Heb 7:1–10 — Melchizedek, Priest of God Most High

Who Was Melchizedek?

Today we are talking about this intriguing Old Testament figure named Melchizedek, priest of God Most High. If you consider only the number of his appearances in Scripture, you might think that this particular figure, Melchizedek, is that not important. Just one of the minor characters of the Old Testament that we do not need to worry too much about or think too much about. Melchizedek is only mentioned briefly in the Old Testament. There are two passages that mention his name. One is Genesis chapter 14, when he met Abraham after Abraham returned from rescuing Lot. The other reference is in Psalm 110, which we sang a few moments ago, referring to Christ as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Those are the only two times that the Old Testament even mentions Melchizedek. And in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews is the only author who mentions Melchizedek. Jesus never mentions him. The Apostle Paul never mentions him.

So you might think of Melchizedek as being just a minor character. There are many minor characters in the Old Testament that get fleeting notices here and there. Phineas and Samson and Barzillai, all these names that you kind of vaguely have heard, but you do not really remember who they were exactly. And so you might think that Melchizedek is in that same tier. And so we do not need to worry too much about him.

In fact, you might even be concerned that perhaps we should be a little bit cautious about studying Melchizedek because that could be a ground for speculation. And as the Apostle Paul talks about in the pastoral epistles, that could lead to endless speculations and Jewish myths that people distort and use for their own destruction rather than building themselves up in piety and godliness. In fact, that is actually something that happened in the Jewish literature after the Old Testament was written, that there were some Jewish writings that did kind of get into that speculative mode and start to talk about Melchizedek in ways that were not grounded in pious, reverent interpretation of Scripture. So you might not only think that Melchizedek is unimportant, but maybe even dangerous, because it could lead to strange speculation that is divisive and unhelpful. But here are two things that you should think about that would maybe get your attention to realize that Melchizedek might be more important than you think. The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter seven, that he was a great man. Notice our text there, verse four.

See how great this man was, to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a 10th of the spoils. We know Abraham was great. Abraham is critically important for the whole structure of the Bible. The entire Bible is focused upon God’s promises to Abraham and how they are fulfilled in Christ. Abraham is the one that received the promises concerning the offspring to come, who is Christ, the Messiah. And so we know Abraham’s great. If Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, then that ought to make you wake up and say, maybe he is important. The text tells us that. He is greater than Abraham. In fact, in verse 7, it says that directly. It says, it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

Priest of God Most High

The inferior being Abraham and the superior being Melchizedek. Melchizedek is the one that blessed Abraham after he came back from rescuing Lot. Melchizedek blessed him, pronounced a blessing upon Abraham. Blessed be the Lord, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be Abraham. So that is one consideration. If Abraham was great and super important for understanding the whole structure of the Bible itself and God’s promises and fulfillment, and yet Melchizedek is greater than Abraham, then that ought to give us some pause.

But there is a second thing to consider as well, and that is, that we know that Psalm 110, which we sang for our song of joy in response to the good news of the gospel, we know that particular Psalm is extremely important. In New Testament Christology. That Psalm is quoted or alluded to 22 times in the New Testament.

Anytime it says in the New Testament that Christ sat down at the right hand of God, that is an implicit quotation of Psalm 110 verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until all your enemies become the footstool of your feet. Psalm 110 is critical for understanding the person of Christ and specifically for understanding his exaltation. That after his death and resurrection, he ascended into heaven and he sat down at the right hand of God. And he sat down because he knew that all of his work was accomplished. And that he is King of kings and Lord of lords. And that it is only a matter of time before he comes again in glory and power to take us to be with himself forever. Psalm 110 is critically important. Paul quotes it a lot. Jesus himself quoted it.

Remember when he was having that dialogue with the Pharisees? And he asked them, what do you think this is talking about here? Who is David talking to when he says the Lord, Yahweh, said to my Lord. That is David speaking of my Lord. Who is this Lord that David is referring to?

And it is clearly Christ himself who is the son of God. So Psalm 110 is extremely important for understanding who Christ is. And the New Testament quotes that Psalm a lot. But buried right there in the middle of Psalm 110 is a lesser known verse that you may not you are quoted that often, but it is in verse four of that same psalm. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You referring to this same exalted thing that is sitting at God’s right hand.

You are not only a king, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So here we have another key point that should wake us up to realize that Melchizedek is not just another minor figure in the Old Testament that we could safely ignore and not really pay too much attention to. Melchizedek is critically important. He is greater than Abraham, and he is found and mentioned even in that key Messianic psalm about the exaltation of Christ. Saying that there is something about Melchizedek that is tied to Christ.

He is a priest forever after the order, not of Aaron, but of Melchizedek. So what is the author of Hebrews doing here in this section where he is quoting and alluding to all of these passages in the Old Testament? These two, the one in Genesis 14 and the one in Psalm 110. What is he doing? Why is he bringing out the significance of Melchizedek? If we just step back a little bit, we remember, right, that the author of Hebrews is writing this letter to Hebrew Christians. That is why it is called the Epistle to the Hebrews.

And these Hebrew Christians are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are encountering persecution and opposition from their Jewish neighbors that do not believe in Christ. And they are therefore being tempted to abandon their confession of faith in Christ as the Messiah and to go back to Judaism and not to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Or perhaps another possibility might be that they are being tempted to go to temple worship and to support the work of the temple and the priests there and the sacrifices and to mute to sort of go along with the flow and just pretend that they are with the rest of their Jewish countrymen, worshiping God in the temple, and then turning their Christian faith kind of down to the lowest possible setting and not letting it sink in. Stick out too much and just pretend that they are going along with the rest of their Jewish countrymen. Part of the reason why that may have been the case is because we suspect that this book was written just before the Jewish war, the Jewish rebellion that happened in the year AD 66, when the Jews revolted against Rome, leading a few years later to the Romans coming in and destroying the temple in AD 70. In the lead up to that, There is a lot of pressure to be patriotic. To support your nation.

So these Jewish believers in Jesus who lived in the land of Israel were being pressured to go along with the majority of the world around them, which was Jewish people who did not believe in Christ. And so they were tempted to abandon their confession of faith in Christ, or at least to mute it and not let it stick out too much and to cause them to be persecuted as a result. And so the author of Hebrews is writing this letter to these Jewish believers in Christ to say, hold fast to your confession of faith. Over and over again, he says that. Do not fall away from Christ, but hold fast to your confession of faith in Christ. Why?

Because we do have a great high priest. We do have a spiritual temple that outstrips anything of this earthly temple made with stones and gold and silver. We have a glorious reality that is the fulfillment of all that the old covenant was pointing to. And so the author of Hebrews is using this argument here by appealing to Melchizedek to make this point. You can see that point very clearly in verse 11. I stopped reading at verse 10, but in verse 11 of our text, he makes the point explicit.

He says, now, if perfection, now perfection there does not mean being morally perfect. It means perfection in the sense of having perfect access to the presence of God and perfect communion with God. If perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, the priesthood that is still operating in the temple right now and offering sacrifices, or under it, the people receive the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? He is referring here to Psalm 110, verse four. He is saying, If perfection had been attainable under the Levitical priesthood, then why would there be this oracle in Psalm 110 verse 4 promising that there would be another priest who is from a completely different order, not from the Levitical one that stems from Aaron, but rather a completely different order called the order of Melchizedek. So even the Old Testament itself contains within it clues that it is provisional and temporary. And it is going to be fulfilled by Christ himself. The author of Hebrews then sees that verse, Psalm 110 verse four, as a critical argument to these Jewish believers to be able to understand that they should, just as faithful students of scripture, they should be able to see that the Levitical priesthood, the one that is currently operating in the temple, is not the ultimate priesthood. That there is a greater priest, which is, of course, Christ our Lord.

So do not go back to Judaism. Do not go back to the temple. Worship Christ. Continue to confess your faith in Christ, for you have a priest who is able to grant you perfection, who is able to grant you perfect access to the presence of God.

So that is why he appeals to Melchizedek. Now he is going to also go back even further from Psalm 110 back to Genesis 14 to look at the historical context. But his main reason why he is going back to Genesis 14 is because of Psalm 110. Because Psalm 110 already gives this clue that there is something greater than the Levitical priesthood. Let us do that ourselves. Let us go back a little bit to Genesis chapter 14 to kind of refresh ourselves about what happened back then and why it is that the psalm refers back to him. The story is given to us in that whole chapter, Genesis chapter 14.

It is called the Battle of the Valley of Siddam, which happened around the year 2085 BC. The Valley of Siddam is south of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is kind of in the, the eastern and southern part of Israel. Below the Dead Sea is the area where this battle took place.

The context of this battle is that there were four kings of four cities in that area, Sodom, Gomorrah, and so on, who rebelled against their Mesopotamian overlords. So there were some other kings who were living in Mesopotamia who had subjected them to tribute. And they did not want to keep paying that tribute, so they rebelled. They raised up an army, rebelled against their Mesopotamian overlords. And those overlords came from Mesopotamia, and they came down to reassert their control over these subordinate vassal kings. And in the process of this big battle that is happening between Mesopotamian kings and kings in the land of Canaan, in the process, Hurlat was plundered and taken captive.

So Abraham, at this point in the narrative, he has called Abram, not yet changed to Abraham. Abram gathered his retainers and his servants and he raised his own little mini army. And what did he do? He took Lot back. He rescued Lot from those who had taken him captive. And he brought Lot and all of the family members and the household servants and all the spoils, he brought them back home to So the area where Lot was living, which was in Sodom.

And on the way back, as Abraham is coming back from his victorious battle with these Mesopotamian kings, which in itself is pretty amazing. That there is this individual man who was stronger than these great Mesopotamian kings. God gave him the victory. It is a little pointer to Abraham of what is to come, that Abraham is going to become a great nation.

But as he is coming back, we read in Genesis 14, after his return, verse 17, from the defeat of Shador-la-Omer, there are all these fancy names of these Mesopotamian kings, Shador-la-Omer, king of Elam, Pidal, king of Goyim, and so on. We do not need to worry about those. Those are names that you can just say, oh, those are fringe characters we do not need to focus on, unlike Melchizedek. So after Abraham’s return from defeating these kings, the king of Sodom, which is where Lot lived, went out to meet Abraham at the Valley of Shavuot, that is the king’s valley. Genesis 14, verse 18.

And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Parentheses, he was priest of God most high. And he blessed him. That is, he blessed Abraham. And he said, blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. In other words, Abram is being told, do not think that this is something that you did by your strength. God blessed you. And the reason he blessed you and gave you the power over these enemies to rescue Lot and gave you all these spoils of war as a result, it was not because of your greatness, it is because of God’s blessings to you based upon those Abrahamic promises that God had made back in Genesis 12 and 13 and so on.

I will give your offspring this wonderful land. So Abraham then responds to this blessing when this priest, who is also a king, blesses Abraham acknowledges the blessing, and what does Abraham do? He gives a tenth of everything to Melchizedek, this priest.

That is, he is acknowledging, you are right, he is acknowledging that all of this wealth that God has blessed me with is really from God. And so he is acknowledging God’s ownership of all that he has been given. God is the possessor of heaven and earth. God owns everything in this world. And so if he gives you a small portion of it, it is because he is lending it to you temporarily, but it really belongs to him. And so by giving this 10th of everything, he is acknowledging God’s ownership. And he is acknowledging that God is the source of this blessing.

And the king of Sodom said to Abraham, to Abram, give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself. Just let me have the captives, but you can keep all the wealth, all the money, all the silver and the gold that you took. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord. Referring to what he had just done when he received the blessing from Melchizedek and gave a tenth to him. I have already lifted my hand to the Lord, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich. I already tithed to Melchizedek. And so I am not going to take all of this for myself because this belongs to God. I do not want you to say, you made me rich by giving me all these spoils.

The author of Hebrews then uses this as an argument to say that the Melchizedek that is referred to in Psalm 110 regarding the Messiah to come, being a priest after the order of Melchizedek, this Melchizedek was a type of Christ even in the Old Testament times. A little clue for Abraham’s faith. Lest Abraham start to think, well, I have all this material wealth that God has blessed me with, and I can just use it for myself. By encountering this mysterious king, who is also a priest, who blessed him and reminded him that everything he has comes from God, and then by eliciting from him this tithe, which is a way of confessing the Lordship of Christ or the Lordship of God over all that he owns, God was giving Abraham himself a little clue, a little pointer, a little reminder, almost like a sacrament for Abraham and his faith to remind him that he is destined for something that is much greater than simply having lots of flocks and lots of children and lots of land and material blessing. That what God is doing with Abraham and all the promises that God is making to Abraham has to do with something far greater than those earthly things. Lift up your eyes from the horizon of this earthly world and look to the heavenly eschatological kingdom of God that will be fulfilled one day in the days of this new priest after the order of Melchizedek. Two questions arise about this Melchizedek. First question is, was Melchizedek a supernatural being?

There are some possibilities here. He could be an angel. Maybe even the same as the angel of the Lord. Some have even suggested maybe he is actually the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ himself appearing in some human form before his incarnation. That last possibility is attractive and there are many who hold to it. However, our author, the author of Hebrews, says in verse three of our text that he resembles the Son of God.

It does not say that he was the Son of God. Because he resembles the Son of God. So I do not agree with that view that he was literally the pre-incarnate Christ appearing to Abraham beforehand. I believe he was a mere man. What about the idea, though, that he was an angel? That is a possibility. That is plausible, because many times in the Old Testament, angels would show up as mortal men.

But there are good reasons to reject this as well, because our text presents him as a literal king of a literal city. It says that he is the king of Salem. And that language there, Melchizedek king of Salem, is used in the same chapter in Genesis 14 to refer to the other kings, the king of Sodom and the king of all these other places, the king of Gomorrah and so on. The king of Elam. And so to use that same language and say Melchizedek, king of Salem, right in the same context, suggests that he was a literal king of a literal city, just like the other kings that are mentioned in this immediate context.

Furthermore, the author of Hebrews does not say that he is a supernatural being. What the author of Hebrews says is that his birth and his parents are not recorded. In contrast with the genealogies that are given of the Levitical priests. The Levitical priests in the Old Testament, like Aaron and his sons, they are always telling you the origin of them, giving you who their father was and so on.

For example, in Exodus chapter 6, we have the genealogy from Abraham all the way down to Aaron. Aaron was Moses’ brother, so it mentions Aaron and Moses as well. It gives us the exact lineage. It goes, let us see if I can remember, I had to look this up for myself to get the exact names correct, but the genealogy of Aaron is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Jacob has the 12 tribes. So one of those 12 is Levi. Then after Levi, that is where I could not remember, I had to look it up. After Levi comes Kohath, and then Kohath gave birth to Amram, and then Amram is the father of Aaron. So the Bible is very particular when it talks about the Levitical priests to give us their genealogy, tell us who their father was.

It is very important. In fact, later on in the Bible, do you remember this? Later on after the exile, when they came back to the land under Ezra and so on, it is recorded in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, that there were some people from the exilic community in Babylon who wanted to come back to the land to serve as priests for the rebuilt temple, but they were not allowed to because they could not prove their genealogy. They could not prove that they really were a descendant of Aaron. So it is very important for the Levitical priest to have a genealogy. But here in our text, the author of Hebrews is saying, look at this priest who just comes out of nowhere.

The Silence of His Genealogy

And there is no genealogy given. It does not tell us who his parents were. It does not tell us how he connects somehow back to the line of Noah and the godly line that came through Shem and so on. It just does not mention that. It just leaves it out. Does not mean he did not have real parents, does not mean he was not a real man, but because the text ignores that, unlike the way it is very particular about giving us the genealogy of the Levitical priests, the author of Hebrews concludes from that, that he is a type of Christ. Just as Christ has no beginning and no end. He is the eternal son of God who never began to exist and he has no end because he is now exalted at the right hand of God where he is a priest forever. So the text, the author of Hebrews is arguing that the text is specifically and intentionally silent about his genealogy to give us the impression that this man is a type of Christ. So the author of Hebrews does not say that he is a supernatural being, just that his birth and his parents are not recorded in contrast with the genealogies that are given of the Levitical priests.

King and Priest

So that is the first question. Was Melchizedek a supernatural being? I do not believe he was. He was a real man, a real king. But the second question that arises is, if he is a historical person, how was this king who lived in the land of Canaan and who was a king of Salem and who is not tied directly to the Abrahamic line and God’s covenant promises, how does this historical person who is a Canaanite king and a priest and priest of God Most High, how does he have access to the truth about God and about the Abrahamic covenant? Where does this come from? Where does this man get this information?

You might think at first, well maybe this language here that he is priest of God Most High, that is in Genesis 14 verse 18, The parenthetical comment, he was priest of God Most High. At first you might just think, well, maybe that is just the name of a pagan god. Maybe there was a pagan god out there that the Canaanites worshipped called El Elyon, God Most High. That does not work because Our text specifically identifies El Elyon with Yahweh.

That has given to us in verse 22, when Abraham is talking to the king of Sodom and saying, no, I am not going to let you make me rich. What does Abraham say? Abraham said to the king of Sodom in verse 22, I have lifted my hand already to the Lord, but in all caps, that means I have lifted my hand to Yahweh.

God Most High. There is that same language, El Elyon. Abraham specifically refers to El Elyon as God Most High, as Yahweh, as the Lord, not as a name of some pagan deity. Furthermore, later in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, God is called the Most High around a dozen times. He has called that because he is the only true God. He is the Most High God. All the other gods of the nations are false gods and idols, but he is God Most High.

A Priesthood Greater than Levi

Additionally, Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, meaning that Abraham recognized him as an authentic priest of the true God and not as a pagan priest. So how do we explain this then? How is it that Melchizedek knew about Abraham’s promises and the covenant that God had made with him and that he was a worshiper of the true God and a priest, a genuine priest, of the true Most High God?

The answer is through Noahic oral tradition. That is the only explanation. Remember back in Genesis chapter 9? Remember that story where Noah, he was a man of the soil, he planted a vineyard, he drank too much wine, he uncovered his nakedness, and then there is that whole incident where Canaan saw the naked, or Ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers and Shem and Japheth came and they laid a garment over him and they turned their face away. And so there is this oracle after that where Abraham, sorry, where Noah, he awakes from his wine and he says, he realizes that his youngest son, Ham, had done this disrespectful thing.

So he curses Canaan, but then he blesses Shem and Japheth. He says, this is Genesis 9, verse 26. Blessed be the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant, referring to the Canaanites to come later. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. So there is an oracle that is going all the way back to the days of Noah.

Of course, that oracle goes all the way back before that to the first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3:15. But there is already this tradition that is being passed down by oral tradition from Adam and Eve down to Noah and from Noah down to his son Shem. And it is being continued on through bits and pieces until it leads to the line of Abraham.

But that implies that there were still people outside of Abraham’s direct lineage who were believers in God and who trusted in the promises of God because they were descendants of Shem. Noah’s oracle, blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Melchizedek apparently comes from that same line of Shem, but not directly connected to Abraham.

This is helpful to keep in mind because some people have appealed to this case of Melchizedek as an argument to say, look, this shows us that even pagans can attain to the saving knowledge of God apart from special revelation, apart from God’s revelation of his promises.

But the Bible teaches that man cannot come to the saving knowledge of God through natural revelation alone. That is God’s revelation in creation. Natural revelation, even man’s conscience, which is a certain degree of knowledge of God in man’s conscience, there is an awareness that we are obligated to worship the true God. But even man’s conscience cannot reveal the saving truths of the gospel. And so Melchizedek should not be appealed to as an example, as if it were possible for a pagan to attain to the saving knowledge of God apart from God’s revelation through the prophets and through scripture and through these promises that were carried down and passed down from generation to generation, from Adam to Noah and on. The Bible says that natural revelation only does one thing.

It does not reveal the way of salvation. It does not reveal that God is a merciful God through Christ. It only reveals that God is a holy God who will judge those who have sinned against him. It leaves us without excuse, but it does not show us the way to be saved. And so Melchizedek should not be appealed to for that argument.

The Old Testament’s Christological Clues

So let us return then to Hebrews. The author of Hebrews is doing good, careful exegesis, understanding and interpreting the Bible using Psalm 110 as his key entry point to interpret Genesis 14. The author of Hebrews finds deep Christological significance in this figure of Melchizedek. And the reason why he is able to do that is not simply because he is just using allegories or using his imagination to come up with some interesting Christological interpretation of an unusual figure in the Old Testament. The reason he is able to do that is because Psalm 110 verse 4 told him that. Psalm 110 verse 4 is telling him that there is something significant about this Melchizedek, something Christologically important. And so based upon that, he is able to draw out the implications of it.

All of this is highly relevant for these Hebrew Christians who are considering returning to Judaism. And furthermore, it is important for them to be convinced of this, to be convinced of the reality of Christ’s eternal priesthood and the superiority of his priesthood to the Levitical priesthood. It is important for them to be convinced of it on biblical grounds.

These are Jewish Christians. They are committed to the scriptures of the Old Testament. The New Testament is still in the process of being written, but it has not yet been formed into a canon that can be included in a complete Bible with both the Old and the New Testament together. Their scriptures are the scriptures of the Old Testament. And so they need to be convinced on biblical, exegetical grounds that the Old Testament itself tells us that it is temporary.

That the Levitical priesthood was not intended to be the one that God would use to bring us to perfection, that is to bring us to that complete and uninhibited access to God. That the earthly temple was only a picture of heaven itself where Christ has entered with his own blood. That the Davidic kings were not supposed to look for a future restoration of the Davidic monarchy.

That is an interesting point. Because you could think of Judaism as being somewhat messianic. Even to this day, Jews do, if they are Orthodox Jews, they do believe in a coming Messiah. But their view of that Messiah is purely human, a mere mortal man from the line of David who will be able to restore the earthly monarchy in an earthly way.

Even some of our fellow believers who hold to the dispensational premillennial scheme of eschatology have the same view that in the future, Christ is going to come back and literally reign upon the throne of David in Jerusalem for a thousand years on earth. But according to our text, all of these types, whether it is the Levitical priests or the Davidic kings, they are pointing to something greater than themselves. And so we should not think of the Old Testament merely as looking forward to a restoration of the Old Testament system. The whole Israelite kingdom of God, which included the kings and the priests and the temple, that whole system of the earthly Israelite kingdom is not simply going to be restored as if it is just repeating it and setting it up on earth again in an earthly way.

The author of Hebrews is saying there is an escalation. All of that earthly symbolism, the types and shadows of the old covenant system that are contained in national Israel, are provisional and temporary. They are shadows. And that Christ, when he comes, is the reality to which those shadows pointed. Psalm 110 makes that explicitly clear, does it not? It is telling us David is the king, but he is looking ahead to a greater king than him.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. David never sat at God’s right hand. No earthly monarch from the line of David ever sat at the right hand of God. Or how about this? You are a priest. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. No Davidic king was allowed to be a priest. In fact, there was one incident recorded in 2 Chronicles 26, where a king named Uzziah tried to enter the temple and to offer incense on the altar the way a priest would, and he was struck down with leprosy.

This king, the eschatological king, the fulfilled king, he is a priest. That is telling you right there, there is something different about this kingship. This kingship of Christ is not simply a restoration of the literal Davidic monarchy. This kingship of Christ is tied to his priesthood. His kingly reign, his kingly authority is grounded in his work of going to the cross and saving his people from their sins.

As it says in Hebrews 1 verse 3, after he made purification for sins as a priest, then he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, where he continues to serve as a king and a priest, reigning and ruling over his people, purifying them from sin, interceding for them, and bringing them into the eschatological kingdom of God.

He is something eschatologically greater, something unprecedented. And the wonderful thing is that God gave clues to all of his people in the Old Testament, especially Abraham, as we see in our text, that this was all provisional and destined to be fulfilled by something far greater. That is one of the things that is very powerful for us to understand as far as how to interpret the Old Testament typologically as types and shadows. The Old Testament not only contains types of Christ. You look at David, you say that is a type of Christ and his kingdom. The Old Testament not only contains those types to show us all that Christ is and will do for us, but, and I love this part about the Old Testament, it even contains clues at that time for those people at that time that all of this that they are experiencing right now is provisional and destined to be fulfilled by something far greater. That is what is going on with Genesis 14.

Abraham himself is being taught by the very reality that he meets this mysterious priest named Melchizedek and then receives a blessing from him and then gives him a tithe. He is being taught, he is being instructed right there in the midst of his own personal walk with God. He does not fully understand all that God is doing. He just knows he has these great promises, but he does not know exactly how it is all going to be fulfilled. But God is giving him these clues by having this mysterious encounter with this mysterious figure to tell him that this is something greater.

It is not just about money and wealth and land. It is about something awesome and glorious about this wonderful kingdom that is going to come through the person of Christ. About this glorious king who is also a priest, not just an earthly king like the king of Sodom or the king of Elam and these Mesopotamian kings who are simply men of this world, only concerned with earthly wealth and earthly power. No, Abraham, what I am doing with you is something far greater.

It is a spiritual kingdom, and it is going to be fulfilled in a spiritual way, and it has to do ultimately with this idea of priesthood. We can get behind the idea of kingship. We love the idea of kingship. That is important for us. Victory over our enemies. It seems like it has power to it. It seems like it has victory to it.

But what about the idea of priesthood? Priesthood is even more important. In fact, the whole purpose of the kingship is to promote the priesthood. All the kings of Israel were judged by how well they promoted the true worship of God and supported the temple. That is what Christ does. He exercises his kingship through his priesthood. And he exercises his priestly power as the one who purifies us from sin in a kingly way, giving us deliverance from our spiritual enemies and granting us the eternal inheritance, not in an earthly land, but in heaven itself.

That is the ultimate point of the whole Bible. Remember I talked about that word perfection? If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, that word perfection summarizes it for us. Perfection means uninhibited, perfect, and complete access to the presence of God. And we have that now through Christ, our great high priest. And we will have it fulfilled only at the last day when we are with the Lord forever.

And the whole point of heaven is not going to be enjoying earthly mansions and earthly things. The whole point of heaven is worship. The whole point of heaven is drawing near to the triune God through the priesthood of Christ and enjoying that union and communion with God forever in heaven.

So Abraham is being given a clue, being given a little hint that something awesome and greater is happening to him. And so he should not rest only in the fact that he received all this great wealth and power and that God blessed him materially in the land. He should look through that, beyond that, to that future kingdom that is going to be fulfilled in Christ.