Hebrews 7-13: “An High Priest of Good Things to Come” (November 6-12)

“Melchizedek Blesses Abram” (detail) by Walter Rane

Before Jesus’s appearance on the American continent following His death and resurrection, the people He would later visit heard His voice. “By me redemption cometh,” He said, “and in me is the law of Moses fulfilled” (3 Nephi 9:17). He instructed them to stop offering animal sacrifices and to offer instead “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:19; see also Psalm 34:18).

The author of Hebrews shared the same message. After quoting King David saying that God doesn’t want our sacrifices (see Psalm 40:6), he says, “Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:11-12).

Jesus didn’t destroy the law of Moses. He fulfilled it. (See 3 Nephi 12:17.) In Hebrews, we learn that the details of the law of Moses were “figures” or symbols of eternal things. (See Hebrews 9:9, 24, Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 11:19.) When Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He completed the action which the ordinances of the law of Moses prefigured. In that way, He became “the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 9:15, New International Version). He gave us a new set of practices to remember His atoning sacrifice, including the sacrament, as a replacement for the former practices which anticipated the event.

Here are some principles I’ve learned from the second half of the epistle to the Hebrews:

1. Jesus can help us purge our “dead works.”

We all have habits and practices in our lives which may have previously been useful but which are no longer productive. Jesus can teach us higher and holier ways to live and can help us set aside the old ways that we no longer need. His blood can “purge [our] conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14), so that we no longer need to “trust in dead works” (Moroni 8:23). Just as the law of Moses was superseded by a higher law, the Savior can help us to draw closer to Him, but only if we are willing to follow His guidance and leave behind practices which will not achieve the same outcome.

Here is a blog post on that topic: Dead Works – Moroni 8:23

2. It’s important to stay true to our convictions.

After King Benjamin’s people received a remission of their sins, he urged them to remember what they had experienced and to stand steadfastly in their faith. (See Mosiah 4:11.) He appointed priests and teachers to “stir them up in remembrance” of the promises they had made (Mosiah 6:3).

The author of Hebrews likewise urges us to “hold fast the profession of our faith” (Hebrews 10:23), to “provoke” one another “unto love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24), and to “cast not away…[our] confidence, which hath great recompense of reward” (Hebrews 10:35).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts” (“Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence,” BYU Devotional Address, 2 Mar 1999).

See the following blog post: Return to Jerusalem – 1 Nephi 3:1-2.

3. We receive some blessings only after we exercise faith.

Paul provides a list of 17 Old Testament events in which people received blessings because they demonstrated faith in God. (See Hebrews 11.) He concluded, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6).

Moroni provides a similar list near the end of the Book of Mormon. (See Ether 12:7-22.) He tells us, “Neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God” (Ether 12:18).

We don’t earn blessings. However, we must sometimes do something in order to receive them. When we exercise faith, we invite the power of God into our lives.

Here’s a blog post about the need for faith: Why Are Some Blessings Conditional on Our Faith?

4. When we do what is right, we are not alone, however lonely we may feel.

It can sometimes feel lonely to do the right thing. Paul assures us that we are actually in good company:

Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.

Hebrews 12:22-23

In 1918, as Joseph F. Smith wondered how the Savior could accomplish His work when so few people had been receptive to His message during his mortal ministry, he saw in a vision the spirit world, where we will go when we die. He saw “gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:12).

Joseph F. Smith listed a number of individuals whom he recognized within this “vast multitude,” including biblical characters, Book of Mormon prophets, and modern church leaders (Doctrine and Covenants 138:18, 38-53). The multitude was impressive not just because of its size but because of the extraordinary individuals who were part of it.

I’m grateful for the reminder that there are many good people in this world and that I am not alone when I’m trying to do what’s right.

Here’s a blog post on that topic: Innumerable.

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