Day Seventy-Eight Reading – Hebrews 5-7
Chapter 5
1 For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity;
3 and by reason thereof is bound, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh the honor unto himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron.
5 So Christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that spake unto him, Thou art my Son, This day have I begotten thee:
6 as he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever After the order of Melchizedek.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
8 though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation;
10 named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing.
12 For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.
13 For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
14 But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
Chapter 6
1 Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God:
8 but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak:
10 for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward his name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister.
11 And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:
12 that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself,
14 saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15 And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
17 Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;
18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us:
19 which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil;
20 whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Chapter 7
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, King of righteousness, and then also King of Salem, which is King of peace;
3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God), abideth a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the chief spoils.
5 And they indeed of the sons of Levi that receive the priest’s office have commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though these have come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 but he whose genealogy is not counted from them hath taken tithes of Abraham, and hath blessed him that hath the promises.
7 But without any dispute the less is blessed of the better.
8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
9 And, so to say, through Abraham even Levi, who receiveth tithes, hath paid tithes;
10 for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met him.
11 Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it hath the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are said belongeth to another tribe, from which no man hath given attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests.
15 And what we say is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest,
16 who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life:
17 for it is witnessed of him, Thou art a priest for ever After the order of Melchizedek.
18 For there is a disannulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness
19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as it is not without the taking of an oath
21 (for they indeed have been made priests without an oath; but he with an oath by him that saith of him, The Lord sware and will not repent himself, Thou art a priest for ever);
22 by so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.
23 And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from continuing:
24 but he, because he abideth for ever, hath his priesthood unchangeable.
25 Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
26 For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law appointeth men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointeth a Son, perfected for evermore.
American Standard Version (ASV): Public Domain