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Hebrews 7:1-10
Introduction
Good morning once again.
As we are traveling through the book of Hebrews we have seen the main theme of the book is Jesus is better.
He’s superior to angels, to the priesthood, to anything else.
That theme is going to continue to be fleshed out by the writer of Hebrews in our passage for this morning.
My plan was to cover the entirety of chapter 7. It’s a lot so you were going to have to listen fast.
However, as I prepared it became clear to me that to do this section justice we needed to take a slower approach.
So today we will be in verses 1-10.
Back in chapter 5 the writer had wanted to say more about the superiority of Jesus’ high priesthood in the order of a guy named Melchizedek but he said he couldn’t go on because of their immaturity.
So he dove into this long digression of thought about the problems of immaturity and apostasy.
He then encouraged them on toward maturity and said he had hope for better things for them, specifically those things accompanying salvation.
But now in chapter 7 he is able to get back to this guy named Melchizedek.
If not for the book of Hebrews we might not know or talk much about this guy.
He’s only mentioned a couple of other places in scripture and it’s almost in passing.
But here in chapter seven, the writer is going to unpack the significance behind what it means for Jesus to be called a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Let’s get right into the scripture.
Follow along as I read.
Read
Hebrews 7:1-10 (ESV)
This is the Word of the Lord.
May God use it for our edification and growth.
Let’s pray.
Pray
Section is biblically and theologically dense...
This letter to the Hebrews, possibly originally a sermon delivered, was written to a group of tired Jewish Christians.
They were Jewish in ethnicity but Christians in that they believed the gospel.
They were facing a great amount of temptation and pressure to walk away from the faith of the gospel and return to the old covenant ways of worship according to Judaism.
This letter was written to encourage them to persevere in following Christ because Jesus is better than that old way.
Jesus is the point of that old way.
It has been described as going to a wonderful restaurant and the bring out a piping hot dish of steak or whatever the best meal is on the menu.
And instead of eating and enjoying you say, no, I’d rather just have the menu back.
That thing that came before was simply pointing to the wonderful meal to come.
The menu isn’t the point, the food is the point.
Jesus is the point.
So they were tempted to fall back into the Jewish religion, which is a different religion from Christianity.
The writer tells them about how this guy Melchizedek in order to illustrate the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood for us over that of the Levitical Jewish priests.
To divide up this passage and help us understand we are going to look at three relationships in the text.
The relationship of Melchizedek, who I will likely refer to as Mel and Abram, the relationship of Mel to Levi, and the relationship of Mel to Jesus.
The writer launches right into a description of Mel here in verse 1 that reflects the description given in Genesis chapter 14 during the account of his interaction with Abraham.
Let’s take a look at that passage.
A. Melchizedek and Abram
Why had Abram gone to fight?
Abram meets Mel after the fight.
He meets him at the termination of war, as one scholar wrote.
In modern culture we don’t put a lot of emphasis on what our names mean but in Israel the meanings of names were important to the people.
We are told here that Melchizedek’s name means “king of righeousness.”
That name tells us a lot about the type of man we are talking about here.
In the time of extremely depraved Canaanites, wrong worship, and disgusting immorality of men like the king of Sodom, you have this Melchizedek exercising a kingly rule of righteousness.
This tips us off that he’s leading a holy life and starkly stands out against the backdrop of the unrighteous kings around them.
His name points to him being a righteous king and the writer of this book of Hebrews points out that he was the king of Salem which is saying that Mel is the king of peace.
And here Abram meets him at the end of the fighting, a time of peace.
Mohler points out that it could be said in other words that “Melchizedek’s kingdom aligns with the realm of peace.”
So among a godless and warring people you had here a king of righteousness who was ruling a place of peace.
Now to us, the description of this king who is a priest may initially sound a little strange to but the Jewish people of the time it would have been bizarre.
Here you have Mel who is described as having a ministry of both king AND priest.
Israel differentiated the roles of king and priest in stark contrast.
In the Old Testament no priest could lawfully act as a king.
Also in the Old Testament no king would act as a priest.
In Isaiah chapter 6 we have an allusion to this divide.
You may be familiar with this verse.
King Uzziah had defied God’s law and acted as a priest.
The consequence was that God struck him with leprosy and cut him off from the people.
He died in disrepute.
This shows the divide that was designed in Israel between the priest and kingly roles.
So our ears should perk up a little when we read in Hebrews 7 that Melchizedek was the king of Salem and ALSO priest of the Most High God.
Further, he’s not from the tribe of Israel.
He’s an outsider.
In referring to Mel as a priest of God Most High, a statement is being made about the superiority of God that would have especially been targeted toward the initial Jewish audience of this letter.
So Abram (later God changed his name to Abraham) has victory over these kings and he’s on his way back with Lot and his men and he meets Mel.
Mel did not come out to negotiate with Abe as the kind of Sodom had.
Instead, he comes out to bless Abram with bread and wine.
According to Richard Phillips, “he not only spoke the blessing, but also spiritually ministered to Abraham’s need.”
As we dive further into these verses we see that the one who is greater always blesses the lesser.
So Mel blesses Abram, who is the head of the old covenant, the patriarch of Israel.
There’s not a name in that culture that would have been more honored and looked at as great other than the name of Abraham.
And here we have a non-Israelite king who is superior, blessing an inferior.
Abram responds by giving Mel a tithe, “a tenth of everything.”
The writer of Hebrews will later unpack the significance of what is going on here in this response.
Let’s move onto the second connection we see played out here.
B. Melchizedek and Levi
All of the high priests in Israel had to be from the tribe of Levi.
They were required by law to be descendants of Levi.
Clearly, Mel was not because he was outside of the nation of Israel.
The point is that Melchizedek’s priesthood had nothing to do with family ancestry but was a divine designation.
He wasn’t a priest because he was born into it.
It wasn’t the family business.
He was appointed a priest by God and that priesthood continues forever.
The writer is spending a bit of time here convincing his readers of the greatness of Melchizedek, but then returns in verse four to the response of Abram in giving him a tenth of everything.
This was a large gift.
Abram just won victory over a large number of kings and plundered their belongings.
Why did Abram feel obligated to give a tithe to this king of Salem who was a priest of Most High God?
This is called one of the most unexpected and fascinating parts of the Old Testament.
You have the patriarch of the entire nation of Israel feeling obligated to give a tithe to this guy.
The answer is in the question.
The reason Abram did is because he felt obligated to give this tithe out of obligation to God Most High.
It was out of service to God, not necessarily to man.
A tithe is not a tip.
It’s a large payment that one of the most important men in the history of Israel is giving to this priest who is outside of Israel.
It’s a huge deal.
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