Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A song for going up to the Temple.

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to all the rulers of Judah and all the other people. He said, “The Lord sent me to say these things about this Temple and this city. Everything that you have heard is from the Lord. ¹³ You people, change your lives! You must start doing good! You must obey the Lord your God. If you do that, he will change his mind. He will not do the bad things he told you about. ¹⁴ As for me, I am in your power. Do to me what you think is good and right. ¹⁵ But if you kill me, be sure of one thing. You will be guilty of killing an innocent person. You will make this city and everyone living in it guilty too. The Lord really did send me to you. The message you heard really is from the Lord.”

¹⁶ Then the rulers and all the people spoke. They said to the priests and the prophets, “Jeremiah must not be killed. What he told us comes from the Lord our God.”

¹⁷ Then some of the elders stood up and spoke to all the people. ¹⁸ They said, “Micah the prophet was from the city of Moresheth. He was a prophet during the time that Hezekiah was king of Judah. Micah said this to all the people of Judah: ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:

¹⁹ “King Hezekiah of Judah and the people of Judah did not kill Micah. You know that Hezekiah respected the Lord and wanted to please him. So the Lord changed his mind and didn’t do the bad things to Judah that he said he would do. If we hurt Jeremiah, we will bring many troubles on ourselves. And those troubles will be our own fault.”

²⁰ In the past there was another man who spoke the Lord’s message. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from the city of Kiriath Jearim. Uriah said the same things against this city and this land that Jeremiah did. ²¹ King Jehoiakim, his army officers, and the leaders of Judah heard Uriah and became angry. King Jehoiakim wanted to kill Uriah, but Uriah heard about it. Uriah was afraid, so he escaped to the land of Egypt. ²² But King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor and some other men to Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah from Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim ordered Uriah to be killed with a sword. Uriah’s body was thrown into the burial place where the poor are buried.

²⁴ There was an important man named Ahikam son of Shaphan who supported Jeremiah. He kept Jeremiah from being killed by the priests and prophets.

¹¹ The people were given the law under the system of priests from the tribe of Levi. But no one could be made spiritually perfect through that system of priests. So there was a need for another priest to come. I mean a priest like Melchizedek, not Aaron. ¹² And when a different kind of priest comes, then the law must be changed too. ^13-14 We are talking about our Lord Christ, who belonged to a different tribe. No one from that tribe ever served as a priest at the altar. It is clear that Christ came from the tribe of Judah. And Moses said nothing about priests belonging to that tribe.

Jesus Is a Priest Like Melchizedek

¹⁵ And these things become even clearer when we see that another priest has come who is like Melchizedek. ¹⁶ He was made a priest, but not because he met the requirement of being born into the right family. He became a priest by the power of a life that will never end. ¹⁷ This is what the Scriptures say about him: “You are a priest forever—the kind of priest Melchizedek was.”^[a]

¹⁸ The old rule is now ended because it was weak and worthless. ¹⁹ The Law of Moses could not make anything perfect. But now a better hope has been given to us. And with that hope we can come near to God.

²⁰ Also, it is important that God made a promise with an oath when he made Jesus high priest. When those other men became priests, there was no oath. ²¹ But Christ became a priest with God’s oath. God said to him,

²² So this means that Jesus is the guarantee of a better agreement from God to his people.