Hebrews 7:9-11 - If perfection had been attainable

7:9,10

The argument in these verses may seem a little strange to us, even stretching a point! However, it would make sense as a rabbinical argument. The argument is that since Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, and the Levites were descended from Abraham, so Abraham was giving on behalf of the Levites as well. We could take this even further and say that Abraham was giving on behalf of all Israel. So all Israel should honour Jesus Christ as their true high priest.

7:11

The writer is trying to demonstrate to his readers that God never intended the Levitical priesthood to be the eternal solution. “Now if perfection had been ...” , note that God’s purposes for us are perfection, not “good enough”, “not bad”, nor even “pretty good”, but perfection. Since we are a sinful people a priesthood is needed. The Levitical priesthood was there to demonstrate that we needed a priest. Yet it was abundantly obvious that perfection had not been achieved through the Levitical priesthood. So there was a priest, Melchizedek, long before the Law, and Psalm 110 said God would send a priest in the order of Melchizedek, not a Levitical priest (i.e. not in the order of Aaron).