The Advent of Melchizedek

How is Jesus a Priest After the Order of Melchizedek?

God is the architect and the director of history. That means that when God sets out to do something in history and through history, he does it completely.

God prepared the way for Jesus to come and be our savior, but it is one of the oddest historical arrangements. God had forbid the priesthood of Aaron to the ruling class of Israel, creating a system of checks and balances by spreading out the civil. religious, social authorities. A King did not have the legal right to make or eat sacrifice in the tabernacle or temple.

But God also plans to make his messiah both King and Priest. So God needed to prepared a separate priesthood for Jesus so that he could be both our king and our priest. So that could Jesus could be our king and therefore able to die for us as a new Adam, and he could be our priest, therefore able to stand between us and God reconciling us. God prepared the way, with meticulous detail, that allowed Jesus to be both the offering priest and the offered sacrifice for our salvation.

Background

Lot was Abraham’s nephew and when Abraham was called by God to go to a land that he would show him, Lot took his family with him and followed Abraham. But as their families both grew and as they both became wealthy shepherds that needed more and more space for the flocks that God kept multiplying. So they spread out into different areas of the Promised Land.

Lot went to Sodom and settled his family into the city where eventually he became a wealthy man and a powerful politician. But before that he was caught in the crossfire of a local war and was captured by the Thug King of Sodom.

Abraham had become wealthy enough that he kept his own private guard of over three hundred fighting men (Personal Black Ops Reconnaissance Marines) and they attacked by night and defeated the King of Sodom’s army all by themselves.

The next morning the king came out to make his surrender official. Abraham refused to spoil the king, taking only what was Lot’s plus interest and expenses.

Then this mysterious character shows up.

“17And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And Abraham gave Melchizedek tithes (10%) of all.” (Genesis 14:17–20).

So they fight in a valley outside of the city of Salem, Abraham defeats the army of the thug King of Sodom who had kidnapped Lot for ransom. Then the king of Salem, who is a priest of the most high God, comes out to Abraham and they have Communion together after Abraham gives him a tithe of what they had just won in battle.

So Melchizekez is a real king of the city of Salem and a real priest.

David in the second half of his life, writes Psalm 110 and brings up Melchizedek.

(Let’s look at this Psalm)

Exegesis Ps. 110

David recounts the promises that God has given to David and to his throne.

v. 1 – David’s Lord is promised victory over his enemies.

The LORD said unto my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies your footstool.

v. 2 – The strength of the throne of David will flow from faithful worship.

2The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion:

rule in the midst of your enemies.

v. 3 – He will have people that are glad to follow him as he rules in strength.

3Your people shall be willing

in the day of your power,

in the beauties of holiness

from the womb of the morning:

you have the dew of your youth.

v. 4 – God has made him a priest after the priestly line of Melchizedek.

4The LORD has sworn, and will not repent,

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

v. 5-7 – And he will be in the line of the seed of Eve that will crush the head of the seed of the dragon.

5The Lord at your right hand

shall strike (Break to pieces, crush) through kings in the day of his wrath.

6He shall judge among the heathen,

he shall fill the places with the dead bodies;

he shall wound (Break to pieces, crush)the heads over many countries.

7He shall drink of the brook in the way:

therefore shall he lift up the head.

(This phrase is a little ambiguous in the Hebrew. It could mean he will lift up his own head. Or it could mean he will lift up the head of his enemies and be a reference back to Goliath. He cut Goliath’s head off with his own sword and then lifted it up. Or it could be a reference back to the beginning of the psalm meaning he will lift up his Lord’s name, the ultimate head.)

So David is recounting the promises that God has given concerning to David and to his throne.

More Background

But to make sense of this promise that the Priesthood of Melchizedek will never depart from David and his throne, we need a quick history lesson.

Melchizedek was the king of the city of Salem.

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out 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 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.” (Gen. 14:18-20)

But Salem was under the control of the Amalekites when Moses brought the people to the edge of the land. As Joshua led his people through the land, Salem was on the border of the land of the tribe of Benjamin and the tribe of Judah.

Salem became the central city of the Jebusites (who tricked the chief of the tribe of Benjamin into signing a peace treaty).

About 100 years later, David killed Goliath and 15 years later, at age 30, he became the king of the Tribe of Judah. After seven years as king of Judah, the rest of the tribes wanted him to be king as well. But the Jebusites had turned Salem into a walled city. The throne of Melchizedek had been in Salem. Melchizedek had at one time been the king of all of Israel. He had been the King of Peace (which is what his name literally means).

David was purposely making the last throne that had ruled all Israel his own throne so that he was the legal ruler of all of the promised land. He knew the history. He was going to take the throne of Melchizedek. But when he got there the Jebusites decided to rebel.

They believed that the walls of the city of Jerusalem would keep David out and so they taunted David by putting blind and lame men on the walls as the guards of the city. (2 Sam. 5:6)

But David had some of his men sneak into the city through the water shafts and open the gates from the inside. (2 Sam. 5:7-8). And they renamed the City Jerusalem (Jeru-Salem – City of God’s Peace).

“9Then David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the City of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward. 10So David went on and became great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. 11Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters and masons. And they built David a house. 12So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted His kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.” (2 Samuel 5:9–12).

So David, taking the throne of Melchizedek, also knows that he takes on the priesthood of Melchizedek. The priesthood of Melchizedek was one of the throne-rights of Salem’s King. Melchizedek was a priest-king, and so the Throne of Jerusalem was the throne of a priest-king. Now David and all his descendants would be priest-kings forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Application

According to the book of Hebrews, it is the historical king of Salem that established a throne in the name of God that makes it legally possible for us to be saved and invited into the presence of God in heaven.

“19for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21(for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), 22by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. 23Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;” (Hebrews 7:19–26).

God set out to save us, and he did it in such a way that there was nothing that he did not think of in order to save us to the uttermost.

All of that time in the Old Covenant the Spirit of God was steering all of history in order to prepare absolutely everything so that when Jesus came it really was the fullness of time. The time was full and ready to burst with God’s preparations. That is why advent is a season of celebration. Because God’s care in his preparations and promises are complete. His salvation of his people is complete.

God saves. And he does nothing halfway. If he is going to save and guide the faithful priest Melchizedek onto the throne of Salem so that hundreds of years later David can sit in that throne and take up that priestly mantel so that 28 generations later, 3000 years after the establishment of the priesthood, the rightful heir to the priesthood can have the legal right to be a priest and king to die and rise again to save his people from their sins, if God’s love for us is going to be that meticulous in the details of our salvation back then, can we not expect him to continue to care for us?

God has saved us to the uttermost. God is saving us to the uttermost. God will save us to the uttermost. Jesus was qualified in every way to be your savior. Jesus has done everything that needed to be accomplished to be your savior. Jesus will continue to do everything that will need to be done to be your savior.

Because Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, we are saved to the uttermost.