In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.
Hebrews 7:8-10
When it comes to life, we think we’re in control. That we’ve got our hands firmly on the steering wheel of our car and we’re guiding it to where we think best. We’re the ones who map out our route and destination. We look at everything in front of us, turning right or left. Slowing down or speeding up.
As we’re driving along in life, we think that we know the best time to change lanes. Which toll booth line will move fastest. Which fast food restaurant will serve the fastest so we can get back on the road. And when there’s a backup, which lane will get through before the other one.
The lie we tell ourselves while we’re driving ourselves through life is that we’re in control. That we can see everything that we need to. That we’ve got all the information. And since we have all the information, we’ll never be surprised.
But, and this is a big but, is that there’s lots and lots of things going on in the background. There’s this curtain in life that hides most of what’s actually going on. We can only see what’s right in front of us while so much more is going on in the background. Behind the scenes.
When it comes to who’s paying tithes to whom, the writer of this letter is trying to explain the exact same thing. When the Hebrews think about who they paid tithes to, it was always a priest. They were the only ones with the authority to receive tithes.
As God put his laws for life together for the Hebrews, he chose Aaron and his sons to be priests. Now they didn’t have the inside scoop on how to obey God. They didn’t have the secret formula for a sinless life. They didn’t even have the map for how to het to heaven.
God chose them not because of who they were, but because of who he was. They were his choice. Period. They didn’t graduate with honors from some special priest academy. Heck, they hadn’t looked any different from all the other families in Israel.
So, when God chose them, they received his blessing. But there was a big downside to it also. Yes, they got to receive tithes. They made sacrifices. They read God’s word to the people. And one of them went into the Holy of Holies once a year to offer a special sins sacrifice for the entire nation.
But the downside from our point of view is that their lives were per-picked for them. They really didn’t have a choice when it came to choosing a career. Everyone also had very high expectations for them and their lives. And when they sinned, when they messed up, they paid a heavy price.
The writer’s tracing the background of the priests and who received tithes from who. And as we’ve looked at before, tithes are given to someone who is of a higher rank than the person giving it.
So, when Abraham gives his tithe to Melchizedek, it’s like all the priests of all time are also giving a tithe to Mr. M. They were in the background when Abraham made his tithe gift. It’s like he was their representative when the tithe was given to Mr. M.
Which brings up the subject of why’s this is such a big deal anyway. Why would the writer seem to go on and on about this payment to Mr. M. anyway? To us, it’s just a lot of useless detail that no one’s really interested in. It’s not all that interesting. And it doesn’t really change anything either. Or does it?
The short answer is while it doesn’t seem to matter much to us, it mattered a whole bunch to the Hebrews. These Hebrews, who were thinking about going back to the old ways and traditions, needed to know that the laws weren’t an end in themselves. They were leading somewhere. They were pointing to someone.
You see, if they went back to making sacrifices over and over again, they were leaving the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. If they turned away from God’s sacrifice, they’d be taking on the heavy burden of having to pay for sins after each and every time they screwed up.
And that, quite frankly, isn’t a place I’d like to be. I just can’t imagine returning to the place in my life where the weight of all my sin was on me. Me alone. No one else. I remember the terrible guilt and shame of those days. It just seems impossible to want to go back to a time and place where all our sin landed on us.
But thanks be to God that he came and took care of our sin problem once and for all. That in Jesus, all sin is covered and forgiven. He made the one-time sacrifice that we couldn’t make. And the result is one of great joy and thankfulness. In loving response, we want to please the one who loves us. Please the one we love. This energizes us to do what he says with joyful worship. No more sin in the background. Only forgiveness and acceptance from our great Heavenly Father. How could we want to do anything that hurts him?
Noodling Questions
What does your illusion of control feel like? Look like?
How is making our own choices a modern right of life?
How has Jesus cleared up your background?
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