Canaan by lot was the portion in which Abraham built his altar, in which he was called to offer his son Isaac, in which he received the promise, and in which stood the city over which Melchizedek reigned. The tribe of Judah was held together and its genealogy was preserved, along with that of Levi, so the lineage of Jesus could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side.
The verse identifies Jesus' Jewish, Judahite ancestry, belonging to the tribe of Judah and born of the tribe of Judah. That Jewish ancestry is no reason to reject Him or what He offers. His Jewish lineage is cited in answering the claim that the seventh day is merely a Jewish institution.
Two Priesthoods Contrasted
Because He sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, Jesus is not a priest under the Levitical, Aaronic, Mosaic law and order. Though He became the antitype of the Aaronic order, He was never a priest in that order itself, and a different priestly order is therefore needed to represent His work. His priesthood does not come through the Levitical law but is after the similitude and order of Melchizedek.
His priesthood was made not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life and by the oath of God. It is an independent and unchanging, age-lasting line with no predecessor and no successor, receiving the office from none and yielding it to none to come. Having assumed the office it never passes to another, for He is priest forever as king of righteousness and therefore king of peace. As priest-king like Melchizedek He is both King and Priest, and Melchizedek in name, city and office was only a fitting type of Christ, not Christ Himself.
The priests under the Levitical order were dying men, so the office had to pass to others, while Christ ever lives to make intercession. That Aaronic priesthood was temporary in duration, a pattern, shadow and type of the heavenly service, and the Levitical priests served as a pattern of that heavenly service while Christ is the real Priest. Their animal offerings had to be repeated each year and could not take away sin and made nothing perfect, while Christ makes one offering of His own blood. The Levitical priesthood was therefore insufficient, so there was further need for another priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek.
Aaron was not a complete type of Christ, and the contrast between their tribes is one way this shows. Reckoning of genealogy was essential for priests of Aaron's order to be admitted to discharge the duties of the office, yet no priests traced their genealogy to Judah. Melchizedek, whose genealogy is not recorded and who stands as sole representative of his order, supplies what is deficient and completes the picture, so that together Melchizedek and Aaron portray the essential truths of Christ's priesthood in which Christ serves as high priest and makes atonement. To identify Melchizedek with a known genealogy would undermine that argument, since his unrecorded lineage belongs to his fitness to represent an unchanging priesthood.
Under the carnal law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and condemned any stranger coming near to death, Christ of Judah could not serve as priest on earth in the earthly sanctuary or temple whose priests had to be Levites. King Uzziah, also of Judah, was smitten with leprosy for disregarding that ordinance and doing what belonged to the priests the sons of Aaron. Therefore Jesus would not have been a priest on earth under that priestly order, and His earthly life ended with His death, for He could not minister His blood until it had been shed. His priestly work did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, for had He served as priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own; it belongs to His heavenly ministry after His ascension and is after the order of Melchizedek.
Christ's priesthood is real while the earthly priests' was typical; theirs was a type while His is real. He offers His own blood once for all in the heavenly sanctuary, ever lives to make intercession, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost and completely all who come to God by Him. Hebrews 7 sets forth Christ as superior to the high priests of Levi and as present high priest of that eternal order with an unchanging priesthood, whose sanctuary service could not remove sin but pointed repentant sinners forward to His sacrifice. He is the great High Priest over both the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and His mediatorial work is central to both the old and new dispensations.
Law That Changed
Since the priesthood had been assigned to Levi, with Moses giving no provision, appointment or office for Judah to serve as priests, a priest arising from Judah required a change in the law governing priesthood and priestly eligibility. Under the law restricting the office to Aaron and his sons, Christ of Judah could not have served as priest, did not qualify for the Aaronic priesthood under the Mosaic tribal rule, and belonged to a different order. Priesthood and the law ordaining it stand and fall together, so changing the priesthood required changing that Levitical law. That change did not occur before the crucifixion, for before it no one could minister in the heavenly sanctuary under the type unless he belonged to Levi.
The law in view in Hebrews 7:11-19 is only the carnal, ceremonial law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and regulated who may be priest, with sacrifices and offerings of beasts. It is the law that restricted altar service to the house of Aaron in Levi's tribe and condemned any stranger coming near to death, as illustrated when Uzziah, also of Judah, was smitten with leprosy for disregarding that ordinance and doing what belonged to the priests the sons of Aaron. That exclusive Aaronic law had to be changed and disannulled so that Christ, made priest after the similitude of Melchizedek not after a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life, could be accepted as priest of God. It is distinct from the Ten Commandments, the holy, just and good moral law, which contained no rule about the tribe of priests and did not need to change when a priest arose from Judah.
That priesthood law therefore does not concern the Sabbath commandment or any other precept of the Decalogue. If that priesthood law had remained unchanged, Christ could not be recognized as a priest, so the required change was in the law governing priesthood. The change discussed concerns the law of the priesthood, not the law of tithing, which existed before that law.
His priesthood did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, whose priests were Levites, and had He served as priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own. Baptism by John did not make Christ a Levitical priest, since that priesthood was entered by birth into Levi's tribe. When Christ died the typical service ended, the shadow of good things to come ceased, the offering of bulls and goats gave place to the great sacrifice, and the priesthood passed from the Aaronic to the Melchizedek order. At the instant of His death the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, indicating that both apartments of the earthly sanctuary were alike abandoned by the symbol of God's presence because the work in them was finished, and ministry transferred from the tabernacle made with hands to the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. This change took place at the termination of the seventy weeks, at the cross, where the earthly tabernacle ordinances ended and the true tabernacle with its anointing, its sacrifice and its minister was introduced, with Christ's offering of His blood marking the transfer of the priesthood from Levi to Judah and His becoming high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
Under the Levitical law that vested the priesthood in the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron He could not serve as priest at the altar, and the only law for an earthly priesthood gave the office exclusively to Aaron's family so that anyone serving as priest on earth had to conform to that law. Ending the Aaronic restriction does not open earthly priesthood to other tribes, and therefore He could have no priesthood on earth. His service as priest on His Father's throne therefore required a different law, ending the law of the Levitical priesthood and beginning the law of His royal priesthood.
Heavenly Priesthood Begun
His earthly life ended with His death, and He could not minister His blood until it had been shed. He made His sacrifice before He began His priesthood, for He must have somewhat to offer. He must conquer as man in order to be an effectual priest, and He took the seed of Abraham and was made like His brethren so He could become a merciful and faithful high priest. That He sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, proves the Levitical priesthood was insufficient and there was further need for another priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek. His priestly work for men followed His ascension, made not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life, continuing ever with an unchangeable priesthood because the oath that made Him priest came since the law.
His priesthood for men began especially after His ascension in heaven, not during His earthly ministry. Coming from the tribe of Judah while Moses assigned no priesthood to that tribe, He would not have been a priest on earth under that priestly order, whose priests serving in the earthly sanctuary belonged to Levi. His priestly service therefore did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, but belongs to the heavenly sanctuary and is after the order of Melchizedek and not the order of Aaron. Had He served as a priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own. His priesthood followed the end of the earthly, shadowy service and the offering of Christ as the true sacrifice, and He then serves as high priest in the real sanctuary in heaven.
As high priest He entered for us into the true tabernacle, heaven itself, which the Lord pitched and not man, not the earthly sanctuary made with hands. What Moses and Aaron did in the pattern, Christ must do in heaven. His work there began with anointing the Most Holy, the Holy of holies, consecrating it with His own blood when He ascended near the close of the seventy weeks. As the anointing of the Holy of Holies in the earthly tabernacle immediately preceded the presentation of the sin offering before the mercy seat, He must go within the veil and anoint the heavenly Holy of Holies before fulfilling the type, which He did not do before His ascension. This change took place at the termination of the seventy weeks, at the cross, where the shadow of good things to come ceased, the offering of bulls and goats gave place to the great sacrifice, ministry transferred from the tabernacle made with hands to the true tabernacle with its anointing, its sacrifice and its minister, and He serves at the right hand of the throne of God as minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle.
His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek, an independent and unchanging line with no predecessor or successor. The verse marks the distinction between the earthly priestly services and Christ's high priesthood. The earthly sanctuary's two stages of service serve as a pattern for studying His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, while the Levitical services still served as a type of His priestly ministry. The short yearly service allowed each Levitical high priest to represent a complete round of Christ's ministry without interruption by the priest's death.
Hebrews 7 belongs to the full account of the ministrations of the first and second covenants. The Levitical priesthood with its ordinances of divine service performed the ministration of the first covenant, and the more excellent ministry of Christ in all its branches fulfils the ministration of the second covenant. He is the substance and antitype of the old covenant's types and shadows, and the priesthood and sacrificial service of the old dispensation with its ceremonial law that pointed to Him find fulfilment in His ministry and sacrifice and were abolished at the cross. The ark of God's testament in the heavenly tabernacle where He ministers shows the tables of the testament remain the foundation of the divine government, so the law of God given as the basis of the first covenant is distinct from its ministration.
The verse gives splendid instruction concerning our High Priest and His Melchizedek priesthood. It is part of the wonderful encouragement God gives to His children and of the certain fate of those who reject the means by which He saves men. It establishes that Jesus came from the tribe of Judah while Moses gave no instruction appointing that tribe to the priesthood, and this distinction supports the presentation of Christ's supremacy and His role as the Christian high priest. It belongs to the teaching on the new covenant and shows the superiority of Christ's priesthood over Aaron's priesthood.
King Priest Enthroned
Judah was the kingly tribe, and from it sprang Christ as Son of David and as a man born into fallen humanity, heir by birth to David's throne and its promised dominion. That dominion was to be regained through victory over self and sin as humanity's representative. He is King by birth because He sprang out of Judah, while He is Priest by the oath of His Father, and in His heavenly priesthood He fulfills both offices as King and Priest.
As priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was both king of Salem and priest of God, Christ unites kingship and priesthood. He is a priest-king receiving His priesthood from no predecessor and yielding it to none to come, and His priesthood came from no other and passes to no other as the age-lasting priesthood. His name means king of righteousness and therefore king of peace, and as King of Peace and Prince of Peace in His priestly office He makes peace for us on the throne of His Father and obtains redemption by His own blood, proving the exalted pre-existent Son Himself shed His blood and laid down His life. Melchizedek is identified as a king of righteousness and peace and as a preacher and teacher of righteousness grounded in God's universal religious system and the moral law, and Christ's priesthood for sinful humanity includes both the Melchizedek priesthood and the fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood, bringing righteousness, sonship, fatherhood, and eternal life and therefore everlasting.
He serves as priest on His Father's throne, not on David's throne during His priesthood, and not on His own throne as priest, in fulfillment of the prophecy of the Branch. He now sits on His Father's throne as priest, a great High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, a kingly Priest-King, ministering grace and awaiting the time when His enemies are made His footstool. At His coming He will leave His Father's throne and reign as king on David's throne; then His priesthood will have ended, for while He ministers He does not yet sit on David's throne as king.
Because He sprang from Judah, a tribe with no priesthood about which Moses gave no instruction establishing a priesthood, His priesthood is not Levitical or after Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek. The Levitical priesthood served a sinful world and dealt with the putting away of sin and served temporarily in connection with sin, while Christ's Melchizedek priesthood is everlasting and royal, broader in scope embracing the universe, and applies across all times and conditions to every condition and time. In this world His priesthood is a father-priesthood, a priesthood of an endless life, constituting Him the spiritual Head of the human family, the everlasting Father to His children, the second Adam and second federal Head of the race, the Son of God demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead, and King of Peace because He is the eternally demonstrated King of Righteousness. Those He saves and who belong to Christ as Abraham's descendants are also kings and priests to Him forever.
His descent from Judah connects Him with Judah's offer to become surety for his lost brother, as the great Judah offering Himself to bring lost humanity back to God. Because the Levitical priests as types were exempt from paying toward the temple's support, Christ as their antitype and the end of that system was also free from that obligation.
Melchizedek was more than an ordinary man, for Abraham paid him homage showing he was greater than Abraham, yet he is distinct from Christ since Christ is made like him and is priest after the same order, not Christ Himself. He was only a fitting type of Christ in name, city, and office as king of Salem in the time of Abraham. He may have represented another unfallen world, as Adam would have been the priest and head of this world had he not sinned.
Prophecy Fulfilled Literally
Christ came through the tribe of Judah in fulfillment of the prophecy that the scepter and rulership would remain with Judah and his posterity until Shiloh comes. Shiloh means Christ, and the gathering of the people is to Him and not to Judah, so that from His coming He became the center of the gathering of God's people, showing that salvation is of the Jews. This descent from Judah identifies Jesus as the Shiloh promised in Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah, while distinguishing His royal descent from the Mosaic priestly line which Moses did not appoint to Judah. The tribe of Judah was held together and its genealogy was preserved, along with that of Levi, so that the lineage of Jesus could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side.
It was foretold that Jesus Christ would come in the tribe of Judah, and the fulfillment was exactly literal. Judah means Judah, the actual tribe, not the Jewish race in general, just as David means David himself, not any royal line, and a virgin means Mary the wife of Joseph in her virginity. The prophecies regarding the life and death of Christ were equally explicit, and their fulfillment was equally literal.
Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, a tribe for which Moses gave no instruction concerning the priesthood, so His priesthood is distinct from the Mosaic priesthood. This connects with the prophecy of the Branch: Christ serves as priest on His Father's throne, not on His own throne. Since under the law restricting the priesthood to Levi one sprung from Judah could not be a lawful priest, proving Him as priest requires that the Scriptures contemplated a change of the law of the priesthood and the raising up of a different and superior priest, not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek, a priest forever by direct appointment from God. If the Levitical restriction could never expire or admit exception, that Messianic prophecy would mean nothing, but seeing Jesus as that Judah-born Melchizedek priest carries Moses' instructions to their ultimate spiritual import, for Moses wrote of Christ, and apart from Christ the Levitical or any other human priesthood has no significance.
Ritual services were needed to preserve Israel's natural life and lineage until Christ of Judah should come. Christ was to come from the tribe of Judah, a tribe Moses did not assign to the priesthood. The Levitical priesthood is no longer in force, having been replaced by the priesthood of Melchizedek which does not pass to another, and this change accompanied the transfer from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly sanctuary, which connects with the close of the seventy weeks. This change proves that Ezekiel's vision of Levitical priests ministering in the sanctuary belonged to the Mosaic dispensation and would have been realized then had the twelve tribes of Israel accepted the offered blessing.
Tithe Under Melchizedek
The fact that the Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, proves He is not a priest under the Levitical law but another priest after the similitude of Melchizedek. The Aaronic priesthood was temporary in duration and ceased at the cross, while the Melchizedek priesthood is eternal in nature by the power of an endless life and by the oath of God. The tithe from the beginning belonged to the Melchizedek priesthood and its altar service, as shown by Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek before the Jewish economy existed. It was for a time committed to Levi with other duties, responsibilities and privileges, and was adapted with necessary variations to support the Jewish priesthood. When the Aaronic priesthood terminated, all that was not typical and ending at the cross reverted to the Melchizedek priesthood from which it came.
Hebrews 7 sets forth Christ as superior to the high priests of Levi and as present high priest of that eternal order, so the tithe now belongs to Him and to the service of God, and those who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. Because His priesthood is of the same order as Melchizedek's, the principle of tithing recognized under that priesthood is still recognized under His priesthood. Its requirements therefore remain in force in the Christian era, including the duty to pay tithes, and tithing acknowledged under that priesthood remains binding for those who belong to Christ. The same relation Abraham sustained to Melchizedek is now sustained by the children of Abraham by faith to Christ, who have far more reason to pay tithes to Christ for the support of His cause because He purchased them with His own blood.
Abraham's paying of tithe to Melchizedek, who represented Jesus Christ, stands as the example for believers, for those who belong to Christ are Abraham's descendants.
It is evident fact that our Lord descended as man from the tribe of Judah through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, of which tribe Moses appointed nothing concerning priesthood but assigned that office to Levi and to Aaron and his sons. Because He is of Judah He is not a priest under the Levitical, Aaronic order, but His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek, made not by carnal commandment but by the oath of God after the power of an endless life, unchangeable and everlasting. A priest arising from Judah required a change of the law that vested priesthood in Aaron's family alone, and that law is the ceremonial law of sacrifices and priestly eligibility, distinct from the Ten Commandments which contain no rule of tribal priesthood and did not need to change. Under that former law He could not serve as priest on earth in the earthly sanctuary, so having shed His blood as sacrifice He began His priesthood after His ascension in heaven itself, the true tabernacle, offering His own blood once for all and ever living to make intercession. Judah being the kingly tribe, He is heir by birth to David's throne while Priest by His Father's oath, now serving as priest-king after Melchizedek's similitude on His Father's throne and not yet as king on David's throne.
Tribal Fact Stated
It is evident fact that our Lord sprang, came, descended and was born from the tribe of Judah. He was a literal man of Abraham's flesh-and-blood kin through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah, and Son of David. He came from Judah although Moses assigned the priesthood to another tribe. He came from Judah, not Levi, and descended from Judah while Moses gave no provision for that tribe to serve as priests.
Of that tribe Moses spoke nothing, gave no provision, assigned no priestly office and appointed no priests concerning priesthood. He assigned the priesthood to Levi and to Aaron and his sons alone, naming no one from Judah as priest and restricting altar service to the house of Aaron in Levi's tribe. The law in view was the carnal law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and condemned any stranger coming near to death.
Reckoning of genealogy by tribe was essential for admission to Aaron's priesthood, for priests of Aaron's order had to trace their genealogy to be admitted to discharge the duties of the office. No man from Judah served at the altar, and to Judah Moses never gave any priestly office. Christ's Judahite origin is therefore in no way material to His priesthood, whereas belonging to the tribe of Levi was a necessity for the other priests, whose priestly lineage was traced by genealogy for Aaron's descendants. His priesthood does not rest on descent traced to Aaron as the Levitical priesthood does but follows Melchizedek, whose genealogy is not recorded, and that absence of recorded ancestry makes Melchizedek stand as the sole representative of his order.
Judah means the actual tribe Judah, not the Jewish race in general, just as David means David himself, not any royal line, and a virgin means Mary in her virginity, with equally explicit and literal fulfillment of prophecies of His life and death. Its lot in Canaan by lot was the portion in which Abraham built his altar, in which he was called to offer his son Isaac, in which he received the promise, and in which stood the city over which Melchizedek reigned. The tribe of Judah was held together and its genealogy was preserved, along with that of Levi, so the lineage of Jesus could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side.
The verse identifies Jesus' Jewish, Judahite ancestry, belonging to the tribe of Judah and born of the tribe of Judah. That Jewish ancestry is no reason to reject Him or what He offers. His Jewish lineage is cited in answering the claim that the seventh day is merely a Jewish institution.
Two Priesthoods Contrasted
Because He sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, Jesus is not a priest under the Levitical, Aaronic, Mosaic law and order. Though He became the antitype of the Aaronic order, He was never a priest in that order itself, and a different priestly order is therefore needed to represent His work. His priesthood does not come through the Levitical law but is after the similitude and order of Melchizedek.
His priesthood was made not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life and by the oath of God. It is an independent and unchanging, age-lasting line with no predecessor and no successor, receiving the office from none and yielding it to none to come. Having assumed the office it never passes to another, for He is priest forever as king of righteousness and therefore king of peace. As priest-king like Melchizedek He is both King and Priest, and Melchizedek in name, city and office was only a fitting type of Christ, not Christ Himself.
The priests under the Levitical order were dying men, so the office had to pass to others, while Christ ever lives to make intercession. That Aaronic priesthood was temporary in duration, a pattern, shadow and type of the heavenly service, and the Levitical priests served as a pattern of that heavenly service while Christ is the real Priest. Their animal offerings had to be repeated each year and could not take away sin and made nothing perfect, while Christ makes one offering of His own blood. The Levitical priesthood was therefore insufficient, so there was further need for another priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek.
Aaron was not a complete type of Christ, and the contrast between their tribes is one way this shows. Reckoning of genealogy was essential for priests of Aaron's order to be admitted to discharge the duties of the office, yet no priests traced their genealogy to Judah. Melchizedek, whose genealogy is not recorded and who stands as sole representative of his order, supplies what is deficient and completes the picture, so that together Melchizedek and Aaron portray the essential truths of Christ's priesthood in which Christ serves as high priest and makes atonement. To identify Melchizedek with a known genealogy would undermine that argument, since his unrecorded lineage belongs to his fitness to represent an unchanging priesthood.
Under the carnal law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and condemned any stranger coming near to death, Christ of Judah could not serve as priest on earth in the earthly sanctuary or temple whose priests had to be Levites. King Uzziah, also of Judah, was smitten with leprosy for disregarding that ordinance and doing what belonged to the priests the sons of Aaron. Therefore Jesus would not have been a priest on earth under that priestly order, and His earthly life ended with His death, for He could not minister His blood until it had been shed. His priestly work did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, for had He served as priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own; it belongs to His heavenly ministry after His ascension and is after the order of Melchizedek.
Christ's priesthood is real while the earthly priests' was typical; theirs was a type while His is real. He offers His own blood once for all in the heavenly sanctuary, ever lives to make intercession, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost and completely all who come to God by Him. Hebrews 7 sets forth Christ as superior to the high priests of Levi and as present high priest of that eternal order with an unchanging priesthood, whose sanctuary service could not remove sin but pointed repentant sinners forward to His sacrifice. He is the great High Priest over both the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and His mediatorial work is central to both the old and new dispensations.
Law That Changed
Since the priesthood had been assigned to Levi, with Moses giving no provision, appointment or office for Judah to serve as priests, a priest arising from Judah required a change in the law governing priesthood and priestly eligibility. Under the law restricting the office to Aaron and his sons, Christ of Judah could not have served as priest, did not qualify for the Aaronic priesthood under the Mosaic tribal rule, and belonged to a different order. Priesthood and the law ordaining it stand and fall together, so changing the priesthood required changing that Levitical law. That change did not occur before the crucifixion, for before it no one could minister in the heavenly sanctuary under the type unless he belonged to Levi.
The law in view in Hebrews 7:11-19 is only the carnal, ceremonial law that appointed Aaron and his sons alone to the priest's office and regulated who may be priest, with sacrifices and offerings of beasts. It is the law that restricted altar service to the house of Aaron in Levi's tribe and condemned any stranger coming near to death, as illustrated when Uzziah, also of Judah, was smitten with leprosy for disregarding that ordinance and doing what belonged to the priests the sons of Aaron. That exclusive Aaronic law had to be changed and disannulled so that Christ, made priest after the similitude of Melchizedek not after a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life, could be accepted as priest of God. It is distinct from the Ten Commandments, the holy, just and good moral law, which contained no rule about the tribe of priests and did not need to change when a priest arose from Judah.
That priesthood law therefore does not concern the Sabbath commandment or any other precept of the Decalogue. If that priesthood law had remained unchanged, Christ could not be recognized as a priest, so the required change was in the law governing priesthood. The change discussed concerns the law of the priesthood, not the law of tithing, which existed before that law.
His priesthood did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, whose priests were Levites, and had He served as priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own. Baptism by John did not make Christ a Levitical priest, since that priesthood was entered by birth into Levi's tribe. When Christ died the typical service ended, the shadow of good things to come ceased, the offering of bulls and goats gave place to the great sacrifice, and the priesthood passed from the Aaronic to the Melchizedek order. At the instant of His death the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, indicating that both apartments of the earthly sanctuary were alike abandoned by the symbol of God's presence because the work in them was finished, and ministry transferred from the tabernacle made with hands to the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. This change took place at the termination of the seventy weeks, at the cross, where the earthly tabernacle ordinances ended and the true tabernacle with its anointing, its sacrifice and its minister was introduced, with Christ's offering of His blood marking the transfer of the priesthood from Levi to Judah and His becoming high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
Under the Levitical law that vested the priesthood in the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron He could not serve as priest at the altar, and the only law for an earthly priesthood gave the office exclusively to Aaron's family so that anyone serving as priest on earth had to conform to that law. Ending the Aaronic restriction does not open earthly priesthood to other tribes, and therefore He could have no priesthood on earth. His service as priest on His Father's throne therefore required a different law, ending the law of the Levitical priesthood and beginning the law of His royal priesthood.
Heavenly Priesthood Begun
His earthly life ended with His death, and He could not minister His blood until it had been shed. He made His sacrifice before He began His priesthood, for He must have somewhat to offer. He must conquer as man in order to be an effectual priest, and He took the seed of Abraham and was made like His brethren so He could become a merciful and faithful high priest. That He sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, proves the Levitical priesthood was insufficient and there was further need for another priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek. His priestly work for men followed His ascension, made not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life, continuing ever with an unchangeable priesthood because the oath that made Him priest came since the law.
His priesthood for men began especially after His ascension in heaven, not during His earthly ministry. Coming from the tribe of Judah while Moses assigned no priesthood to that tribe, He would not have been a priest on earth under that priestly order, whose priests serving in the earthly sanctuary belonged to Levi. His priestly service therefore did not begin on earth at His baptism or through service in the temple, but belongs to the heavenly sanctuary and is after the order of Melchizedek and not the order of Aaron. Had He served as a priest in the temple He would have made offerings that foreshadowed His own. His priesthood followed the end of the earthly, shadowy service and the offering of Christ as the true sacrifice, and He then serves as high priest in the real sanctuary in heaven.
As high priest He entered for us into the true tabernacle, heaven itself, which the Lord pitched and not man, not the earthly sanctuary made with hands. What Moses and Aaron did in the pattern, Christ must do in heaven. His work there began with anointing the Most Holy, the Holy of holies, consecrating it with His own blood when He ascended near the close of the seventy weeks. As the anointing of the Holy of Holies in the earthly tabernacle immediately preceded the presentation of the sin offering before the mercy seat, He must go within the veil and anoint the heavenly Holy of Holies before fulfilling the type, which He did not do before His ascension. This change took place at the termination of the seventy weeks, at the cross, where the shadow of good things to come ceased, the offering of bulls and goats gave place to the great sacrifice, ministry transferred from the tabernacle made with hands to the true tabernacle with its anointing, its sacrifice and its minister, and He serves at the right hand of the throne of God as minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle.
His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek, an independent and unchanging line with no predecessor or successor. The verse marks the distinction between the earthly priestly services and Christ's high priesthood. The earthly sanctuary's two stages of service serve as a pattern for studying His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, while the Levitical services still served as a type of His priestly ministry. The short yearly service allowed each Levitical high priest to represent a complete round of Christ's ministry without interruption by the priest's death.
Hebrews 7 belongs to the full account of the ministrations of the first and second covenants. The Levitical priesthood with its ordinances of divine service performed the ministration of the first covenant, and the more excellent ministry of Christ in all its branches fulfils the ministration of the second covenant. He is the substance and antitype of the old covenant's types and shadows, and the priesthood and sacrificial service of the old dispensation with its ceremonial law that pointed to Him find fulfilment in His ministry and sacrifice and were abolished at the cross. The ark of God's testament in the heavenly tabernacle where He ministers shows the tables of the testament remain the foundation of the divine government, so the law of God given as the basis of the first covenant is distinct from its ministration.
The verse gives splendid instruction concerning our High Priest and His Melchizedek priesthood. It is part of the wonderful encouragement God gives to His children and of the certain fate of those who reject the means by which He saves men. It establishes that Jesus came from the tribe of Judah while Moses gave no instruction appointing that tribe to the priesthood, and this distinction supports the presentation of Christ's supremacy and His role as the Christian high priest. It belongs to the teaching on the new covenant and shows the superiority of Christ's priesthood over Aaron's priesthood.
King Priest Enthroned
Judah was the kingly tribe, and from it sprang Christ as Son of David and as a man born into fallen humanity, heir by birth to David's throne and its promised dominion. That dominion was to be regained through victory over self and sin as humanity's representative. He is King by birth because He sprang out of Judah, while He is Priest by the oath of His Father, and in His heavenly priesthood He fulfills both offices as King and Priest.
As priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was both king of Salem and priest of God, Christ unites kingship and priesthood. He is a priest-king receiving His priesthood from no predecessor and yielding it to none to come, and His priesthood came from no other and passes to no other as the age-lasting priesthood. His name means king of righteousness and therefore king of peace, and as King of Peace and Prince of Peace in His priestly office He makes peace for us on the throne of His Father and obtains redemption by His own blood, proving the exalted pre-existent Son Himself shed His blood and laid down His life. Melchizedek is identified as a king of righteousness and peace and as a preacher and teacher of righteousness grounded in God's universal religious system and the moral law, and Christ's priesthood for sinful humanity includes both the Melchizedek priesthood and the fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood, bringing righteousness, sonship, fatherhood, and eternal life and therefore everlasting.
He serves as priest on His Father's throne, not on David's throne during His priesthood, and not on His own throne as priest, in fulfillment of the prophecy of the Branch. He now sits on His Father's throne as priest, a great High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, a kingly Priest-King, ministering grace and awaiting the time when His enemies are made His footstool. At His coming He will leave His Father's throne and reign as king on David's throne; then His priesthood will have ended, for while He ministers He does not yet sit on David's throne as king.
Because He sprang from Judah, a tribe with no priesthood about which Moses gave no instruction establishing a priesthood, His priesthood is not Levitical or after Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek. The Levitical priesthood served a sinful world and dealt with the putting away of sin and served temporarily in connection with sin, while Christ's Melchizedek priesthood is everlasting and royal, broader in scope embracing the universe, and applies across all times and conditions to every condition and time. In this world His priesthood is a father-priesthood, a priesthood of an endless life, constituting Him the spiritual Head of the human family, the everlasting Father to His children, the second Adam and second federal Head of the race, the Son of God demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead, and King of Peace because He is the eternally demonstrated King of Righteousness. Those He saves and who belong to Christ as Abraham's descendants are also kings and priests to Him forever.
His descent from Judah connects Him with Judah's offer to become surety for his lost brother, as the great Judah offering Himself to bring lost humanity back to God. Because the Levitical priests as types were exempt from paying toward the temple's support, Christ as their antitype and the end of that system was also free from that obligation.
Melchizedek was more than an ordinary man, for Abraham paid him homage showing he was greater than Abraham, yet he is distinct from Christ since Christ is made like him and is priest after the same order, not Christ Himself. He was only a fitting type of Christ in name, city, and office as king of Salem in the time of Abraham. He may have represented another unfallen world, as Adam would have been the priest and head of this world had he not sinned.
Prophecy Fulfilled Literally
Christ came through the tribe of Judah in fulfillment of the prophecy that the scepter and rulership would remain with Judah and his posterity until Shiloh comes. Shiloh means Christ, and the gathering of the people is to Him and not to Judah, so that from His coming He became the center of the gathering of God's people, showing that salvation is of the Jews. This descent from Judah identifies Jesus as the Shiloh promised in Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah, while distinguishing His royal descent from the Mosaic priestly line which Moses did not appoint to Judah. The tribe of Judah was held together and its genealogy was preserved, along with that of Levi, so that the lineage of Jesus could be traced on both His mother's side and His father's side.
It was foretold that Jesus Christ would come in the tribe of Judah, and the fulfillment was exactly literal. Judah means Judah, the actual tribe, not the Jewish race in general, just as David means David himself, not any royal line, and a virgin means Mary the wife of Joseph in her virginity. The prophecies regarding the life and death of Christ were equally explicit, and their fulfillment was equally literal.
Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, a tribe for which Moses gave no instruction concerning the priesthood, so His priesthood is distinct from the Mosaic priesthood. This connects with the prophecy of the Branch: Christ serves as priest on His Father's throne, not on His own throne. Since under the law restricting the priesthood to Levi one sprung from Judah could not be a lawful priest, proving Him as priest requires that the Scriptures contemplated a change of the law of the priesthood and the raising up of a different and superior priest, not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek, a priest forever by direct appointment from God. If the Levitical restriction could never expire or admit exception, that Messianic prophecy would mean nothing, but seeing Jesus as that Judah-born Melchizedek priest carries Moses' instructions to their ultimate spiritual import, for Moses wrote of Christ, and apart from Christ the Levitical or any other human priesthood has no significance.
Ritual services were needed to preserve Israel's natural life and lineage until Christ of Judah should come. Christ was to come from the tribe of Judah, a tribe Moses did not assign to the priesthood. The Levitical priesthood is no longer in force, having been replaced by the priesthood of Melchizedek which does not pass to another, and this change accompanied the transfer from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly sanctuary, which connects with the close of the seventy weeks. This change proves that Ezekiel's vision of Levitical priests ministering in the sanctuary belonged to the Mosaic dispensation and would have been realized then had the twelve tribes of Israel accepted the offered blessing.
Tithe Under Melchizedek
The fact that the Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe to which Moses assigned nothing concerning priesthood, proves He is not a priest under the Levitical law but another priest after the similitude of Melchizedek. The Aaronic priesthood was temporary in duration and ceased at the cross, while the Melchizedek priesthood is eternal in nature by the power of an endless life and by the oath of God. The tithe from the beginning belonged to the Melchizedek priesthood and its altar service, as shown by Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek before the Jewish economy existed. It was for a time committed to Levi with other duties, responsibilities and privileges, and was adapted with necessary variations to support the Jewish priesthood. When the Aaronic priesthood terminated, all that was not typical and ending at the cross reverted to the Melchizedek priesthood from which it came.
Hebrews 7 sets forth Christ as superior to the high priests of Levi and as present high priest of that eternal order, so the tithe now belongs to Him and to the service of God, and those who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. Because His priesthood is of the same order as Melchizedek's, the principle of tithing recognized under that priesthood is still recognized under His priesthood. Its requirements therefore remain in force in the Christian era, including the duty to pay tithes, and tithing acknowledged under that priesthood remains binding for those who belong to Christ. The same relation Abraham sustained to Melchizedek is now sustained by the children of Abraham by faith to Christ, who have far more reason to pay tithes to Christ for the support of His cause because He purchased them with His own blood.
Abraham's paying of tithe to Melchizedek, who represented Jesus Christ, stands as the example for believers, for those who belong to Christ are Abraham's descendants.