Post 34 of Study: Hebrews 5

This may be the last post for a few days. I need to apply myself to another passage.  

The point of 5:1-11 is to contrast a typical human Levitical priest with the perfection of Christ's priesthood. he was completed as a human being because of his experience of humility and suffering. He knows what humans experience is like and is therefore qualified to be an eternal priest and author of eternal salvation; He is a different quality of priest and intercessor, not just a bigger and better version of the same Levitical priests who had been around for 2,000 years, faithful and unfaithful.

No verses speak more to his humanity, in a mystery. Verse 7 explains: He was afraid of the execution, of death. Death is not our friend. It may be a release from suffering, and it is not a horror to believers, but I'm uncomfortable when people lionize death as a benefit, a welcome, especially when they are unbelievers. 

Death is not the way it's supposed to be. Death is a punishment. I remember when I was pregnant and facing childbirth. Women do die in childbirth, even today, and I felt sometimes as if I were looking into a dark tunnel with no light at the end. What would happen? We can feel the same about death. Yes, we have assurance, but there is still a transition, the valley of the shadow of death, that we are not supposed to embrace and think will be a picnic. 

Jesus went through death, and the Bible is not embarrassed to say He wasn't looking forward to it. But He submitted to it in obedience for the righting of the universe and the salvation of humans.