Melchizedek, the King of Peace

Well this morning we continue on in chapter 14. We look to complete chapter 14 today and then next week we'll begin chapter 15 and with 15 we'll be spending quite some time considering not just the covenant that God makes with Abram but the covenantal structure not only of Genesis but in fact all of Scripture.

Covenant Theology and the Promise to Abram

So we will spend some time beginning next week looking at God's covenant of grace, his administration of grace, which really launches forth in a profound way with the covenant he makes with Abram. And so I hope that you'll be thoughtful and maybe even this this coming week spend some time considering what do we mean when we talk about covenant theology?

How would you describe that or define that to someone who might ask? The more you think about these things, the more you try to fill out a definition, hopefully over the coming weeks the more you'll be able to draw out of the time we'll have together.

Well last week we began chapter 14 and we saw this war between the nine kingdoms, five against four, and we saw Lot taken captive as a result of Keterleomer and his forces sweeping back up the Jordan toward the Dead Sea towards Zoar.

And then we saw Abram taking his 318 trained men, those born in his house, as we said that ancient Near Eastern SWAT team armed with swords and clubs and bows, launch a night assault dividing their forces and actually routing the forces of Keterleomer.

So Abram was victorious and to the victor the spoils, all that Keterleomer had got not only from the king of Sodom but from the other three kings as well as everything they got from the campaign which was all over that region.

And so Abram was not just the victor of some spoil but of much spoil. The spoil would have been not just what was in Sodom, all the goods of the city, all the people who were captive from the city would have been by right Abram's captives, but whatever the four kings had brought or seized in their campaign, not only their supplies but their plunder as well, all of this is fair game for Abram.

In verse 17 we saw the king of Sodom goes out to meet in the valley of Shavah we have in the text that is the king's valley after his return from the defeat of Keterleomer and the kings who were with him.

But in verse 17 the king of Sodom doesn't actually get a chance to talk to Abram until verse 21. So the king of Sodom begins to make his way toward Abram but he doesn't actually talk to Abram until verse 21 and when he talks to Abram he says, give me the people, take the goods for yourself.

Well this morning we're going to see why the king of Sodom was interrupted in verses 18 through 20 and he was interrupted by a mysterious figure named Melchizedek and we read this beginning in verse 18.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God most high and he blessed him and said blessed be Abram of God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and he gave him a tithe of all.

That is Abram gave Melchizedek a tithe of all. Who is Melchizedek? Where did he come from? Where does he go? We cannot answer these questions in any great detail. In fact we can only answer who based on what we have in verses 18 through 20.

We cannot answer where he comes from. We cannot answer where he goes. We can only answer who he is based on what I just read. That's all of the information we have about Melchizedek in the scriptures.

Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God most high and he blessed Abram and he blessed the God of Abram. That's it. That's all we know about this man. As we've said, Abram is in this time of triumph.

His ambush, his night assault, was completely successful. So there's this glory of the victory and all of that adrenaline as the night became the dawn and the victory was clear. The corpses of the enemies, you can picture some of these men as well as the men of Asher and Eshgol and Mamre going around and running through any of the survivors, plundering, taking what they could off of the bodies, gathering up the train of prisoners that were from Sodom, of new prisoners from the forces, of all of the goods between them.

There was this glory of this victory, the adrenaline finally beginning to settle down, the realization that God had prospered him. He had not only saved a lot, but he had gained all of this plunder from Keterleomer.

And then, verse 17, here's this serpent of a man, the king of Sodom. He makes his way toward this meek conqueror, Abram, and it's another moment of testing in Abram's life, another moment of testing. We've seen several already.

As Christians, we come to expect these moments of testing, don't we? Circumstances don't fall into our lap as though the universe unfolded at random, as though our days cycled through at a whim. We realize that every day is appointed by God, every season appointed, whether for blessing or trial.

We recognize that when good things come our way, gifts break down upon our head, or when trials come, even a trial that we've been just praying about now. God brings both blessing and trial to expose our hearts before him, reveal idols we have in our lives to clarify our faith or lack of faith, to strengthen our devotion and dependence upon him.

We remember that God always promises his people in any given trial or temptation that he will provide a way of escape when that burden of the temptation is pressing upon them. And as this serpent-like king of Sodom makes his way toward Abram, here is this burden of temptation.

What is Abram going to do? Is he going to run back to Egypt, so to speak? Is he going to put his heart in the arm of flesh and what he could gain? Is he going to make himself a king in the place of Keralaomer?

Is he going to take up shop in Sodom? Notice that God provides a way of escape and that way of escape is Melchizedek. Abram needs a deliverer and he finds it in this priest-king from Salem. Six things, six details that we have in verses 18 through 20.

The first is the name Melchizedek. Melchizedek, it's a combination of two Hebrew words, Melech and Tzadik. Melech for king, Tzadik for righteousness. This is the king of righteousness. That's what Hebrews 7 .2 says, first being translated king of righteousness.

And he's the king of Salem. Melchizedek, the king of Salem. Where we get the idea of God's Shalom, peace, the king of peace. Again, Hebrews 7 .2, also king of Salem, meaning king of peace. So Hebrews 7 .2 defines for us his name and his position.

He is the king of righteousness and the king of peace. He comes from nowhere. We don't read the king whose father was or the son of or and he lived this many days. In a book that's filled with genealogy, that's given very specific amounts of time and length of days and certain lineage, we don't have that with Melchizedek.

He appears on the scene with no genealogy and then he disappears. We know nothing of his birth, nothing of his death, nothing of his parentage. And that point, as we'll see later this morning, is what the writer of Hebrews seizes upon.

Now the writer of Hebrews seizes upon this, as many Christians have seized upon it, because we have to identify who Melchizedek is. Some have said he's simply a priest-king, a Canaanite priest-king from Salem and he's a royal priest, as many kings would have been, not only in ancient Near East but throughout much of ancient history.

Even the Roman emperors were priests, pontifex maximus of the Empire. And so there's this priest-king and he's nothing more than a priest-king, some would say. Others, and this goes back to the early church and it was picked up by some of the reformers, others identify him as Shem, the son of Noah, who by their account was still alive in these days.

Some have gone to identify him as a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, what we would say is a Christophany. Notice, not a theophany, as in the burning bush, but a Christophany, that is, a specific manifestation of Christ.

An example would be with Adrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace, the fourth figure. That would be a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son. So we're going to review this later when we consider what Hebrews has to say, though let me be clear, I don't take a firm stance on any and I play it relatively safe because I think that's the safest thing to do.

A .W. Pink himself said of this, two things are here affirmed of Melchizedek, he was king and he was priest. Endless conjectures have been made as to his identity, questions have been raised about what order of beings he belongs to, but as the Holy Spirit has not seen fit to give us any information on these points, we deem it irreverence to indulge in any speculation.

So we're going to be less irreverent than we could be, perhaps, this morning. So the first thing is his name, Melchizedek, King of Righteousness, King of Salem, that is, King of Peace. Secondly, the significance of that place, Salem.

Not just the King of Peace as a quality of this kingdom, but the place of Salem, which would have been identified in this day as a stronghold of the Jebusites and that later becomes Jerusalem. Psalm 76 verse 2 records Jerusalem simply as Salem.

In Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling place is in Zion. Now, bookmark here, this becomes very important when we get to Psalm 110 and we have again a mention of Melchizedek in the lineage of David, who's the first to occupy this throne in the city of Jerusalem.

It was not taken until David became the king. Third, we read that he's priest of God Most High, that is, he's the priest of El, Elion. Notice that Abram sees Melchizedek as the priest of the God Most High, of Yahweh.

There's no confusion between the God of Abram and the God of Melchizedek. They both know that they serve the same God and the same God is being invoked. Both men understand that they follow and trust the God who is the Most High God because he is the God who possesses the heavens and the earth.

Melchizedek's mighty God is identified by Abram as the God who had called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, who had promised him a blessing, that he would be a blessing to the families of the earth. And so when Abram hears Melchizedek, this priest-king coming in the name of the Most High God and saying, blessed be Abram of God Most High, Abram automatically understands, you serve the same God that I serve.

You are a priest of my God. Your blessing comes the name of the God who I name and the God who I serve. And so taking a step back from this, we would have almost assumed that Abram was the sole follower of the Lord God at this point in Genesis.

It would seem that even after the flood and even after the descendants of Shem go their way, that there's ignorance and superstition and idolatry and we don't read of God's worship being restored. We don't read of God's worship being continued until we come to Melchizedek.

And in Melchizedek, we realize God has not left himself without a witness. Not only had Abram been called by God, but Melchizedek, he was a worshipper in the line of Seth, in the line of Enoch, in the line of Noah.

He was a follower of God, a priest of God, one who worships and made known the way of God. Here in this hill country, here in the very place where Jerusalem and its temple will be erected, Melchizedek rules and worships the true and living God.

Now as a priest forth, as a priest, he brings an ordinance, bread and wine. Often it is said from men like Gil and Calvin, it's said these are communion elements to us today, but they were simply refreshments that he brought.

Or they might say this is a banquet that the king puts before Abram. He allows him to to have this banquet with him. And I don't see that as being entirely accurate. This is not simply a refreshment. The whole context of Melchizedek being a priest of God, bringing bread and wine with him, says there's something related to the blessing of God here.

There's something ritualistic, something functional about this bread and this wine, something related to the blessing and his priesthood. After all, we've already seen that the men of Abram had eaten from the spoil.

He says, I don't want anything from you except what's already been eaten, what the young men have eaten. So they've had plenty of food from the supplies and plenty of food from the spoil. They don't need more food from this priest-king.

I think this is significant because it's a prophetic detail, as I hope we'll connect between Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7. As a priest, not only does he come with an ordinance, he also comes with a blessing, a twofold blessing.

Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. Melchizedek blesses Abram. Melchizedek blesses the God of Abram.

What does it mean to bless God? It simply means to praise God. To bless God is to enhance his his reputation, his knowledge or glory in the earth. That's how we bless the Lord God. So blessing here is is a worship.

You could almost translate it, I praise the God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand. Blessed be this Lord. Blessing, as we have it here in Melchizedek, paints a beautifully simple portrait.

In contrast to the treasures of the world that the King of Sodom is slithering forward to offer to Abram, the Melchizedek priest comes and says, the only lasting blessings in this life, the blessings that ought to order your life, are blessings that come from the Living God.

Not from earthly kings, not from earthly kingdoms, not from what rust can destroy and moss will consume, but treasure from God, blessing from God. This is a gift of the God Most High, the one who created all the things that will perish, the one who created all the things that will not perish.

Melchizedek steals the resolve of Abram by pointing him to God as creator. He's the possessor of heaven and earth. How could he possess it unless he made it? He has rights to it. It is his. And so in this way, beginning at the largest scale possible, he zeroes all the way into the deliverance of Abram, the one who possesses heaven and earth, even delivered you from the hand of your enemy.

This sets us up toward Genesis 15 when God Himself comes to Abram and says, I am your shield, your great reward. So already the idea of God's deliverance, God being as it were the protector, the provider, the warrior on Abram's behalf is made clear.

In fact, that's emphatic in the Hebrew. Here the verb delivered in Hebrew is magen, where shield is magen. It's just a different pointing of the vowels, but it's the same consonants, and so it's meant to connect Genesis 15 with the idea of deliverance here.

I am your shield. I'm the one who delivered you. Notice that this priest's ministry is to reveal El Elyon. He is to come in the name of the Most High God, the one who possesses heaven and earth, and from that pronounce a blessing upon him.

Just like Paul in a very different role says, my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory. That's a somewhat removed, similar way of saying the same thing. The God Most High possesses heaven and earth.

Blessed be He and blessed be you from Him. He will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory. He is your shield. He is your great reward. So notice that God sends Melchizedek to intercept the king of Sodom's temptation, and because of this encounter, Abram gets all of his priorities straight immediately, and because he has his priorities right and his view of the blessing set on high, he can deflect the temptation of the king of Sodom with ease.

Abram would have never passed the subtle trap unscathed unless Melchizedek had met him first, unless he had had an opportunity to hear the Word of God from the priest of God and receive the blessing of God.

It's as though Abram, from this encounter, can turn to the king of Sodom almost in disgust. Take your perishing possessions. Run back to Sodom. I don't even want a sandal strap from you. I won't give you the chance to say that you've made Abram rich.

I'm pursuing the blessing of God, the reward of God. He alone possesses all things. In reality, king of Sodom, you possess nothing. Notice again what Melchizedek says. Blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

And what does Abram say to the king of Sodom? I have raised my hand to the Lord God most high, the possessor of heaven and earth. He's repeating the exact same sentence to the king of Sodom. This is new revelation that now Abram has received, and he's asserting it against the king of Sodom.

He's mimicking the blessing and worship of Melchizedek. Melchizedek gives a revelation, and Abram mimics it. He repeats it. In other words, his faith is resolved in what has been revealed. And notice the response.

He gives him a tithe of all. Abram is the father of all who believe, and as the father of all who believes, he reverently approaches this priest of God, and of everything he has, he gives him a tenth, a tithe.

Everything for us is clarified in Hebrews. Hebrews 7 -2, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. Hebrews 7 -4, consider how great this man was. To whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

So you have this everything that's somewhat broad in verse 2, and then it's clarified in verse 4 of Hebrews 7. He gives him a tenth of all of the plunder, a tenth of all the spoils. So here we already understand Abram knows this is his to give, his by right.

He is the conqueror. And yet when he encounters this priest of God, he tithes to him. He gives a tenth to him. And then when the king of Sodom says, give me back the people, you can have all the possessions to yourself, he says, you can have it all.

Now that's not tithing all. It's not as though the king of Sodom gets 90%. That's sort of an anti-tithe. I don't even want to be stained by it. Here's what is mine, and I tithe to you out of reverence as an act of obedience and thankfulness to God for his deliverance.

When the king of Sodom says, you can at least have the people, he says, you can have all of this. I don't want any of this. It's a very different contrast. The king of Sodom receives no tithe from Abram.

His possessions are returned almost as if they're defiled. And all of this confirms the faith of Abram. Derek Kidner says this so well. What a profound contrast between these two kings. Melchizedek offers him in token a simple sufficiency from God.

All he does is pronounce a blessing upon Abram. And in pronouncing that blessing, he tells Abram to focus on the giver and not on the gift. Abram accepts this and pays tribute. All of this is meaningful only with faith.

The king of Sodom, on the other hand, makes a very handsome and businesslike offer. Its only disadvantage can be seen again by faith. Faith causes Abram to see God as his great reward. Faith also helps Abram to see the treachery and the potential trap in the king of Sodom's offer.

Melchizedek as a Type of Christ

Well, let's consider Melchizedek in more detail. I'll begin by talking about Melchizedek as a type of Christ. And I know you've probably all come across this language of type or typology, maybe without really understanding what's being communicated in that.

When we talk about type, we also have to talk about anti-type, the anti-type. So type and anti-type. Type comes from the Greek, tupos, simply means a symbol or a figure or a representation. That's a type.

That representation, when it's fulfilled, that symbol when it's realized, that which is a picture when it becomes concrete or substantive, we call that the anti-type. That's the fulfillment of the type.

That's what the type is always pointing forward. So throughout the Scriptures we talk about the many different types of Christ. We have an example of Paul speaking of this very way in 1st Corinthians 10.

He says the rock was a type of Christ. That rock which followed them in the wilderness. And so we're given sort of the apostolic encouragement to understand the Scriptures in this way. Because all of the Scriptures are ultimately about the revelation of Christ Jesus, God's work in him by the Spirit, right?

All of God's work is triune. The work of God outside of himself cannot be divided. And so it's the revelation of God, but God is revealed uniquely in Christ and he's revealed to us as Christ by the Spirit.

And so we have typology. Melchizedek is a type. There's no debate on this point. Melchizedek is a type. If you debate this point, you're just, you're outside of Scripture. You're far beyond it. Melchizedek is given to us as a type.

Whether he's more than that is what is debated. He's not least than that. Melchizedek, as Alan Ross points out, Melchizedek stands as a type of Jesus Christ, uniting his offices of priest and king. We could also say in the way that he comes forth to declare the Word of God, he's also a prophet.

A prophet being the one who declares the Word of God and that Word of God can be a blessing or a curse. And here that blessing is not just a priestly function but a prophetic function. And so really I might maybe elaborate a little bit more on Ross's comment here.

We see Melchizedek as a type of Christ in his threefold office, prophet, priest, and king. But the image of priest and the image of king are put forth. He's called a priest and he's called a king in the text.

When the book of Hebrews says that he's without father and without mother, it means that there's no genealogical record. He appears on the scene without notice. And in that sense the text is saying there's a figure here, there's a type here.

He's a priest but we don't have a record of his succession as we do with the Levitical priesthood. We'll see that later this morning. And so he's not a Levitical priest, he's before there was such a thing as a Levitical priest.

And there's no order, there's no succession because he's without beginning in the text and he's without end. We don't know when he became and when he turns over. He's simply revealed as the priest of God.

When David, the Israelite king, sits on Melchizedek's throne, as we'll see in just a second, he himself prophesies about the nature of this priesthood. And he prophesies based on his position as the king sitting on the throne in Salem, in Jerusalem.

So Psalm 110. There's only three places in Scripture where we have Melchizedek discussed. That's Genesis 14, 18 through 20. Psalm 110. And then Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. These are the only places in Scripture where we have any discussion of Melchizedek.

And Psalm 110 bridges Genesis 14 to the writer of Hebrews. Psalm 110 not only does the heavy lifting here for Melchizedek, it is the most quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. Psalm 110 is the most quoted, most often referenced Scripture in the New Testament.

And so if you want a window into how the early Christians thought about the fulfillment of Christ, what it means that he is Lord, what was at the very heart of their preaching and their message, what was at the very center of what they confessed from the beginning, you have to pay close attention to Psalm 110.

And then maybe ask the question, why is it that the Apostles turned so often to Psalm 110? Why is it that the early Christian faith orbited around Psalm 110? And maybe not other places in Scripture that we might assume it would orbit around, or we would assume would become central.

Why is it Psalm 110? Hopefully that colors the way we think about the central message of the gospel. Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord. You remember Jesus confounding his enemies by quoting this, have you not read?

The Lord said to my Lord. If David says the Lord to my Lord, how can he then be David's son, yet David's Lord? The Lord, it's already, there's something prophetic Jesus is highlighting about Psalm 110.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. Does that sound familiar? It ought to. Psalm 2, the enthronement psalm, where the nations are called to to tremble before the one who's been enthroned by God, kissing his feet as he holds the rod of iron that smashes them into pieces, confounding all of their plotting in vain.

Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Again, this is what the early Christians often preached.

This was central to their understanding of the gospel. How central would Psalm 110 be to most explanations of the gospel today? Would it ever even enter into the conversation? If you took 50 of the leading evangelicals and you asked them to give a summary of the gospel, how many of them would even come close to Psalm 110?

Interesting, isn't it? Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be made willing in the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, you have the due of your youth.

The Lord has sworn and he will not relent. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Several elements that Hebrews is going to draw on from Psalm 110. The Lord has sworn that you, who is being addressed here?

Who is the you in Psalm 110? Go back to verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord. David's writing this as a king. Who is the Lord of the king but the Lord? The Lord said to my Lord, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now we have this in quotation marks, but we don't have any reference to what it's quoting. We have this as direct speech, we have this as prophecy. This is David prophesying of his Lord being a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord had said to my Lord, and this is what the Lord has sworn, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Notice that David does not claim this for himself. He does not claim to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

He's a king, he's not of the Levite tribe. The one who he references prophetically is the one who is a priest forever. And that brings us to Hebrews, to Melchizedek. Melchizedek appears, as we've noticed, without any record, and that's what Hebrews is reacting to.

There's no genealogy. He's a type of this abiding priesthood, a priesthood forever, an eternal priesthood that Jesus fulfills. And it's simply being drawn on the fact that he has no beginning, no end.

He takes from that missing detail in Genesis 14, this type, this picture of one whose days is without beginning and without end, the one who had no parentage, because he is the Word of God, and he lives everlastingly to make intercession for all those who come to God by him.

Psalm 110 and Hebrews on the Eternal Priesthood of Christ

So let's begin with Hebrews 5. I'll just highlight some things as we work through Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. I'm not going to read all of them, but Hebrews 5, beginning in verse 5. The whole sort of trajectory of Hebrews is talking about how Christ is superior to the Old Covenant at every level.

He's superior to all of creation, superior to the angels, he's superior to the Old Covenant, superior to Aaron, superior to the Levitical priests, superior to the law, the covenant he brings about is superior in every way.

It's all about the superiority of Christ and Christ's work, and the context of Hebrews is Jewish Christians who are facing a furnace of persecution, and they're being tempted to go back to the old way, back to the shadows, back to the types.

Can't we just go back to the synagogues and get away from this heat? If we're Jews, we'll be tolerated, but as Christ-believing Jews, we're being persecuted. Can't we go back? Are there two ways of salvation?

And the writer of Hebrews is saying, no, you cannot go back to the types, to the shadows, you cannot go back to the ministry which condemned you, the ministry of death. Hebrews 5, beginning in verse 5.

So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, he being God, he who said to him, you're my son, today I have begotten you. Sound familiar? Psalm 2, Psalm 110, 2nd Samuel 7, the enthronement of the king, the king who sits upon the throne.

You are my son. This is adoption language given to an earthly king, and it projects or it portrays God enthroning his son. You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he also says in another place, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, Psalm 110, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death, he was heard because of his godly fear.

Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience through what he suffered, and having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, called by God as high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say and hard to explain, since you've become dull of hearing.

Now that right there is such an encouragement. I was debating whether I should open up the sermon with Hebrews 5 11. We have a lot to talk about Melchizedek, and it's really hard to explain, and you've become dull of hearing.

Maybe you've become dull of hearing by the by the end, hopefully not now. The superiority of this priesthood, Hebrews 6. Notice again the effect of understanding Christ in fulfillment of Melchizedek. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, Hebrews 6 beginning in 19, which enters the presence behind the veil, right?

Here's the high priest who goes behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, Psalm 110 again. And now Hebrews 7 beginning in verse 1.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, direct quotation from Genesis 14, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. Well there you have an answer about the fate of the kings, right?

They were slaughtered, the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. First being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning 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, remains a priest continually, right?

There's no death, there's no record of his priesthood having ended, so in some literal sense, in some sense in the text, he remains a priest forever. And David is picking up on this. You are a priest forever in this order of Melchizedek.

Verse 4, now consider how great this man was. Notice, perhaps significant verse 4, notice how great this man was. If we're saying Melchizedek is strictly a type, that would make a lot of sense. If it's a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ, pre-incarnate meaning he could not be man, he could not be flesh, because it's pre-flesh, pre-incarnate, very hard to get around verse 4, unless you view it strictly as a type.

Consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils, and indeed, those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, remember what he said in Hebrews 5, he did not make himself a priest, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham.

Let me read that again, it's easy to read past. Indeed, verse 5, those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham.

But, he whose genealogy is not derived from them, received tithes from Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises. See, Abraham shouldn't be in this position, he's tithing rather than receiving tithes, that's what the writer of Hebrews is reacting to.

Now, beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better. Now, Chesedek, being superior to Abram, as even Abram recognizes, here, mortal men receive tithes, but there, he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

Verse 9, even Levi, beginning of the Aaronic priesthood, Levitical priesthood, even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abram, so to speak, typology, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.