A Bible Study in EasyEnglish (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Hebrews
Keith Simons
EasyEnglish is a system of simple English designed by Wycliffe Associates (UK).
Last part: Two kinds of priests (Hebrews 7:5-6)
The ‘blessing’ means the words that someone uses to declare God’s goodness to another person. The blessings in the Book of Genesis are an important part of Israel’s history.
So, just before his death, Jacob gathered his 12 sons in order to bless them. These 12 sons are important men in Israel’s history. The 12 tribes of Israel are the people who come from their 12 families. But Jacob was more important than his sons in both God’s opinion and theirs. And so they received his blessing (Genesis 49:1-28).
But Jacob said that his father and grandfather, Isaac and Abraham, were greater men than him (Genesis 47:9).
Jacob himself very much wanted his father’s blessing. He even bought the right to it (Genesis 25:31-34). But that was not enough, so he cheated to get it (Genesis 27:1-33). Jacob cheated – but Isaac’s blessing really was for him (Genesis 27:33; Hebrews 11:20).
The Bible does not record how Abraham blessed Isaac. Perhaps it does not need to say that. God himself had declared that Isaac would receive the benefit of God’s promises to Abraham (Genesis 21:12). Abraham showed by his actions that he approved of Isaac (Genesis 24:36).
A father is greater than his son. Isaac was greater than Jacob; and Abraham was greater than Isaac. But it was Melchizedek who blessed Abraham.
Again, the author of Hebrews astonishes us. We know much about Israel’s priests. We know hardly anything about Melchizedek. But he was a greater priest than they were.
However, these facts should not surprise us. We already knew that Israel’s system of priests was not perfect. If it had been perfect, then we would not need Christ (Hebrews 7:11). Because their system was not perfect, Christ could not carry out his perfect work by their system. So there must be another kind of priest. And we see that first in Melchizedek; and afterwards in Christ.
© 2012, Keith Simons.