Hebrews 5 outlines the general qualifications for the office of high priest in Israel, shows that Jesus possessed those qualifications, and begins a warning, concluded in Hebrews 6, about spiritual immaturity.
Before enlarging on the ramifications of the priesthood of Christ, the writer took the logical step of showing Christ’s qualifications for that role (5:1-10). Though His priesthood has already been assumed, its validity must now be declared if the warnings based on it are to carry full weight.
The author of Hebrews began this chapter by describing the office of high priest in Israel. The task of the high priest was to represent sinful human beings before God. The writer pointed out that the task of the high priest was to act for human beings in matters related to God (v. 1). Each high priest of Israel received a divine appointment to office. The office required that the high priest show compassion for wandering sinners and offer sacrifices for sins (vv. 1-4).
Jesus demonstrated His qualifications to serve as High Priest for His people (vv. 5-10). Jesus did not follow the steps of the imperfect priesthood of Aaron. He became a priest after the order of Melchizedek. His resurrection and ascension showed that God had appointed Him to the job. His experience of suffering nurtured in Him an incomparable capacity for sympathy to needy individuals.
Readers of Hebrews may fail to benefit from Jesus’ compassion and strength (5:11–14) by being slow to learn the importance of following Jesus. They may remain spiritual infants when they should stretch toward maturity. They may be untrained in choosing between good and evil.
Even with Jesus as their High Priest, all was not well with the readers of Hebrews. There were three elements to their spiritual immaturity. First, they were slow to learn (v. 11). Second, they had failed to rise to the level of instructing others (v. 12), needing again to learn the elementary truths of God’s word (v. 12). Third, they needed to develop the skills to distinguish good from bad and to follow the good (v. 14). They had dabbled so long in mediocrity that they had become content with this level.
Reading this chapter will give us a broader picture of Jesus’ marvelous ability to show compassion to wandering, weary sinners. It will also provide a warning against spiritual dullness and careless living.
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is clothed in weakness; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins for himself, as well as for the people. 4 And no one takes the honor for himself, but receives it when he is called by God, just as Aaron also was. (NASB)
Key Takeaways:
- A high priest must be human and be divinely appointed.
- Christ has supreme qualifications to serve as high priest. The work of Christ in 4:14–16 involved providing grace and mercy to struggling sinners. This was the work of a high priest.
- God called the high priest to offer sacrifices for sinful human beings
Closer Look:
Section Look: In this short section of verses, the writer explains what it means to be a high priest. In this paragraph, two prerequisites are given for the priesthood: (1) he must participate in human feelings and weaknesses (vv. 1-3) and (2) he must be divinely appointed (vv. 4-6). The second requirement, given in verse four, looks back to Exodus 28:1 and 1 Chronicles 23:13. Several attempted to take this office upon themselves and were severely judged for it: Korah (Num. 16), Saul (1 Sam. 13) and Uzziah (2 Chron. 26).
Verse 1: If the readers were to ask what a high priest really is, the answer is easily drawn from the Old Testament institution with which the readers were familiar. Such a person is one of humankind’s own number: he is “taken from among men” and he is also their representative in “things pertaining to God.” These “things” or “matters” include the offering of both gifts (dōra) and sacrifices (thysias) for sins (cf. 8:3; 9:9). The terms gifts and sacrifices refers to the full range of offerings which the high priest presented to God. This included both meal offerings and the blood sacrifices. The high priest officiated in relation to human sins. He dealt with any hindrance which separated human beings from God. The primary reference here related to gifts and sacrifices is on the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, the one day of the year when a priest entered into the Most Holy Place (9:7-10) to atone for the sins of the people and intercede for them.
the high priest was “appointed.” God made the choice. God never intended that the office of high priest be filled by democratic selection. He designated His own person. Sadly, in the time of Christ the high priesthood had become a political prize, often going to the highest bidder. This description was of the work of the high priest in its Old Testament intention.
Verses 2–3: The high priest must also be a man of compassion as the word metriopathein, which underlies the phrase “deal gently,” implies. This is the capacity to moderate one’s feelings to avoid the extremes of cold indifference and uncontrolled sadness. A true high priest was not harsh toward sinners or calloused toward moral lapses. For an ordinary high priest of the Old Testament, this sympathy grew out of an awareness that “he himself” was “clothed in weakness,” prone to failures of his own. Hence in his sacrificial activities he must make the necessary offerings for his own and the peoples’ sins. The high priest was required to offer a sacrifice for himself on the Day of Atonement (9:7; Lev 16:6). In this respect alone, as the author will show later (cf. 7:27), Christ did not exactly correspond to the characteristics described here, since He “was without sin” (4:15). But it is also possible that the writer thought of the compassion of the Son-Priest as being far richer than the moderate gentleness the writer ascribed to other high priests.[1] The high priest was clothed with the weaknesses of his people. Although Jesus was a human being, He was not surrounded with weakness. Jesus Himself was never ignorant or going astray, but He understood those who were.
The phrase “ignorant and misguided” (v. 2) describes those who unintentionally sinned among the people (Num 15:30-36). Consider the weakness of Aaron, who gave a feeble excuse to Moses for yielding to the people’s demands for a visible god to worship. His words were, “They gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf” (Exod. 32:24). A man like this could certainly understand human weakness, for he was weak himself. However, it required a Savior like Jesus Christ to deal effectively with human sinfulness.
Christ shared with the high priests a common human nature and an experience of physical pain and hardship. The cross itself showed that physical pain.
Christ stood in contrast with the high priests in that His physical weakness did not produce sin. Since He had no sin, He did not need to offer a sacrifice for Himself. When He did make an offering, He did not offer an animal, but He gave Himself. He was able to focus entirely on dealing with the sins of the people.
Verse 4: But one thing is certain. The high-priestly office was a divine appointment and could not simply be entered because one aspired to that honor. “Just as Aaron was”, this High Priest must also be “called by God.” Aaron was appointed to the position of priest by God Himself (Ex 28:1), as were his successors (Num 20:23-28; 25:10-13). Those who challenged Aaron’s call or appointed themselves as priests were put to death by God (Num 16).
Because of divine appointment, we could not decide, “Well, I think I’m called to be a priest.” No, you couldn’t do that in the Old Testament. You had to be chosen. Several are tempted to take this office upon themselves and were severely judged for it. Remember what happened to Korah: the ground swallowed him and his family, children, and everything he owned. Saul tried and lost the kingdom. Uzziah got leprosy. He was a good king, but got too proud at the end of his life.
As we have seen, a high priest must be a person called by God. A priest represents the people and thus must identify with their human nature. But he also represents God to the people and thus must be called by God to his office.
[1] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 790.