MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Reader: Di Harcus
Genesis 14
Nobody really knows who Melchizedek was. He was a Canaanite king, the king of Salem/Jerusalem who became revered, in an almost mystical way, by Hebrews/Jews. As for us Christians, we wonder why he was so important. We rarely think about him, yet in our preaching series through Genesis, we have now arrived at Genesis 14, the home of his one and only appearance in the biblical narrative. We will see that he is, in fact, worthy of attention and respect by Christians. Before we pick up the story of Melchizedek, though, we need to understand the background to his appearance in Genesis 14. “Kingdoms” in the Ancient Near East were everywhere. At the time of Abram four large kingdoms, in particular, reigned…
Project Four Mesopotamian Kings map https://scripturescript.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/4kings_homeland.gif
You can see that these 4 kingdoms ruled all of today’s Iran and Iraq, right over to Turkiye. The alliance of those 4 kingdoms had, 12 years earlier, conquered 5 much smaller city-kingdoms, which included Sodom and Gomorrah, in the richly fertile area around the Dead Sea, and made them pay tribute or taxes to them. After 12 years, those 5 southern kingdoms have had enough. They think they are sufficiently strong enough to throw off the yoke, and quit paying tributes to the 4 northern kingdoms. That happened in the 13th year of being subjected. In the 14th year King Kedorlaomer of Elam, apparently the leader of the northern consortium of those 4 powerful kingdoms in the north, leads his allies and armies on another campaign of conquest through all the region. They conquer all the other kingdoms along their way to Canaan. Hearing about the advancing armies, the 5 southern nations gather for war south of the Dead Sea, in an area known as the Valley of Siddim.
Project map from the battles in Genesis 14 – https://biblemapper.com/blog/index.php/2021/07/19/the-battle-at-the-valley-of-siddim/
Diana Harcus will pick up the story for us in Genesis 14:10…
Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. (Genesis 14:10-12)
The four northern kingdoms don’t merely defeat those five southern kingdoms, including Sodom and Gomorrah; they take prisoners from them with the intention of taking them back all the way to their far-away lands. Included amongst those prisoners is Lot, the nephew of Abram, who resided in Sodom. You may remember that God had told Abram that anyone who blessed him and his descendants would be blessed, but anyone who cursed them or caused them trouble would pay a price for doing so. It is at this point that Abram, who living in the hill country in Canaan, near the town of Hebron, enters the story.
A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night Abram divided his men to attack them, and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. (Genesis 14:13-17)
Abram and his fighting men chased those four northern armies a long way, finally catching and defeating them hundreds of kilometres north, past Damascus. We tend to forget that Abram was a powerful and great man but the kings around the Dead Sea knew he was so.
After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:18-20)
People ask how Melchizedek was a “priest of God Most High” if he wasn’t a Hebrew or Jewish or part of the family of Abram/Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel? But, as we have learned in this sermon series, people outside of Abram’s family line called on YHWH’s name right from the start of human history, from the time of Adam and Eve’s family. That Melchizedek served as a “priest” of YHWH is often confusing to we who know of the historical revelation of YHWH that came to Moses and culminated in Jesus but it shows that God was knowable to all people, giving us a glimpse of God’s work in people outside of the historic line of Israel, which went from Adam through Abraham all the way to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Genesis teaches that people, regardless of their ethnicity, could know YHWH.
So, Melchizedek brings bread and wine with him, gives them to Abram and speaks a blessing over him, addressing YHWH by the name of El Elyon, which means “God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.” After receiving the blessing, the first recorded tithe in the Bible is given by Abram to Melchizedek. The later Law of Moses would dictate that the Levites, the descendants of Levi who became priests would collect a tithe from the Israelite people. Being priests, Levites were considered to be of a higher rank than the common person, while the Aaronites, descendants of Aaron, Moses’ brother, would become the high priests in Israel, were considered the highest rank possible. But, here, Abram showed Melchizedek’s greatness and superiority to him by giving a tithe to him. Honestly, this would be a most perplexing scene on its own but, fortunately, the historical Melchizedek’s importance was remembered, and theologically partially explained when King David wrote of him in his so-called “Messianic Psalm 110”.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a
priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)
Again, in and of themselves, the story of Melchizedek and even David’s mentioning of him in that Messianic psalm, would make no sense, if they were not later explained. They made sense only after Jesus (in Matthew 23) explained that he was the Messiah David wrote about in Psalm 110. As Jesus explained, Melchizedek was his prototype, a priest with no known human origins nor ending. Melchizedek was obviously born and died, but Jesus had no beginning or end. He was the prophesied “Ancient of Days” who would forever proclaim forgiveness of sins to people. Truly this bizarre-to-our-Christian-ears proclamation is great news! Jesus is not a Levitical or Aaronic priest for Israelites only, but a priest of the order of Melchizedek, a priest for all people, the greatest intercessor and provider of forgiveness and eternal life that there ever need be. However, we still don’t fully understand Melchizedek’s importance in the grand schemed of things.
And so, we now turn to the place where it is all explained, in the New Testament, in the Letter to the Hebrews. Who was that letter originally written to? Israelites/Jews/Hebrews. As you may remember from when we preached through it, the author’s purpose in writing his Letter to the Hebrews was to convince Hebrews/Israelites/Jews of the uniqueness of Jesus and thus lead them into a believing, saving faith that they would find through Jesus. In chapter 1 of his letter, the author shows that Jesus is superior to angels. In chapter 2, that Jesus is superior to all humans, including Abraham’s descendants. In chapter 3, that Jesus is superior to Moses, and in chapter 4, that Jesus is superior to Joshua. Those assertions would have been shocking to the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews who thought so highly of the angels, Abraham, Moses, and Joshua. But, then the author of the Letter to the Hebrews goes one step further in his comparisons.
Who would he spend chapters 5,6,7,8 comparing Jesus to? The Hebrews’ beloved Melchizedek. The writer instructs his readers that because of how superior Jesus is to everyone else, that they can, through Jesus the Messiah, can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence”, without hesitation, fear or rejection or trepidation. But, then he dives even deeper into that fact when, as his crowning argument, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews spends four chapters comparing Jesus to Melchizedek, stating that Jesus is greater than Levitical priests through whom they could be assured of temporary forgiveness of their sins, Aaronic high priests through whom the entire of nation could be forgiven for a whole year (on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement), and Melchizedek, who was the greatest of all priests and high priests. Jesus, the writer claims, is superior to all!
Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:5,6)
Though the Jew and the Gentile were once separated, through Christ all of humanity was extended the opportunity to be drawn near to God. As the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2: “For Christ himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace.”
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 6:19,20)
This hope is for all people, no matter what their ethnicity. The Isaiah 9 prophecy we have read as our benediction each of these past Sundays – and which we will finish with again today – talks about Jesus bringing to earth God’s righteousness and peace, traits first attributed in the Bible to Melchizedek.
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, the name Melchizedek 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, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! (Hebrews 7:1-4)
But, as great as Abram/Abraham was, Melchizedek was greater than him. And, as great as Melchizedek was, Jesus was greater than him! Forgiveness and the perfection in God’s eyes that comes with it, we are told, cannot be attained through the keeping of any laws overseen by Levitical priests or Aaronic high priests, but only through Jesus. Why? Only Jesus lives forever and thus can intercede and make the way for God’s forgiveness which leads to God seeing us as “perfect”, without sin, forever.
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? (Hebrews 7:11)
The “perfection” that comes from forgiveness had to come by another way other than keeping the Levitical and Aaronic laws, and that way would be through Jesus, the ultimate high priest, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews explains.
And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:15-19)
That “better hope” was introduced to the world through Jesus, the one superior to every Levitical priest and Aaronic high priest. The Old Covenant they oversaw is thus of no effectiveness anymore. In fact,
Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. (Heb 7:22)
We can’t get so wrapped up in the stories of our individual lives only to find we have lost sight of the big story that starts in the Book of Genesis, continues throughout the Bible, and culminates in Jesus the Messiah – that salvation has come to our world in the birth of the baby Jesus that we have been celebrating these past several weeks. And, so, as we finish up our Advent and Christmas worship services, we conclude with the theme we began with in the first Advent candle: Jesus is our eternal “hope”, one unlike anyone else, and greater than all. Praise God for Melchizedek who helps us to understand this. And, Praise God for Jesus, the Messiah, and the perfecter of our faith! Let us pray…
