Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 7

Verse 2

KING OF PEACE

‘Being, by interpretation … also King of Salem, which is, King of Peace.’

Hebrews 7:2

We go on by an easy step from righteousness to peace; and indeed we must be always jealous that we travel in this order—taking righteousness on the way to peace. For if God had not first been true to Himself, and made it a righteous thing with Him to forgive a sinner, what an idle vanity would our peace have been!

I. The name of peace presupposes that there has been war—and what a tremendous fact lies in that simple inference, man is at war with his Creator.

II. It is over all the widespread field of war that the King of Salem has in His infinite grace stretched His sceptre, making the very ground of the battle the base of the throne of the empire of His peace.

III. When the last mortal combat which a man can fight comes on, how will it be with the believer then? Brighter visions of coming glory will shine on his path—sweeter whispers will sound in his ear—the arm will be more sufficient beneath him, and the staff stronger at his side—death, stingless because it is sinless, and stingless and sinless because it left both sting and sin in Christ, will meet him harmlessly—its fiercest power can only knock off the chains which bind him—it is the death that dies—the dying Christian lives indeed—and the grave itself is another province in the empire of peace, through which he travels to a higher Salem.

Illustration

‘Go down into the secrets of the hidden life even of a converted man; and what is there? A warfare still, even to the death. That has come to pass—the curse to Satan, the promise to Adam—the presence of a second principle awakening conflict where all before was in too fatal union and peace—and between the two natures of the original child of Adam and the new man which is in process of construction within him there is set up a contest, severe, unsparing, constant, which will not cease till he lays down this mortal body.’

Verse 8

EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE EUCHARIST

‘It is witnessed that He liveth.’

Hebrews 7:8

Amidst the manifold, the inexhaustible significance of the Holy Communion, there is one side or element not very often dwelt upon, but which is fit to be of the utmost help in some states of the soul. I mean the evidential aspect of it.

I. It is the supreme thanksgiving of the Church; and this it has been, in all reasonable certainty, from the very first. And from the very first, from a time long before the writing of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, it has been the commemoration of precisely the Lord’s Death. To us, habituated to Christianity, the collocation of Eucharist and Crucifixion is hardly seen, without an effort, to be the immeasurable and eloquent paradox which it is.

II. But reflection as simple as possible carries us to the consideration, which then only gains in felt solidity and force as we test it from every side, that nothing could conceivably have put those two things together—could have called out the adoring Thanksgivings of the Church in immediate connection with the murderous execution of her Lord—but His victory, out and out, and from every point of view, over death; His resurrection from the dead, ‘in the power of an indissoluble life.’

III. Do we want to reassure ourselves that, in the faith by which we live, the holy love-power of the Unseen and an impregnable history fuse themselves into one unique truth of light and peace? Let us frequent the Holy Communion. There, made concrete to our very senses, is the whole Gospel of the grace of God. There, poured at the same moment into our reason and into our love, is the certainty, across all enigmas, that Jesus died and rose again.

—Bishop H. C. G. Moule.

Verse 16

THINGS WHICH NEVER DIE

‘The power of an endless life.’

Hebrews 7:16

We talk of ends; but where are ends? It may be an end in relation to the past; but is it not a beginning in relation to something which is to come? Ends are all means.

Many think of their souls as immortal, but of their bodies as belonging only to this present world, and perishable.

I. Your bodies are to live for ever.—This is the great resurrection-truth, which characterises the Christian religion. And is there not ‘power’ in that realisation of the body’s ‘endless life’? Will it not help you to treat that body respectfully, chastely, modestly—if, whenever you look at it, you realise that you are to carry that body into the courts of the Most High God, and to wear it for ever in God’s presence?

II. The friendships, the affections, the communions of this present world—if He is in them Who makes the eternity of everything—they are not made for time. The parent, the partner, the child, the brother, the sister, the friend who is gone, is not less parent, partner, child, brother, sister, friend, because the veil is drawn for a little while. They live. They are yours. It is only a parenthesis in the immortality of a true affection—made matter of faith for a little while—preparatory to a higher fruition.

III. Prayer is a thing which never dies.—It may occupy a moment. You say it, and you forget it. But it is gone up, and it is registered in heaven. God looks at it. It is still in His faithful keeping. And long after it has passed from all human memory, and after the very lips that uttered it are cold, that prayer lives on! And answers, years to come, down many generations, will prove ‘the power of its endless life.’

IV. What a fugitive thing is a thought!—It scarcely comes, when it is flown! For ever you may have it. You may arrest it; you may eternalise it. Ask God that that thought may not cease. It will come back, back! That thought that just glanced through the mind; that thought of a promise; some great truth. It will come back when least you look for it. Perhaps in some dark passage; perhaps on a sick-bed; perhaps in a dying hour. And the slightest association will awaken it—a flower, a scene, a breath of air! Have you never felt it? Have you never felt it with some thought, and found that in that thought there was ‘the power of an endless life’?

You are an ‘endless’ being; and dealing always with ‘endless’ realities. Men speak of the brevity of human life. It would be more true to say, its infinite duration!

Verse 17

A PRIEST FOR EVER

‘Thou art a Priest for ever.’

Hebrews 7:17

This verse refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is quoted from Psalms 110:4. Indeed, with two exceptions ( 2 Samuel 7:14; Isaiah 8:17), all the texts quoted in this Epistle to set forth the Person and work of the Saviour are taken from the Psalter.

I. Jesus is a great Priest ( Hebrews 4:14).—All power is His in heaven and in earth. There is no priest like Christ.

II. Jesus is a sympathising Priest ( Hebrews 4:15).—But Jesus pities the wants and woes of His people. There is no Priest like Christ.

III. Jesus is a merciful and faithful Priest ( Hebrews 2:17).—‘Merciful,’ therefore full of tenderness and love; and ‘faithful’; that is, One Who can be trusted without fail. There is no priest like Christ.

IV. Jesus is an unchanging Priest ( Hebrews 7:23-24).—He has an unchangeable priesthood; or, as the margin reads it, a priesthood ‘which passeth not from one to another.’

All this is very full of comfort to God’s children.

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘Mr. Justice Lush came into Westminster Hall one day, and seeing a brother serjeant, went to him and found him weeping. Judge Lush said, “I am afraid you have heard some bad news.” His friend answered, “I am thankful to see you; come and talk to me.” He went on, “I always thought I should have to turn to God; I always meant to beseech God to have mercy upon me; but, brother Lush, it has just come over me in court, and I never thought of it before, that instead of my having to beseech God, God has been for fifty-eight years beseeching me. Do you remember the words? They have broken me down: ‘As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” ’

Verses 21-22

THE PRIESTHOOD AND THE OATH

‘For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.’

Hebrews 7:21-22

It is remarkable language that the writer utters when he institutes this comparison between the Law and the Gospel.

Foremost, there is strong stress laid here on the solemn acts of affirmation of God, in his recognition of the office and work of the Redeemer. Let us endeavour to gather some reasonable idea of this great ‘oath’ of ‘the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth.’

I. What is an ‘oath,’ as between man and man?—An oath is the most sacred action that mortal man can undertake to do. Well may God prohibit all false oaths. Well may He forbid to man all useless and profane, all rash and inconsiderate swearing. When necessity is urgent, when the gravest interests are involved, when the importance of a matter so requires, God allows us to swear by His name.

That a person swear lawfully, that a man’s oath be guiltless, there must be—

( a) A due regard to the object of the oath.

( b) A due regard to the morality of the oath.

( c) A due regard to the end and purpose and aim of the oath.

II. Such is the solemnity of God’s affirmation of the weighty counsels of His Word given us. ‘According to the Scriptures,’ God has ‘sworn’ to His Church and people upon earth to assure mankind of ‘the immutability’ of His purposes in Christ to us; ‘for those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.’ He has ‘sworn in His wrath’ to assure men that His threatened judgments shall be inflicted. He has ‘sworn’ in His love that blessings promised shall assuredly be bestowed. So He has ‘sworn,’ before all heaven itself, to His dear Son, the Lord Messiah, to ‘Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant’ of Grace and Peace, that He shall be the Eternal Priest of Heaven, the One High Priest ‘for ever’ of His choice, and call, and consecration. Our Lord Jesus Christ is now ‘such an High Priest,’ the unchangeable channel of all heavenly blessing to us, for God’s honour and glory for ever, for His Church’s consolation and peace without end.

—Rev. M. B. Cowell.

Verse 25

SALVATION

‘Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession For them.’

Hebrews 7:25

Christ is the true High Priest, and salvation is His prerogative.

I. Its subjects.—Whom is Jesus Christ able to save? Probably we have all thought of this text as applying to the unconverted. That is true—it is most true; but it is not the primary truth of the text. Mark the expression ‘them that come.’ In chapter Hebrews 10:1 we find that ‘comers’ are worshippers. The sacrifices of the law could never make ‘the comers’ thereunto perfect. Why? Because ‘the worshippers once purged [comers and worshippers are identified] would have had no more conscience of sins.’ Yes, worshippers are comers. The true believer is always coming. ‘To whom coming?’ Salvation is needed for saints as well as sinners.

II. Its extent.—To the uttermost.

( a) To the uttermost depth of human need.

( b) To the uttermost height of the Divine promises.

( c) To the latest hour of life.

III. Its author.—The main point in Christ’s priesthood, the great reason for his ability to save, lies in—

( a) The place in which He ministers.

( b) The perpetuity of His office.

( c) The preciousness of His Blood.

—Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

‘There is a story told of Alexander the Great that, when the fancy took him, he would order a burning lamp to be set down without the walls of the city he was besieging. Then he would offer mercy to the besieged if they surrendered before the lamp went out. Was this the origin of the familiar lines—

While the lamp holds out to burn

The vilest sinner may return?

I know not, but I know that a greater King than Alexander pledges His mercy to the last dying gleam of our life’s flickering flame.’