Genesis 14:18-24
Vrs18 Melchizedek=”King of righteousness” Salem is another name for Jerusalem which means peace so He is the “King of peace”
Brought out bread and wine for refreshment of the troops and a congratulatory act. These were staples at the time.
Priest of God-This priesthood is not to be confused with that of priest’s of the law that brought the sacrifices to pay for sin under the law.
This is a different order of eternal peace and righteousness. Melchizedek is the first mention of a priest in the Bible and is generations before Aaron which God set up the Levitical priesthood through.
Psalm 110:4 A Prophecy of Jesus
“The LORD has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.
All priest’s died, but not Jesus. There is no account of where Melchizedek came from or when He died, But we see a few verses in Genesis in which he appears in had a huge impact.
Some even say He may have been the pre-incarnate Christ, meaning an appearance of Jesus.
But as we look at the book of Hebrews it seems to better understand He was a man that foreshadowed Jesus and was not Jesus.
Vrs 19 And he blessed him. We have talked about this before and a modern way to understand blessing is make someone happy
Vrs 20 and Abram gave him a tithe
Now lets take what we have read about Melchizedek and see how the writer of Hebrews connects him with Jesus
Hebrews chapter 5 starts out by saying that the job of a Levitical priest was to bring sacrifices for the sins of himself and the people, in order to be forgiven.
Then the passage goes on to say that Jesus is that High priest for all of us “according to the order of Melchizedek”
So what is this saying about Melchizedek and Jesus?
Hebrews 7:1-4 The writer of Hebrews is communicating to the Jewish audience that The law and the priesthood that comes with it could not save people but Jesus like Melchizedek “the king of righteousness and peace” can and has the power to save us from our sins.
Jesus
Like Melchizedek blessed Abram…Jesus came and blessed us with himself when he laid down his life in our place on the cross. Gospel
Hebrews goes on to say 7:22-25 so that in Jesus we can have surety that the new order or covenant is better and Jesus lives to forgive our sins. There is no sin he cannot forgive
Notice that when we celebrate communion we use bread and wine. Remember I said they were staples or necessities of the time. Jesus body and blood are a necessity for us to receive forgiveness.
Jesus was a priest that brought the Sacrifice to the next level, it was of Himself.
But through this study of Melchizedek how can we look more like Jesus?
Us
1 Peter 2:4-10 God calls us a holy priesthood and His chosen, special people. So how do we respond?
1. 1 Peter 2:7 Jesus is the Cornerstone- in ancient architecture the cornerstone was set and the building was build off of that, if that is out of wack the entire structure suffers and each stone needs to be adjusted to make up for it.
My bathroom ill
Jesus needs to be our cornerstone and what we align ourselves with in order to be on the right track.
If we align ourselves with anything but Jesus we will always be making adjustments to compensate and we will suffer the consequences
The text says we are building a spiritual house, our foundation must be Jesus and then we must continue to build. That means we always reach to learn more and apply those to our lives
2. When our lives are aligned with Jesus 1 Peter 2:5 we as a priesthood offer up spiritual sacrifices. What is that? That means we sacrifice things in our lives and replace them with things that please God. Replace sin with Righteousness.
3. 1 Peter 2:9-10 The response of us should be give back to God by proclaiming what He has done in your life. Tell others how God saved you
Remember how Abraham responded to the work of the Lord He gave the tenth to Melchizedek. How do you usually respond to God when He blesses you with, that extra money, job promotion, good grades, a relationship gets better, you have victory over a sin? We take it and we are happy and we often forget to give back to God. How should you respond?
Give= Time, talent, treasure
4. Melchizedek blessed Abram. Jesus blesses us. How can you bless the people around you?
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