The following is an entry in my Secret Place Journal that I started keeping in July. This particular one came from the 3rd of 3 days in the wilderness on a solitary retreat with God. Its a bit long but is very interesting. I'd never heard of Melchizedek before, so the word was super fresh for me when I read these passages.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
July 19, 2009
Once I reached a nice shady spot (which happened to be quite close to a very big banana spider!) I knew immediately where I needed to pick up from yesterday—Psalm 110. It was cross-referenced somewhere yesterday in Mark 12 and I had marked it so that I could come back and dive in. I didn’t realize it was such a short psalm, but it is loaded with prophecy. The psalm is titled, “Announcement of the Messiah’s Reign.” Awesome. It is written as if it were the Father speaking to Son.
In Ps 110:3, it says, “Your people shall be volunteers…from the womb of the morning.” Just as Christ voluntarily gave Himself for us, those who will truly fight in His army will do so voluntarily, and we shall be fresh and full of vigor like the start of a new day, confident in His power and majesty!
Now the next verse (v.4) is quite a powerful secret jewel, and most people would read right on through it, but thankfully I was being very open to cross-referencing anything I came along. It reads, “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Melchizedek means “My King is Righteous” in Hebrew. I don’t know about you, but until today, I had never heard the name “Melchizedek” before. Who was this guy, and why was Jesus being told that He belonged to his order?
I took a turn all the way back to Genesis chapters 12-15. Let me set the scene: In Genesis 12, Abram was just told by God, “Get out of your country, from your family and your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” (12:1) Abram of course listens to God’s instructions and starts from Haran (north Syria) and goes south into Canaan (Bethel) to dwell for a few years. Then a famine sends him to Egypt to live along the Nile delta where he stays for a while, then Pharaoh hooks him up with wealth (at the near cost of Abram’s wife!) and he heads back to Bethel.
Now Abram was so wealthy that it says, “Now the land was not able to support them…for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,” so he and his brother Lot must go there separate ways to prevent more strife between their herdsmen. Lot ends up going to the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, but then was taken captive by the kings there. Abram comes to his rescue with 318 trained servants and with God’s help, overtakes 5 different kings’ armies and brings his brother Lot and his possessions back to dwell with him. Now it actually gets interesting…
After his victory, Abram is offered a blessing…by a king and priest named Melchizedek! Here is the passage: “The Melchizedek king of Salem brought our bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor [or Creator] of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he gave him a tithe of all.” (14:18-20) Wow, quite a lot to get into here…
There is absolutely NO genealogy of Melchizedek, no other mention of him in Genesis, just this passage, the part in Psalm 110, and then later in Hebrews. But lets break this passage down even more: His name means “My King is Righteous,” and he is the king of Salem, which derives its name from “shalom,” or peace, and was later renamed Jerusalem. He is basically the “righteous king of peace!” He brings out bread and wine for this occasion, which of course were staples of the time, but are used to celebrate God’s deliverance of Abram and his troops.
He is also noted as the priest of the “God Most High.” This was well before God’s assigning of the priesthood to the tribe of Levi. The author of Hebrews brings this up later on. Since he is a priest of the Lord, Abram “gave him a tithe of all” he had—which was quite a lot! He knew that this was a gift to God. This is a crucial aspect that will again be taken into greater significance by the writer of Hebrews. After that, there is no more mention of Melchizedek until Psalms.
Jumping ahead now to Hebrews chapter 7, we find a remarkable analysis of Christ and His role as High Priest. The last verse of chapter 6 sets the scene, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (6:19-20)
First, the author points out how Melchizedek comes without genealogy, “having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.” (v.3) He mainly uses this point to show that Jesus, who is also a King and Priest, belongs to a righteous priesthood that is independent of Aaron’s lineage. Then he drives the point that even before the Levite priesthood was established, Levi, being at that time still in Abraham’s loins, gave a tithe to this priest (theoretically, at least) which therefore places Melchizedek higher and more holy than God’s chosen priesthood. (v.9)
The next direction the author takes is to explain why there was a need for a changing of the priesthood—because there was a new law, a new covenant of everlasting life that was given to all through Christ Jesus. The fabulous thing that God does is He has Jesus born from the tribe of Judah, which is of course not priestly in the least. This then fulfills God’s oath from Psalm 110: “You [Jesus] are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” meaning His order precedes, thus superseding, the order of Levi!
In Ps 110:3, it says, “Your people shall be volunteers…from the womb of the morning.” Just as Christ voluntarily gave Himself for us, those who will truly fight in His army will do so voluntarily, and we shall be fresh and full of vigor like the start of a new day, confident in His power and majesty!
Now the next verse (v.4) is quite a powerful secret jewel, and most people would read right on through it, but thankfully I was being very open to cross-referencing anything I came along. It reads, “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Melchizedek means “My King is Righteous” in Hebrew. I don’t know about you, but until today, I had never heard the name “Melchizedek” before. Who was this guy, and why was Jesus being told that He belonged to his order?
I took a turn all the way back to Genesis chapters 12-15. Let me set the scene: In Genesis 12, Abram was just told by God, “Get out of your country, from your family and your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” (12:1) Abram of course listens to God’s instructions and starts from Haran (north Syria) and goes south into Canaan (Bethel) to dwell for a few years. Then a famine sends him to Egypt to live along the Nile delta where he stays for a while, then Pharaoh hooks him up with wealth (at the near cost of Abram’s wife!) and he heads back to Bethel.
Now Abram was so wealthy that it says, “Now the land was not able to support them…for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,” so he and his brother Lot must go there separate ways to prevent more strife between their herdsmen. Lot ends up going to the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, but then was taken captive by the kings there. Abram comes to his rescue with 318 trained servants and with God’s help, overtakes 5 different kings’ armies and brings his brother Lot and his possessions back to dwell with him. Now it actually gets interesting…
After his victory, Abram is offered a blessing…by a king and priest named Melchizedek! Here is the passage: “The Melchizedek king of Salem brought our bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor [or Creator] of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he gave him a tithe of all.” (14:18-20) Wow, quite a lot to get into here…
There is absolutely NO genealogy of Melchizedek, no other mention of him in Genesis, just this passage, the part in Psalm 110, and then later in Hebrews. But lets break this passage down even more: His name means “My King is Righteous,” and he is the king of Salem, which derives its name from “shalom,” or peace, and was later renamed Jerusalem. He is basically the “righteous king of peace!” He brings out bread and wine for this occasion, which of course were staples of the time, but are used to celebrate God’s deliverance of Abram and his troops.
He is also noted as the priest of the “God Most High.” This was well before God’s assigning of the priesthood to the tribe of Levi. The author of Hebrews brings this up later on. Since he is a priest of the Lord, Abram “gave him a tithe of all” he had—which was quite a lot! He knew that this was a gift to God. This is a crucial aspect that will again be taken into greater significance by the writer of Hebrews. After that, there is no more mention of Melchizedek until Psalms.
Jumping ahead now to Hebrews chapter 7, we find a remarkable analysis of Christ and His role as High Priest. The last verse of chapter 6 sets the scene, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (6:19-20)
First, the author points out how Melchizedek comes without genealogy, “having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.” (v.3) He mainly uses this point to show that Jesus, who is also a King and Priest, belongs to a righteous priesthood that is independent of Aaron’s lineage. Then he drives the point that even before the Levite priesthood was established, Levi, being at that time still in Abraham’s loins, gave a tithe to this priest (theoretically, at least) which therefore places Melchizedek higher and more holy than God’s chosen priesthood. (v.9)
The next direction the author takes is to explain why there was a need for a changing of the priesthood—because there was a new law, a new covenant of everlasting life that was given to all through Christ Jesus. The fabulous thing that God does is He has Jesus born from the tribe of Judah, which is of course not priestly in the least. This then fulfills God’s oath from Psalm 110: “You [Jesus] are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” meaning His order precedes, thus superseding, the order of Levi!
0 comments:
Post a Comment