A Righteous King of Peace – Hebrews 7:1-3

Hebrews 7 and the Significance of Melchizedek

Our gracious God, we have thanked you for our salvation and we have sung of your great work in bearing our guilt and taking it out of the way. And thank you that you have reconciled us to yourself. And equally as important to that work of salvation is our sanctification.

And we thank you also that you are conforming us day by day more and more into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another. You use your word to accomplish this, the preaching of your word, the power of your spirit, even our fellowship one with another in order to move us in that direction toward conformity to Christ.

And we pray that our time here together today may contribute to that end, that you would make us a holy people whose hearts are humbled by your word and encouraged by your word, that we would live lives in obedience to and in recognition of the glory and the word of our great God and Savior who has died for us, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we pray your blessing on this time and ask that you would open our eyes, that we may behold in your word wonderful things, that you would conform us to the image of Christ, that you would sanctify us, your people, and cause us to delight in your word this morning, we ask it in Christ's name, amen.

Well, we're now in Hebrews chapter seven, so if you have not already, please do turn to Hebrews chapter seven. We're gonna read together a scope of the passage that is beyond the verses that we're gonna be looking at this morning, we're looking at verses one and two, but we're gonna catch some of the context, in fact, much of the context that unfolds some of the concepts that we're gonna be looking at.

Hebrews chapter seven, and let's just read together verses one through verse 17. Hebrews chapter seven, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a 10th part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a 10th of the choicest spoils.

And those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commandment in the law to collect a 10th from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham.

But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a 10th from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case, mortal men receive tithes, but in that case, one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on.

And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it, the people received the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has officiated at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

For it is attested of him, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. It's a complex argument, isn't it? A little bit. You're gonna see just how complex it is here in the weeks ahead.

This last week in our student ministries, which is our, for those of you who may not know, our teen ministries we do with the youth group, we started a study called God Wrote a Book. And I taught this back in adult Sunday school class in 2007, some of you, maybe a few of you remember what we went through that.

And every so often we teach this to our teens as new groups of teens come through. And basically what we cover is how it is that we got scripture. Why is our Bible in the form that it is and how did we get the word of God?

So we cover topics like inspiration and inerrancy and the authority of scripture, the sufficiency of scripture. And then we looked at other complex, more complex things like why is it that we have textual variance and how were New Testament manuscripts copied and how were New Testament manuscripts distributed and then how do we make determinations as to which ones are original and which ones represent the original, et cetera.

And what about translations? And we cover all this stuff, the transmission of the text. And the point of all of that, going through that with the teenagers, is to demonstrate to them why it is and how it is that we have the word of God and the history of it so that they're not sort of drug astray into all kinds of false doctrines and misrepresentations of scripture when they go off to college or they leave home.

And this last week was our very first lesson that we began with the most foundational and fundamental doctrine of all of them, that is the doctrine of the inspiration of scriptures. That the Bible teaches concerning itself that it is a God-breathed book.

That God breathed out through human authors the exact product that he wanted, which we have as scripture today. And we talked about what inspiration is and what inspiration is not and what it pertains to and what it applies to.

We have in our Bibles not merely the words of men, it's not the product of men, God used men to write it, but God superintended, scripture says, God superintended the writing of those books so that through the men and them as the agents of the inscripturating process, God ended up giving to us exactly what it is that he wanted to us.

So that the product of what we hold in our hands is the God-breathed word of God. That's the doctrine of inspiration. And of those human authors, though they were limited by their time period and their understanding and their own circumstances, that limitation did not keep God from inspiring things through those human authors that even those human authors at the time would not have understood.

So for instance, there is evidence in scripture that the people who wrote scripture oftentimes did not even understand the things that they were writing about. Peter says this. The prophets themselves wondered what was the time and what was the place and what is the person that they were writing about when they wrote Old Testament scriptures.

So though God used them, they were describing and writing of things that they themselves were a little curious about. They didn't understand the full implications of that. And aren't you amazed sometimes as we read the scriptures and we study books of the Bible how everything kind of comes together.

Sometimes you can see the big picture and all the little parts and pieces of what scripture reveals all come together and you sort of see it in the big picture scheme of things. Aren't you amazed when you see that in scripture?

That an author thousands of years ago might have mentioned something and then hundreds of years later that same thing might be mentioned again and a few more details added to it and something else said about it.

And then hundreds of years later it might be mentioned again by somebody else who never knew either of the previous two people, obviously because of the passage of hundreds of years. And then even hundreds of years later somebody else might say something and bring it all together so you see these themes traced all the way throughout scripture.

You see it all the time. It's almost like have you ever read a good book or watched a good movie where the details throughout the story as it unfolds are sort of dropped like breadcrumbs. And it's not until you get to the very end that all of a sudden all of these other little pieces that you thought were quite incidental and quite ancillary to the whole enterprise actually become, as you see it in retrospect, the hinges upon which the entire story turns.

And you get to the end and you're like, oh, I mean I remember seeing all of those details unfold and I thought that they were just kind of superfluous to the whole thing. They're just window dressing there.

And no, they're not window dressing. They end up becoming the crux of the story. So it is in scripture with the themes that unfold in scripture. And we see it with Melchizedek. Melchizedek, and we looked at him last week in Genesis chapter 14.

When Melchizedek came out to meet Abraham after the slaughter of the kings, there's no way that Abraham could have known the significance of this king who ruled in Jerusalem. There's no way Abraham could have known that.

And 500 years later, when Moses wrote about that encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek, Moses would not have understood the significance of who Melchizedek was and what he symbolized. And still 500 years after that, when David wrote of Melchizedek in Psalm 110 verse four, the Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, describing the priestly ministry of the Messiah.

There's no way that David could have understood even the full significance of who Melchizedek is and what he represented. And then 1 ,000 years after David, the author of Hebrews grabs all of those disparate strings and brings them together to show us the true and profound significance of this historical creature that appears back in Genesis chapter 14.

It's quite magnificent, isn't it? The theme of priest and king and peace and righteousness that comes up in Genesis 14, and then those themes are woven all the way through all of the redemptive history of God's plan through Israel and then to the Gentiles, and then you get into the New Testament, and suddenly looking back, you realize that that incidental character, Melchizedek, who's just got a couple of verses devoted to him back in sort of an obscure story of the patriarch Abraham, that he typifies the central theme of all that God is doing in human history, the purpose of creation, all the way through the consummation of the ages, everything is in Melchizedek.

Now, not that he is the crux of all of that, but that he indicates to us, he's the first place that we see those themes come up, and then we see how God develops them all the way through redemptive history.

So our text this morning is Genesis, not Genesis, we were there last week, Hebrews chapter seven, verses one through three, and let's read these together again, and then we're gonna notice some of the details from last week's study in Genesis chapter 14, when we looked at where Melchizedek appears back there, and we looked also at Psalm 110, verse four, and I just remind you, there's only two places in all the Old Testament where Melchizedek is mentioned, and outside of Hebrews chapters five, six, and seven, there's no place in any of the New Testament where Melchizedek is mentioned.

He does seem, in many ways, quite an insignificant character, but he's not insignificant at all. He actually typifies or symbolizes the very thing which is the crux of all of creation and all of redemptive history, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Hebrews chapter seven, verses one through three, let's read it together. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.

Now verse three, which is kind of enigmatic and a bit odd how he describes that, we're saving that for next week. We're gonna talk about typology and what typology is and how it is to be interpreted and what constitutes a type of Christ and all that other stuff, and I'm telling you ahead of time so that that's not interesting to you, you can go skiing next week or something if we have that much snow by then, which probably we will, or sledding.

But if that interests you, what it is that he's talking about there and the ways in which Melchizedek typifies Jesus Christ, even in the things that are not mentioned of him, that's gonna be our subject for next week.

So today, we're just looking at verses one and two, and you'll notice that there were a lot of details in verses one and two. We looked at Genesis 14 last week. There are details in Genesis, there are details in verses one and two that point back to what we looked at in Genesis 14.

Our concern this week is how the author of Hebrews uses the details from Genesis 14 to make the connection between Jesus Christ and Melchizedek, and that's what we're looking at. Now, before we get into verses one and two and what the author does here, there's kind of a little bit of a foundational issue that I need to mention.

I think I mentioned this like three chapters ago or four chapters ago, something in Hebrews, but it's worth bringing up again just to remind us. Why is it that the author of Hebrews would need to make such a big deal out of Melchizedek and how he is connected to Jesus Christ?

Why does he make this connection? Why is the fact that Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek so significant? It's for this reason, that the book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews, Hebrew Christians.

Now, if you put yourself back into the mindset of a first century Jew, here's what you would be thinking. For 15 centuries, 15 centuries, our people have had our entire relationship with God mediated through a priest, 15 centuries.

You didn't approach God on your own. You didn't offer your own sacrifice. You didn't offer your own offerings. You didn't intercede on behalf of others. Nobody performed that function except the priest, and there was a veil, a thick veil that walled you off from the holy of holies.

The idea of walking into the presence of God and having direct access to God in any way at all, that was outside of the mindset of a first century Jew entirely. For 1 ,500 years, we do not approach God except through a priest, and not just any priest, but this priest had to come from the tribe of Levi, not any of the other 11 tribes of Israel, and not just anybody from the tribe of Levi.

This priest had to be specifically from the family of Aaron, Moses' brother. It had to be a descendant of Aaron, so the priesthood was passed down through Levi, through Aaron specifically, and only one person served as a high priest at a time, and that high priest and the priesthood that he oversaw, that was your direct communication to God, and then into that environment comes the Lord Jesus Christ in the incarnation.

He dies on a cross, and he rises again, and the Holy Spirit is given to the church, and the apostles begin to preach and say, now we can boldly approach the throne of grace on our own. We don't need a priest.

We don't need a priesthood. We don't need sacrifices. We don't need the feast, or the festivals, or the Old Testament law, or the Mosaic covenant, or the temple at all, and what would you be thinking as a first century Jew?

How can this possibly be? For 15 centuries, there's one way that my relationship with God was mediated, and that was through a high priest. If I am to approach God, I have to have a what? A high priest.

I have to be able to approach God on the basis of somebody who has offered a sacrifice for me for my sins, so now the author of Hebrews is seeking to demonstrate to these first century Jews that you're not going to God as you have for 1 ,500 years through a high priest from Aaron's line of the tribe of Levi.

Now we have another high priest, but you'll notice that the author of Hebrews down in verses 11, and this is getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, he says that Christ comes from a tribe, Judah, of which Moses said nothing about priests.

See, that's a problem, right? How can I have a priest who doesn't come from the tribe of Aaron, or from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron? So the author of Hebrews needs to make the case that we do indeed have a high priest, but that this priesthood is not like the old priesthood.

We are still approaching God through a priest because of the work of a priest, but this priest is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So beginning at verse one, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, those two details are something we looked at last week in Genesis chapter 14, and this is the first, most notable thing about Melchizedek is that he is both a priest and a king, because under the old covenant, the covenant of the given to Moses, that distinction between priests and king, that distinction was a hard and fast distinction, and you never had anybody who fulfilled both of those roles.

In fact, the only times that we see people performing both the role of priest and king in the Old Testament under the old covenant, it was something that got judged. So we saw it, remember, with Saul.

We looked at this months ago, but you remember Saul after he slaughtered the Amalekites and Samuel was a bit slow in coming? What did Saul do? He went out and he offered the sacrifice, and then Samuel arrived, and what did he say?

This is not for you to offer the sacrifice. You have transgressed against the commandment of God. You have stepped outside of your lane. You have gone into somebody else's role, and this is not for you to do, so your kingdom is gonna be taken away from you, and it's gonna be given to one who is more worthy than yourself.

Saul lost the kingdom because of his act of disobedience. Later on, in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, Uzziah offered incense inside the temple, and he offered incense to God, and the priests came in, more than 100 priests, and confronted him and said, it is not for you to offer the incense, and Uzziah was struck with leprosy, and he was kept in seclusion, and he died a leper.

God judged him.

Why?

Because he, as a king, stepped into the position of a priest and did something that only priests could do. Priests were not to rule as kings, and kings were not to function as priests. That was the law.

Under the old covenant, those two offices were separate and distinct, and they were kept separate in the land of Israel, but then in Genesis chapter 14, before Abraham, before the Old Testament, the old covenant, before Moses and any of the law or any of that distinction was made, we have this one individual, Melchizedek, who functions as both priest and king, fulfilling both roles, and when he met with Abraham, he actually did something reflecting his duties in each of those offices.

We looked at one of them last week, which was bringing bread and wine out to Abraham and his men when Abraham returned from the slaughter of the kings in Genesis 14. He brought out bread and wine to Abraham, an act of something he did out of the abundance of his provision or his bounty as a king.

It was a tribute to Abraham, another king-like figure in the land, something that he did to bring provision to Abraham, but as well as kind of a tribute for what Abraham had done in conquering all of the other kings.

So that function of Melchizedek was a function of his royalty, of his office as king. You'll notice that Hebrews doesn't mention him bringing out bread and wine. Do you notice that? It's mentioned back in Genesis chapter 14, but the author of Hebrews doesn't mention Melchizedek doing that.

Why does he leave out that detail, the author of Hebrews? Because the author of Hebrews, his point is not to demonstrate that Jesus Christ can function of king. That's obvious. He comes from the tribe of Judas, of the descendant of David.

He has a right to that throne. The author of Hebrews doesn't need to make the case that like Melchizedek, he can be a king. That's established. What the author of Hebrews has to do is make the case that like Melchizedek, he can function as priest and as king, that he can hold, Jesus Christ can hold both of those offices.

So he doesn't mention that. The second thing that Melchizedek did in coming out, he functioned as a king and bringing bread and wine. The second thing he did was function as a priest in that he blessed Abraham, pronounced a blessing upon Abraham in Genesis 14, and he received tithes.

Now both of those you will notice were mentioned in chapter seven when we read all the way down through verse 17. That Abraham, that the greater, that is Melchizedek, blessed Abraham who was heir to the promises, and Abraham gave to Melchizedek a tithe of all the spoils that he had collected.

And in doing so, Abraham was recognizing God as the one who had given him the victory over all of the other kings, recognizing God as the one who had given him that victory and blessed him in that way.

Abraham was offering to Melchizedek that, recognizing God, but also recognizing Melchizedek as a genuine and legitimate priest of the Most High God. Abraham knew enough about God, his knowledge of God was sufficient that he could recognize Melchizedek as a genuine priest.

And so this is unique in all of scripture. This whole last week I was trying to think, is there one other figure in all of scripture who ever held both of those roles, king and priest together? And I cannot think of another individual who did that.

Before or after the Mosaic Covenant. There are only two people of whom it is said that they serve as both king and priest. One is Melchizedek, and the second is the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the only ones mentioned, so you can see how those two are connected and how Melchizedek is such a profound picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So though there are only two, Melchizedek in Genesis 14, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament, all of the Old Testament anticipates and looks forward to one who would hold both of those offices.

But see, it was separate and distinct in the land of Israel. But if we read back in Psalm chapter two, I'll just give you two psalms because both of them are quoted, where are they quoted? Both of them are quoted in Hebrews chapter five, verses five and six.

The author brings both of these psalms together to make this case that Jesus is the priest after the order of Melchizedek. So to show you that the Old Testament anticipated one who would come and would fulfill this role of king and priest, I would point you not only to Melchizedek, who was both king and priest, but then later on in Psalm two, where David writes of his son, his greater son who would take over and establish a throne and rule over his enemies to destroy all of his other enemies, to destroy all of his enemies and establish a kingdom over which the Messiah would rule in peace and righteousness.

David looked forward in Psalm two, and that's the psalm where he says kiss the son lest he be angry with you. Do homage to the son. Yield and bow down to this one who will rule the nations. That God who said that through David to the Messiah also says to the Messiah in Psalm 110, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So it is the father who says of David's son, you are my son, today I have begotten you, and it is the father who says to David's son, the Messiah, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So you put all of the Old Testament psalms together and the expectation together, and the Jews had every reason to expect that God was going to send one who would function and rule as both king and as priest.

And then you get later on in divine revelation in Zechariah chapter six, and here's what we read. Then say to him, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold a man whose name is Branch. And we'll stop there for just a second.

Branch is an Old Testament prophetic name for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called that by Jeremiah, I think primarily, a number of times in Jeremiah, and the imagery there is that off of the line of David there would come a shoot, a branch, and he would rule the nations.

So this one is, this Messiah, one of his divine names is called, or his messianic titles is called Branch. So Zechariah writes, behold a man whose name is Branch, for he will branch out from where he is, and he will build the temple of the Lord.

Well, that's interesting, because that's a prophetic, or a priestly function. He will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he who will bear the honor, and sit and rule on his throne.

Work at the temple of the Lord, and sit and rule on his throne. And then Zechariah says, thus, this, this. Thus, he will be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace will be between the two offices.

The Messiah will be a priest on his throne. That is magnificent. Unheard of in the Old Testament. Not even provided for under the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant. But every Jew had reason to look forward to, and anticipate that when Messiah come, he would rebuild the temple, he would rule on his throne, he would be a priest on his throne, and between those two offices would be peace.

Between being a priest, and ruling on his throne, between those two offices would be the council of peace. So every Jew had reason to expect the Messiah would be both priest and king. Unheard of in the Old Testament, except for one single solitary figure named Melchizedek.

That's what makes him so profoundly unique. But this presented for the Jews a dilemma, and I hinted at this at the beginning. If the Messiah was to be a king, he had to be from the tribe of Judah, right?

Because it was from the tribe of Judah that all of David's line would come. So he had to be from the tribe of Judah, because nobody outside of Judah could take David's throne. He had to be a descendant of David, and David was of the tribe of Judah.

But if he was to be a priest, he would have to be from the tribe of Aaron, or from the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi. So if he was a priest, he couldn't be a king, because these two tribes were separate, and if he was a king, he couldn't function as a priest.

So why would they expect or anticipate a priest who is king? On what basis could they do that? Only if one was appointed, not appointed priest, not on the basis of his genealogical descent, or his lineage, or his last name, or his father at all, but one who was appointed a priest, completely apart from any of the priestly functions of the Old Testament, a priest not of the order of Aaron, but of a separate order, a different order, a unique order, directly appointed by God, priest because of his appointment, not priest because of his lineage coming from Aaron.

Only in that case could one serve as both priest and king, and the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is that priest king. There are other details mentioned here. You'll notice in verse one, Melchizedek, who is the king of Salem, priest of the most high God, and this is where we get into what we looked at last week in Genesis 14.

He met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils. So those two functions, as priest, Melchizedek performed, blessing Abraham, who was the one who had received the promises, and receiving from Abraham a tribute, or a tenth of all the spoils that Abraham had collected in the slaughter of the kings.

Look at verse two. He was, that is, Melchizedek was, first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

Peace.

So Abraham recognized him as a true priest, he recognized him as a true king, and Abraham recognized, by giving his tithe to Melchizedek, that it was God, whom Melchizedek represented, and interceded for, it was God, who himself had given Abraham the victory in his slaughter of the kings.

So there are two translations given here in verse two. You'll notice them. First, the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. And though he doesn't say king of peace, is a translation of king of Salem, that's indeed what it is.

So he translates, from Melchizedek's account, two significant things. First, his name, and then his place. First, his name, Melchizedek means king of peace. And it was not just a name for Melchizedek.

As one who held the office of king and priest for Yahweh, the most high God, he was not just named Melchizedek, or named king of righteousness, he was actually a king who dealt righteously and was righteous.

This was a man who lived up to his name. Have you ever met a complete pagan whose name is Christian? In that case, there's somebody who's not even a believer, not even a Christian, but he's named Christian, right?

In that case, somebody doesn't live up to their namesake. Well, Melchizedek was not just something who had the title king of peace. This was a man who was actually, or king of righteousness. This was a man who actually was a king characterized by righteousness, which means he ruled righteously, and he used his kingdom to spread righteousness and to promote righteousness.

You know how rare that was? Not that rare today, right? To find righteous rulers in the world. It's rare today, isn't it, to find righteous rulers. Can you name a righteous ruler? I think that there's some tribe somewhere over in Africa where everybody is a Christian and they're king.

The chief of the tribe is a believer, and he rules in righteousness. But other than that, small little group, and I don't even know what it is off the top of my head. I heard a rumor about it one time and heard something about it.

Other than that, can you name another example of a king or a ruler who governs in complete righteousness? Can you name one that do not exist? They don't exist today. It's rare today, and I will tell you this.

It was rare in the post-flood world of Abraham's day when even Abraham, a descendant of Seth, the godly line who came from Noah, even Abraham himself, his family, was caught up in idolatry. And in the southern area of Israel, surrounded by Sodom and Gomorrah and all of those other cities, to find a king who ruled in righteousness and who was righteous, that is a rarity.

Melchizedek would have stood out like nobody else would have stood out. So rare he was, but he was a righteous king, a righteous one. And righteousness is necessary for being both a king in God's book and necessary for being a priest.

Righteousness should characterize both of those. And so he was a king of righteousness, and then the second thing the author of Hebrews translates as his place, he was the king of peace. Jerusalem, the name Jerusalem means a peace.

The Salem comes from Salome, which means peace. So he was a righteous king ruling in a city that meant peace. A righteous king-priest ruling in Jerusalem. You can see, if you look forward to what the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna do, you can see the parallels between Melchizedek and the Lord Jesus Christ.