Then
Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most
High, and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator
of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies
into your hand.”(Genesis
14:18-20)
The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my
right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ...The LORD has sworn and will not change his
mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:1
& 4)
Jesus asked, “What do you think about the Christ ? Whose
son is he?”
“The son of David,” [the Pharisees]replied.
He said to them, “How is it then that David,
speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “ ‘The Lord said to my
Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ If
then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” (Matthew
22:42-45)
This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God
Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed
him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of
righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without
father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life,
like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch
Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants
of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their
brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. This man,
however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from
Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser
person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by
men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. (Hebrews 7:1-8)
Jesus
wasn't of the tribe of Levi, He was of the tribe of Judah. That meant that He
could not become a priest according to the rules set forth in Scripture. In
fact, when King Saul and King Uzziah took on priestly roles they got in
trouble. (I Samuel 13:9-10, 2 Kings 15:1-7 and 2
Chronicles 26)
For Jesus to accomplish the task set
before Him, He had to perform a priestly task. He had to make an adequate
sacrifice for the sins of the people. To do so as a priest according to the
order of Levi would have been a sin. Fortunately, there was another order of
priests that was established at least two generations before Levi was born, and
hundreds of years before the Levites earned the right to be priests.
The head of this order was Melchizedek. The
writer of Hebrews helps those who us who don't speak Hebrew. Melchizadek means
"lord of righteousness." He was king of Salem. Salem means
"peace," so he was the lord of righteousness and the king of peace as
well as being a priest of the Most High God.
More
than 500 years after Melchizedek met Abraham, David wrote a song in which the Lord said to "my lord:" You are
a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” Who was David's lord? This
is the question Jesus asked in the passage from Matthew above. It could not be
either Saul, who was punished for taking a priestly role, or the Philistine
king for whom he worked briefly. His lord had to be someone greater than the
king of the Jews. His lord was also not a Levite, but he was a high priest of
the Most High God, king of righteousness and of peace. As a high priest, it was
his job to mediate between God and man, and to make the necessary sacrifice for
sin. This is precisely what Jesus did.
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