Genesis #13 Ch. 14-15 Contrast of Abraham and Lot — Chuck Missler

This is the thirteenth study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters fourteen and fifteen.

We are going to see tonight the first of several lessons in the book of Genesis where we're going to be conscious of the Holy Spirit by the use of his eraser. We're going to discover that there is designed in silences.

There is omission that is not only useful, it's very intentional. One of these strange situations where if the Holy Spirit told you the whole story, he would fail to tell you the story. Isn't that wild?

Got you curious now, right? I'll keep you awake at least to do the opening prayer. And this is one of the interesting ones tonight. There's a mind-blowing one coming up later and someday I should really do a book on the eraser of the Holy Spirit.

Those places in scripture where the Holy Spirit intervened to prevent something to be written down because by its omission it serves God's intention in terms of his communication to you. There are many cases you can probably think of in your life where in trying to explain something to someone by leaving out a detail, it's clearer.

It's close to that. So often when you explain something complicated, a good teacher will often tell you something isn't quite true because you will understand it then and he later takes care of the exception.

Well we're going to go even one step further where the Holy Spirit, if he included the detail, changes the meaning of what he's trying to communicate to you. So we'll have some fun with that tonight. Now that Dr. Metherill is here, we can go ahead with the opening prayer.

Father, we just praise you this evening. We thank you, Father, for the joy that you have given us to make it possible to be gathered here tonight to open your word and to be the beneficiaries of the ministry of your Holy Spirit.

We thank you, Father, for this word. We thank you, Father, for your intervention in the course of history to bring us these truths. We would ask you, Father, to open our hearts and our understanding that we might behold those treasures which you placed here for our learning and that in all these things we might both behold and glorify Jesus Christ of whom these things are written and in whose name we pray.

Amen. Okay. We are in the book of Genesis and we got through chapter 13 and we digressed from 13 as we recall. We took a peek at 19, didn't we? But for purposes of just our pace through the book, I think I'm reasonably correct, despite our excursions and secondary discussions last time, that we finished chapter 13 essentially.

Abraham and Lot: Faith, Sight, and Spiritual Influence

We have plunged into a whole series of lessons and ideas and things on Abraham and Lot. We developed those last time, but by way of review and by way of summary of the relationship between Abraham and Lot, I commit to you an exercise that you might find useful as just an exercise.

It's more useful if you do it, don't just copy my notes. So I'll give you a few ideas and I'll leave some out so you can... The ones that do it themselves will be more richly rewarded than those that are just sort of auditing the course not for credit.

I should warn you, there is a final exam. We don't know the date or the hour, but there is a final exam. Abraham and Lot. Abraham walked by faith, Lot walked by sight, okay? And that's interesting, not just in one episode, but all the way through.

Therefore we developed that idea that you can't backslide alone. When Abraham went to Egypt, he took Lot with him. On whom did it have the greater effect? Interesting isn't it? Some of you in this room are very mature Christians, and from time to time you'll backslide.

But you have the spiritual resources to call upon the Lord, confess your sin, and be restored into fellowship. What you'll never know are the weaker brethren that sort of tagged along and are still stuck out there in the mud.

You can't backslide alone. It's a heavy, heavy idea. We talked about that last time, but just by way of, you know, moving a little bit from my flippant style into some spiritual depth here. Second thing, Abraham was generous and magnanimous, right?

Lot was greedy and worldly. We're going to talk, you know, Lot was saved, we talked about that, we'll talk more about that from what Peter 2 tells us, but certainly they're contrasted there. We notice particularly Abraham's generosity when they split up.

We talked about last time about how their herdsmen were starting to fight with one another and all that, and so they decided to split up. And as we watch that strife, we can't help but be intrigued. We can't help but take sides, right?

Because what's Abraham's approach to the strife? Is to waive his rights. Hey, you take your pick, you want to go right, I'll go left, you go left, I'll go right. He's being generous, right? I don't want to detract from Abraham's position, he obviously was being generous, but we can also look back and smile because of his knowledge of prophecy.

Why could Abraham be so generous? Because he had the promise, he knew what he was going to get, right? I mean, you can just sort of, if you want to, put yourself on the sideline and say, hey Abraham, that's kind of an empty gesture to let the other guy play first at the roulette wheel when you happen to know it's rigged, right?

So is Abraham generous there? No less generous than you can be. Think about that. If indeed, my tongue-in-cheek description of Abraham is valid, that he could in fact negotiate with Lot saying, take whatever you like, somehow knowing from the Lord's promise that hey, he's going to get the land, then you can say, well gee, that's sort of an empty gesture.

You can make the same empty gesture every day with the world. You can be just as generous as Abraham was to Lot because you know that the end reward, the inheritance, is rigged in whose favor? Ours. So you can be generous.

I'll leave that to you to play with that one if it appeals to you. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. Lot chose a city built by a man that was destroyed by God. Interesting contrast, poor deal.

Most people take the second deal. Most people take the second deal. And hopefully, if we have any visibility in God's truth, some number of us in this room will be in the former category. Abraham, of course, was the father of all who believe, and we're going to understand that better after chapter 15.

It's very interesting that Abraham's faith is pointed at, I mean, in which chapter? Chapter 12, where he left the ritualities and went to Canaan? No. The famous expression that Abraham believed God and was counted to him for righteousness does not speak of his leaving ritualities.

Was he a believer? Yes. But is that the faith that was counted for righteousness? You mean justification. Right. His believing God and, in fact, even obedience to God's call in chapter 12 is not what the scripture points to when it points to Abraham's justification, his justification by faith.

That's heavy. Do you mean you can believe a lot of true things the Lord says and still not be justified? Yes. In one sense, that's what James talks about when he says the devils also believe and tremble.

Are they saved? Are they believers? We're suddenly in heavy stuff, aren't we? We suddenly got in over our heads. What's justification really mean? There are some things that you can believe and appropriate to yourself that have the specific effect of justifying you as righteous before the throne of God.

And it isn't just anything God happens to tell you that's true. It's a very specific truth, and it's that very specific truth that is dealt with in chapter 15. Abraham's justification by faith occurs in 15, not 12, even though in chapter 12 he's a believer.

Interesting. You didn't know the book of Genesis is really the book of Romans, did you? Well, Paul makes it that way because most of the book of Romans has one foot in Genesis as it goes through its issues, and we'll see that, too.

Okay, obviously Abraham, the book carries the story of Abraham forward, and Abraham is pictured as the heir of this world, of all things. Right? Abraham's the heir. What's Lot? Well, all his possessions were destroyed in Sodom, and Lot shows up at the end of the story hiding in a cave.

Okay? I'm always fascinated how certain people end up hiding in a cave. The kings that were destroyed at the Battle of Beth Horon by Joshua in the climactic battle that finished, or completed, in a sense, the conquest of Canaan.

The kings were hidden in caves and said, you know, rocks fall on us. We see another group of kings in Revelation saying rocks fall on us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb, and so forth. Okay. Okay, we also talked about the fall, if you will, of Lot, how he beheld, and then he chose, he separated himself from Abraham, dwelt in the plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom, and eventually not only dwells in Sodom, but becomes the city councilman, the alderman.

He dwelt at the gate of Sodom. And, okay, one of the interesting things we'll see tonight, we're going to recount the story of how these kings conquer Sodom and Gomorrah and take Lot captive, Abraham frees him, indulges in a raid, and frees Lot.

And we're going to deal with that in a minute. But one of the things, let's not lose sight of, what does Lot do after he's been delivered? Goes right back to Sodom, doesn't he? Interesting. Interesting.

Reminds me of a New Testament phrase about a dog and his vomit, doesn't it? I'm not sure it applies exactly because we're talking about something else, but it certainly is reminiscent of that. Okay. Well, that's sort of by way of review of chapter 13, which is probably useful, if nothing else, because when we were in 13, we got into some of the other subjects.

I think we wandered a bit. But at the end of chapter 13, I'd like to start verse 14 of chapter 13. And the Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes. Interesting expression.

Just as one of those things that you can do if you have set aside time to dig in the Scripture. Lifted up his eyes. How many times did Abraham lift up his eyes? And behold, there are three. And it's very interesting to discover that if you take those three, they by many respects are the three most important events in Abraham's life.

And how curious it is that the very grammar, the choice of phrase, separates that part of the text. Abraham lifted up his eyes three times. The first time is here. Where he lifted up his eyes and what did he see?

The land. And the key thrust of this passage and some subsequent passage is the commitment of the God of the universe to the land. Two, one, Abraham. The second time we see him lift up his eyes. Second time is when he lifted up his eyes and Abraham saw three men approaching.

And he's at the Oaks of Mamre. One is the Lord and there's two angels. Two angels have a particular mission to take care of in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord stays back to share a prophecy with Abraham and enter into a very interesting haggle and negotiation.

We may look at that ethnically and say they were haggling. You can look at it spiritually and recognize that Abraham was interceding in prayer. But that's a little ahead of us. That's in chapter 18. The third time that he lifted up his eyes is when he saw a ram that was to be substituted for the sun.

Substitutionary, which incidentally is the way Isaac is in effect resurrected back to Abraham. We'll get that in chapter 22. It's very interesting that even the use of praise, he lifted up his eyes, turns out to highlight the three peaks, if you will, in Abraham's chronicle here.

Okay, it's also interesting that the Lord here said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated from him. How interesting it is that the Holy Spirit instructs us that the separation between Lot and Abraham was a prerequisite condition for God's purpose.

He asked Abraham to shed the baggage back in Ur of the Chaldees. They didn't do it. They all moved to Haran. When the father died, they moved on, but he still took Lot with him. It's interesting that the Lord used the strife among the herdsmen or the strife between Abraham's servants and Lot's servants as a means of separation.

The Lord can use strife. That sounds strange to us because we shouldn't strive. We always try to make peace, and that's appropriate. But it's also interesting that the Lord can use strife. Two ministers who have been working together a long time get into the most painful, sometimes childish, sometimes not, strife and bickering and end up splitting up.

And friends of both look at them and grieve for both because both sides are half true and half wrong. And they try to patch it up, and it just doesn't get patched up because they're both acting less than they should.

And we grieve, not realizing. That's what the Lord did in the New Testament. You check Acts, that happens. We can see it around us. It happens from time to time. It's interesting that the Lord will use strife.

I'm not recommending that. I'm not sure that that's the Lord's first choice. I suspect you might make a case that that might be third on a list of two or something in terms of what the Lord would prefer to do.

But in any case, it is interesting that the Lord speaks to Abraham after Lot was separated. That is a call to separation if you haven't been listening. The Lord may be anxious to speak to you, but he won't until the separation he is seeking in your life takes place.

That separation can be from a habit, it can be from a person, it can be from an environment, it can be from something else. And the environment that you need to be separated from may be an environment that he's perfectly comfortable to have another Christian in.

So it's a very personal, special thing the Holy Spirit has to lead you. But it could very well be. In fact, you make a good case in the Scripture, the Lord really won't reveal himself to you until there's that separation.

And Abraham himself, the Lord approaches Abraham after Lot was separated. Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.

And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. The dust of the earth. That's interesting. We have three different idioms for the seed of Abraham. The sand of the sea, the stars in heaven, and the dust of the earth.

You can also discover that Paul, in the New Testament, describes all of humanity in three categories. Jews, Gentiles, and the church. And it's left as an exercise for the student to see if those idioms are consistently used.

Is the sand of the seashore always Israel? Are the stars in heaven, as Daniel used it, the way that wind made it righteousness, shall shine as the stars in heaven. Is that idiom used consistently? And is the dust of the earth, you know, the more general case, namely the Gentiles living in it.

Interesting idea. I don't know if there's that, you know, that's something that you sort of have to play with yourself and decide whether it's an interesting thing or not. And I'll let you run with it.

We'll talk more about the three seeds of Abraham later, so I'm sort of just baiting you a little. And then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.

Then Abraham removed his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar for the Lord. It's very interesting that he's dwelling where? In Hebron. The oaks of Mamre.

Mamre means, right, it also can mean fatness, abundance. It can mean both. These roots are not that, you know, 2020, but that's valid. Hebron means communion. Communion. Joining together and also can mean communion.

Hebron. It's interesting that as a benefit of this relationship, Abraham is at Mamre, and we're going to see that's very important in Chapter 18. Some very exciting things happen there. We also notice that he dwells in Hebron, the place of fellowship, as a result of his obedience, albeit the Lord had almost forced the obedience by the separation of lot.

But, indeed, when Abraham was in a state of obedience, we have the fellowship. Very interesting situation. In the conquest of Canaan, there were two faithful, right? Joshua and Caleb, right? Caleb is singled out in the conquest and so forth as the one that followed the Lord fully.

We find that highlighted in Numbers 14, 24, but also in Joshua 14, 14. And it's very interesting if you turn to Joshua 14, 14. Joshua 14, in verse 13, Joshua blessed him and said unto Caleb, son of Jephunneh, Hebrew and foreign.

He's assigning places. Caleb gets Hebron. Hebron therefore became inheritance of Caleb, the son of, I can't pronounce it, Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, unto this day because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

Why did he get Hebron? Hebron was desired. Hebron was a reward. Why? Because he uniquely among the bunch fully followed the Lord. The others all compromised a little bit. They didn't really drive out all the bad guys.

Caleb did the whole thing. As a result, he gets Hebron. It's very interesting that the concept of dwelling in Hebron as a symbol of fully following the Lord is used by Abraham here and it's used of Joshua.

Does that mean that everybody that dwells in Hebron is fully following the Lord? Heavens no. But it does mean the Holy Spirit is dealing with these idioms so as to form a level of communication that may not be obvious except to the diligent student.

The First War and Abraham's Rescue of Lot

Okay, that does bring us to the chapter 14 as we think of it, verse 1. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, the king of Shinar, Ariok, the king of Alasar, and Kedor-le-Omar, the king of Elam, and Tidal, the king of nations, that these made war with Barah, king of Sodom, and with Bershah, king of Gomorrah, and Shinab, the king of Adma, and Shemimber, I guess, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bala, which is Zohar.

And all these joined together in the Vale of Siddam, which is the Salt Sea. Twelve years they served Kedor-le-Omar, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. Well, maybe the thing to do is just let's finish the thrust of the passage and then come back and see what we can glean from this.

Verse 5. In the fourteenth year came Kedor-le-Omar and the kings that were with him, and smote Rephaim in Ashtaroth Karnaim, and Tzitzim in Ham, and Imim in Shaveh-wal, and so forth. And the Horites in their Mount Seir unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness, and they returned, they came to En-Mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazazon-Temar.

And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Adma, and the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bala, the same is Zor, and they joined battle with them in the Vale of Sidon.

And Kedor-le-Omar, the king of Elam, and Tidal, the king of the nations, and Amraphel, the king of Shinar, and Ariok, the king of Elessar, four kings with five. Saying aside all the names, there's four guys that are the stronger ones, five that are rebelling against them.

A couple of other things as we go here. We could spend a lot of time talking about the fruitless research that I went through trying to track this all down, because you will find the commentaries and the encyclopedias and the archaeological records are full of finds and details of word roots to try.

You can find out all kinds of interesting background about these characters, all of which it seems to have at least, let me put it this way, I personally haven't found any benefit from all of that yet.

So rather than bore you to death, as is my usual style, I usually at least impress you with all the background reading I've done by dumping stuff on you. And the truth of the matter is that I either did it incompletely or it isn't really spiritually fruitful at that level.

So I, in candor, pass that on to you. There are, however, some interesting things to be aware of. The alliance of four kings under Kedar-la-Omar is our Shemites, from Shem, of the sons of Noah. The others are Hamites.

And the Hamites are serving the Shemites, as you'll notice in here, which is interesting because it is consistent with the prophecy of Noah. That's just a side comment. I don't think that's a central thrust to the discussion, but it is interesting.

Also, you might be interested to know that Amraphel, by some authorities, is believed to be equivalent to Hammurabi. We know much about Hammurabi, one of the early Babylonian rulers. And some scholars equate him with Amraphel of Genesis 14.

Others have elaborate arguments that they're not so sure. And it's not particularly an enlightening thing one way or the other because this is very early in the biblical record and I'm not sure that I can point to any real prophetic aspect of the name.

I was hoping that maybe through the names of the tribes or something, there'd be something of great significance. And I have to admit that the Holy Spirit hasn't given me any insight. So what's nice about a large group like this, if I mention that candidly and tease you with that, then you'll all go back to your libraries.

And next Monday night, three or four of you will come up with new insights that I can add to my notes. But right now, I come up, right? Okay. And verse 10 of the Veil of Sidim was full of slime pits, which incidentally is an interesting thing because the word slime pits is a clumsy translation.

It's bitumen, which means there's probably oil in that area. So all of you, you know. And don't laugh. In Mount Carmel, a group based on the biblical reference decided to spend over a million dollars of personal money, a few guys, to dig for oil in Mount Carmel.

The government did give them permission. Everybody thought they're crazy. And we recently heard that they've struck oil. And okay, moving on. That's kind of exciting to find oil in Israel. How important to find it is still unclear because it's not that simple.

But they have, in fact, found favorable forms of oil-bearing products. Okay. And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountain. So in other words, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah are getting defeated here.

And they, that is the alliance of the four kings from the north, took all their food supplies and went their way. And they took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods and departed.

So basically what we have here is a military campaign of interest, students of the Scripture, because the first war mentioned in the Scripture, of these powerful four, the alliance of four from the north, conquering the five from the south, and succeeding in taking spoil.

It impinges on our interest only because as a side issue, having captured Sodom and Gomorrah, they also took Lot and his possessions captive. And verse 13, and there came one that had escaped and told Abraham, the Hebrew.

Here's the first place the word Hebrew appears in the Scripture. It means one who's crossed over. First place the word Hebrew occurs. For he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshgal, and the brother of Honor, and these were confederate with Abraham.

So he's made some local alliances himself, and he's gotten word that his nephew, Lot, over in Sodom, has been taken captive as a byproduct of this conflict. Now this is an interesting verse to me. Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive.

He armed his trained servants, born in his own house. 318 of them, and pursued them unto Dan. Now Dan is very far in the north. That's a long way. You know, we have to just pause here and think a minute.

You know, we like to put Abraham up as a model of the man of God, right? And certainly he was. In spite of some of our emphasis, the fact that he wasn't purpose, he does blow it a few times, more than once, and we'll learn from that.

Nevertheless, we certainly are in good company when we point to Abraham as a man of God. We could easily say that Abraham is the most important character of the Old Testament, except that we're wrong.

There's one other. We're going to also stumble on here shortly. And the book of Hebrews tells us which ones are more important. But certainly Abraham is up there. He's a big guy, strong guy, as an example, as a man of faith, right?

It's very interesting that he maintained a trained army. That fascinates me. These guys weren't just volunteers, hey guys, grab a rifle, let's go. They're trained servants. Trained in what? In battle.

And if you don't believe it, they succeed in a campaign against the alliance of four kings that wiped out these four kings to the south. So these guys are no rookies. Okay? They know what they're doing.

And Abraham and his band succeed in freeing Lot later on, right? So these guys are pretty swift. They're trained. I think it's fascinating to discover several things. Abraham's an interesting guy. Number one, he was prepared.

He didn't say, gee, we've got to go get Lot, let's start, you know, somebody write a manual and we start learning how to parry and thrust and whatever, you know, you're doing those things, right? He was ready.

He says, okay, guys. I think that's interesting. I think, you know, can a Christian be prepared for conflict? I think he ought to be. It may be his duty in certain cases. That exceeds the scope of our study, but I'll leave it with your thought because I'm sure it's an individual thing.

But here's an interesting initial example. In the first war recorded in the scripture, we have a group of believers who, you know, righteously I would suggest, take arms to retrieve their kin. There's probably a list of things that might make valid motives, but here's certainly one of them.

Interesting, isn't it? Something else that has to strike your note is that he has 318 servants born under his roof. Interesting. Now, the born under his roof is an idiom perhaps of a certain thing. I'm not an expert in that culture to amplify that, but I do understand that of all the servants, and there may have been thousands under Abraham, the ones that were deemed as born under his roof had special privilege.

They had more freedom and more liberty, and they were an elite group. In fact, the eldest servant born under his own roof was Isaiah in the absence of the sun, and we're going to see that later. That's going to be a very important person in many respects, his eldest servant.

We think when we see that phrase later that the eldest servant is some kind of menial. Not so. The eldest servant is like, very close in concept to an adopted son in the air, in the absence of a blood kin.

He's going to have a very important role actually, historically, in the life of Abraham. He also has a very important role typologically. We'll deal with that when we get later on in the book of Genesis.

But anyway, these are servants born under his own roof, and they're trained to fight, and they equip themselves quite honorably. They travel all the way to Don, and Don is in the north, and it's a place you could visit today.

In fact, we did, and it was fun. Outpost up to the north. When we were there, the Israeli soldiers also took the occasion to visit the nature preserve. It took us a while to realize that the coincidence of their arrival had nothing to do with their recreational outing.

They were there for our protection because it's that far north. But anyway, verse 15. And he divided his men against them, he and his servants, by night, and smoked them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

That's quite a little traffic from Dan to Damascus. It's interesting. Those kinds of distances are relevant military distances today, with tanks and artillery and what have you. These guys are on foot.

He brought back all their goods and also brought again his brother Lot. Notice it says brother Lot. I think that's interesting. It's actually his nephew. It's his brother's son, Lot. But for purposes of the text, the Holy Spirit allows the generic term, his brother Lot, which I think is interesting, especially as we try to understand Lot spiritually.

And his goods, and the women also, and the people. In other words, he freed the booty. Now, okay. Verse 17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kader Laomer, and the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale.

In other words, Abraham is returning from this victorious military coup. This was his Entebbe, if you will. Okay. Verse 18. We now come to one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible. This verse will raise more questions than it answers.

Melchizedek: King of Righteousness and Priest of the Most High God

And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

Blessed be the Most High God who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he, that is Abraham, gave him tithes of all. Abraham gives this guy tithes. Here's a Gentile king who is acting as a priest, who knows the name of God in a way that has not appeared so far, but occurs four times in this passage.

The Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. This isn't the Israeli God of the covenant. This is the title here. It's the same person, of course, but the title speaks to something quite differently.

Now, we go on here, but that's all there is. That's all we know about this guy. And if that was all that we would find in the scripture, we would be tempted just to pass over this interesting figure who was there.

And this is the only place he occurs other than the mention in Psalm 110. That's the only place he occurs in the Old Testament. And yet I'm going to make the statement that this is the greatest character in the Old Testament.

And I'm excluding Jesus Christ. I don't mean in terms of his Old Testament appearances. I'm taking for granted we're treating him differently. But setting that aside. But here is this character. He's the greatest guy in the Old Testament.

You think I'm wrong. The book of Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 7, says he was greater than Abraham. Why? Because Abraham is giving him tithes. So he is superior to Abraham. We don't even know his name. Melchizedek is not his name.

It's his title. Isn't that interesting? Melchizedek. Strange character that emerges here briefly and disappears from the record. That's all we know. We've just read these few verses. And that's it as far as Melchizedek is concerned in the Old Testament.

It was useful, I think, if we stop here and turn to a commentary on the Old Testament that's in all of our possessions. We'll turn to the book of Hebrews. And we'll pick it up. That's probably the end of chapter 6 of the book of Hebrews.

And we'll take the early part of chapter 7. Take a look at what the writer to the book of Hebrews is telling us. Verse 20 says where the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus. And the writer here is speaking of Jesus Christ.

But he says made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And if you're reading the New Testament at this point and you say a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, you wonder what on earth is all that about.

And the more biblical background you have, the more it puzzles you because if you've done a little bit of homework in the Old Testament, you know that the priesthood is after the order of Aaron. Aaron was ordained as a priest.

Aaron was in the tribe of Levi, right? And we know that in the tribal structure of Israel, God ordained that structure. He declared Judah was the royal tribe of which was the kingly line, the tribe of Judah.

And Levi was the tribe of the priesthood. And he ordains that the priesthood and the king, the royal line are never to be encroached one upon the other. The separation of the priesthood and the kingship was ordained early and endured throughout their history.

In fact, when one intrudes upon the other, they get their wrists slapped at least or worse because that was God's way. The priesthood was the priesthood and the kingship was the kingship and they were to be separated.

There are only two exceptions with a couple of footnotes. There's only two exceptions. Melchizedek is an exception and he takes significance theologically because he shows up in the book of Genesis as a king and a priest.

And the more you know about the Bible, the stranger that is looking back because he's unique. And the reason he becomes important biblically or scholastically, if I can put it that way, is because their most important king and the most important priest is in fact one and the same, Jesus Christ.

And in fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews, in trying to explain the significance of Jesus Christ and his preeminence above all things, points to him as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, not Aaron.

And the writer to the book of Hebrews is going to make the argument, which may sound strange to our mind, but makes a lot of sense to a rabbinical mind, in that the Aaronic priesthood, Aaron, came from Levi.

And Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek. Therefore, Aaron is lower than Melchizedek, or Melchizedek is higher than Aaron. Because even Aaron, the priesthood of Aaron, his tribal patriarch would be Levi, was unborn in the loins of Abraham, kneeling before the king and priest by the name of Melchizedek.

And that may sound like a strange line of reasoning, but it isn't to the Jewish mind, and that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews, the issue he's going to press here. Chapter 7, verse 1 of Hebrews,.

For this Melchizedek, Melchah means king. It's still used that way in some cultures. Malach is a person name that still carries that idea. And Zedek means righteousness. Melchizedek is king of righteousness.