The Better Priesthood of Melchizedek

Transcript

GR 1691
05/26/2013
The Better Priesthood of Melchizedek
Hebrews 7:4-10
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Hebrews together so why don't you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 7. If you've been here for our study thus far, you'll know that this section on Melchizedek began with this writer having to rebuke them for their dullness in hearing, their lack of interest, lack of attention to seriously considering what we might call the heavier things, the meatier things of God's Word. But he's not willing to leave them there, he says we have to go on to maturity. And that's what he is doing in Hebrews 7.

Before we get into that I'd like just to share with you a couple of articles that I was reading this past week, and they relate to what we are doing in Hebrews because they reflect where much of the evangelical church is today and their approach to the Word of God. These both come from an evangelical publication, the writers are supposed to be evangelicals. This one is entitled “Flipping the 40-minute Sermon.” In other words maybe we ought to get rid of the 40-minute sermon. But I'm way ahead of them, I got rid of that long ago. But I think they are talking about a different direction.

There is a new trend in academia which encourages educators to focus less on lectures and more of an active learning environment interaction. And so the person writing this article, their authority and reference point is a professor at Harvard University. That always concerns me when we talk about what God's plan for His people is, how the church ought to be functioning, but we're not going to Scripture. We're going to a professor at a secular university. And I'm just going to read you excerpts.

“Is the 40-minute sermon losing its effectiveness. And modern educational models would say that that kind of lecture communicating information is not an effective way to teach people. Although the message from the pulpit can act like the ‘main act,’ going to church is about relating to one another in Christian community. Spread so thin from our jobs, college schedules, parenting responsibilities, meetings, volunteer opportunities, community activism, social media, extracurricular activities galore, we in the western church hardly have time for each other. Many Christians are lonely, many people are lonely. We come to church eager for friendship to connect with God and one another because He made us for relationships.”

Let me say something. I don't think we are any busier than anybody else has ever been in history. Keep in mind Paul wrote much of the New Testament to local churches, comprised primarily of poor people, some of whom were slaves. We realize a slave doesn't have a life of his own, he belonged to someone else. Those poor people trying to scratch out a living, working hard all day through the week and so on. This idea that we are busier than anyone else, the world has always had multitudinous opportunities for people to distract themselves. We may be busier with optional things than some people have had to be. But I can go back to the good old days in the '50s. My Dad was a steel worker, he had to go to work early in the morning and come home late in the evening. That was just his job. We were busy, everybody was busy. So we get the idea, the western world, we are just so much busier. Many years ago when we were in China, and I know things have changed, this was in the '80s, old people didn't get a weekend break like we did. So at the end of a long day they rode their bicycle to church late in the evening and they had church together. I don't know that they had more spare time so the idea that the western world, we're so busy. I've shared with you a recent poll that said the #1 reason that people are not able to fit church into their schedule anymore is their children's athletic activities—they've all been moved to Sunday. I understand how that is, life is busy. The world never did have time for God in their schedule. So this idea that in the western world we're just so overwhelmed.

We are made for relationships, even as Christians we are lonely. You know what the solution is? The main part of church is not the pastor's sermons. It's the interaction of the congregation, the formation of community around the Word of God. Now in a statement like this there is an element of truth, the formation of community around the Word of God. But it's not the social interaction that goes on. How would it be if instead of Sunday morning 40-minute sermons, the pastor chopped his teaching into four shortened broadcasts? No “amens” or clapping. Or YouTube videos for the congregation to listen to through the week. Then we wouldn't have to come together to study the Word of God, we could come together for social interaction. In other words we are going to make the church what the world has in the neighborhood bar where you go to escape the busyness and relate to your friends. So we could listen to short 10-minute sermons through the week if we chose to, and then when we came together on Sunday all of our time could be devoted to social interaction. Now this is an evangelical persons, supposedly, writing in an evangelical magazine for how Christians ought to reconsider doing church. You know they do see a problem with this, nothing to do with the Bible. There are no Scripture verses in this 2-page article at all.

They conclude by saying, “I appreciate that many countries do not have access to technology. Therefore the idea of altering our teaching pedagogy does not apply to them.” The only flaw in this they see is that some people won't have access to podcasts and so on. Other than that we just turn church into your neighborhood coffee shop. Sunday morning we come together, have coffee, relax, visit, enjoy one another and go home. We don't have to be bothered by the serious stuff of the Word of God. This is where the evangelical church is to be going.

I clipped another article out, this is an interview conducted by an evangelical leader with a professor at an evangelical college. And the title is “You Can't Think your Way to God.” Christian formation means shaping our lives, not just educating our minds.

I have to say, some of this stuff I have to read several times to even understand it. There are four pages here on how God's people are to develop. In four pages of interview there is not one Scripture verse, not brought up by the interviewer who is an evangelical, not brought up by the professor. And I'll read excerpts from it, just from the professor, I won't read the question.

The post-modern future of the church is in remembering things we've forgotten, going back to the ancient future faith. They are talking about going back to learning methodologies and practices of the church back in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th century. And that's the future of the church in our day? I thought it was getting back to the Word of God. It's all about this formation. You just can't go through the external activities of what they call Christian formation—certain practices of meditation and other things. You have to do it with your mind involved as well. And that's what will develop us.

Now this is a person in a school that you would send your children to when you didn't want them to be corrupted by going to a secular university. This man wrote two books on the kingdom of God in the last few years, one written in 2009 and one written even more recently. Do you know where he went to get his material for his two books? They are both on the kingdom of God. I forget the exact title and I can't pull it up in this extended article. Do you know where he went for his material? To two French theorists. So he could help God's people understand what the kingdom of God is to be and how they are to function in light of that. But he's going to two French theorists for your material? They both were published by Baker Academic. I mean, of course they have to be academic, you don't want to just be a dumb fundamentalist who just goes to the Scripture to find out what God says about the kingdom. You have to go to scholars and intellects.

Interesting thing to me, Lewis Sperry Chafer, I happened to be reading in his theology this week. And he said the greatest and most serious danger is the neglect of God's Word. It's not even the misunderstanding of it, he said it's the total neglect of it. That's where the evangelical world, here are two articles in an evangelical publication, both talking about the church, its future and the development of believers. Neither one uses a verse of Scripture. They are not overtly denying Scripture, we just ignore it. You ask them and they would say, well of course we presupposed the Scripture on this.

So we're coming to the book of Hebrews because you must understand what God says about the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. As difficult as some of the material may seem to us, we must understand it if we are to have lives that are pleasing to God. He has talked about Melchizedek, that enigmatic personage that appears in the days of Abraham in the Old Testament in just a few verses of Scripture in Genesis 14. Hebrews 7 opened up by recounting that historical event, so we won't go back there. We did that in our previous study. Hebrews 7:1-3 talk about the historical Melchizedek. He met Abraham and they had a brief encounter. And Abraham paid him tithes and Melchizedek gave him a blessing. And then Melchizedek disappears from the pages of Scripture. Those few verses in Genesis 14:18-20 are the only mention of Melchizedek in all of the Old Testament with the exception of one verse—Psalm 110:4. A prophecy given, “you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

So 2000 years before Christ, Abraham met a man named Melchizedek. One thousand years after Abraham met Melchizedek, David gives a prophecy regarding Melchizedek. Then everything is silent again for another thousand years. Nothing is mentioned in the gospels about Melchizedek, nothing is mentioned in the book of Acts about Melchizedek, or the book of Romans. In fact Melchizedek is not mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament except in the book of Hebrews. But the Spirit of God clearly states it is absolutely essential for us to understand the priesthood of Melchizedek because that Melchizedek in the Old Testament was an anticipation of the coming Christ and His priesthood.

We noted there are three possible identifications of Melchizedek as he appears in Genesis 14. One is that he was the son of Noah. Noah had three sons, remember, went through the flood with him—Shem, Ham and Japheth. Some hold that Melchizedek was Shem, one of the sons of Noah who was still living in the days of Abraham. We noted there are some problems with that, particularly in light of the way Hebrews unfolds Melchizedek. We know the genealogy of Shem, that's recorded in Genesis 10-11. We know the death of Shem, that's also recorded there. Yet in Hebrews the writer to the Hebrews says what is important to recognize is there is no genealogy recorded about Melchizedek. Not that he didn't have a genealogy, but there is no record of it. Nor is there any record of his death. So that among other things would eliminate Shem.

Secondly, some think that the appearance of Melchizedek in Genesis was a Theophany or a Christophany, a manifestation of Christ before He was born at Bethlehem. Theophany is a manifestation of God and in the Old Testament that would have been a manifestation of the second person of the Godhead, so a Christophany, a manifestation of Christ. We noted the problems with that.

The third possibility is the one I think is correct, and what is developed in Hebrews, and that is Melchizedek appears to be a type of Christ. His appearance in Genesis is so that he could be a type. What is recorded by him and what is not recorded by him was recorded to prefigure and anticipate the coming of the ultimate fulfillment and realization of that priesthood—the coming of the Son of God.

A “type” is something given to anticipate and prefigure something which will come. So in that sense all types are prophetic. And some would categorize types under prophetic literature. But they have their own unique characteristics. Types, there are many of them. We are going to be going through the book of Hebrews, we'll see many types. We go all the way back, for an example, to the Passover. Remember when the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt, they had to sacrifice a Passover lamb. And certain characteristics of that lamb—it had to be without blemish, it had to be tested to be sure it was not defective. The blood had to be applied to the doorposts of the home. And that sacrifice would keep the judgment of God from coming in and destroying the firstborn. We know that the Passover lamb was a type of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul says, “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.” The ultimate fulfillment of what was pictured in that Passover event was the sacrifice of Christ, and we are protected by His death through faith in Him, we are protected from the wrath of God that would be poured out on those who do not have Him as their Passover lamb. The book of Leviticus, the first seven chapters unfold seven offerings that the Jews were to offer under the Law. They all are “types,” they prefigure. There are five of them but they are all encompassed in the one sacrifice of Christ. So the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the Levitical system itself is a type of Christ.

Turn over to Hebrews 9 and the chapter opens up, “now the first covenant,” that's the Mosaic Covenant, the Mosaic Law with its “regulations” governing the religious life of Israel as he is particularly interested here, “had regulations of divine worship, the earthly sanctuary,” there was a tabernacle and all of that about it. Well you come down to verse 11, “but when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.” In other words that Old Testament tabernacle and the events associated with it were types, anticipating the anti-type, Christ. He entered a tabernacle “not made with hands, not of this creation, not through the blood of bulls, goats and calves but through His own blood He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” And then the comparison again with the Old Testament sacrifices. Verse 14, “how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

So you see those things had their place, they were types, they prefigured. Or according to Hebrews 10:1, “for the Law since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, not the very form.” So the Law was a shadow. And just like if the sun was right behind someone and you didn't see them yet, but you could see the shadow being cast. Tells you something about the reality. And that's what the Old Testament was, it was a shadow prefiguring and anticipating the coming of Christ, the whole Levitical system.

So you come back to Hebrews 7, it's not surprising that Melchizedek appeared there to be a type, prefiguring and anticipating Christ. Further preparation would be given for His coming because, think of Abraham. Here comes this figure, confronts Abraham, Abraham recognizes his greatness and he disappears. What did the Jews think of that record as they read their Old Testament? It would be a thousand years between Abraham and the prophecy of David, five hundred years since Moses had been used to put that record down in writing. And then it's a prophecy, “you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” So Jews reading that might say, well, I always wondered about the purpose of that Melchizedek. He just appears out of nowhere and he is gone. Where did he come from? Where did he go? And then there is a prophecy that the coming Messiah will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. We don't know until the book of Hebrews helps put it altogether for us, the significance.

All right so we had the historical account, what was recorded and what was not recorded in Genesis 14 about Melchizedek was so it would prefigure Christ. Now verses 4-10 he is going to draw certain applications to prepare us for the detailed discussion of the Levitical priesthood that will begin in verse 11 and he'll show how Christ's priesthood after Melchizedek is superior to that priesthood in every way.

He begins in verse 4 by saying, “now observe how great this man was.” Talking about Melchizedek. Observe, consider. A command given in the present tense. I want you to apply yourself to think carefully about this. Think about how great Melchizedek was. I mean, a few verses of Scripture in the historical account in Genesis 14 but think how great that man was. He was so great that Abraham gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. And the way he puts this, we have in our English translation here, Abraham the patriarch. But in the Greek text the word patriarch, the patriarch appears at the end of the sentence. A tenth Abraham gave of the choicest spoils, the patriarch. We would do it by inflection. You know, Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils, the choicest spoils. I'm talking about Abraham the patriarch, the father of the fathers—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then the twelve sons of Jacob that form the leadership of the twelve tribes. Abraham is the father of the fathers, from him comes Isaac, from Isaac come Jacob, from Jacob comes . . . Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth of the choicest spoils.

Now he is going to elaborate what this means. We'll appreciate this. The Jews have a background, we'll try to fill in our background. Verse 5, of “those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office.” Remember Levi was one of the sons of Jacob, he is the great-grandson of Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob had twelve sons and one of them is Levi. Now Levi will have children, one of his children will be Aaron. The Levites will be the priestly family and all of the Levites will be dedicated to caring for the tabernacle and the ministry of the tabernacle. The tribe of Levi never got any land as a possession in Israel and they entered into the land and the land was divided up among the other tribes. They were given certain cities but they had no land, so they didn't have any land to farm and cattle to raise on their land. They would be sustained by tithes.

Now among the Levites, only the descendants of Aaron would be the priests. The other Levites would have other responsibilites—setting up the tabernacle, taking it down when they moved from place to place, taking care of things related to the ministry of the tabernacle and so on. But it's only the line of Aaron. So when he says in verse 5, “those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commandment… “ All the Levites will receive tithes. Just an aside, all of the Jews paid tithes to the Levites and that's how the Levites were sustained since they didn't have land, crops and so on. The Levites who received a tenth from all the Jews paid a tenth of what they received to the descendants of Aaron who were the priests. And that's how the priests are . . . Now the writer to the Hebrews doesn't go into detail here, he assumes that these Jews are familiar with the Old Testament pattern. So he'll just talk about the tithes given to the priests in the Levitical priesthood.

“Those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest's office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is from their brethren, although they are descended from Abraham.” What happens is they are all descendants of Abraham but God specified in the Law that the Levites would be sustained by tithes, and particularly the priestly line of the Levites even though they are all descendants of Abraham. In that sense we can all claim Abraham as our father as Jews, he is saying, but God gave a law. So what marks the Levites off as different? God's command.

Come back to Numbers 18, just to refresh your mind in case you haven't read that this week. Numbers 18:21, “to the sons of Levi, behold I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.” So all the ministry connected with the activity of the tabernacle, the spiritual life of the nation is the responsibility of the Levites. “The sons of Israel,” verse 22, “shall not come near the tent of meeting or they will bear sin and die.” You see the distinction. God has said the Levites are those who do the ministry of the tabernacle. The other sons of Israel cannot take this ministry on for themselves. Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they have that responsibility.

Verse 24, “for the tithe of the sons of Israel which they offer as an offering to the Lord I have given to the Levites.” Now you'll note, this tithe is given to the Lord but the Lord has designated the Levites as those who could receive this tithe given to the Lord as His representative. So in a sense they are elevated above the rest of the tribes of Israel. The rest of the tribes of Israel give a tenth of what they have to the Lord. What does it mean to give it to the Lord? Give it to those whom He has delegated as His representatives to receive it. That was the Levites' position. That's why at the end of verse 24 it says, “they have no inheritance among the sons of Israel,” meaning they were not given a portion of land which was the source of income and wealth. So they are sustained by the gifts of the people.

Come back to Numbers 16, see how serious this is. In Numbers 16 you have the rebellion of Korah. Some of you are familiar with this, some of you may be less familiar with Korah. Korah himself is also a Levite. Numbers 16:1, “now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi.” So these are Levites but they are not of the line of Aaron to whom God has delegated the priesthood. But Korah and some aligned with him, mentioned as Dathan and Abiram here in verse 1, are jealous. I mean, we're descendants of Abraham and we're Levites, so who put you two brothers over us, Moses and Aaron. And who says Aaron is the only spiritual one who can perform the act of a priest?

Verse 3, “they assembled together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, you have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them and the Lord is in their midst. So why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” We're just as holy as you are, we have just as much a right to function as a priest as you do. I mean, we're descendants of Abraham, in fact we're even descendants of Levi. So we're not going to recognize you anymore.

And Moses says, all right, we'll resolve this. You “get your censers,” this was what the priests were to use, and you “put fire in them.” Part of the activity of the priest. We won't go into all the detail. And then we'll bring this and present it before the Lord and we'll see whom the Lord accepts. And verse 8, “Moses said to Korah, hear now, you sons of Levi, is it not enough for you that the God of Israel separated you from the rest of your congregation?” In other words he says, you Levites, sons of Levi, not everyone, but this line of them, you ought to be thankful that God has honored you with service at the tabernacle. But you want to take for yourself the priesthood limited to the line of Aaron.

At the end of verse 10, “are you seeking the priesthood also? Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord. But as for Aaron, who is he that you grumble against him?” The issue is not Aaron here, the issue is the Lord because who gave Aaron the authority to function as His representative before the people? God did. So you are grumbling against Aaron as you are grumbling against the Lord.

“So Moses summons these people to come before him,” verse 12, “the allies of Korah, and they say, ‘we're not coming. You brought us out of the beauty of the land of Egypt into this wilderness and now you are going to humiliate us’ and so on. Aaron became very angry,”verse 15, “and asked the Lord not to honor their offering.”

“So Moses said to Korah,” verse 16, “you present yourself before the Lord tomorrow and Aaron will be there and we'll let the Lord decide.” And they're going to have 250 men with them with these censers. So they bring their censers, they come and God speaks to Moses and says, “why don't you and Aaron step back and I'll just wipe everybody out and we'll start over with you two.” And you appreciate the graciousness of Moses as God's servant, and Aaron. Verse 22, their response. “They fell on their faces and said, ‘oh God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins will you be angry with the entire congregation? Oh Lord, that's the sin of these individuals. Be merciful.’” All the trouble that Moses and Aaron have had with them, I'd have just said, “good idea, Lord. I'll meet with you when you are finished.”

“The Lord said to Moses, all right then, you tell the congregation of Israel they better put some space between themselves and these men, Korah and his allies and the 250 with their censers.” So the congregation realizes now we have a contest and so they back off to observe what will happen.

Then Moses prays to God and says, “Lord, if Aaron and I are your representatives, prove it. If these,” and he tells the congregation, “if these men die a normal death, then we aren't the Lord's representatives. You're right. But if something supernatural happens and the earth opens up and swallows them, then you'll know we are the true representatives of God and you are not.”

And you know the account. Verse 31, “as he finished speaking all these words the ground that was under them split open. The earth opened its mouth, swallowed them up and their households and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol and the earth closed over them.” Now that's pretty striking. I mean, the Lord didn't just open up the earth like we had a minor earthquake or fissure. After it opened up and swallowed them up, it closed back up. Now you have 250 men standing there with their censers, ready to act as priests, claiming for themselves that which God has specified for Aaron's descendants only.

So verse 35 says, “fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.” And there is going to be a reminder made from the censers that are left. Verse 40, “a reminder to the sons of Israel that no layman, or stranger, non-appointed person, in other words someone not from the line of Levi through Aaron, who is not of the descendants of Aaron should come near to burn incense before the Lord so that he won't be destroyed like Korah and his company was.”

You see how serious, how God has to be approached according to His way. Now think about that where we are in talking about the Melchizedekian priesthood of Christ and the way things go on. And people say, well, there are differences of opinion. There is only one opinion that counts. God says He can be approached one way. That's why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” And those who try to come another way will suffer the fate of eternal destruction from His presence.

You think this would have made an impact on the congregation, don't you? But while we're here note verse 41. It hardly lasted a full day. “But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said, you're the ones who caused the death of these people.” It doesn't matter how spectacular the miracle is, you'd think they would be afraid of Moses and Aaron if they did cause it. But they think they brought the judgment of God on them. “Then, as these people are grumbling, the cloud that descends on the tabernacle appears and the presence of God is there. And Moses and Aaron appear before the Lord and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘get away from this congregation that I may consume them instantly.’”

I try to think of myself in these accounts and realize I am no Moses because I would have said, “we gave them another chance yesterday, Lord. These people never learn their lesson. Let's start over.”

“Moses said to Aaron, take your censer, put in it fire from the altar, lay incense on it. Then bring it quickly to the congregation, make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord, the plague has begun.” You see what has to happen? The appointed representative, Aaron, God's appointed high priest has to act now on behalf of the people if they are to be spared the judgment and wrath of God. Almost 15,000 people die in the plague but the nation is spared. Then in Numbers 17 God makes clear before all that it is Aaron and his descendants that are the Levitical priesthood.

I say this and we go through all this because when we get to Hebrews 10, after we finish this extensive discussion of the high priesthood of Christ, then we will be reminded, those who rebelled under Moses' Law died without mercy. How much more severe punishment do you think that they will deserve who have trampled underfoot the Son of God? And have not really given honor to His high priestly ministry. I mean, there is no latitude here. Tragic that even those who claim to be evangelicals are acting, well this is not . . . People have different interpretations. They do, they always have but God is clear.

So come back to Hebrews 7. The Law specified that the descendants of Levi through Aaron would be the priestly ministry. You understand they are the only one who could do it. We have people parading around today calling themselves priests. We ought to recognize it for what it is. People talking about they went and talked to God and worshiped God with no understanding of the high priestly finished work of Christ. They are not coming on that basis but they think it is narrow and bigoted and harsh and unloving and unkind if we say that is not acceptable to God.

Verse 5, “those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people.” That's their authority to do it. That's true, they are fellow Jews; that's true, all the Jews are descendants of Abraham. Why does Levi and his descendants through Aaron have that authority? Because God gave it to them. Keep that in mind.

Verse 6, “but the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.” He's picking up the two main points that he pulled out of the historical account in Hebrews 7:1-3. The end of verse 1, “Melchizedek blessed Abraham;” the beginning of verse 2, “Abraham paid a tenth to Melchizedek.” Those two points are crucial, they demonstrate the superiority of Melchizedek to Abraham and to the Levitical priesthood. So the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, it's not traced from Levi, it's not traced from Abraham. The Jews could understand, you could not be a priest. If you somehow, somewhere were in the line as the priest developed down, and there were more and more of those as the line of Aaron expanded. If someone couldn't trace their genealogy, and that happens later in the Old Testament, they couldn't function in the priestly office. You had to be able to show your genealogy.

Melchizedek comes on the scene, we're not told anything about him. Not about his genealogy, not about his death. His genealogy is not traced from them so he doesn't have authority from the Mosaic Law to be a priest. But he has greater authority over them. Abraham paid him a tenth. Remember when we went back to the Old Testament, the tithes are being given to God. They are to be given only to God through the representative that He has appointed—the Levites and the Levitical priesthood. Now what is happening when Abraham is giving tithes to Melchizedek? He is recognizing that God has given him a position above his own with the authority to receive the tenth of the choicest, off-the-top, which would be the spoils that Abraham had gotten when he defeated the kings, to Melchizedek. He is recognizing Melchizedek has a position above mine to act as God's representative between God and me. And the portion that belongs to God is to be given to him. Every Jew reading would understand this and understand the line of argument. And we must understand it also.

So the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, not from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, through Aaron, collected a tenth from Abraham. He will elaborate on that tenth even further. And he blessed the one who had the promises. I mean, we're talking about Abraham the patriarch, the one who had the promises, the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant given in Genesis 12, repeated in Genesis 13. And then repeated again after this incident in Genesis 14. Abraham has the promises and yet Melchizedek is blessing the one who has the promises.

And verse 7, “without any dispute,” no argument on this, no Jew would even raise the question and it's commonly recognized, “the lesser is blessed by the greater.” That word greater, we talked when we began Hebrews about that word translated greater, better, superior. Down in Hebrews 7:19, you may have it marked from when we went through these, there is a “better hope;” down in verse 22, there is a “better covenant.” Here the less is blessed by the better, if you wanted to use the same word. It's the same word in Greek—the greater, the superior.

Now the word blessing can be used in a variety of ways. We have songs we sing that draw from the Psalms. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is in me bless His holy name.” We're not greater than God, but we are blessing God. Well that word can be used of giving praise to someone. And that's the sense. We are not superior to God, but in a sense that word blessing means we give Him praise. But in the context of one person blessing another in that Old Testament history as well, but it's to be true. We can even understand it today. This person is recognized as having a superior position before the Lord with the authority to convey God's blessing and promises upon me.

So there is no controversy that by Melchizedek blessing Abraham, Melchizedek is the superior person. He is standing between God who is the source of all blessings and all the promises given to Abraham, but now there is one between Abraham and God who can receive God's portion, a tenth, and can also bestow God's blessing and promises and assurances to Abraham. The point being driven home is this Melchizedek is a unique and awesome person. He is greater than Abraham.

Now we're back to the tithes because where he really wants to go in all of this, he's not really going to develop the issue of Abraham. We're going to leave Abraham behind after Hebrews 7:10. He will not reappear until Hebrews 11:8 after we're done with the discussion of the priesthood. So he's really moving more to the subject of the tithes because that has to do with the priestly activity. So in verse 8, in this case mortal men receive tithes. That's true of the Levitical priesthood, they were mortal men, they were subject to death and dying. Hebrews 7:23, “the former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented death from continuing.” So they were mortal men. So these are priests who receive tithes as God's representatives, but they are just men. But in the case of Melchizedek there is something about his priesthood. It doesn't have a break and have to be passed on. Aaron passed it on to his sons, who passed it on to their sons, who passed it on to their sons. There is no record of a pass-on. There was no genealogy to establish his link, Melchizedek, and there is no record of his death or any subsequent line.

In that case one receives them of whom it is witnessed he lives on. And that was verse 3 that we saw—without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. “But made like the Son of God.” Now as we noted, made like the Son of God. In Hebrews we've gone back and forth between the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ. In the humanity of Christ we do have genealogy and lineage, recorded in Matthew and recorded in Luke. We can trace the genealogy of his father and the genealogy of his mother. But as the Son of God He has no genealogy. So what was recorded and not recorded about Melchizedek in Genesis 14 was so that he would be like the Son of God. There would be no record of the beginning of his priesthood and the lineage leading up to it. There is no record of his death and the passing on of his priesthood. “It is a priesthood” as it said at the end of verse 3 “that goes on perpetually. “ There is no record of it ending. Now that doesn't mean that Melchizedek lived forever and didn't have parents, it means what is written there prefigures, the type prefigures the anti-type, the shadow prefigures the reality. That's the point.

So he has a continual priesthood. This will be developed more in detail when we start in verse 11, into the issue of the priesthood. In this case mortal men receive tithes, his priesthood continues on. And so to speak, now you see here he wants to go to the priesthood of Levi, through Abraham even Levi who received tithes paid tithes. How so? For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. And we noted when we started this, that ending Melchizedek met him, at the end of verse 10, sort of ties this unit together. That's how verse 1 started, Melchizedek met Abraham.

So what he has done is given a summary of that Old Testament meeting and then showed the specific points, the significance of the blessing of Melchizedek upon Abraham, the significance of Abraham paying tithes. Now where we are really going to develop is how this impacts the Levitical priesthood specifically. And you understand when Abraham paid tithes, he's the great-grandfather of Levi. It was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons and one of his sons was Levi. And his descendants will be the priestly family. That was associated with the tabernacle and particularly the priestly line through Aaron.

Now what happens is Levi was really in Abraham because he will be descended from him. So in effect Abraham was acting on his behalf, representing him, and so it really is the action of Levi as well as Abraham. We can understand something of that. Our children, we pass on things to our children. You're a citizen of the United States, when your child is born they are a citizen. What happens, the parent really is passing on a benefit, they're acting on behalf. We see this with Adam in one sense, not exactly as here, but Adam acted as our representative and his action was viewed as our action. So here Abraham is acting.

So in effect you could say Levi paid tithes because Abraham his father paid tithes and he is a descendant of Abraham, he is still in Abraham. So Abraham's action as all the Jews are benefiting from the promises to Abraham and is passed on to them, so his action also is viewed as their action. So Levi is paying tithes. What does that mean? It means even Levi and the Levitical priesthood that descends from Levi is acknowledging at the beginning in the patriarch Abraham the superiority of the Melchizedekian priesthood to their priesthood. They would be delegated the authority to receive tithes from fellow Jews, but Levi the father of the Levites and from whom the Levitical priests will be descended really acknowledged that Melchizedek's priesthood is greater than his.

Now with that we drop Abraham. He'll not be mentioned again until we get to the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11:8. Where is he going? Verse 11 will begin,” now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood.” You see he has drawn this and the emphasis has been mostly on the tithes paid, and then he ties that to the impact and what that means for the Levitical priesthood. Now we're going to begin that extensive discussion and comparison of the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood of Christ.

And we want to become clear, there are no options and any of these who have professed faith in Christ but decide, no, I think I'm going to follow the Levitical system, you follow that to an eternal hell. There is only one way of salvation, there is only one high priest who can represent God to man and represent man to God., that is Jesus Christ. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” He is the only one, He is the sufficient one, He is the only one we need because all who will come to God through Him are cleansed of their sin, are redeemed as we sang, and welcomed before God. Everyone else lives under the condemning judgment of God, destined to an eternal hell. Doesn't matter what their religious beliefs, practices, convictions; doesn't matter how close to the truth they are. These Jews could think we have the Law, we have the Levitical system, that's pretty good. It's only enough to condemn you, it only anticipated the reality. That reality is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word, the truth You revealed concerning Your Son, the depths that we are privileged to plumb through the revelation You have given and the ministry of Your Spirit. I pray these truths will grip our hearts and minds that we might understand the seriousness of these issues, the finality of what You have said and Your graciousness in providing a salvation through Your Son that provides cleansing for all who will place their faith in Him. We praise You in His name, amen.