Our Great High Priest: An Exposition Of Hebrews 5:1-10

Our Great High Priest" An Exposition of Hebrews 5:1-10

Chapter 5 begins a new section in the Book of Hebrews. The first four chapters presents Jesus as the Creator, the Divine Son, and the great Davidic King. Psalms 2 and 110 formed the basic of this Kingship. This Son is greater than the angels, greater than Moses, and greater than the first Joshua (Jesus). Hebrews by saying that God had spoken in and through the Son shows Him to be a prophet, and not just a prophet, the greatest of the prophets. He is the one who offers a better rest than was afforded to the children of Israel. The Son is the exact representation of God. So, indeed, this Son who became incarnate and was born of the Virgin Mary is no mere human being. He is worthy of all honor and glory.

The Book of Hebrews constantly warns the hearers of his sermon against the dangers of unbelief. All that is spoken about Christ serves to remind the hearer of the one with whom we have to deal with. Surely, to turn away from Him is eternal ruin. The preceding text in Hebrews 4:11-16 accentuates this warning not to fail entering into His rest. The discernment of the Word of God which is sharper than any two-edged sword is meant to expose the seeds of unbelief that might be germinating in our hearts before it grows into the noxious weed which strangles life. God wants us to enter into His rest. Besides the Word of God which exposes this tendency to unbelief, Jesus is now introduced in Hebrews 4:14-16 as the great High Priest who knows our every weakness. Jesus, as High Priest stands in for us so that we might have boldness to access the throne of grace. He was tempted to the uttermost, yet He did not sin. He knows we have weaknesses because he experienced weakness. He is there to strengthen us in our temptation that we might not fall into sin, especially that of unbelief. If we start to sink as Peter did when he lost faith by looking at the surrounding waves rather than on Jesus, Jesus has His hand out to pull us up.

Chapter 5 begins with a generic treatment about the priesthood. Even though the author has the Israeli priesthood as established in the Torah in mind, it is universally true of priests in general that they are human beings. They might be a priest to a false god, but it is their duty to make intercession for others as well as to offer gifts to their god. In the Israeli faith, Yahweh is the only God. Yahweh in the wilderness instituted the Priesthood and appointed Aaron the brother of Moses as High Priest. He was called by God for this purpose. A person could not legitimately make one’s self a priest on his own authority. But when we think of Jesus, we remember that besides being perfect humanity was also the co-equal Son of God. As God, he could have made Himself Priest on his own authority. He had the right to take this honor upon Himself. But He submitted to be appointed High Priest.

Hebrews again reminds us that even His Divine Kingship was the result of appointment. It was already stated in Hebrews 1:5 which in turn is a quote from Psalm 2:7 that “Thou art My Son: This day I have begotten thee.” The Psalm is a Psalm of David and was probably originally thought to refer to Yahweh’s divine appointment of David to the throne of Israel. But what is stated here speaks far beyond the mortal King David. Even David says in Psalm 110:1 that this referred to someone whom David called “my Lord.” We understand this as Christians to be fulfilled in Jesus. The Son is ever obedient to the will of the Father.

Now Psalm 110:4 is quoted and applied to Jesus. It is interesting that Hebrews says “in another place.” This “another place” is in the same psalm that was just quoted. What we must note here is that the Kings of Israel and Judah were forbidden to serve as priests. Saul tried it and was rejected. Uzziah was struck with leprosy when he tried it. David is called a king and a prophet. But he was never “prophet, priest, and king. Some priests like Samuel were prophets as well as priest. But none of them served as king. Only Jesus can serve in all these capacities. This is how we know that Psalms 2 and 110 speak to Jesus.

Psalm 110:4 calls Jesus a “Priest after the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews will later elaborate more fully on the ramifications of this priesthood after a short interlude starting at Hebrews 5:11 because he knows that his hearers would lack understanding of what this means, even though they should. He would also use the interlude to again warn his hearers against unbelief and falling away. What is brought out here is how Jesus exercised this priesthood for us. It says that he spent the time of His earthly sojourn in making prayers and supplications for himself to be delivered from death, or which His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane serves as an example. His prayer was heard. Even though He submitted Himself as the sacrifice for our sin unto death, He was delivered from death. As Peter noted in quoting the 16th Psalm in his Pentecost sermon, His body was not allowed to decay. God raised Him on the third day. So in this sense, the Resurrection became His deliverance from death. Hebrews does not elaborate on the resurrection itself and focuses upon the Son of God ascending with the blood of the atonement to present it to the Father. There He is seated at His right hand, the seating indicating that His work of atonement was complete and satisfactory.