A Torah Verse By Verse Commentary Of Paul's Epistles by Re'tzon Ha'El - HTML preview

Chapter 5

V1-4 This Aaronic High priesthood was indeed created before Yeshua’s resurrection and conquering of death, in order to carry out the sacrificial rights required to cleanse one of their sins. The Elohim-appointed high priest had to be human in order to empathize with his sinful kinsmen, as an angelic sinless being from heaven for instance, would not be able to relate to sin as fallen man does. Ex 28:1 stipulates that he had to be of the lineage of Aaron and none other. Additionally, being a fallible man, he also needed to have his sins forgiven too, hence rendering him inferior to Yeshua, who was to take over that role forever. Of important note is the point stressed in v2 that the high priest’s purpose was limited to sins of agnoeo/ignorance i.e. sinning mistakenly as opposed to wilful sinning. Leviticus clearly defines and accentuates this salient truth. An excellent example is the commandment thou shalt not kill in Ex 20:13 of the 10 commandments. The Hebrew word. ratsach’ is murder i.e. premeditated killing. Lev 24:17 clearly cites such a sin unpardonable and worthy of death. However, killing caused by mistake had a rather different law Deut 19:1-7.

Yeshua as we shall see was also appointed by Elohim, is a man who is sinless, and his compassion far exceeds that of any man that ever lived. He differs however in that He is incapable of dying since His appointment i.e. He is a High priest for eternity, and also, He is not of Aaronic lineage but of the tribe of Judah of the line of David. This necessitated the adjustment NOT removal of the Torah to accommodate this perfect appointment made by YHVH Elohim.

V5 Yeshua did not appoint Himself, although He is YHVH the Son. It was the duty of YHVH the Father to do so whom Yeshua wilfully chose to be subject to. Ps 2:7 is quoted here to prove that Yeshua is indeed YHVH the son, begotten of the Father.

V6 Further proof that it was preordained before Yeshua’s life and death and resurrection by this prophecy of Ps 110:4 for Him to be appointed a high priest of an order far exceeding that of Aaron. It must be reiterated that despite Yeshua deserving all worship, praise and honour, He never ever exalted Himself but was exalted by YHVH the Father after having earned His right to be our High priest, Saviour, King and Elohim.

V7-8 Yeshua fulfilled Isa 50:4-5. Despite His agony and fear of impending exceeding suffering and death in the garden of Gethsemane, being human He cried out to YHVH the Father for mercy provided it were YHVH’s will. Knowing that the Father’s will was for Him to suffer death for the liberty of man from eternal death, by sacrifice of the Son’s unblemished blood, Yeshua wilfully obeyed the Father’s wishes. Cf Ps 22:1,2,24 and Matt 26:36-44. Days of his flesh in v7 highlights how our human flesh is at great variance with our spirit, hence the need for us to ensure our spirit works in tandem with the Holy Spirit to be king over our soul (where Satan and his kingdom work against us) and flesh (where our lusts, if given into, act themselves out leading to sin which culminates in death).

V8 also reveals another often missed truth that Yeshua had the same struggles as mankind despite proving perfection. He had to learn obedience, as much as we do. It is not heretical to state that Yeshua could have given in to sin had He not had such rigid discipline over His soul and body. Hence why he spent nights in the mountains praying, rejoicing, giving thanks incessantly with YHVH the Father in order not to fall for Satan’s temptation Matt 14:23; Lk 6:12. We too need to discipline our souls and bodies by incessant prayer cf 1 Thes 5:16-22.; Mk 14:38.

V9-10 Teleioo is translated being made perfect. It means to complete or accomplish fully. Yeshua faultlessly completed the mission of His first advent, resisting all temptation, conquering sin and death and becoming eligible to be our Saviour and to be appointed by Elohim as our eternal High priest. It is stressed that He is only the Saviour of those that obey Him, which means those that keep His commandments/Torah Jn 14:15;15:10; 8:31-32. Also note Acts 5:32

V11 The listeners/readers of this epistle were assured that clarity regarding this apparently difficult truth to grasp, regarding Yeshua as being our High priest of the order of Melchizedek would soon be revealed. Most believers are dull of hearing due to apathy concerning reading the whole word/Bible of Elohim. It is necessary to understand the so-called Old Testament in order to understand the teachings, sayings, life and purpose of Yeshua. At least the early believers had a better excuse than us in that they had limited access to the scriptures, notwithstanding the fact that literacy was a privilege. We are without excuse in the free world whereby we have ready access to scripture, commentaries and the like of which I hope these commentaries may be a blessing to you, and I pray will encourage you to seek fervently truth within the holy writ with great rapacity.

V12 Many a preacher base their teachings on the so-called New Testament, damningly stating that the Old Testament has been done away with. My Bible has approximately 915 pages, the Old Testament comprising 682. The Old Testament hence comprises some 74,5%. It would be greater than ¾ of the Bible if the apocrypha were to be considered too. The apocrypha was only removed from conventional Bibles after the time of Martin Luther c1534 and the Catholics followed suit in 1546. The 1611 KJV has the apocrypha as did all Bibles prior to the decision made by Luther who was exceedingly anti-Jewish. Additionally, the New Testament was only ratified by the third council of Carthage in AD 397.

The point being made here is that Yeshua and the apostles and early Christian church of the first 4 centuries would not have had access to any scripture outside the Tanakh/Old Testament, from which truth was drawn upon. How greater an indictment upon the Torah-hating preachers of today would the author have unleashed regarding their lack of the first principles of the logion/oracles, contents of Mosaic law of Elohim, than that upon the early Hebrews who actually simply did not understand these oracles!! It is an insult to Elohim for any preacher disregarding Torah and/or the Old Testament to claim to preach the meat, when they do not even have the milk at their disposal to teach from.

V13-14 milk and meat have been loosely utilized in preaching to mean poor interpretation versus greater interpretation of scripture. It is a shame that these 2 verses are overlooked which define the two categorically. Milk is the Bible and its message. Meat is doing the Bible. Instead of wasting time trying to interpret the scriptures which do not need interpreting, as they are self-explanatory, meaning what they say, and saying what they mean, I implore you dear listener/reader to do scripture i.e. follow the commandments as Yeshua eerily warns us in Matt 7:22-27. Practising Bible is imperative for maturity in our Christian walk. Note the analogical literal style of milk and meat is again pretty telling of this epistle being most likely Pauline in origin.