Called by God

Hebrews 5:1-4

¹⁴Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ^5:1For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ²He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. ³Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. ⁴And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

The writer of Hebrews begins to open the discussion of Jesus as the Great High Priest – which is the thrust of this entire book – with a few words about those who are called as human priests for God’s people. That priesthood began by God’s design with the 12 Tribes of Israel back in the book of Genesis. The third son of Jacob and Leah was Levi. One of Levi’s descendants was Aaron (and for that matter, Moses, Aaron’s brother as well). The Levites were eventually named as the “priest class”. Instead of receiving an allotment of land in Israel, they were spread out all over the land and served as priests for the nation. This system, began by God, was important during the time of Christ and remains important today in our own modern clergy.

Every Israelite high priest “is appointed” to his office by God through his human agents. He is “taken from men” by God to deal with “the things for God”. God authorized and empowered the high priest to represent his fellow Israelites in that office. Thus he acted vicariously “on behalf of people” by offering “gifts and sacrifices on account of sins”; he represented the people before God. God did not just appoint a man into the office of high priest but also determined what he was meant to do in that office.  Israel’s high priest was in one respect well suited to make offerings for sins, because he himself was “beset with weakness,” the weakness of sin and its debilitating effect on sinners. His own sin put him in the same place as all other people, since he was tempted just as they were. Because he himself had sinned, he was in no position to condemn “those who are ignorant and going astray” from God. He could deal with each of them as a lost person, like all other people who had lost their way on earth. Yet as God’s representative he was also “able to moderate his feelings for them.” He was, as it were, emotionally attuned both to God and to them. By his balanced, emotional affinity with them, he was able to feel for them and suffer with them, without either distancing himself coldly from their plight in order to dismiss them or identifying with them so closely that he excused their sin so as to belittle his own guilt too.

Kleinig, J. W. ©2017. Hebrews. (C. P. Giese, Ed.) (p. 249). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

The immediately previous verses (to today’s reading) established that Jesus Christ, while completely innocent of any sin Himself, was totally aware of the temptation to sin. Satan sorely tempted him to fall away from the Father, but Jesus never succumbed to those taunts. Human priests do not have that purity, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). But God accepts their role as our representatives because that is the order that He has established. In the coming chapters of Hebrews, Jesus role as our perfect High Priest will be explained and our understanding deepened. In the meantime, we honor those who are called into this ministry and grant them a voice into our lives as each Sunday we listen to the Word and hear God’s priests expand our understanding of His Word.