- [Narrator] Who was Melchizedek?
Melchizedek was an enigmatic figure who appeared briefly
on the stage of human history, then disappeared.
Despite being one of the least mentioned
and most mysterious individuals in the Old Testament,
Melchizedek, the king-priest of Salem is foundational
in understanding key concepts in the Bible.
The question is, who exactly is this mysterious figure?
What does this dynamic order tell us
about Christ's role as a king and a priest?
In Hebrew, his name means king of righteousness
or my king is righteous.
The first mention of this name can be dated
about two millennia before Christ,
the second around one millennium before Jesus was born,
and the third in the second half of the first century
after the birth of Jesus.
Abraham and Melchizedek.
Chedorlaomer, King of Elam and three allied kings
went to battle against five kings
who governed territories near the Dead Sea.
It was a victory for the four kings.
They took goods, food and materials from Sodom and Gamora.
From among the citizens of Sodom,
they took away lots with family and possessions.
Then a survivor who'd escaped
from the invading forces on the other side of the Jordan
came and told Abraham the Hebrew.
Now he was living
in the terebinths, oaks, of Mamre the Amorite,
brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner.
They were allies of Abraham.
When Abraham heard that his nephew, Lot, had been captured,
he armed and led out his trained men born in his own house,
numbering 318 and went in pursuits as far north as Dan.
He divided his forces against them by night,
he and his servants, and attacked and defeated them
and pursued them as far as Hobah,
which is north of Damascus.
And he brought back all the goods
and also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions
and also the women and the people.
Genesis 14:13-16, Amplified Bible:
Abraham was greeted by the king of Sodom
upon his return from battle.
He refused to take anything from the king
when he offered him goods.
Abraham refused any part of the loot
because he would not allow anyone say
that they made him rich.
He determined that God alone should be credited
for all of his success and wealth.
However, from Melchizedek, Abraham received bread and wine
and a blessing from God most high,
creator of heaven and earth.
Genesis 14:18-22, Amplified Bible:
Melchizedek, king of Salem, ancient Jerusalem,
brought out bread and wine for them.
He was the priest of God most high.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said,
"Blessed joyful favored, be Abraham by God most high,
creator and possessor of heaven and earth.
And blessed, praised and glorified be God most high,
who has given your enemies into your hands."
And Abraham gave him a 10th
of all the treasure he had taken in battle.
The king of Sodom said to Abraham,
"Give me the people and keep the goods,
spoils of battle for yourself."
But Abraham said to the king of Sodom,
"I have raised my hand and sworn an oath
to the Lord God most high,
the creator and possessor of heaven and earth."
This man was king of Salem,
as we see in Psalm 76:2 where we read,
"His tabernacle is in Salem, Jerusalem.
His dwelling place is in Zion."
We have no clue of where Melchizedek arrived from,
how he came to be in Canaan,
how he became to be a worshiper and priest of the true God
and how Abraham came to know about him.
The only thing we know is that he was there.
Melchizedek was both a king and a priest,
which made him unique.
Historically, combining religious authority
with civic authority has often been dangerous.
God forbade the kings of Israel to be priests
and the priests to be kings.
Leprosy struck King Uzziah
when he attempted to do the work of a priest
in 2 Chronicles 26:16-23.
The exemption was Melchizedek.
They opposed King Uzziah and said to him,
"It is not for you, Uzziah, to turn incense to the Lord,
but for the priests, the sons of Aaron
who have been consecrated to burn incense.
Get out of the sanctuary,
for you have been unfaithful
and will have no honor from the Lord God."
2 Chronicles 26:18:
Melchizedek was God's most high priest.
El Elyon signifies highest God like saying supreme being.
The priest, Melchizedek, worshiped God most high
without being related to Abraham or any other known convent,
people of God, but he worshiped the true God.
Melchizedek served Abraham bread and wine.
We read, "He was the priest of God most high."
Melchizedek, as priest, did two things.
He blessed Abraham, and he blessed God.
Melchizedek showed that a priest must associate
with God a man and have a ministry to God and man.
Despite looking obscure,
Melchizedek plays an important role in the Old Testament.
Many have speculated he might have been Noah's son, Seth,
or even an angel,
and some have even imagined he was an unfallen Adam
sent to observe God's work of redemption.
We have no concrete biblical foundation to confirm this.
"The question cannot be said to be settled completely.
Otherwise, the identity of Melchizedek
would've been agreed on by Bible scholars long ago."
Morris.
We can say with confidence
that Melchizedek is a remarkable type or picture of Jesus.
We read, "And he gave him a tithe of all."
This referred to a 10th of his assets, not his income.
There was almost a competition
between Abraham and Melchizedek
to see who could bless the other the most.
Abraham blessed Melchizedek out of his resources,
and Melchizedek blessed Abraham out of his resources.
Our community of believers should have this attitude
of mutual blessing.
It's also been suggested
that Melchizedek was an angel who administered judgment.
Others have equated Melchizedek with Shem.
The theories are all speculative, however.
David writing about Melchizedek.
David composed the psalm about a millennium
after Abraham describing his Lord as both king and priest.
In the first verse of this psalm,
the Lord invited David's Lord to sit
at his right hand in royal splendor.
Psalms 110:4:
The Lord has sworn an oath and will not change his mind.
"You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek."
We read, "You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek."
He vowed that the Messiah had an eternal priesthood,
and that it was after the pattern order of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek wasn't just an everyday worshiper
of the true God.
He held a respected position
as the priest of the most high God,
a title that highlights his significance.
The grandeur of God elevated the prestige
of Melchizedek's priesthood,
making him a noteworthy figure in history.
There is no mention of any father or mother of Melchizedek,
and he appears without any genealogy.
We read, "You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek."
Through this oath,
God showed that there is another kind of priest
that is different from the priest of Aaron.
The priests of Israel were all from Aaron's family,
and they used to work in the tabernacle,
later in the temple,
offering sacrifices and doing ceremonies
according to God's rules.
Here, we see that God established another priestly order
after the pattern of Melchizedek.
This oath was so important
that the author of Hebrews refers to it five times.
"His priesthood is not like that of Aaron,
figurative, successive and transient,
but real and effectual, fixed and incommunicable,
eternal and unchangeable," Horne.
One of the extraordinary features of the kingdom
is that the Lord Jesus will combine in his person
the dual offices of king and priest.
This might be dangerous when regular leaders do it.
That's why people want to keep religion
and government separate.
This is something that the world has wanted for a long time
but has never known.
In verse four, we learned four things
concerning the priesthood of the Messiah.
He was made a priest by the oath of Jehovah.
This appointment was irrevocable.
His priesthood is eternal.
It is according to the order of Melchizedek.
The phrase, "According to the order of Melchizedek,"
is interpreted for us in Hebrews 5:7.
There, the priesthood of Melchizedek is compared
and contrasted with the ironic and Levitical priesthood.
The priesthood of that mysterious personage,
Melchizedek, was by sovereign appointment of God.
It was not inherited from his parents,
and there is no mention of his priesthood
ever beginning or ending,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life.
In these and other ways,
the Melchizedek priesthood was superior to that of Levi.
Melchizedek was a prototype of the Lord Jesus.
Our Lord's priesthood was not a matter of parentage.
He was of the tribe of Judah, not Levi.
His priesthood was established
by the sovereign eternal decree of God.
And since he lives in the power of an endless life,
his priesthood will never end.
Another way in which Melchizedek foreshadowed the Messiah
is that he was both king and priest.
His name and title signify
that he was king of righteousness and king of peace.
He was also priest of God most high.
The book of Hebrews and Melchizedek.
The writer of the epistles to the Hebrew
was the only author in the New Testament
who sent forth the principles of Christ's priesthood.
Paul made one indirect connection to his priesthood.
Paul wrote that Christ is seated at God's right hand as king
and is interceding for his people as priest.
The author of Hebrews, by contrast,
devoted nearly his entire epistle
to the priesthood of the son of God.
Christ purifies his people from their sins.
Hebrews 2:17:
Therefore, it was essential
that he had to be made like his brothers,
mankind in every respect,
so that he might by experience
become a powerful and faithful high priest
in things related to God,
to make atonement, propitiation for the people's sins,
thereby wiping away the sin, satisfying divine justice
and providing a way of reconciliation
between God and mankind.
He is designated by God as priest
in the order of Melchizedek
and became a priest in this order when God swore an oath.
Hebrews 6:20:
Where Jesus has entered in advance as a forerunner for us,
having become a high priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Christ entered the most holy place once for all
in the presence of God and sat down at God's right hand
when he had offered one sacrifice for sins once for all.
Hebrews 10:12:
Where is Christ, having offered the one sacrifice,
the all-sufficient sacrifice of himself,
for sins for all time, sat down,
signifying the completion of atonement for sin,
at the right hand of God, the position of honor.
In Hebrew 7, the writer emphasizes the superiority
of the Melchizedek priesthood over Levitical priesthood.
"Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God most high,"
which meant that he was a king of righteousness, zedek,
and peace, salem.
In addition to ruling as king,
Melchizedek was a priest without genealogy.
Hebrew 7, Amplified Bible:
For this, Melchizedek, king of Salem,
priest of the most high God,
met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings
and blessed him,
and Abraham gave him a 10th of all the spoil.
He is first of all,
by the translation of his name, king of righteousness,
and then he's also king of Salem, which means king of peace.
Without any record of father or mother nor ancestral line,
without any record of beginning of day's, birth,
nor ending of life, death,
but having been made like the son of God,
he remains a priest
without interruption and without successor.
Now pause and consider how great this man was
to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a 10th of the spoils.
It is true that those descendants of Levi
who are charged with the priestly office are commanded
in the law to collect tithes from the people,
which means from their kinsman,
though they have descended from Abraham.
But this person, Melchizedek,
who is not from their Levitical ancestry,
received tithes from Abraham
and blessed him who possessed the promise of God.
Yet it is beyond all dispute
that the lesser person is always blessed by the greater one.
Furthermore, here in the Levitical priesthood,
tithes are received by men who are subject to death.
But in that case concerning Melchizedek,
they are received by one of whom it testified
that he lives on perpetually.
A person might even say that Levi,
the father of the priestly tribe himself
who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,
the father of all Israel and of all who believe,
for Levi was still in the loins,
unborn of his forefather, Abraham,
when Melchizedek met him, Abraham.
Now if perfection,
a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper,
had been attained through the Levitical priesthood,
for under it, the people were given the law,
what further need was there
for another and different kind of priest to arise,
one in the manner of Melchizedek,
rather than one appointed to the order of Aaron?
For when there is a change in the priesthood,
there is a necessity of a change in the law
concerning the priesthood as well.
For the one of whom these things are said belonged,
not to the priestly line of Levi, but to another tribe,
from which no one has officiated or served at the altar.
For it is evident
that our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah,
and Moses mentioned nothing about priests
in connection with that tribe,
and this becomes even more evident
if another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,
who has become a priest, not on the basis
of physical and legal requirement in the law,
concerning his ancestry as a descendant of Levi,
but on the basis of the power
of an indestructible and endless life.
For it is attested by God of him.
"You, Christ, are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek."
For on the one hand, a former commandment is canceled
because of its weakness and uselessness,
because of its inability to justify the sinner before God,
for the law never made anything perfect.
While on the other hand, a better hope is introduced
through which we are now continually drawn near to God.
And indeed, it was not without the taking of an oath
that Christ was made a priest,
for those Levites who formally became priest
received their offices without its being confirmed
by the taking of an oath.
But this one was designated with an oath
through the one who sent to him.
"The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind or regret it.
You, Christ, are a priest forever."
And so because of the oaths greatest strength and force,
Jesus has become the certain guarantee of a better covenant,
a more excellent and more advantageous agreement,
one that'll never be replaced or annulled.
The former successive line of priests,
on the one hand, existed in greater numbers
because they were each prevented by death
from continuing perpetually in office.
But on the other hand,
Jesus holds his priesthood permanently and without change
because he lives on forever.
Therefore, he is able also to save forever,
completely, perfectly for eternity,
those who come to God through him,
since he always lives to intercede
and intervene on their behalf with God.
It was fitting for us to have such a high priest,
perfectly adapted to our needs,
holy, blameless, unstained by sin,
separated from sinners and exalted higher than the heavens
who has no day-by-day need,
like those high priests to offer sacrifices,
first of all, for his own personal sins
and then for those of the people,
because he met all the requirements
and did this once for all
when he offered up himself as a willing sacrifice.
For the law appoints men as high priests
who are weak, frail, sinful, dying men,
but the word of the oath of God,
which came after the institution of the law,
permanently appoints as priest a son
who has been made perfect forever.
The high priest, Jesus,
is distinctive in the way he carries out his duties
compared to the Levitical priests.
He doesn't have to perform sacrifices on a daily basis
because he did it once and for all.
He also doesn't have to make sacrifices for his own sins
as he is without sin.
One of the most astounding ways
in which he differs from the previous priests
is that he willingly sacrificed himself
for the sins of the people.
He offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice.
The grace of Jesus is truly unpaired and excellent.
The law sets up priests who are personally imperfect.
They are characterized by weakness and failure.
They're only ritually holy.
God's oath, given after the law,
appoints the son as a priest who has been perfected forever.
This oath was referred to in verse 21 of this chapter
quoted from Psalms 110:4.
There are meaningful implications
in what we have just covered.
The way priests used to do things
in the old days is not how we do it anymore.
We have a divine and eternal priest now.
It would be silly for people
to try to copy the old way of doing things
and try to introduce upon the functions
of our great high priest.