Hebrews 7:1-3

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 (Hebrews 7:1-3 NIV).
   Ever since hearing Abraham's story as a young Christian at age 25 listening to a sermon on the radio on a Sunday afternoon after church in Arlington, Virginia, I have recognized Abraham as a person whom God used to begin a covenant with an ethnic group which would come to be known as Hebrews (and then also Israelites and Jewish), a covenant which would lead, over two thousand years later, to the gift of salvation offered to all human beings thanks to the mercy and grace of God.
   Yet how often do you hear of Melchizedek?  I have been a Christian for 24 years, and I have attended church on a Sunday morning oodles of times, and I have never heard a minister talk about Melchizedek.  What better day than today to learn of a person of upmost importance!
  I recommend reading Genesis 14:17-20.  On one hand I see why Melchizedek does not get much attention.  The record of him is brief.  He was not involved in a big battle, and the narrative mentions him no more after he received a tenth of Abraham's goods.  Yet there is much reason for him to be highlighted.  First, it is the first time in the Bible we are introduced to a "priest," is it not?  And this priest blesses Abraham.  Note that bread and wine were what Melchizedek the priest offered to Abraham.  And last but not least, note that this priest is also a king.  He is a king of Salem, which would apparently become Jerusalem.  Ladies and gentlemen, four thousand years ago, a priest blessed Abraham, and God still uses that blessing today to teach us that God was at work way back in human history to prepare humankind for a Savior by foreshadowing a permanent high priest.  The Messiah would be the High Priest and the King of Heaven.
  Why do we need a high priest?  A priest was a person designated to make sacrifices on behalf of people.  Why do we need sacrifices to God?  The separation which happened when Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden resulted in the need for a sacrifice, the only manner to bring about the possibility of reunification.  There needed to be the payment of a penalty of death for the sins of us all.  God requested sacrifices even from the first family on earth.  Abel and Cain both presented sacrifices before God in response to God.  We do not have many details in our ancient Scripture, yet we know the main point that Abel and Cain both offered sacrifices to God, though one was correct, an animal offering, and the other was not, a produce offering.  So here in the day and age of Abraham, we have a priest.  As the author of Hebrews points out, we do not know much about this Melchizedek.  If the man was around today, someone might approach Melchizedek and ask, "Who made you priest?"  Yet the author of Hebrews has the answer: God.  Just as God made Aaron a priest, and required that priests be in the linage of Aaron under the Mosaic covenant, over five hundred years before, God made Melchizedek a priest even though he was not in any special lineage.  Moses, the prophet who wrote the first five books of Scripture, tells us so way back in what is now the fourteenth chapter of Genesis.
   Dr. Lightfoot makes the astute observation; "Of course, the author does not mean that Melchizedek was some kind of mysterious being who had no part in human history.  On the contrary, Melchizedek was a real person.  He was without father or mother with respect to his priesthood" (1).  In the most eloquent of ways, the author of Hebrews is telling us the incredible fact that though the "Old Testament" was foreshadowing a Messiah who would be a King and High Priest, He did not have to be of the flesh and blood of certain parents.  Radical?  The Messiah had to be in the lineage of David, which is why Matthew even started his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus, yet the baby in the womb of Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  And the Messiah had to be the High Priest, but he did not have to be in the lineage of Aaron, because God was foreshadowing a Messiah going all the way back to around 2100 B.C. by a priest named Melchizedek who was from the town of Salem, which would be the birthplace of Jesus over two thousand years later as the babe of Mary.  The author of Hebrews boldly identifies Jesus as the Son of God, and as such, as was stated by the author of Hebrews earlier in Hebrews 5:6 and 5:10, Jesus is the High Priest.  Wow.  And fortunately for us, Hebrews will continue to elaborate on this key subject.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today; A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), 138.