The Lord has sworn
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4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Jesus is praying for you. If you trust Jesus, he is praying for you. Jesus has a priestly role. He is a high priest who is making intercession for you.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
You might think that because of what you have done or who you are that you can’t draw near to God. You can draw near to him because Jesus ALWAYS lives to make intercession for you.
To understand this better, we look at
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
This Psalm is about Jesus. Jesus is under the authority of God the Father. The Father spoke and said that Jesus was Lord. The Father sent Jesus to rule in the midst of his enemies. Here in verse 4, the Father has sworn that Jesus will be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
This verse raises several questions that I will attempt to answer this morning.
Why would David write, “the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind?”
What is the order of Melchizedek
How does this verse relate to us?
“What is the order of Melchizedek?
“What is the order of Melchizedek?
Chedorlaomer was the king of Elam, in present day Iran. He had swept through the area defeating armies and taking prisoners for slaves as well as anything of value. He fought the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adah, Zeboiim and Bela. For twelve years these kings had lived under the thumb of Chedorlaomer. In the 13th years they said, “Enough” and rebelled against him.
A year later they were routed by Chedorlaomer and the kings fled for their lives. Among the prisoners that Chedorlaomer took was Lot, Abram’s nephew.
Abram took after Chedorlaomer and defeated him. He brought back the people and the treasures that had been stolen from the various countries and kings.
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
Abram meets the king of Sodom near Jerusalem in the Valley of Shaveh. The king of Salem, Melchizedek, brought out bread and wine.
He is identified as a priest of God Most High!
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)
He had seen what Abram had done and he blessed him.
19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
Abram gives Melchizedek ten percent of everything that he had taken from Chedorlaomer.
Some points to note here.
First, everything Abram had taken from Chedorlaomer was technically his. Possession was ten tenths of the Law.
Second, Melchizedek didn’t lose anything. Abram had no real reason to give him anything. But he did. He gives him ten percent.
Why?
Because Abram recognized Melchizedek as a legitimate priest of God and gave 10 percent of what he had as a way of recognizing that the victory came from God and that what he had taken from Chedorlaomer was not because of how good Abram was, but because of how good God was in helping him.
There are some in this church who tithe. They give ten percent of their income to God. They are mocked out in the world.
Why would anyone do that? If you ask them they would say, “If it wasn’t for God I would have nothing. God gave me the brains, the strength, the opportunity to make a living. I follow Abram in giving back to the Lord an amount that is worthy of the Lord who has blessed me.”
This is in contrast to what he does with the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom is a wicked man and Abram does not want to be tainted by anything he has to offer. So he refuses to take anything from him, though he just gave 10 percent to someone who wasn’t even in the battle.
21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”
What is the “order of Melchizedek”?
What is the “order of Melchizedek”?
The priestly line in Judaism is the Levitical priesthood. That family group was designated by God to offer sacrifices for the sins of the nation.
Melchizedek was not a Levite, but a different kind of priest from outside the Levitical priesthood.
He combined two offices in one. He was a priest and he was a king.
When Psalm 110 says that Jesus would be after the order of Melchizedek, he is stating that he would not be a Levite and that he would be both a king and a priest.
So why did David write,
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
What is the big deal? Why would God make an oath and David would say that he would not repent or change his mind?
The reason is not given; so let me give you what came to me.
The reason that this is stated so strongly is because of the major change this would be for Israel.
When Jesus was born, one element of Judaism that had been in place since the birth of the nation was the priesthood. God had set aside the Levites to be priests.
If Jesus is going to be a priest forever, it would not be according to the Levitical priesthood, but a different order.
Is there any way possible that God could be convinced to change his mind? Is there any way that through prayer, supplication and petition that God might stay with the Levitical system? Moses prayed to God and he appeared to change his mind back in Exodus. Could it work again?
The answer is, “No!” God is going to make this change and there is nothing anyone can do to change this. Jesus, the Lord, the Messiah, would not be born a Levite; he would be from another family. His priesthood would be like Melchizedek’s; he would be both a ruler and a king.
This is important in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The writer is trying to show how much better Christ was than what Israel had experienced.
He is better than the angels, better than Moses, a better sacrifice and a better priest.
5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
It’s hard to change. It’s hard to change even when God has spoken. The reason why David wrote so dogmatically about this priesthood was because God knew that when the time came, people would find change hard.
Which bring us to what we can learn today.
Which bring us to what we can learn today.
Jesus is our priest.
Jesus is our priest.
We don’t need to become Jewish in order to come to God. The Levitical priests are not our priests.
The pastor is not your priest. Jesus is the high priest and your pastor is not. There should be no separate group of Christian who designated themselves priests above other Christians.
We are all priests, knowing that Jesus is the only high priest.
As Israel had many priests working with and under the high priest, so every Christian is a priest working under Jesus.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We Gentiles were those who were “once…not a people…” Peter is writing 1 Peter to assures those who trusted Jesus are now a royal priesthood and a holy nation.
As such, we have a responsibility to pray for one another. Whatever you think a priest should do, you should do.
To even think this way may require a change. You may believe that priests are special people. The office is special and you are one. God has spoken. He will not lie and he will not change his mind. We are all priests and Jesus is the chief priest. He is both priest and ruler.
How often we fight against what the Bible says. We know what it says, we understand it, but we are afraid of change. We are afraid to move forward with Jesus.
What our church taught us, our parents taught us, our society taught us is as firmly ingrained in us as the Levitical priesthood was for the Jewish people.
When we don’t make the changes, we are on weaker ground. When we listen to God, we are on solid ground.
Jesus said,
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The issues here are not one choice over another. The issues here are good choices vs. bad choices. The issues are doing things that will build us up or tear us down. The issues here are pleasing God or pleasing ourselves.
We need to be priests for one another to encourage spiritual, Biblical, and Holy Spirit led change.
Jesus is our main priest. He lives to make intercession for us. If you think your sin is blocking you from God, confess it, repent, and come to Jesus. He walks into the courtroom with you and tells the judge that you are guilty. He then shows him the nailed scarred hands and says, “I paid it all.”
If Jesus is your priest, then go to him, pray to him, let him help you connect with God.
We are often in trouble because we do not connect with God. We sin, we are ashamed, and we cover it up. Jesus took the shame on himself. Trust him and go to him.