The Levitical Priesthood This section is best understood from the contents of the Word so the believer will benefit further if the Bible is open to the selected text. The book of Hebrews conveys the transformation of the kingdom of God from the physical realm of the Old Testament to the spiritual realm of the New Testament. Understanding the difference between the physical and the spiritual concerning today s church and its responsibility to God is important for believers to know and to understand what is required by God. The study is in-depth; therefore, the believer must remain attentive. Once understood, the believer will know that tithing (under the order of the Levitical Priesthood) is a deed that serves under the physical realm of the Law and that giving (to the church) reflects the spiritual realm of grace. They will also know unquestionably that tithing is not mandatory today, which will free them from the curse of the Law and the theories of false preachers. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham (Heb. 7: 5). The laws given to the children of Israel include the following: the Ten Commandments, the ordinances of attendance on the altar and the sanctuary (which consisted of offering the blood of animals by the priest for the sins of the people), and the order of the Levitical Priesthood, which included tithing. As the above scripture affirms, God commanded the tribe of Levi to collect tithes from the nation of Israel. Each tribe in the nation of Israel gained an inheritance because of the promise God made to Israel s founding father Abraham. The promise was that of a new land, which was across the Jordan River, a land flowing with milk and honey that the nation of Israel was to possess after they succeeded out of the wilderness from following Moses. All twelve tribes received a portion of the new land. Some received a portion of the land that was not across the Jordan River, but the land before the river, nevertheless they received the promise. But the tribe of Levi did not receive land as an inheritance; instead, they received the office of the priesthood and were commanded to take tithes of the people.... When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance (Num. 18:26). The tithes were to sustain them physically and the priesthood was a sanctuary job, created for the intercession of the sins of the nation. There were other secondary ordinances in the Old Testament imposed on the nation such as laws of property; laws of ethical and judicial behavior; laws and ordinances for rituals of diet, family, worship, and much more; and all these rules and regulations in which the children of Abraham were to follow were considered, the Law. Every citizen of the nation learned to live by the laws and they practiced them by the power of their own will without the Holy Ghost (which we have today) to guide them. However, God saw that people needed more help in obeying the Law because of the infirmities of the flesh, the most difficult being the Ten Commandments. So He promised His Spirit to whoever received the person of His Son to assist human-will and for the Law to be lived and obeyed by the believer. Thus, in Hebrews 7:11, which reads If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? This scripture alone proves that
the duties of the Levites were ordained under the Law. The next verse, 12, reads For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. First, verse 11 reminds us that there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the cross to bring believers to perfection if the Levitical Priesthood from under the Law could complete perfection. If, in contrast, perfection did come by the Law, then we all to this day would be high priest the same way Aaron was a priest. There would have to be a special tribe in the church, such as the one of Levi in Israel, ordained by the Holy Ghost to take tithes of the rest of the church and to intercede for our sins, daily. Verse 12 (and this is an imperative thought) clearly states that there must be a change in the Law which involved tithing if there is a change in the priesthood. Because Jesus is now the high priest after the order of Melchisedec, then tithing under the law of ordinances is of no effect in the age of grace. However, to further prove this theory, we will continue with our analysis. With the coming of the New Testament, the priesthood changed from the Levitical Priesthood to Jesus being the high priest after the order of Melchesidec. God announces a new covenant, a New Testament, under a new and everlasting priesthood. One which there would be no need to obey carnal ordinances and rituals for the sacrificing of sins, because He would totally wash away all sins and remember them no more using only one sacrifice; His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who took away the sins of the world. In Hebrews 8:13 it reads,... A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. God enforced this new covenant because He desired His people to be perfect, and since the Law made no one perfect because of the infirmities of the flesh, He sent forth His Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to overcome the sins and disobedience of the flesh. The children of Israel walked in the flesh, they worshiped God in the flesh, and they died in the flesh. And they, including the unsaved of today, will be judged by the Law, based on whether they kept the Law as pronounced by Moses and enforced by the high priest. But, when God decided to have mercy on humanity, because He loved us so, He reformed the covenant to help our infirmities. Therefore, Jesus came so that whoever believed in Him might overcome the flesh, and death, and live eternally, and this is the grace of God. He did not destroy the Law but fulfilled it with a spiritual law that would prevail over all written law: Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law, (Ro. 13:10). Love, faith, and truth are what God requires from believers if they want to obey Him. If believers want to go to heaven, they must believe in the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The laws of the Ten Commandments had nothing to do with salvation once God executed the new covenant. Verses 13-23 of Hebrews 7 are self-explanatory and self-evident. First, it proves that Jesus came not only to fulfill the Law, but in many instances to disannul the Law. Today, the Law is for unbelievers, those not born again of water and of the Spirit. At the Day of Judgment, God will use the Law to judge all those who died under the Law and who did not receive the Holy Ghost. Because the Law could not make anyone perfect and perfecting believers is one purpose of salvation it proved to be unprofitable because of death. The Levitical Priesthood was a carnal priesthood (meaning physical), ordained by God as a generational tradition passed down throughout time to priestly heirs in the tribe of Levi. Nevertheless, now that Jesus is the high priest after the order of Melchisedec, who has the power of an endless life, the priesthood is eternal and does not require carnal offerings and sacrifices. These verses, 13 23, also verify that
Jesus was not born into the tribe of Levi but into the tribe of Judah, therefore, was not chronologically authorized by the Law to take the office of the Levitical Priesthood, which religiously prohibits Him from collecting tithes. Furthermore, with an oath Jesus was ordained the high priest by God, unlike Melchisedec and the Levitical priest, and this oath was to establish perfection, but not by the written law, but by the New Testament which is justified by spirituality not carnality, or carnal ordinances. The believer must follow the precepts of the Scripture to gain understanding. Verses 24-28 confirm that Jesus has an unchangeable priesthood which is unlike the Levitical Priesthood because the Levitical priest possessed infirmities that needed supplementing by way of daily sacrifices, first for their own individual sins, and then for the sins of the people. They had to come to the altar each day and offer sacrifices in exchange for the forgiveness of the sins they committed each day. But Jesus, who offered himself one time for the sins of everyone committed from here on out, and who does not require different high priest to offer daily, is surly a better testament of salvation, confirmed by an oath from God. The next three chapters of Hebrews focus on selected verses and are important for the believer to understand because they intentionally illustrate the fleshly realm of the Old Testament as opposed to the spirituality of the New Testament. Verse two of chapter 8 reveal that the priesthood of Christ is by God and not by man. It does not require manmade rituals for the sanctuary and tabernacle, but the attendance upon these are now spiritual and not carnal, or physical. The following scripture from St. Matthew 5:17 explain the remaining precepts of Hebrews chapter 8, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Preachers will use the above scripture to enforce tithes, or any Old Testament concept, and when they do this, they miss the true meaning of the scripture. No, Jesus did not destroy the Law, He fulfilled it in the spiritual realm instead of the physical realm, and any precept practiced from under the Law is carnal and manifest physical consequences. Chapter nine, verse 1 of Hebrews describes the first covenant as having a worldly sanctuary. This means that all the ordinances and rituals of worship services were fleshly and physical. Verse 2-7 details all of the physical characteristics of the tabernacle along with the priests daily services concerning the offerings for sins: Verses 8-10 probes deeper into the symbolic meaning of the services. These were not yet made manifest but were only a type of forethought as to what was to come, revealing the fact that these carnal services were only practiced until the time of the reformation, or changing of the covenant, which would then make the believer perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Least affected by all the ordinances enforced by the Law and all the willful attempts to keep the Law were the consciences of the children of Israel. The priest offered for sins in fleshly means thus only justifying sins in the flesh, and not in heart or mind. Remembering this aspect of perfection is vital as we continue because under the inspiration of grace, the Spirit and interceding power of Christ is to perfect the mind, soul, spirit, and flesh, and not just the flesh only, as the ordinances of the Law did. The remainder of chapter nine expound on the ordinances of offering blood upon the altar for the remission of sins. The children of Israel offered the blood of dead animals as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. The high priest could not go into the tabernacle without an offering of the blood of an animal; this is an expression of the carnality of the Law. Believers today do not have to
offer the blood of a dead animal for sins each day because that is what Christ did when He offered himself for the sins of the whole world. Not only was Christ an offering for our sins, He died and passed on the priesthood to the next generation just as the high priest did, yet Christ rose from the dead, (something they could not do) to give eternal life to anyone who believed He rose. Christ entered, not just into the physical tabernacle or holiest of all made with hands but He died and entered into the presence of God to make intercession for the sins of all who believe. Chapter 10 verses 1-3 say that, the yearly sacrifices which were carnal can never make a believer perfect (another thought to be remembered once we reach our point in discussion). For then would they not have ceased to be offered? (v. 2). We would still have to offer sacrifices each day and year to cleanse us of our sins, yet our consciences would never be clean because of the carnality of the services; therefore, we, and God, would always remember our sins within the guilt of our consciences. But God promised, and confirmed it by an oath, that He would not remember our sins any more. Verse 5 is another essential part of this lesson; it provides a root to our theory after we prove that nothing is more important, or even honored by God, than the body itself (which includes the heart, soul, and mind). Please read. All burnt offerings or any kind of sacrifices we give unto God, especially those of material value, cannot take the place of the believer s willingness to be a living vessel for His use. Verses 6-14 establishes this truth and that the one-time offering of Jesus upon the cross, replaced those sacrifices and offerings. He offered himself one time for the world. There is nothing else considered worthy enough that can be given upon the altar as a sacrifice ordered under any commandment that was not covered by the offering of Jesus Christ; therefore, any ordinance carried over from the Law has no effect or honor with God. Grace disannulled all these carnal commandments. Verses 19-25 exhort all believers today to take advantage of the liberty of grace and not entangle themselves with the laws of ordinances. There is a new way in which God forgives us, not through carnal ordinances and offerings, but through the intercession of a one-time high priest. He does not require the blood of goats, doves, and bulls, and since He is not from the tribe of Levi, neither does He require a portion of the believer s earnings. We are no longer under those aspects of the Law, even though Christ is the high priest after the order of Melchisedec. If Jesus died once for us then we are required to offer unto Jesus one time, and that not of a tenth, but of all that we own; chiefly, our whole body, which is our reasonable service according to Romans 12:1. This is why the early church offered all they had, and this is all that is required under grace. They gave their lives and life savings to the leaders of the church and they did not give it in portions. The example of Joses, the Levite, in Acts 4:36, 37, proves that the Levitical priesthood died with the ordinances of the Law. The scripture exhorts us to hold fast to our faith in the new everlasting covenant and not in the old; having our bodies, hearts, and minds washed with pure water, the water that cleanses us from our sins forever, not just for the year. Verses 26-39 of Hebrews chapter 10 draws on chapter 6, vv. 4-9 by reminding the believer that, if a soul does not advance to the point of perfection (which calls for a certain knowledge of the principles of grace), then certain hindrances begin to occur in their growth. Please read. It stresses that there are no more sacrifices remaining for our sins if we fail to come to the obedience of the gospel as it relates to perfection. If a believer counts the blood offering of the new covenant as an unholy thing, or as something offered in vain, then that soul will draw the
vengeance of God upon them. To fulfill obedience under grace a believer must have faith in the covenant and not in carnal offerings and ordinances. To be justified by faith through grace, a believer must disregard any suppositions that anything offered to God in the form of material substance, unless it is all, has any meaning with God; it is the body only that God will honor. Now the just shall live by faith (v. 38): we must have faith in the new covenant, not in divers washings and meat and drink offerings that were a part of the Law. We must see Jesus as the high priest of the new covenant, not our pastors or earthly sanctuaries. We must not trust in earthly riches or manmade traditions and ordinances of worship, but the true worshipers will worship God in Spirit and in truth. The truth being, there are no carnal offerings that God will accept. The truth being that Jesus is the onetime high priest and we only have to offer to Him one time, and that being our bodies. The truth being, under the divine covenant of grace, offering to God is as simple as this: tithe once and give all.