A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews, Part 18

Now let’s see what else the preacher said about the King of Righteousness.

CHAPTER SEVEN

1 For this Melchisedec, 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 by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. 5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: 6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. 7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. 8 And here men that die receice tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. 9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.  10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

This is the basic argument I made of the position of Melchizedek. The Jebusite chronicles were lost between the time of Abraham and the time that David took Jerusalem for his capital. But there is no other mention of the title Melchizedek outside the book of Genesis before the scribe took down Saint Paul’s sermon here. So the preacher was able to use that as an example of Christ, as a pseudo-christophany. No one knows the names of the men who wore the title, but as long as there were Jebusite kings over Salem, or later, Jerusalem. It wasn’t until David became the ruler of that city, all records are lost.

If Melchizedek is the King of righteousness as well as the King of Peace, the priests that follow are descended from him in the priestly, order if not by blood. The next priest of the line of Melchizedek after David took the city is Jesus Christ, Whose titles include the title Prince of Peace. The prince is heir to the throne, and Jesus is Heir to the City of the Lord’s Peace (Jerusalem) as much as He is heir to everything else in creation. Therefore, when He comes into His inheritance, Jesus will be Melchizedek too. He shall be the King of Righteousness over all the is.

The preacher makes a great show of the superiority of the line of Melchizedek over the lineage of Aaron. The reason is that the target audience are those Jewish Christians who were contemplating abandonment of Christ for the Aaronic form of worship in the Temple at Jerusalem. We can look at this in another way too. Jesus is superior to any other form of worship. He is higher than the Buddha, the Brahmens, the Prophets and the shaman. No Pagan form of worship can touch the level of Christ. He is even more valuable than all the currency ever coined on Earth from the beginning of coinage unto the end of time.

Notice the principle the preacher exposes here, the lesser always pays tithe or tribute to the greater. If Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek, it was a recognition on the part of Abraham that Melchizedek was greater than he in the faith of the Most High God. Therefore, since Abraham is greater than his descendants, Melchizedek is superior to Abraham’s descendants. That being the case, the faith of Melchizedek is superior to the faith of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron.

For us it means that there is no better way to get into the presence of God than the faith of Jesus Christ. No matter what people try to tell you or what you may feel about the church in your neighborhood, Jesus is the one and only Way, the one and only Truth and the one and only Life; no person comes to the Father except by Jesus Christ. Turn to Him.

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