The people established the Levitical priesthood based on instructions they received. If the work of the Levitical priests had been perfect, we wouldn’t need to speak about another kind of priest. However, we speak about another kind of priest, a priest like Melchizedek, not a Levitical priest like Aaron. When a different kind of priesthood is established, the regulations for those priests are different. The priest whom we are talking about was a member of a different tribe. No one from that tribe ever served as a priest at the altar. Everyone knows that our Lord came from the tribe of Judah. Moses never said anything about priests coming from that tribe. The regulations were different. This became clear when a different priest who is like Melchizedek appeared. That person is a priest, not because he met human requirements, but because he has power that comes from a life that cannot be destroyed. The Scriptures say the following about him: “You are a priest forever, in the way Melchizedek was a priest.” The former requirements are rejected because they are weak and useless. Moses’ Teachings couldn’t accomplish everything that God required. But we have something else that gives us greater confidence and allows us to approach God. None of this happened without an oath. The men from the tribe of Levi may have become priests without an oath, but Jesus became a priest when God took an oath. God said about him, “The Lord has taken an oath and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.” In this way Jesus has become the guarantee of a better promise. There was a long succession of priests because when a priest died he could no longer serve. But Jesus lives forever, so he serves as a priest forever. That is why he is always able to save those who come to God through him. He can do this because he always lives and intercedes for them. We need a chief priest who is holy, innocent, pure, set apart from sinners, and who has the highest position in heaven. We need a priest who doesn’t have to bring daily sacrifices as those chief priests did. First they brought sacrifices for their own sins, and then they brought sacrifices for the sins of the people. Jesus brought the sacrifice for the sins of the people once and for all when he sacrificed himself. Moses’ Teachings designated mortals as chief priests even though they had weaknesses. But God’s promise, which came after Moses’ Teachings, designated the Son who forever accomplished everything that God required. Jesus has been given a priestly work that is superior to the Levitical priests’ work. He also brings a better promise from God that is based on better guarantees. If nothing had been wrong with the first promise, no one would look for another one. But God found something wrong with his people and said to them, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new promise to Israel and Judah. It will not be like the promise that I made to their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt. They rejected that promise, so I ignored them, says the Lord. But this is the promise that I will make to Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ All of them from the least important to the most important will all know me because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.” God made this new promise and showed that the first promise was outdated. What is outdated and aging will soon disappear.