Come Follow Me LDS- Hebrews 1-6 , Chap 4, New Testament

'Works, Rest & The Order of Melchizedek'
- The Weak as Works and Rest
- The Exodus as Works and Rest, or 'Promise'
- God Created the World with 'Works' and 'Rest'
- Works and Rest as the Lower & Higher Laws
- Christ filling the Drama Role of the Melchizedek, Davidic King

 

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Hebrews Bible

 

in this episode we talk about works rest

and the order of Melchizedek here we go

alright so in this episode we are going

to take chapters 4 5 & 6 of Hebrews and

at least in chapter 4 we're going to dig

down pretty deep maybe deeper than I've

done usually and the reason is

because here again in Hebrews there's

one of the reasons this is one of my

favorite books of all Scripture this

doctrine that we have in the LDS Church

in the Church of Jesus Christ of

latter-day saints is so meaty inside of

the book of Hebrews and a lot of it all

kind of comes together and as you've

heard me talk about the higher and lower

law you know if you go to that episode I

think it's called a cursory exploration

of the higher and lower laws you'll see

where I start on that is in Sinai and

Moses going up to Sinai coming back down

being rejected going back up and getting

the lower law and that's a fundamental

picture that you should have to

understand why we have to priesthoods to

understand the scriptures as a whole

because once you have that paradigm in

understanding the higher in the lower

laws you're going to read scripture very

differently because all of the prophets

understand this especially Joseph Smith

and as he goes through with the Joseph

Smith translation he focuses in on these

areas and if you go to the Old Testament

and you see where he really focuses in

on it's in Genesis with Melchizedek and

Abraham because of the Abrahamic

covenant the new one everlasting

covenant

and because of Melchizedek and there's

very little written about Melchizedek

and yet he is a central figure in

certain traditions of Judaism that are

not in the mainstream right we don't

find him basically at all in the

Masoretic text which is the text we use

for translation for the Old Testament

but the Dead Sea Scrolls have a

Melchizedek scroll and we see there that

the Essenes and others probably other

sects Jewish sects are looking for the

new milk ascetic so they have a

tradition that goes back to Melchizedek

and Abraham that is different from what

the Jewish mainstream establishment

doctrine is that seems to have been

squelched it seems to have been

suppressed pushed to the side and

diminished in the Masoretic text and in

the Jewish Tanakh in the Old Testament

and yet we find in Alma 13 more complete

picture of Melchizedek or if we go to

the Doctrine and Covenants section 84

and section 107 we get a bigger

understanding of Melchizedek and I think

it's important to understand this going

through the rest of Hebrews I didn't

cover this before but I have in other

episodes Melchizedek means the king of

righteousness so when we see for example

in the Gospels where Jesus is viewed as

the king this is central to the message

of the doctrine of Christ we see he has

the sign above the cross it says the

king of the Jews that is so rich in

tradition in understanding what is being

said there by the Gospels well the claim

there of Jesus as the king of the Jews

we kind of get into this idea just about

the political side of that which was

important right that the

words of Jesus claimed that he was the

King of Jerusalem but what does that

mean right the Sadducees the high

priest tried to say hey look he's

guilty of sedition here against Caesar

and his followers as well because

they're saying that he's the king of

Jerusalem but why are they saying that

what does that mean what it means is

they're saying he is Melchizedek this

tradition that had been squelched and

pushed to the side

by centuries of doctrine in in Judaism

is being resurrected by Christ and John

the Baptist and his followers and the

Apostles saying hey he is bringing back

the Melchizedek priesthood he is the new

Melchizedek this is something that had

there were whisperings of this

throughout Judaism and certain sects did

hang on to this tradition so we need to

understand that and understand the

richness of what that means

he is the king of the Jews or he is the

new Melchizedek now this Melchizedek

this Melchizedek figure that we're

talking about that Jesus is stepping

into here in in the Gospels is part of a

drama it's part of that temple imagery

and drama that I talked about

right where the Melchizedek King the

Davidic Melchizedek King used to be a

part of this drama that showed himself

as the temporal King the temporal

Davidic King and as Jehovah sitting on

the throne of God right he sits on the

throne of God as the new Melchizedek as

God and that's important to understand

the Jews had gotten rid of that it was

gone

since at least the time of the invasion

into Babylon the time of Lehi there were

no more Davidic

there's traces of these types of things

that we can see in some of the

ceremonies that they had both in Babylon

and then back into Jerusalem but the

ceremony the temple drama had been for

the most part eliminated this would go

hand in hand with the ordinance the most

important ordinance of Judah and Israel

anciently of the Day of Atonement or Yom

Kippur and so in Hebrews here in Alma 13

in sections 84 and 107 in Genesis 14 and

the additional umph that Joseph Smith

gives there in the Joseph Smith

translation we see more about this

Melchizedek and then we understand if we

bring all that together especially the

story of Sinai we understand that there

is a higher priesthood a Melchizedek

Priesthood and a higher law that goes

along with that a higher covenant that

goes along with that and there is a

lower law and a lower priesthood and the

children of Israel this is important to

understand right where we're coming in

here in chapter 4 the children of Israel

rejected the higher law they rejected

the Melchizedek priesthood which is the

priesthood of the son of God or the

priesthood after the order of the son

and we learn in doctrine covenants it

was that name was replaced with the

priesthood after the order of

Melchizedek but really it's the

priesthood after the order of the son

well the son is the one that comes

through the veil well that goes first

into the veil and sits on the throne in

the Temple of Solomon right he goes in

he sits on the throne and comes back out

the veil because he's going to be born

into mortality that is what the son of

God means that when we look at Mel at

psalms 110 we understand that that is where

the king is

gotten as the Sun in that temple drama

that's what Psalms 110 is talking about

so that's what Hebrews is talking about

here and I even see sometimes in LDS

scholarship they try and diminish this a

little bit but this is about Jesus

stepping into that Melchizedek role so

keep that in mind as we go through the

next few episodes here in Hebrews now

chapter four well one more thing about

Melchizedek the king of righteousness

write to the king of the Jews as was put

up above the cross can also be seen as

another title that would might be

equivalent to that would be something

also that we see in Isaiah which is the

Prince of Peace right we hear that in

Handel's Messiah this is the Prince of

Peace what is the peace

well peace in Hebrew is salem Jeru

Salem Jerusalem right Melchizedek in

Genesis was the king of peace literally

he was the king of Salem that is where

Jerusalem is it's the same thing where

the Mount is where Abraham was going to

offer Isaac is Jerusalem it's the Temple

Mount so this is all brought together

here where Jesus is born he's bringing

back the Melchizedek priesthood he's

bringing back the fullness of the gospel

he is the Sun so the Melchizedek order

after the order of the Sun is all about

Jesus Christ so that's important to

understand okay so chapter 4 here and

this might be a little bit of a longer

episode chapter 4 here we dig in and we

see that we are continuing from where we

were in chapter 3 in chapter 3 we were

talking about Sinai and the children of

Israel being banished basically into the

wilderness what banished from what

banished from the promised land

and so when Moses goes up to Sinai he

comes back down he has the Melchizedek

law the Melchizedek Priesthood available for

the masses throughout to the twelve

tribes of Israel they reject it so in a

sense I think it's important to

understand in my view I think it's

important to understand what they

rejected they rejected going all the way

through the temple they rejected

everything that was there beyond the

veil of the temple the Holy of Holies

and the only person that could go in

there well the only people that could go

into this is not usually written stated

properly but the only people that could

go into the Holy of Holies was the high

priest and the Davidic King right and

the Davidic Kings were given the

Melchizedek Priesthood because they were

acting as Melchizedek that's important

to know they would come out as the son

of God that is evident in the Psalms

they were acting as Jehovah as the king

the King of Kings the heavenly King so

when they rejected the higher law they

are rejecting going in through the veil

to finally end up in the Holy of Holies

we could equally make an equivalence of

the celestial room to that they also

then are rejecting what they are

rejecting the priesthood after the order

of the Sun so in a sense they're they

are rejecting the power of the higher

law and they are rejecting Jesus Christ

in a sense right there eating the true

Messiah and God through the rejection of

those first tablets coming down from

Sinai

so Moses goes back up and then comes

back down with the ironic law and the

current law of Moses which probably

would have been a part of those first

tablets but those are now the focus is

now on the commandment

which is the lower law Commandments are

works Commandments are the ironic law

you'll notice in the prayers of the

sacrament

you'll hear the word Commandments in the

bread the prayer on the bread that

represents the Aaronic priesthood

mortality flesh the lower law the veil

of the temple so that is us working our

way toward God the water the blessing on

the water or wine does not come it isn't

with the word of the word Commandments

in it it's not in there because it's not

what we're doing to get to him it's what

he's done by bleeding and taking on the

sins for us okay so going to Sinai here

and the wilderness where the children of

Israel ended up wandering for forty

years we come right in here that's worth

the chapter three left off saying that

because you rejected the higher law

because you rejected Christ because you

rejected going into the Holy of Holies

and all being endowed with the

Melchizedek Priesthood therefore you

will not what you do not receive the

promise well the promise is the oath of

the oath and covenant of the priesthood

associated with the Melchizedek

Priesthood as we see in section 84 so

the children of Israel are you now going

to wander in the desert that generation

for forty years and what happens they

are not allowed into the promised land

or they're not allowed into the holy of

Holy's they rejected it they're not

allowed into the promise which is

exaltation right so they all have to die

and then the younger generation can come

into the promised land that is

representative of the temple and that is

what the author of Hebrews here is

talking about so let's start off here in

chapter four we'll finally get to it

here verse 1 let us therefore fear

a promise being left us of entering into

his rest any of you should seem to come

short of it all right that's garbled up

a better understanding of that scripture

might be stated something more the law

along the lines of lettuce therefore

fear losing the promise because we're

not going to be able to be able to enter

into his rest and any of you might come

short of it therefore which I'm short of

the promise which is left unto us which

remains for us remains after what

remains after working our way to get

there right again think about the split

throughout the entire New Testament

especially the epistles of Paul between

works which is working our way there we

don't get rid of them and to Grace and

charity that comes our way from God

that's how we need to look at this the

rest of God is the Grace and the

destination of exaltation the works and

Commandments are working our way to get

there okay so think of it in those terms

alright verse 2 for unto us was the

gospel preached now digging into this we

need to understand what gospel really

means in our vernacular today we usually

think about talking about the gospel as

kind of this all-encompassing truth

right anything within the gospel the

commandments and all these things we

think of being as the gospel of Jesus

Christ but that's not always in fact

that's not usually the way the New

Testament talks about that right what

where do we get the word gospel it's

really important to always understand

the DNA of these words and where they

come from because we adopt them

translate them and come up with kind of

this own figment of the this idea of

what that word represents gospel comes

from Old English God spell right and

it's not God and not a spell you

caste but it's God as in good and spell

as in speak or preach or news

so gospel is good news the good news

well what is the good news it's not the

commandments it's not the lower law the

gospel being very specific is the good

news of the garden of gethsemane of the

cross and of the resurrection of Jesus

Christ that's really what the gospel of

Jesus Christ is it's the higher law

certainly in the terms that are

typically used here in the New Testament

so when we hear this in verse 2 for unto

us was the gospel preached there talking

about this is the new information we

have that we didn't have before Jesus

Christ that had been lost for a very

long time certainly the good news the

God-spell had been given in ancient

ancient times by the prophets over and

over again we know they all preached of

Christ of the true Messiah of Jehovah

coming down to earth lowering himself

from us and being our Redeemer but it

had been lost for centuries at least in

the mainstream establishment of

Jerusalem so verse 2 for unto us was the

gospel preached as well as unto them but

the word preached did not profit them

they're talking about who they're

talking about the children of Israel at

Sinai that's who the author is talking

about for unto us was the gospel

preached as well as unto them the

children of Israel but the word preached

did not profit them not being mixed with

faith in them that heard it or mixed or

shared with them among them with faith

this is important this is from pistis

remember how in previous episodes we've

talked about how we have works in the

law on one side and grace and faith on

the other those are the two columns the

high

in the lower laws so when they say mixed

with faith here what they're talking

about specifically at its core is faith

in Jesus Christ it was not mixed with

faith in Jesus Christ in them that heard

it they did not accept the higher law

okay they rejected the first set of

tablets verse 3 for we which have

believed do enter into rest all right so

this is kind of tricky because in the

New Testament oftentimes words are

translated differently and sometimes for

example here in verse 3 this should not

be believed it's too weak it's not

belief it comes from the root of the

same root pistis faith so that he's

he's tying in verse 2 here with being

mixed with faith he's saying for we

which have faith in Jesus Christ and he

had in his sacrifice

do enter into rest his rest as he said

as I have sworn in my wrath if they

shall enter into my rest although the

works were finished from the foundation

of the world

this is really important he does

something really interesting here with

both the story of the creation and with

the story of the children of Israel in

the wilderness let me give you the

Joseph Smith translation of verse 3 here

for we who have believed do enter into

rest

remember works and then rest as he said

as I have sworn in my wrath if they

harden their hearts this is a reference

back to Psalm the Psalms if they harden

their hearts they shall not enter unto

my rest keep that in mind so those that

do not have faith in Jesus Christ is the

same as those who harden their hearts

they shall not enter unto my rest also I

have sworn if they will not harden their

hearts they shall enter into my rest

although the works of God were prepared

or finished from the foundation of the

world

so we get a coupling here between having

faith in Jesus Christ and the hardening

of hearts okay so we're tying this in

through Psalms also these are references

to Psalms that are tied into the Exodus

story and the creation story let's keep

going

verse 4 he goes here into the creation

story for he spake in a certain place of

the seventh day well he did that in

Genesis on this wise and God did rest

the seventh day from all his works so

let's have a new way here of thinking

about the creation story and let's have

more insight into the Sabbath day and

understand what's going on here

so here the author of Hebrews is

comparing works to what is not rest

right well what do we have in the

creation story that is not the rest well

as we see here in verse four the seventh

day was his rest what were the first six

days they are his works

okay so God in creation also uses works

and rest or a higher law eventually a

higher destination or a higher law okay

and I'm kind of building on this

step-by-step so follow with me on

this alright then we're gonna get to

five here now keep in mind it's always

important to understand when there's

something more than just a little word

inserted or changed by Joseph Smith and

the Joseph Smith translation and we're

going to get that here in verse five

okay because when he makes a phrase a

change of a phrase typically or a whole

verse we can see where he's really

trying to emphasize something and change

a concept

so here verse five he says the

author says and in this place again so

going back again to the scriptures if

they shall enter my rest Joseph Smith

has it as and in this place again if he

emphasizes if they harden not their

hearts they shall enter into my rest

okay so again it's not that anything's

changed we've already seen that before

is part of the normal King James Version

here so why is Joseph Smith inserting

this again it's because there is an

emphasis think about the background that

he would have in doing this what is the

back where do we see the term hardening

our hearts often keep that in mind I'll

come back to that in a minute so let's

skip down to verse seven here and it

says and again he limited a certain day

saying in David today after so long a

time as it is said today if you will

hear his voice harden not your hearts

well here Jehovah's voice alright this

is about Jesus Christ so again a

reference to harden not your hearts by

the way why do we bring in David all the

time in this what does David have to do

as the King of Jerusalem have to do with

all this well it's as I said before this

is about the Melchizedek King who Jesus

is so when we refer to David in this we

are going back to several Psalms in the

Old Testament that are a part of that

temple drama very important to

understand and I know I need to get that

temple imagery and drama episode done so

we can spell this out a little bit more

and then down in verse 10 we get this

concept again of the works and the rest

so in 10 for he that is entered into his

rest

he also hath ceased from his own works

as God did from this so in other words

looking at the Exodus for those that

would have been able to go into the

promise

land and did not reject if they would

have been able to go into the promised

land and they would have entered into

his rest that's the promise but they

couldn't and therefore instead they

wander in the desert and in the creation

story there are the six days of work and

then the Sabbath so we can look at the

week as also what happened with the

children of Israel from Sinai they were

able to go through the first six days of

the week so to speak but they were never

able to enter into the Sabbath they were

never able to enter into the day of rest

because they rejected it they could not

go through the veil so an 11 real quick

let us labor therefore to enter into

that rest so it requires work to be able

to get there right we can't get there

alone on works we know that we have to

have grace but we do need to have works

we have to labor that's the curse of the

fall of Adam and Eve right they have to

labor they have to sweat they have to

have pain because why because they

partook of the fruit of the lower law

and they fell to the lower law so what

are the curses really it's not like God

saying out you know go to your room it's

a natural consequence they partook of

the lower law of the tree of the lower

law therefore the lower law requires

works and so you're going to work and

labor toward returning to God and

returning go and ending up at in his

rest or in the Holy of Holies

verse 12 for the word of God is quick

now quick means living it's a living

word like in quick media right that's

what quick means now this is from Saint

the King James Version which is the

early 17th century

but if you were to go back another 600

years more you'd end up in Old

English where this might have been

spelled CWI

right here right cwic means alive so for

the word of God is quick alive and

powerful and sharper than any two-edged

sword piercing even to the dividing

asunder of soul and spirit Joseph Smith

has a body and spirit so the Word of God

is well we want the fullness of the Word

of God which includes the higher law and

the gospel the God-spell the good news of

the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus

Christ which by the way really also

includes the birth of Jesus Christ

coming into mortality that's part of the

good news so let's recap here for a

moment

and see what we're hearing here from the

author of Hebrews we have the story of

creation where the first six days in a

sense represent the lower law they

represent us moving forward and working

and laboring and by the sweat of our

brows to work back toward God which is

the seventh day where he would be in his

rest now let me say something about the

word rest I've talked about the DNA of

words rest really comes from restore a

or re star a which would be to stand or

even stand again right so if you're

moving and then you stop and you just

stand that would be at rest right that's

the rest another word that is very

similar that comes from kind of the same

place is repose which would be you think

about it too again you know it's like

Madonna

strike a pose right it's to stop and to

pose for something or to stand and pose

for something so it's at rest being at

rest well other meanings of those words

would be to place trust there's another

word which is rape or Neri which is very

similar to repose which means to deposit

or to put trust or confidence in someone

and therefore we can see faith in Christ

as

being part of that rest it also means

can mean an abode a home so we can think

of going back home to the rest of God to

God's rest and his mansion or mansions

so even God through the creation process

goes through these works the Aaronic

priesthood and the rest at the seventh

day the Sabbath would represent home it

represents doesn't represent just

stopping it represents faith it

represents faith in Jesus Christ it

represents our home that's how I see it

and then with the children of Israel

where they reject the higher law they

right reject faith in Christ they

receive the lower law and then if we go

back just real quickly to chapter 3 I

believe and we look down at verses 8 and

9 let's look at this again verse 8

harden not your hearts as in the

provocation in the day of temptation in

the wilderness so again that's what they

did in the wilderness they hardened

their hearts that's a phrase that is

used to say they rejected the higher law

they rejected Christ and 9 when your

father's tempted me so the children of

Israel tempted me in sat Sinai proved me

and saw my works for 40 years what do

you mean they saw God's works for 40

years as they wandered in the desert

yeah because they were put into those

first six days so to speak of the

creation story they were held down in

the lower law for 40 years and then

never were able to come into the

higher law into the promised land into

the rest of God into the oath and

covenant of the priesthood because they

rejected it

so we can look at the Temple of Solomon

also as not starting off because in the

beginning day one is actually the Holy

of Holies but once it's all done then

it's a matter of moving our way back to

the Holy of Holies right because in the

beginning is the counsel with God it's

in the Holy of Holies but building

outward day by day that's exactly what

the Temple of Solomon is it's the seven

days that are being built of the

creation it's built after the creation

that's why we see creation always tied

with a temple because the temple is

being a model of the creation day one is

the beginning the beginning the Holy of

Holies day two is the Vail and etc etc

I'm not gonna go into that now but those

six days where we're working our way

back to God to his rest is working our

way back to the holy of holies we go

through the process through the works

which is what the children of Israel

were left to do remaining in the lower

law and never entering into the higher

law with a mock ascetic priesthood which

is tied directly to the Messiah tied

directly to Jesus Christ and then in 14

we get again this terminology about

Jesus being the high priest says here

seeing then that we have a great high

priest being Jesus that is passed into

the heavens Jesus the Son of God this is

always being put in here oftentimes the

son they're referring back to Psalm 110

go read that let us hold fast our

profession or our confession or our word

our preaching right what we're going to

profess to someone that we're that we

are testimony right our faith in our

testimony of Jesus Christ 15 for we have

not an High Priest which cannot be

touched with the feelings of our

infirmities in other words Christ was

mortal this is a very important issue

that some Christians haven't believed at

times

he was mortal in the sense that he came

into mortality born of Mary and suffered

everything that we suffer was tempted

just like we are tempted had to choose

do I do this or do I do that the growing

pains and then growing grace by grace

line upon line just like the rest of us

do just a little faster pace so to speak

and it's also a reference back to the

Day of Atonement where the high priest

would basically take on all of the sins

of one of the goats and lay them on to

another goat and then purify himself

purify his family Jesus didn't have to

do that

purify the temple purify the land and

purify all of the people of the land so

when they talk about the high priest

doing these things they're referring to

the temple drama but especially with a

high priest they're referring to the day

of atonement and verse 16 let us

therefore come boldly unto the throne of

grace so as he's been talking about

going through these first six days and

then ending up in God's rest well in his

rest in that seventh day then is going

into the holy of Holy's is going through

the veil to the holy of holies and being

on the throne of God think about

facsimile number three right all the

hoopla that the critics of the church

and an Egyptologist give about Joseph

Smith identifying Osiris who is sitting

on the throne there the great God of

Egypt at least in later in later times

being actually Abraham they have no idea

what he's talking about it's the same

thing that is happening here that I'm

going to go over in a second in Chapter

five

it's exactly the same thing this is

Christ sitting on the throne of God and

us sitting on the throne of God with a

title of Melchizedek Jesus is the milk

is attacking but he's fitting into

something that's already there is a

tradition as a ritual as an

understanding

but back it up even more it's all about

him right so this here in Hebrews is

fitting Jesus into the ritual of the

Davidic Melchizedek King which was built

all around the idea of the Messiah of

Jesus Christ in the first place keep

that in mind especially for the next

chapter so let us therefore come boldly

unto the throne of grace that we may

obtain mercy and find grace to help him

in time of need so that's where the

mercy is in the rest is from the

higher law so this has gone longer than

I typically do so I'm going to save

chapters five and six for another

episode that I will do here shortly I'll

talk to you next time