Friday, August 25, 2023

Order of Melchizedek

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. 
Now consider how great this man was, 
unto whom even the patriarch Abraham 
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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