Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Bible Book of Hebrews is often thought to be over our heads, but actually it's good bedtime reading. The Lord wants us to receive a blessing from reading it. The important Figure in the book is someone named Melchizedek, a Priest appointed by the Lord to be ourHigh Priest.
First of all we ask, what is a "High Priest"? He is the spiritual father of the nation of Israel. Everyone looks upon him as a friend; as someone on your side. He is a wise counselor, and he does not hesitate to tell you the full truth about yourself, because only the truth can make you free (John 8:32).
The Father has appointed Jesus to be our High Priest; but in order for even Him to become qualified, He must suffer as we suffer. That "suffering" must include His being tempted to sin, even as we are tempted, but must include also His gaining the victory over every temptation to sin: "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
Thus He "can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity" (5:1, 2).
It is clear therefore that in becoming one of us in His incarnation, the Son of God "took" upon His sinless nature which He brought with Him from heaven, our fallen, sinful nature which He assumed here on earth.
So fully did Jesus become as one of us yet without sin that when He prayed He had to "offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, ... and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all that that obey Him [hear Him]" (5:7-9).
Read about Him; drench yourself in His story.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 31, 2008.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
[Emphasis supplied in Bible texts.]
