Jesus, the High Priest like Melchizedek (Hebrews 4:14-5:10)

At the end of chapter 4, Hebrews seems to transition to discussing Jesus' role as High Priest, following the "Order of Melchizedek".

Melchizedek was the priest and king of Salem who met with Abraham.  Later, the author of Hebrews points out that this priest did not come from the line of Levite priests, which was instituted in the law of Moses.  Similarly, Jesus takes on the role of High Priest from outside the Levite line, but rather as a descendant of David.

So, God is going outside the Levite line and returning to something that even preceded that, Melchizedek.

In some ways, we can probably even think of Melchizedek as a "Gentile priest", since the Hebrew people of Israel were all descendants of Abraham.

Here, the author of Hebrews traces the order of Jesus' priesthood to Melchizedek.  The author refers to Psalm 110, which is an interesting psalm that has Messianic undertone of conquest.

Hebrews 4:16 really stands out to me as it states "let us approach the throne of grace with confidence".  What interests me about that is that the high priest must do his own sacrifices to clean himself before doing sacrifices for others.  Here, that is circumvented - WE can approach the throne of grace.

Thank you Jesus!