High Priest of The World To Come

1Therefore, holy sisters and brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Yehoshua HaMashiach, 

Chapter 2 verses 17 and 18 are the hub of the book.  The initial message of chapters one and two has all been purposed to bring us to this point. And all that will be said from now to the end of the book will be based on this foundation, this message up to this point.  Thus we see that the Book of Hebrews itself could properly be called, An Introduction To the Messianic High Priesthood.

Before going on with the book, therefore, we need to take a step back and look at these verses once more.

2:17 Therefore in all things he should be made like unto [the members of] his own family, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself has suffered and was tempted, he is also powerful to help those that are tempted.  

My translation here is adapted from The Jubilee Bible.  Where the Jubilee Bible and many other translations has the word, “brethren”, I have paraphrased this as “[the members of] his own family.]  I do not believe the Jubilee Bible intended the word, “brethren” here to refer to the gentile Christian Church and not to Jews as a people.  In the traditional Christian community, however, the word “brethren” when used here, most often, has no ethnic meaning.  It is understood to be a reference to those who professes faith in Jesus.  

However, no Torah true Jew writing to other Torah true (frum) Jews could ever take the office of High Priest / Cohen HaGadol out of its Scriptural context like this and use it in a way that had nothing to do with ethnic Israel, or with Torah Israel.  Personal faith, and also national faith, in the office of the High Priest and in the work of the High Priest always had an essential place.  But it was not the faith of the people that created the office nor that commissioned the work of the High Priest.  It was the promise and commandment of God.  The High Priest did not carry out his work because the people had faith in him but because of his obedience to the word of God.  And the word of God set forth the office and calling of the High Priest in relation to the ethnic People of Israel, in accordance with his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We will see in the study of this book that Yehoshua, who is from the tribe of Judah, being made the one eternal High Priest of Israel does not change the office of the High Priest from being an office of the nation of Israel.  Rather, it is the office of the High Priest as kept for him by the placeholder of the Aaronic priesthood, which builds a house of faith, built upon a sure foundation, in which all of God’s people, both Jews and Messianic converts from all nations can dwell in Sabbath safety.   

In the Scriptural context, his being made in all points like unto the members of his own family what is emphasized is not his incarnation, that is to say his birth, but is his life as a Jew, his troubles as a human being, and his overcoming the temptations and sufferings that he experiences as a Jewish son through faith in God and obedience to his Torah and calling.  As Abraham was called in a unique time and in a unique way, so the unique son of Abraham was called in a unique time and in a unique way to fulfill the unique purpose of God.  As we go on to see the vision of the author of this book, we will see that this uniqueness is the unique apostleship of the Emissary of Heaven, the uniqueness of the Cohen HaGadol, the High Priest of Israel.

Because they are Israelites, like all Israelites, they are partakers of the heavenly calling. Because they have heard the calling of Mashiach ... consider the one who is the true apostle, the Sent One, ...who, like Moses was sent to Pharaoh, was sent to command the nations to let Israel go to serve Hashem. Read more in Extended Notes

2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was  faithful in all His house. 

3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 

4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 

5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward,  

6 but Mashiach as Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

If You Hear His Voice

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:  “Today, if you will hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.

10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’

11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 

13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 

14 For we have become partakers of Mashiach if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 

15 while it is said:  “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Lesson of The Wilderness

16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was  it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 

17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was  it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 

18 to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.