Hebrews 7:1-10 English Standard Version (ESV) Listen: https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.7.1-Heb.7.10 The Priestly Order of Melchizedek 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, 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. 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. 4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. This passage probably tells us more about Melchizedek than any other passage in the Bible (and he's going to come up once or twice more in Hebrews after this), and we finally get to see what the translation of his name means, "King of Righteousness." Can you think of a more fitting name for Christ? And the place of which He was king was names Salem which means "peace," so He while Christ was prophetically referred to as the Prince of Peace, we now see Him here as the King of Peace. We see no genealogy, no record of birth, and no record of death for Melchizedek which is very strange for an earthly king that would pride himself in bloodline and succession by bloodline, and it seems that the priesthood of Melchizedek was eternal from this passage and others like it where we see that God would send us someone in the order of Melchizedek.
The author then points out that it seems strange for Abraham to offer a tithe to a foreign king as the tithe was later always commanded to be offered to the priests from the tribe of Levi because the tithe belonged to the Lord and this man bless Abraham in the way that was the responsibility of the priests--quite strange indeed. I fully admit that the end of this passage is quite strange, but I'll try to break it down for you. The tithe was something that was paid by men to to a king, lord or god that was seen to be higher then them and when paid to a god it was paid to the priests. The argument has been made here that Melchizedek was a superior priest to the priests of Levi who could only serve as priest for a limited time, but that Melchizedek served as both priest and king and it does not appear that his role as king or priest had anything to do with his lineage. Therefore it would only be right if this actually was a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God that the sons of Levi should also offer the tithe to Melchizedek, but this is only something that the living do to those who are living (do not miss that the author of the Hebrews is pointing out both that we serve a living God and that Christ was alive at the time of Abraham if this is indeed Him before He was born in the flesh). The author then says that it's reasonable to him to assume that in some strange way this did happen through Abraham since he was the progenitor of Levi and all of the priests of Israel. I won't pretend that this passage is easy but let's try to tie it up this way. The battle was won by Melchizedek and it seems like all the others were just along for the ride. None of them objected to him getting the spoils of war...we will see another battle like this in the future when Christ will come with His bride dressed in wedding garments (not dressed as soldiers) and His enemies will be destroyed by the word of His mouth. It was by the Word of God (Christ) that everything was made that was made and we were brought into this world and it is by the Word of Christ that one day His Bride will be taken home and also by His word that His enemies will be destroyed. Was Melchizedek an Old Testament appearance of Christ? Honestly, I can't say with 100% certainty, but there is a strong case made here and in Psalms for that and if nothing else we can say with 100% certainty that Melchizedek is meant to be an Old Testament "type" of Christ that is meant to point us to the truth of a future fulfillment in the person and work of Christ. Other examples might be someone like Noah, or Joseph, or Joshua, or David to name a few. All of them gave us a picture of what Christ would do for His people, but all of them were imperfect examples and could not themselves be the Christ, but they pointed to someone even better than them that was to come in that perfect sense. It should not rattle our faith to need to know exactly who this man was in history, but God put him there for us to learn from Him that it is possible for Christ to fulfill the role of Prophet, and Priest, and King and to have an everlasting ministry in those ordained roles. Jesus still serves us in these roles today and will continue to do so forever and ever which is why today He deserves your tithes and offering and all of what you are. If Abraham could recognize the greatness of the one before him and offer him something as small as 10% of the spoils of battle, should we not offer the One who is infinitely greater and infinitely greater gift. Let us give our life, or praise, our all.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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