A Wonderful Change – The Presidential Prayer Team

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. – Hebrews 7:12

Some people thrive on change, others abhor it. Whatever is involved, change means things will be different.

Most Jews at the time of Jesus rejected the change that the disciples told them had to come. For generations, Israel had maintained the covenant with God that He gave Moses at Mt. Sinai… a system of sacrifice and worship. The Levites, as their priests, administered the law’s commands, but could not forgive or cleanse the one bringing the offering. The sacrifices were a reminder to them of their sin.

Then Jesus came, from the tribe of Judah, as God’s sacrificial Lamb to suffer and die for the sins of the world. He rose from the dead as proof that He was the anointed High Priest of God who lives forever. He is the fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:17). The prophet Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant in which the Lord declared, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people… for they shall all know me” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). Those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior will know the Lord as a child knows a loving Father. The transformed lives of the disciples were a witness to the new relationship between God and His children.

The grace of God through Christ now makes the first covenant of works obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Jesus has pre-eminence. It is a wonderful change, a “better hope… through which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:19). Pray now for the people of this nation, and those who govern them, who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Ask the Lord to draw their hearts to Him so this change revolutionizes the world.

Today’s Verse: Hebrews 7:12

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Hebrews 8:1-10, 13

8 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ²a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. ³For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. ⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

⁸For he finds fault with them when he says:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
⁹not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.

¹³In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.