Post 44 of Study, Hebrews 7 and more random thoughts

 A running motif in Scripture is that the second replaces the first. This is comforting and yet perplexing. 

Christ is the second Adam. The first son of Adam killed the second one (and the third became the heir). The second son of Abraham was the promised one. The second son of Isaac inherited the blessing, through deceit but it was in the plan. The second leader of Israel took them into the promised land. Even in the Prodigal Son story, the second son is restored and the first is told to back off from his self-righteousness (or this is how it is commonly interpreted; I have my doubts on that). 

The first born were sacrificed at Passover, or saved if a different sacrifice was applied. 

I have heard some take this motif to strange places, but that is not the point. In one way it is comforting--we all get second chances. We all need second chances; actually, thousands of chances.

(I'll put in a plug here for Dave's Killer Bread. I read the wrapper and found out Dave was in prison for 15 years and his brother gave him a second chance and the bakery hires lots of ex-prisoners.  It's great bread. My doctor told me to eat much less white flour, and this is all organic and whole wheat.)

In another way the motif is perplexing. Why didn't God get it right the first time? Why did He create a race of humans whom He knew would get it wrong? Why couldn't Ishmael be the heir, or Esau? Why does the screw-up second son get restored--in modern times he'd be such a jerk! (In those times, he would have been an exile, a rejected reprobate.) Why was Moses punished for losing his temper and hitting the rock?  Why is the second given this place of privilege? Some even think the first creation was dumped for a second (gap theory).

It may seem so, but being the second isn't so great, even if they get used for the posterity and the progression of the plan. Isaac was going to be sacrificed by his father. Jacob had a lot of family problems. The prodigal younger son (prodigal meaning wasteful, not returning as many think) probably had STIs. 

And Jesus went to the cross. 

I think there are a few reasons for this motif. One is that human ways--primogeniture, for example, and the almost worship of the first born--is not God's way. A second reason is that we are sinners, there is a God and we are not Him, and we need the second chances. It is just interesting that this is such as common pattern in the Bible. Even the first leader of the church, Peter, was in a sense displaced by Paul in terms of his influence. The second coming will be the one where all things are made new; the new heavens and the new earth will be the "right ones."

The connection to Hebrews is that the law of Moses and all that meant in Jewish culture is being displaced by the Son, the true Melchizedek (the second coming of him), and other titles for Christ. The first set the stage but could not complete the work of redemption for the world. This doesn't mean the Jews are shut out, only that they must accept the second way.