Order of Melchizedek
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; 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;
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.
gave the tenth of the spoils.
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:
But this man who has not their genealogy received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
Hebrews 7:1-6
"There
were two orders of the priesthood,
--the Melchizedek
--and the Levitical.
The Melchizedek order preceded the Levitical order.
In Abraham’s day the
priest Melchizedek was king of Salem as well as priest of the Most High
God.
Although there is not much said in the Bible of the Melchizedek order
of the priesthood, it was superior to the Levitical order, for Christ
was made a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The
Levitical order extended from the time Israel came out of Egypt until
the cross; since that time we have the priesthood of Christ, of which
all earthly priests were a type.
Christ being a priest after the order
of Melchizedek, we are now living under the Melchizedek order of the
priesthood.
All we know about Melchizedek historically is contained in Genesis 14:18-20 and Psalms 110:4.
Then we have the statement by Josephus, whose history here was largely a
Jewish tradition, that he was a descendant not far removed from one of
the sons of Noah, ...The Jewish Targums held that he was Shem.
Now Christ was a priest, not after the order of Levi, but after the
order of Melchizedek.
The name corresponds with His character.
It is
made up of two Hebrew words,
Melek (king) and Sedek (righteousness).
Thus He is King of righteousness, a priest after this order.
A priest
after the order of Levi could serve only if he could prove his recorded
genealogical record, which was kept of the descendants of Levi, and
particularly of the house of Aaron. The Syriac Peshitta text, speaking
of Melchizedek, reads, "Of whom neither the father nor mother are recorded in the
genealogies."
--His priesthood was dependent, not on genealogy, but on
character. He was priest by his own right, and it was not necessary to
know what his lineage was. He was chosen by God, and no doubt by the
people as well, not because of who his ancestors were or where he came
from, but for what he was....looking at the last part of Hebrews 7:3: “Like the Son of God he remains
a priest forever” (N IV). A more literal translation would be “But
having been made like/similar to the Son of God, he remains priest for
all time/perpetually.”
This sentence is added to qualify the assertion
“without beginning of days or end of life.”
He is not eternal in his own
right, but in the narrative Melchizedek is made to resemble the
Son of God, the only one who truly remains priest forever. Melchizedek
is like Christ in the sense that Scripture does not provide any record
of His birth, His genealogy, or His death.
That absence of this
information in the Biblical account is used by the apostle to liken
Melchizedek to Christ, who is indeed eternal.
Therefore, the priest and king of Salem becomes a symbol of the true
priest, the Son of God, who is the originator of an eternal priesthood
that is not determined by genealogical records."
Stephen Haskell /Mimistry/1955/A. Rodgiquez
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