The Mystery of Melchizedek (Part 1 of 4)

In the seventh chapter of Hebrews we read about a royal priest whose name was Melchizedek.

Now at first glance this passage seems to be nothing more than a detailed lesson on Old Testament history, but today on Truth for Life. Alastair beg shows us there's a lot in this passage that applies to us today.

He's titled this message the mystery of Melchizedek in teaching through the Bible in a systematic and consecutive fashion one inevitably discovers that there are certain portions of Scripture which one might be tempted to skip and yet you just can't reason I mention that because Hebrews chapter 7 is a potential skipping chapter. If I were teaching topically through the Bible and I perhaps wait some time before I came to Hebrews 7 and maybe even hold that someone else would deal with it in my absence, but given that we have plan to go through it in this consecutive Way there's nothing else for me to buy to put my head down and trying get through.

Hebrews chapter 7 is one of the most demanding, fascinating, challenging and rewarding sections of the epistle to the Hebrews the real burning question in coming to this section of holy Scripture is. Who is this mysterious figure called Melchizedek and the answers that have been provided throughout the years are many and varied. For example, if you read commentaries you will discover that there are those who say that Melchizedek was a personification of the third member of the Trinity, namely the Holy Spirit that are others who believe that he was a divine virtue, with dramatic powers, greater even than the powers of Christ we can certainly ask that one out. Others have suggested that he was simply an angel and others, and quite a number of others have proclaimed the fact that Melchizedek was nothing other than a pre-incarnate appearance of the son of God before I come to my own personal explanation of this and as a result of my study. It should not be surprising to us that when he mentioned Melchizedek for the first time in the 10th verse of chapter 5, he immediately paused at that moment and said in verse 11 we have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn that out to be a key right there.

It's almost as though he comes right up to it in the bank saw fit. A breeze for a while as he introduces areas of pastoral concern. The problem of spiritual infancy, the pathway to spiritual maturity. The panel of spiritual apostasy that he comes back to him again at the end of chapter 20 the closing, the… If you like the parenthesis then complete and he says this, Jesus has become a high priest in the order of Melchizedek and then we must look at his amanuensis, his secretary and said well we might as well go for it would mention them twice.

Let's just see it through.

Let's tackle this issue of Melchizedek. In this particular section is probably as daunting as any in the epistle of Hebrews because the imagery which the right of employees and the argument which he makes taxes into unfamiliar territory and the reason and the reason for his approach is because he is addressing a first century audience that understood the nature of Judaism were facing peculiar challenges in relationship to their profession of faith and the application of these truths would be as familiar to them as it is apparently unfamiliar to us.

Now, at the very heart of it is an issue which many of you may never ever have encountered some of you will be familiar with and others will be somewhere in between. The issue is referred to in biblical theological terminology as typology or typology that is TY POL GY and we are introduced here to a classic statement. All this means and method of illustrating the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What you have in the Old Testament, both in people and in practices and in events are foreshadowing's.

All the Lord Jesus Christ.

We saw this on a number of occasions in our studies in Joseph where as we unfolded the text of Joseph online short a way forward to Christ, and we realize that what we had in Joseph was not simply an historic statement concerning the reality of the unfolding of God's plan for the life of Joseph, but we also had in that type that was pointing us forward to the anti-type. The type in the Old Testament is the representation of the antitype which is the reality which we discover in the new note if I give you a couple of concrete illustration Jill have this and in no time at all and it will be plain sailing for example in numbers chapter 21 meaning to enter. This can be your homework, but in numbers chapter 21 God commands Moses if you recall, to hoist up a serpent or a snake on a pole in the wilderness and Moses is then to tell the people that all who Luke tonight serpent or that snake on the pole will live. They will be cleansed and they will live. Now that is a type, and the anti-tying the reality which it foreshadows and to which it point is the lifting up of the Lord Jesus upon the cross, providing the atoning answer to the sins of men and women in the way in which the serpent on the snake in looking to that foreshadowed it in the physical cleansing back in the Old Testament, so the type is the snake on the pole.

The antitype is Christ, not if we were tempted to say well I wonder what he gets that from we would need to turn this encourager, just so you can see enter John chapter 3 and verse 14's. This is Jesus himself speaking, he said, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. So Jesus takes the Old Testament picture and he applies it immediately what is going to happen in his death in the same way, and there are many to which we could turn but in the same way and Exodus chapter 12 in providing instruction concerning the Passover were told in verse five the animals you choose must be year old males without defect and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. The sacrificial lamb spoken of in the Passover celebrations and Exodus was uptight. The antitype is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so that, for example, when Peter writes to the scattered believers of his day in first Peter chapter 1 and in verse 19 he says whom you are redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, but rather with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb notice without blemish or defect. People read the Old Testament is why were all these things so important, why was it so necessary, why do they pay such attention to the detail in that way.

And the answer is often, although not always because what is provided there is a type which finds its antitype in the fulfillment in the in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the reason that I mentioned, this should be obvious to you by now.

This individual Melchizedek is a type of the antitype the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the uniqueness of the priesthood of Melchizedek as it is described for us in the Bible is described in exactly the way in which it is provided in order that it might foreshadow and point us forward to the one who is the absolute fulfillment of the nature of the role of high priest now. It is interesting, at least to me that we only have three mentions are three places in the Bible where Melchizedek is mentioned first in Genesis chapter 14 which is the historic encounter to which the writer refers here in the opening verses of Hebrews 7 first and in Genesis 14 then in some hundred and 10. In verse four. Then in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 10 and then in Hebrews 620 and then in the unfolding of Hebrews chapter 7 is making a site here which I think is of importance and certainly should be instructional for here we have a mention of this shadowy character.

First of all, appearing as aware from nowhere in Genesis 14 there's only three nurses refer to him and then nothing.

Total silence and about a thousand years later, David reintroduces him in the fourth verse of the hundred and 10 Sam then silence. In approximately a thousand years later he appears in the 10 verse of Hebrews chapter 5 is a what was the significance will here's the question of evil against me all the time.

They want to tell me that the Bible is a collection of writings where people got together and collaborated on material source to make sure that they could stick it all together in a way to call on the guileless in a way to satisfy the weak minded individuals who are prepared to buy this whole notion I don't how you get a Melchizedek from nowhere in Genesis 14 then a thousand years in a Melchizedek in one verse in the time of David and then a thousand years and Melchizedek in the first century and the writer of the Hebrews, unless the same individual who authored Genesis authored the signs and authored Hebrews is how otherwise would people of known about this person so in a subtle and yet wonderful way.

As an aside, here is one of the internal proofs as to the veracity of the authorship of the Bible that it is, as Paul says to Timothy God grieve the Eustis and profitable. Therefore, for all of our instruction, correction and training in righteousness, and so on.

It is not as men and women want us to believe a ragbag of material generated by some well-meaning religious freaks in the early centuries A.D. you have to have more faith to believe that then you have to believe in the divine authorship of holy Scripture.

But that's in the site. Let us move to the instruction concerning Melchizedek take the opening phrase of verse one added to the closing phrase in verse three, and you've got the essential picture this Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God most high, like the son of God, he remains a priest forever.

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God most high on adding it to the closing phrase in verse three and like the son of God, he remains a priest forever. Now that we going to Passover. The elements in the middle, but that will give you the very heart of what's going on the snapshot if you like, which is given to us in the Bible of Melchizedek leaves him at every point in permanent possession of his priesthood that I will become clear what I mean by that is we go on. Or it won't.

But I hope it might.

He was the king of Salem. We are told, which almost certainly should be identified with Jerusalem because that was another name for Jerusalem. He is the priest of God most high, and his name is significant, especially when you think of that which he portrays in so far as he was called the King of righteousness, and the king of peace. There could be no better description of the one who was to be the fulfillment of the shadow which he cast namely the Lord Jesus Christ and in the third verse we come to the most troubling element which provides individuals with some of the more fanciful ideas about who Melchizedek is without father or mother without genealogy, without beginning of days and of life.

So what is this is is he the original. Nowhere man did he come from nowhere was about essentially nothing and go to nowhere. I have concluded in my own personal study in your sensible people in need to judge for yourselves. I have concluded that Melchizedek was an historical figure that he had a real birth real life in the real death invite in researching it.

It seems distinctly possible that he may well have been a descendent of a fellow by the name of Jeff ARG affect who reigned over a certain territory, a small tribe in Canaan and the territory over which he reigned, had as its chief town Salem and while there is much which appeals to the idea of Melchizedek being a pre-incarnate manifestation of the son of God. I can't get there because it doesn't say that in fact it says that he was like the son of God, or in the King James version he was made like unto the son of God. I will only hear knowledge of English language to think this out if the writer if he was the pre-incarnate Christ, then the writer would've said he was without father or mother without genealogy without mitigating revision are like hey, you shouldn't be surprised if he was the son of God, but he doesn't say he said he was like unto the son of God. He was a type, and the way in which he is described for us in the Bible is in such a way as to focus only on that which provides for the fulfillment in the totality and reality of Jesus himself so if we taken in context. Clearly he didn't come from nowhere.

If he was a mere man. He had parents and he lived and he dined well then you say why does it say without father or mother without genealogy while again the context is the answer for the Levitical priesthood genealogy or ancestry, with everything you could not be a priest after the order of Levi, unless you were a literal descendent of Aaron and indeed your mother had to be a person who qualified by certain stringent requirements to be a priest's wife and furthermore certification of that had to be placed within the genealogical register, no damages there for us in history again for you in Ezra chapter 2 and you find the exact same statement and now my most of us would've forgotten about in Ezra chapter 2 in the list of the exiles who have returned after their captivity in Babylon in verse 61 is an interesting chapter is right you might like to turn to it and begin memorizing it right now, but I Ezra chapter 2 verse 61 provides us with a list of unpronounceable names and then it says of them. Verse 62.

These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and saw where excluded from the priesthood. These were guys who were showing up and saying hey I'm in the Levitical priesthood and the answer was show me her birth certificate, show me your identification and in all of the chaos that ensued in their lives, they were unable to go and produce the genealogical records and therefore they said on the strength of that you cannot be a priest now Melchizedek.

In contrast, had no reference to genealogical records. He is not introduced to is on the basis of his genealogy. He appears in the Scriptures as if from nowhere disconnected.

In his description from his realistic origins as a mere man but described in a way that attaches nothing to his origins and provides us with no record of his ending. Why because he is tight of the one who was to fulfill a priesthood which had nothing to do with genealogy and which would go on forever. And so in order for him to be a fit tight all the fulfillment it was necessary that he would have the shadowy depiction within the pages of Scripture. Now learn this in passing, even the silences of Scripture are pregnant with meaning.

What it doesn't say about him teaches us something for the Levitical priesthood only begin at the age of 25 for five years.

They were allowed to do a kind of interdisciplinary priestly function amongst themselves and then from the age of 13 he could begin ministering to the congregations that gathered but that only lasted for 20 years and at the age of 50. It was done and gone so nobody out of the Levitical priesthood would be able to provide the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It would have to be somebody with another kind of priesthood, namely Melchizedek, who, unlike the others, is not introduced to us on the basis of these things, nor is his priestly function limited by these time frames which were part and parcel of the others. Melchizedek's priesthood was not founded upon his genealogy, but was derived from his personal dignity. It was not limited to a prescribed. There is no record given of it coming to an end and obviously came to an end, but he doesn't have it described as coming to an end because of the purpose for his existence in Scripture and in this respect, he foreshadows the superiority of Jesus priesthood because the priesthood of the Lord Jesus rested upon the eternal dignity of his son ship, the priesthood of the Lord Jesus was not on the basis of his lineage, the priesthood of the Lord Jesus was on the basis of his personal worth this new covenant we call the gospel is changed everything. There's a lot for us to look forward to is Alastair big continues describing Melchizedek and the amazing ways he foreshadows our great high priest, Jesus will hear that tomorrow on Truth for Life to illustrate how Jesus changed everything. There's an online video would love to have you view called the story in just a few minutes.

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Give online at truthforlife.org/donate or if you prefer to call us. Our number is 888-588-7884 or you're welcome to mail your donation along with your request for the book right to truth for like the PO Box 39, 8000, Cleveland, OH 44139. Tomorrow Alastair takes us back to Hebrews chapter 7 is teaching us how the mysterious priest Melchizedek foreshadows Jesus as our great high priest and why that has implications for us today about Lapine. The teaching ministry of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life or the Learning is for Living