Chapter 7

We are MADE to be confident

“For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”

Hebrews 7:19

• Read Hebrews 7

Who’s Mel?

My husband used to play hide and seek with the boys. He would tell them to hide, and he would take a nap. After a while, they caught on. While that type of game was not fun, they enjoyed playing traditional hide and seek because there was a challenge and a mystery. The challenge was to locate appropriate hiding spots—such as behind the living room couch, under the bed, or in the clothes hamper. The mystery was discovering where everyone else might hide.

Adults like mysteries too. Instead of playing games, we often read mystery novels or watch who-dun-its on TV.

The author of Hebrews starts this chapter with somewhat of a mystery. He introduces a man by the name of Melchizedek. In order to understand this chapter, we have to first discover who Melchizedek is, but let me warn you. Identifying Mel (I will call him Mel for short) is a bit of a challenge.

Mel first appears in Genesis 14. Abraham (then called Abram) was called to leave his native country and to head to Canaan where God would make him into a great nation. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, tagged along. When resources got tight, they separated, and Lot settled in the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. Unfortunately, a war broke out in the region. Lot and his neighbors were taken captive. Because Abraham was a such a good guy, he and his men rescued Lot and the others.

After the victory, the King of Sodom met with Abraham to thank him for what he’d done and to offer him some of the spoils of victory (which Abraham refused). During this meeting, Mel made his appearance.

Genesis 14:18 identifies him as “Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High.” Mel brought Abraham bread and wine and a blessing. Then Abraham gave Mel a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

This passage is mysterious for a number of reasons. First, this event preceded the Jewish priesthood, which was established in the time of Moses, after the Israelites escaped from their slavery in Egypt. Second, Abraham gave a tithe to Mel—the same amount of tithe that God would later command the Israelites to give as part of the law.

Other than in Genesis 14 and Hebrews 7, Mel is only mentioned one other time. Speaking of the future Christ, David wrote of David, “The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)

Mel is identified as the King of Salem, the area that later became known as Jerusalem. There is no record of his father or mother or any other ancestor. He was a priest before the Jewish priesthood had been established and accepted a tithe in the amount that would only later be required. The author of Hebrews says that he remains a priest forever, “resembling the Son of God.”

What about Mel?

When the boys were younger, they had a game that included flaps with descriptions of Star Wars characters. The object was to guess the character that matched the description. If we were playing that game with Bible characters, I doubt you would have guessed Mel.

In Hebrews 7, the author reminded his primarily Jewish audience of a little-known figure from the Old Testament named Melchizedek. Maybe they knew about Mel, but for many of us, this is an entirely new introduction. As we discussed yesterday Mel is a rather elusive kind of guy.

At the beginning of this study, I introduced you to the term Christophany. A Christophany was an occasion when Jesus came to earth in bodily form BEFORE his physical birth as a human baby. I remind you of that because some people believe that Melchizedek was actually the preincarnate Christ. Other people think that Mel was a theophany, a manifestation of God in a form understandable to humans (in this case—as another human). Theologians differ on this matter. In the long run, we just don’t know, and, really, it doesn’t even matter. The author of Hebrews explains that Mel’s existence was important because it gave further credence to the authority of Christ as our perfect priest.

Remember, the author of Hebrews wrote this book to present a case that Jesus, and therefore Christianity (the worship of Jesus) is better. Better than what? Better than everything—better than Moses, better than angels, better than the Jewish system of religion, better than the law, better than the old systems of priests and sacrifices.

The last few chapters have identified Jesus as our perfect priest. It’s easy for us to take this at face value, but the original readers were knowledgeable men and women who came out of the Jewish faith. Some of them may have been former priests themselves. They understood the requirements of priesthood, and, according to them, Jesus did not meet one very important requirement. 

When the priesthood was established, Moses’s brother, Aaron, was ordained as the first priest. All future priests were, like him, to come from the tribe of Levi. Religious authorities would have only been concerned with the patriarchal lineage, and Jesus’s earthly father, Joseph, was from the line of Judah. The irony is that Mary, his biological mother, was a descendant of the priestly line of Aaron. We know this because Luke identifies her cousin, Elizabeth, as such (Luke 1:5).

Nevertheless, the author of Hebrews wanted to distinguish Jesus as being better than—not equal to—the other priests. As such he referenced the prophetic quote from Psalms that identified the coming Christ as having descended from the line of Melchizedek, the first known priest who came before the formal establishment of the office.

So What?

Have you ever heard a child say, “Why do I need to know this anyway?” Sometimes I have said that myself. Why do I have to know about geometry? I’m never going to use geometry as a writer. Why do I have to learn about chemistry? I’m not going to be a scientist. You may be asking yourself that very question right now in relation to Hebrews 7.

Why does any of this matter to us? What does it have to do with our relationship with Christ or how we are supposed to live? While this message may have been important to the original readers, most of us are left scratching our heads.

However, this is important. It’s important because a change in priesthood denotes a change in the law. This is the reason why we are no longer bound by the Old Testament laws that were given to the Israelites. This is the reason we no longer go to a temple and make sacrifices. The old is gone, and the new has come. Jesus is the new high priest, and he is better than any previous high priest. He was put into His position on the basis of God’s authority and will forever remain there. He lives forever to intercede on our behalf.

Before Jesus died and was resurrected, those who came to God did so in faith (the same as us), but after the law was established, they had to rely on another human to make the sacrifices that were needed for their forgiveness. They had to rely on someone else to meet with God on their behalf.  Through Christ, we are no longer constrained. We can approach God with confidence.

Psalms 34:22 says, “But the Lord will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.”

Romans 8:1 says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

John 3:18, “But the Lord will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.”

Because of Jesus, we can have a personal relationship with God. We can come to him with all of our fears, faults, and failures, and He promises to forgive us.

White Lies

When our children are little, we tell them white lies. We say things like, “You can do anything you set your mind to do, or you can be anything you want to be.” That’s not really true; is it? Children, after all, may want some very outrageous things. Your son, who is smaller than most boys his age, may want to be the next Tom Brady. That probably won’t happen. Your daughter, who is short and athletically built, wants to be a supermodel. The chances are slim. Your elementary schooler wants to be a giraffe. That’s obviously impossible! But we lie to them with the best intentions. We want them to set goals, dream big, and have the confidence to pursue hard things.

As adults, our view of confidence is often based off that same system of misbeliefs. It’s the faith that whatever you set your mind to, you will accomplish. It’s the certainty of your own power. It’s believing that you can set a goal, dream big, and accomplish hard things.

The Bible gives us a better definition of the word. In the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth, and he talked about a particularly dangerous time in their ministry. He said, “In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.  And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 11 And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety. 12 We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you.”

Because Jesus is our high priest, we can live in confidence, but it’s important that we understand what true confidence entails. Confidence is not believing you can do anything you want to do or be anything you want to be. Confidence is understanding that the work of salvation has been accomplished on your behalf. It is putting your trust in the promises of scripture.  Like Paul, it is learning to rely on God for all things and living a life of holiness and sincerity. It is relying upon God and not ourselves.

Confidence

My young son broke a toy. When I couldn’t fix it, he said, “That’s OK, Mom. Dad will fix it when he gets home.” Obviously, he had little confidence in his mother’s toy-fixing abilities. I can’t blame him. I often doubt my abilities as well.

Insecurity is the opposite of confidence. When we are insecure, we doubt ourselves. The definition of insecurity is actually more telling. Insecurity is the state of being or feeling unsafe, uncertain, or unstable. Women are notorious for feeling insecure.

We are insecure about our physical bodies.

We are insecure about our relationships.

We are insecure about our roles and responsibilities.

If you look up the dictionary definition of insecurity, you will find words such as “doubtful,” “unsteady,” and “unsafe.” Basically, it’s another name for “afraid.” When I am insecure, I am afraid that my appearance doesn’t meet a certain standard. When I am insecure, I am fearful that I am not managing a relationship in the right way. When I am insecure, I am frightened that my efforts will not warrant the desired reward. When I am insecure, I think that I am not enough.

The word insecurity isn’t in the Bible, but its counterpart is. Insecurity is just another name for fear, and God tells us more than 100 times in his word not to be afraid. Like a mother trying to comfort her child, God reminds us that we don’t have to be doubtful. We don’t have to feel unsteady or unsafe because our security is in Christ, our perfect high priest.

Our confidence is not misplaced confidence. We are not confident in ourselves. We are confident in Jesus.

“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

“for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.” (Proverbs 3:26)

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we are putting our confidence in the wrong person. We look in the mirror, and we see all that we are not. But God wants us to look in the mirror and see all that He is. Our confidence is not based on what we do or don’t do but on the work of Christ for and in us. Because He is perfect, because He has done the work of salvation for us, because He is with us, we have everything we need to do anything He asks us to do.

Mark Batterson, author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, wrote, “We hide our idiosyncrasies and insecurities behind the mask of who we think we’re supposed to be. We stop being ourselves and start being who we think everyone wants us to be. But something invaluable and irreplaceable is lost when we cave in to conformity. We lose our personality. We lose our originality. And at some point we lose our soul.” (p. 152)

Jesus is our high priest, and because of that we do not have to live with insecurity. We are MADE to be confident.