This week I want to explore just who Melchizedek was- and that means I am going to dance around the edge of the bunny trail. First, let me set his importance- or rather, let the author of Hebrews do so...
Heb 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
Heb 7:2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.
Heb 7:3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
Heb 7:4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!
From this, we learn several things. He was a Priest outside the Law's priesthood, as the father of the Law's priesthood, Levi, was a couple generations from being born. He is named a King, although the translations provided by the author in 7:2 tell us his kingdom IS NOT OF THIS EARTH, in the sense that it was not kingship over some city or cities. (Remember Jesus saying that to Pilate in John 18:36?) There is no record of his genealogy, whereas heretofore the Book of Genesis had a genealogy on every page. And the author names him a great man! So how is it he was deemed great? Well, there's the rub.
If you go back to Genesis 14, the first 17 verses are telling the story of how Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, and his allies defeated the king of Sodom and his buddies, how Lot was taken prisoner, and Abraham took his whopping army of 318 men and whupped the armies of 5 kings. And in verse 21, the story continues to the end of the chapter. And without those other three verses, the chapter flows perfectly. But in between meeting up with the king of Sodom in v17 and dividing the spoils in v21, we have this:
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)
Gen 14:19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
Gen 14:20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
And that is it. All you get about Melchzedek for 760 years, until David prophesies in Psalm 110:
Psa 110:4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
And our author quotes later on in this chapter. I want to note not only what I said earlier, but also that Melchizedek brought out bread and wine as a memorial to God's victory through Abraham- Just as Jesus would do to commemorate HIS upcoming victory during the Last Supper. So, was he real? Undoubtedly. Was He Christ pre-incarnate, as some say?. Maybe, but I don't think so. I believe he was a man, a priest called by God. He was a vivid foreshadowing of Christ, in the bread and wine, the priest without lineage, the Kingdom not on a map. And I think that one day, in the New Kingdom, the Jews will marvel at how God hid this perfect picture of Christ in plain sight.
Now, here's where I veer off path for just a minute. It struck me that there is exactly one other place where the Bible has a short but meaningful story, about an otherwise unknown man (until Bruce Wilkinson's book in 2000), stuffed in the middle of a passage where it really didn't seem to fit. After three chapters worth of (you guessed it) genealogy, and before at least another chapter and a half of it, sits this:
1Ch 4:9 And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with sorrow.
1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that You would bless me indeed, and make my border larger, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, so that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he asked.
Think of Jabez as a foreshadowing of the Church. Like Jabez, it was born in the sorrow of Christ's crucifixion. It was blessed by God with salvation, given the commission to expand the borders of the Kingdom, and depends on God for its defense. And God granted its prayers. And like Melchizedek, the name is mentioned one more time- ahead in time, but earlier in the book:
1Ch 2:55 And the families of the scribes who lived at Jabez were the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.
So God apparently answered Jabez's prayer- he had a city of note (if only here) named after him. But do a little more digging to complete the story. These three families of scribes mentioned are also never mentioned again; but when I dug into the meanings of the names, see the connection to the Church:
- Tirathites: a gate...
- Shimeathites: an announcement...
- Suchathites: a branch...
We enter, as Jesus said, through the Narrow Gate... we announce the Gospel to the world... and in Zechariah 3, the Messiah is prophetically called the BRANCH. In pop culture, we call these Easter Eggs: Melchizedek for Christ, Jabez for the Church.
So why is Melchizedek great? Because Father Abraham, the greatest of Jewish heroes, paid tithes to him, and was blessed by him. And that means...
Heb 7:6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
Heb 7:7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.
As Abraham accepted the blessing, he accepted that the priesthood was greater than anything that would come from himself. In a way, so did Levi...
Heb 7:9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,
Heb 7:10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
But what was this superiority built on? Levi was appointed by the Law; the priests were appointed by men from his family. Not so the Melchiedekian priesthood:
Heb 7:20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath,
Heb 7:21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.'"
So it was God's oath that established THIS priesthood. Now, God was to make an oath with Abraham, an oath that eventually led to the Law. But...
Heb 7:18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness
Heb 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
So a new covenant would be needed. And a new priesthood- or a superior one. Because...
Heb 7:12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
If you were a Hebrew reader at this point, you MIGHT be asking, "So where is this new covenant you're talking about?" And the prophet Jeremiah will supply it...
Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
Jer 31:32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
Jer 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
So, a new covenant, a new priesthood, and a new, perfect way to salvation:
Heb 7:27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Heb 7:28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
