Melchizedek Part 1
Hebrews 7:1-14 (NKJV)
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized how great Melchizedek was by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. — Hebrews 7:4
The relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament has been described as follows: “The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.” There are good grounds for believing this is an accurate assessment of the relationship, as can readily be seen from the way Jesus “quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself” (Luke 24:27), and from the way Old Testament passages were interpreted in the New Testament to show that they held messages that would only be understood in New Testament times.
An example of the Old Testament being revealed in the New is found in the interpretation of the story of Melchizedek. This rather enigmatic figure appeared briefly in the biblical record when he encountered Abraham after Abraham’s famous victory over five kings (Genesis 14:17-20). Melchizedek was “king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High” (Heb. 7:1). He blessed Abraham for what he had done. Abraham, in turn, gave Melchizedek 10 percent of his spoils. There is no record of Melchizedek’s parentage or progeny, and his name means “king of justice.” “Salem,” the name of the city over which he reigned, means “peace.”
Those are the details, spoken and unspoken, which the writer of Hebrews applies to Christ. Because Melchizedek received tithes from Abraham and gave a blessing to Abraham, he was seen as superior to Abraham. And because there is no record of his parentage or progeny, he is seen typologically as living on. In addition, because Levi, the father of the Jewish priesthood, was, as it were, “in Abraham’s loins” (7:10), Levi’s, priesthood was inferior to the priesthood of Melchizedek, precisely because Abraham was inferior to Melchizedek!
It must be admitted that this interpretation is hard for Westerners to grasp. The application of this story by the writer of Hebrews uses typology, a method of interpreting Scripture that is not commonly used today, even though the method was common in the early days of the church. The point of all this in Hebrews was to show that the Jewish (Levitical) priesthood was incapable of offering the salvation which only the eternal priesthood of Jesus (Melchizedek) could provide. Therefore, the Jewish people who had been attracted to Christ but were in danger of drifting away from him should recognize that only Christ can offer salvation. Should they turn away from him, they would find hope in no other system. This is something that Jesus himself underlined when he insisted, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
By Stuart Briscoe “Telling The Truth.”
