From Judah, Yet a Priest Forever

The song of Revelation 5 named two offices together: kings and priests. In Israel those two belonged to different tribes. Jacob had promised the scepter to Judah, and the priesthood was given to the sons of Levi, to Aaron and his descendants. Yet the One whom Revelation calls the lion of the tribe of Judah is also, in the letter to the Hebrews, a high priest. How can a man of Judah be a priest?

Hebrews raises that question itself and answers it. In answering, it does what the law of the goel also does: it separates the line through which He came from the qualification on which His office rests.

Hebrews Names the Tribe

The writer has been speaking of the priesthood that came through Levi. Then he turns to the One of whom the Psalms say, “You are a priest forever.”

Hebrews 7:13-14 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

Two facts are set down plainly: the One spoken of “belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar,” and “it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah.”

Hebrews does not hide His descent or explain it away. It affirms it. He came from Judah, the tribe over which Jacob said the scepter would not depart. That is the line of rule, the line of the lion.

Hebrews Divides at Once

Having named the tribe, Hebrews immediately says that the priesthood does not rest on it.

Hebrews 7:15-17 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not according to a nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) of fleshly commandment but according to the dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(power) of an indestructible zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life). For it is testified of him, "You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek."

He “has become a priest not according to a nomos(law) of fleshly commandment but according to the dynamis(power) of an indestructible zoe(life).” The writer gives the ground in Scripture, and that testimony is the Psalm of David.

Psalm 110:4 The LORD has sworn and will not relent: You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So within three verses Hebrews says two different things about the same Person, and it is careful not to blend them. His line is Judah. His priesthood is according to the order of Melchizedek, on the ground of an indestructible life, confirmed by an oath of the LORD. The tribe tells us where He came from. It does not tell us what qualifies Him to serve as priest.

The Same Division in the Law of the Goel

The law of the goel shows the same division. The list in Leviticus 25:48-49 of those who may redeem a man who has sold himself runs from “one of his brothers,” through “his uncle” and “his uncle’s son,” to “the kindred of his flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') from his family,” and ends with “or his hand has attained, and he is redeemed.” Those verses give two conditions, flesh of the same flesh and a hand that reaches far enough to pay.

The list never asks which tribe the redeemer comes from. It does not say that a goel must be of Judah, or of Levi, or of any tribe in particular. The qualification of a goel is nearness of flesh and the means to pay. That is a different kind of question altogether from the question of descent through a royal tribe.

So the goel line and the line of the lion are distinct even in the law. One concerns rule and comes through Judah. The other concerns redemption and rests on kinship and price.

The Channel and the Qualification

Judah is the channel He came through; goel is the qualification He brought with Him. He did not first become the lion and then, as a result, become the goel. He came through Judah in order to be the goel, and He was called the lion.

Hebrews itself joins the goel’s qualification to the priesthood, not to the tribe. In its second chapter the writer says, “Therefore He was obligated to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). Being made like His brothers in every respect is the kinsman’s condition, flesh of the same flesh. The purpose given for it is that He might become a high priest. The writer does not say that He was made like His brothers so that He might come from Judah. Descent through Judah is one thing. Becoming like His brothers in order to serve as a merciful high priest is another.

Why This Matters

Keeping the two apart guards the reader from two mistakes.

The first mistake is to think that redemption is simply an act of royal power, as though the King redeemed by decree because He holds the scepter. Revelation 5:9 has already shown us otherwise: the Lamb purchased with His blood, and a scepter does not pay a price.

The second mistake is to think that descent alone qualified Him to redeem, as though being born of Judah were enough. The kinsman in Ruth who drew back had standing as a near relative and still could not redeem. Being in the right family is not the same as having what redemption requires.

Scripture avoids both mistakes by writing each line with its own words. The line of rule speaks of scepter, staff, lion and Judah. The line of the goel speaks of flesh, blood, price and purchase. Both meet in one Person, and in Him neither is lost.

The next question follows naturally. If the goel is defined by what He does, by redeeming and paying, then what does His name say? Jacob waited for “your salvation (yeshuah יְשׁוּעָה yesh-oo'-aw).” The angel told Joseph to call the Child Yeshua. In Book 4 we read that name letter by letter. One thing the first letter of that name does in Hebrew is brought out by the angel’s own sentence.