WHO IS THIS MELCHIZEDEK?

WHO IS THIS MELCHIZEDEK?

                Some Bible scholars believe that He was the pre-incarnate Christ that visited Abraham as Melchizedek, king of Salem (Jerusalem), priest of the Most High God. This is a very impressive title and Abraham paid tithes to him of all the spoils he gained in the slaughter of the 5 kings that had ransacked Sodom and Gomorrah and had taken Lot and all the people back to be their slaves.

                We may think of Abraham as a gentle man of faith having no idea where he was going and yet when King Chedorlaomer along with other kings raided Sodom Abram gathered his 318 “Trained” servants and pursued these kings and took back all that had been stolen and all of the people that had been kidnapped and returned them to their land. The book of Hebrews calls it the slaughter of the kings.

                After Abram’s mighty victory Melchizedek showed up on the scene with bread and wine saying: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tenth of all the spoils.

                Now, while the Bible keeps this Melchizedek a mystery of unknown origin in order to make him a type of Christ and the protégé of the New Covenant Priesthood, the book of Jasher says that this Melchizedek was actually Shem, the son of Noah who, as it turns out was the progenitor of the sons of Israel and of the designated seed line of faith. So, either way Melchizedek was a key figure, both in the Covenant of promise that came before the Law and in the New Covenant that we live in today through the bread and wine of Jesus Christ.

                The book of Jasher goes into great detail about the life of Abraham adding information not included in the Bible. It even tells us that the young Abram went to visit Shem and His father Noah in the mountain country and that he stayed with them for some time. This is important information because it provides a continuous link of truth between the pre-flood world and the religion and people of Israel and the stories of creation and the patriarchs from Adam to Noah. This information need not to have been handed to Moses by the Egyptians as some scholars say. Moses had the verbal records handed down from Shem and thus from Adam. The book of Enoch was another of these missing links that used to be a part of the cannon of Scripture which the church fathers voted out, maybe because they did not like what these books said. Who Knows?

                But we can’t write off the book of Jasher as a fake or a fluke since the bible quotes it as an authority twice in Scripture. Joshua 10:13 says,” Is it not written in the book of Jasher?”…thus treating Jasher as an authoritative source of information. And again in 2 Samuel 1:17, 18 it says. “Then David chanted with this lament over Saul and Jonathan his son and he told them to teach the sons of Judah the song of the bow; behold it is written in the book of Jasher.” Again Jasher is quoted as a source of valid information.

                We should probably pay some attention to these books and the book of Enoch is of interest since he states that it is written specifically for the final generation to live on the earth. It is interesting that this book has surfaced in our day.There has been a renewed interest in these apocryphal books in our day. Some of them were included in the 1611 version of the King James Bible and in the Catholic bible and the Ethiopian Bible still contains them as well. Are we missing vital information today? The book of Enoch is also quoted as an authoritative source in the Bible in Jude 14-15.

                It is in the book of Jude, when he is quoting Enoch, that he introduces us to the fact that when Jesus returns at the second coming, He will return with His saints, just as it also says in Zechariah 14: 5 and Revelation 19:8, 14. And if Jesus returns with His saints, that means there had to be a first resurrection before the second coming, which is why many hold the doctrine of the rapture in one form or another today. But that is a different subject.

                But it is not altogether an unrelated subject since Jesus is currently our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.  And just as Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High God offered bread and wine to Abram, so also Jesus offered bread and wine to His disciples and in doing so He confirmed a New Covenant in His blood and body. Enoch was included in the lineage of Jesus in Luke 3:37 and Jude lists Enoch as being the 7^th generation from Adam.

                Many times we become satisfied with our traditions and we no longer have enough curiosity to ask questions and to probe for answers, let alone to come up with answers that may rattle the status quo a bit. Many have developed their doctrine line on line, here a little and there a little so that even if a new understanding of things jumped out and bit them, they would be totally blind to it since it doesn’t fit their preconceived ideas. Isaiah denounced this method of forming doctrine saying that it would result in their stumbling backwards, broken, snared and taken captive. And as I mentioned yesterday it is because this method allows the Bible to say anything we want it to say. We tend to pick out the texts that fit our view and to ignore the rest. Everything in Scripture points to Jesus… so if our focus is on Him, then our understanding of Scripture will be right as well.

                But in speaking to Timothy Paul said, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, (not to men) and it is before God that each of us will either stand or fall… and so we to study so as to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and let the chips fall where they will. We are in a quest to know Jesus through His Word and one of the key components to knowing Jesus involves His role as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. It is in this Melchizedek Priesthood that we find His authority to die to the Law and to enter into the Covenant that God made with Abraham before the Law, for indeed the New Covenant is not based upon the Law, but upon the Promise, and when we place our faith in Christ as our High Priest and Savior and Lord, we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. Do we really get this or do we fall in the cracks somewhere between one covenant and the other?

                If we fully understood this, we would not be torn between covenants and wondering if Jesus actually has the authority and power to bring to us an entirely new covenant that is not like the one they received at Sinai. (Jer. 31:31) And so we often feel uncomfortable with Paul because we cannot fully embrace what He is saying and we cling to the Old Covenant as if in the end it will be the one that saves us. Again I ask: How big is your Jesus? Is He worthy to be our High Priest and King?

                Again I have to say that the Old Covenant is God’s authentic foundation for the New Covenant and they work together perfectly as long as we understand that the Old Covenant is the New Covenant concealed, while the New Covenant is the Old Covenant revealed. The Old Covenant is made up of types and shadows that point forward to the living realities that Jesus brought to us by His cross and resurrection. And even as the Old Covenant validates the New Covenant, it also comes to its end at the cross as we receive Jesus as our new Source of life and salvation. As our High Priest He is now administering this living New Covenant which is no longer in types and shadows or even laws for that matter, but by faith in Jesus, for as Paul says: By faith in Jesus we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

                Today we can find denominations on all ends of the spectrum from Law to Grace and everywhere in between, but Jesus is our faithful High Priest after the order of Melchizedek and we would do well to understand exactly what this means.

                He is not of the tribe of Levi, nor of the Aaronic priesthood. In fact, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah a tribe from which no priests were designated.  Moses as a prophet of God said to Israel: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” Deut. 18: 15 So while Moses was a faithful servant of God, Jesus was the Son of God and that makes him infinitely superior to Moses, and yet Jesus is also known as a prophet like unto Moses because just as Moses established the first covenant of Law in the world, so did Jesus as the Son of God establish an entirely New Covenant in the world based upon promise whereby we must be saved.

                It is based upon Jesus’ name and His title… His position was and is as the very Son of God in whom the fullness of deity dwelt in human form. Col. 2:9 …( also expressed as the fullness of the godhead in bodily form.)  In other words the fullness of the trinity dwelt in Christ, for God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The Holy Spirit was in Him… the Father was in Him (John 1:29-34) and we have been called to be in Him as well, thus becoming one with them. Do we have any idea what God has done through Jesus? Do we understand that we have been made into His brothers and sisters in the family of heaven? We are being transformed not into the likeness of the angels, but into the likeness of the Son of God. WOW!

                This is why He now calls us beyond our previous role as servants of the Law, to be sons of the Most High God and joint heirs with Jesus. We do this not by keeping the Law, but in living by His very Spirit. For while we were children we were kept under the custody of the Law and it served as our tutor to lead us to Christ, but now that we have come to Christ, we are no longer under a tutor, for we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  Gal. 3:23-26

                We have entered into the High Priesthood of Jesus and where there is a change of priesthood, there is a change of Law also. Heb. 7:12 “He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” Heb. 10:9, 10. Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” Heb. 7:22. Jesus is the Mediator of a new covenant through which we receive our eternal inheritance. Heb. 9:15.

                “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.  John 1:17.  Is Jesus big enough to be our rest? Is He big enough to be our one true God in whom all of the fullness of deity dwells? Is He big enough to give new commandments to be fulfilled in the New Covenant way, through love for God and love for our fellow man as seen in the gifts of the Spirit?

                According to Hebrews 4 it is possible to faithfully observe all of the commandments and yet never enter into the rest that they promise. True rest is when we rest from our works and we trust fully in His works.  That rest is in a Person and that Person is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Let us push on to know Him more.