Melchizedek and Jesus: How to find Jesus in the Old Testament pt 6

okay so today in our continued study of Jesus in the Old Testament where we're approaching the issue of Melchizedek this is a hotly debated guy the question is how is Melchizedek a type of Christ and is he actually Jesus because a lot of people think he's actually Jesus literally showing up a Christ often E in the Old Testament and so I'll unpack all these ideas but I think personally and I could be wrong here is my opinion is that Melchizedek gives us kind of like a template for one of the ways in which we will

look for other types of Jesus in the Old Testament because it's like we're saying hey if this is how God shows us about Jesus in the Old Testament through Melchizedek then maybe he does the same type of thing through other people in the Old Testament so that's that's kind of where we're gonna be going so I'm gonna try to showcase those those things for you to to look at now Melchizedek it's difficult sometimes for the brain to think about Melchizedek but it's not difficult to get the passages there are only four passages in question dealing

with Melchizedek the the first time he shows up is in Genesis 14 this is where he shows up and he and he meets Abraham so we read up in Genesis 14 we read about the story of how lot and his people lot and the people he's living with they were taken captive by some foreign King and Abraham goes with and with his army and he rescues lot so he saves a lot and brings him back and he's coming on his way back from this battle with all these multiple kings that just fought and we pick

up on the story in verse 17 of Genesis 14 it says after his return from the defeat of chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him the king of sodom went out to meet him at the valley of shaveh that is the king's valley and Melchizedek and that's the first time he shows up in the Bible Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was a priest he was priest excuse me of God Most High and he blessed him and said blessed be Abram by God Most High possessor of heaven and earth and

blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand and Abram gave him tenth of everything and that's all we get like that's all we have about Melchizedek and you wouldn't think that much about him you kind of be like who was that guy like what was going but there's more we get in Psalms and then there's more in the book of Hebrews where it directly tells us Melchizedek is related to Jesus so let's unpack here's what we know about him here's a little we just got right we hear his name which

was Melchizedek all right we all got that yeah I think you came in here already knowing that information but but his name is Melchizedek and he's the king of a place called Salem now this may well be Jerusalem and I'm inclined to think it is Jerusalem there are back then as there are today there are multiple cities with the same name so they're Jerusalem though its old name was Salem that was just the name of the of the place before it was called Jerusalem Psalm 76 - supports this it says about God his abode has

been established in Salem his dwelling place in Zion so even years later it was still sometimes referred to as Salem not just Jerusalem to Zion and Jerusalem are the same location basically so some people think maybe this thing king of Salem is actually a title here's one of the debates the hotly debated issues on Melchizedek he's the king of Salem but that's just a title because we find out later Salem means peace as many of you already know right Salem means peace so maybe he's the king of peace and it was a title type thing

I have a problem with this because if you read Genesis 14 we have lots of guys who it says they're the king of king of king of and they're always locations they're never titles so amraphel king of shinar right arioch king of ellasar tidal king of bera king of sodom etc etc and it's even in the same passage right in Genesis 14 17 Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of shaveh so we have the king of Sodom then we have Melchizedek who

is the king of Salem so I think it's not a title I think the context seems to indicate like an actual place he's a king of an actual place you know what does he do it so he's Melchizedek he's the king of Salem he brings out bread and wine and I can't save this for like how can you miss the implications of him bringing out bread and wine like how can you possibly miss the obvious implications of this I mean Jesus comes and he dies for us and then gives us a symbolic representation of his

sacrifice in bread and wine using the Passover but now when we read milk is that we realized this picture this symbol goes back before Passover that it was even being used back then so he gives him bread and wine that seems pretty obvious and pretty neat to me he's also a priest he's a priest so he's a king and he's a priest and what kind of priest he's not Levitical so in the timeline of Israel Abraham's like around 2,000 BC right but but the Levitical priesthood and the Mosaic law and all that sort of structure

given to Israel didn't happen until around 1400 BC at least by my reckoning around 1400 so we're saying the Levitical priests didn't exist in fact we have no idea how this guy was doing what he was doing we just know he was a priest but it's he's not Levitical but was he a pagan priest no it says he's a priest of God Most High this is often how the pagan Kings might have referred to the God of Israel because the Israelites were claiming that their God was above all their God was the one creator of

all things because they were monotheists so when it says he was the priest of God Most High that is to say the true God so he's a non Jewish priest of the true God who brings out bread and wine to Abraham and all that stories getting real interesting now you know like this who is this guy well we don't know the details but we know priest King Melchizedek king of Salem all that and then the last thing is well two things really Abraham tithes to him took the word tithe just means 10% so Abraham gave

him 10% of everything Abraham had he gives it to Melchizedek and then Melchizedek blesses Abraham so if anyone doubts who Melchizedek is that he's priest of the Most High God or the God Most High listen to the blessing that he gives he blesses Abraham in the name of the God who is the possessor of heaven and earth that's a monotheistic claim because because what the Hebrews the in Hebrew they don't have a word for universe when they want to refer to everything in creation they go heaven and earth or heavens and earth that's what they

say so when he says possessor of heaven and earth that is really a claim that this is the God of all things and then he refers in verse 22 the God who has delivered your enemies into your hands and we know it was God Almighty who blessed Abraham in that battle and gave him the victory in Genesis 14 22 Abraham later on it says but Abraham said to the king of Sodom I've lifted my hand to the Lord God Most High possessor of heaven and earth so obviously the the textual clues are there this may

not seem important to you guys but if you listen to the debates on the visit ech some people will say it was a pagan god that no kiss Nick was a priest of but that's not what the text says and sometimes scholars as much as we love and appreciate scholars and sometimes we don't love and appreciate them very much actually sometimes they get so caught up in reading extra biblical texts that they forget to check the biblical text and I think here the real text makes it clear he's the priest of God Most High the

one and only God so really interesting and definitely incomplete and you noticed that there's like a bunch of puzzles we just laid out who is this mochas a dead guy how is he a priest of God but not not Levitical and not from Abraham why is he bring out bread and wine why is every I'm tied to him why does he bless Abraham like what is going on here I think that the Old Testament lays out lots of questions and then Jesus comes out and gives us a bunch of exclamation points right he turns to

questions straightens out those little question marks into exclamation points so that we go whoa instead of huh and that happens over and over again as I study the Old Testament I get these whoa moments that before seeing Jesus there were just like huh what's going on so the next time he shows up is in Psalm 110 so let's look at Psalm 110 Genesis 14 is the first time Psalm 110 is the second this is Psalm 110 is clearly messianic it's a fairly short Psalm it's just seven verses we're gonna read through the whole thing and

it is actually quoted more than any other Psalm in the New Testament so Psalm 110 is is the most popular New Testament Psalm to quote and we actually have Jesus himself quoting it when he decides to stump with the Pharisees that's a good way to put it yeah he said the stump of the Pharisees with a question about this verse so Psalm 110 verse 1 it says a psalm of David the Lord says and that's capital lort so les yeux way says to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your

footstool now this is the verse that Jesus quotes David writes a psalm and according to Jesus that's who is the author of this song so David writes the psalm and David says Yahweh says to my lord David's Lord whoever that is and then Jesus uses this to stump the Pharisee so if you would turn to Matthew 22 but keep your place in Psalm 110 and you might keep Genesis 14 open and be ready for Hebrews chapter 7 I'll be going there too huh Matthew 22 verse 41 so we know how the Pharisees used to try

to stump Jesus right what they did was they would come up and ask him a hard question there's a woman she had a husband and the husband died and she married another guy and he died and married another guy and he died and married 53 other guys and they all died I'm exaggerating and then you know whose wife will she be in heaven and Jesus would answer like you don't know the power of God you don't know the scripture is like they don't marry in heaven so he would which is which is it's it's great

how Jesus could answer the skeptics questions even the trick questions I think that's really interesting but they couldn't answer his so in Psalm excuse me in Matthew 22 41 we have where Jesus asks them a question now while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them a question saying what do you think about the Christ that is the Messiah remember Messiah or Christ same word two different languages right messiahs the Hebrew Christ is the Greek and so that's the same exact word and he was what do you think about the Messiah whose son is he

and they said to him the son of David it was well known that he had to be a descendant of David the promises came through David but Jesus wants him to understand there's more to the Messiah than just his lineage from David so verse 43 he said to them how is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord now think for a second Popeyes think for a second about what Jesus is saying about the Old Testament how David in the spirit calls him Lord he's saying that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit

while he was writing the scriptures that's the interesting interesting thing so how is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord saying the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet question mark if then David calls him Lord how is he his son and no one was able to answer him a word nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions oh this happens on social media right when someone tries to challenge you as you're sharing your faith and then

they try to challenge you with trick questions and if you're able to have wisdom hopefully and grace but but wisdom to get on target in the answer and then they just stop asking you how it's just after well and I mean some people don't some people don't ever get the clue and they just continue to ask questions forever but they decide not to ask Jesus anymore questions after this now Jesus that he quotes this in mark 12 36 in Luke 20 verse 42 and 3 I mean in acts 2 verses 34 and 35 it's courted

by Peter in Hebrews 1:13 it's also quoted this particular Psalm Psalm 110 verse 1 the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool that is quoted over and over again and it's always quoted for the same basic reason to establish that the identity of Messiah is greater than David or is Lord or is better than angels or he it's showing how high and lofty Messiah is so yes he'd be the son of David but it also be his Lord now that's a question mark isn't it how

is he the son of David and his Lord Jesus answers that was a big exclamation point because look at my identity I'm the son of man and the son of God that's how so then in back to Psalm 110 back to Psalm 110 so now now you see this my point of that little detour with this this is a messianic Psalm for sure not only did the the Jews know it back then this was messianic but it's quoted throughout the New Testament as being so so let's continue reading Psalm 110 now we know it's got

this like really important messianic thrust verse 2 it says Lord sins forth from Zion your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your enemies your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning that do of your youthful yours the general thrust of verse 2 is that this person that David speaking of will be king right ruling with a scepter that's a king that's a royal kingship that he has he's the son of David but he's the Lord and he's also got it he's a

king let's keep reading verse 4 the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind and here's where milk is a debt comes in you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek so he's this he's the son of David he's the Lord he's gonna rule his king and yet he is a priest and it's after the order of Melchizedek not the Levites not the ironic priests no Melchizedek verse 5 the Lord is at your right hand he will shatter kings in the day of his wrath he will execute judgment among the nation's filling

them with corpses he will shatter Chiefs over the wide earth he will drink from the brook by the way therefore he will lift up his head so I just want to finish reading it so we can get it all in our minds but the basic idea in Psalm 110 is we have a ruling king who is also a priest a king and a priest and we have one particular example of that in Melchizedek who was a king and a priest interesting interesting one of the ways they knew this was about Messiah is that it was

never fulfilled in David this is pretty simple it highlights the the usefulness of different prophecies and I keep I keep pointing this out there's a concept I want us to get because it's really helpful all prophesy or foreshadowings are not always evidence for the Bible sometimes it's just theology like you're just learning theology some prophecies they prove God spoke right so I read about like the destruction of Tyre in Ezekiel I read about Psalm 22 and how the Messiah will will suffer describing crucifixion before it was invented you know I Jesus quoting it on the

crowd like some things are really like that's evidence for God's inspiration of the Scriptures but not all prophecies like this which is why sometimes if you're studying prophecy you're like how is this going to help me prove to this skeptic that the Bible is God's Word and my answer is it's not like not every prophecy is for that one purpose some is and use those prophecies for that some prophecies just give clarity on theology and that's what Psalm 110 verse 1 was about just clarifying who this Messiah is so you get better theology that was

what that was about and some are just there to encourage exhort or strengthen people they're not proving anything is just about encouraging your heart God speaking prophetically in these in these ways so it's not like the only purpose of the Bible is to prove that the Bible's from God God actually has things to say once you realize it's from him and so he has other things to add the reason why I labor on this is because sometimes and maybe even now you know watching online there's a skeptic who would look at these things and go

that doesn't prove Jesus's but that doesn't prove he's no but that doesn't prove but that's not the point right that's the evidence for the Bible series I did a whole twenty part series on that that's that's the point of that series this is theology we're getting digging into so let's now now we've got the two bolt system process Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 and now we're gonna go right to the new testament to how it interprets these things so turn to Hebrews chapter 5 it comes up briefly in Hebrews 5 we're gonna read a chunk

of this and then the next passage will be in Hebrews 7 so he was 5 and Hebrews 7 so in Hebrews 5 it just it just kind of I wasn't gonna read Hebrews 5 but I decided we should just go ahead and just read the whole thing just to absorb it because it helps set the stage for what he's talking about in Hebrews 7 about Melchizedek so we already know Melchizedek is a priest he's a king and then the Messiah will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek whatever that means let's find out Hebrews

5 1 for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins he can tell gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness because of this he's obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people and no one takes this honor for himself but only when he's only when called by God just as Aaron was so far this is all about the Aaronic priesthood right the Levites this

is their priesthood but there's principles to learn so also verse five Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by him who said to him you are my son did they have begotten you as he also says in another place you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek where's that from Psalm 110 right so according it again verse 7 in the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and he was

heard because of his reverence although he was a son he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him being designated by God a high priest after the order of melchizedek about this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing yes the New Testament is not always nice it's always not always kind to you in a sense you've become dull of hearing and the next whole chapter chapter 6 he talks about how dull

they are and how he's like what there's really no point in me starting over with salvation with you guys look like you either receive it or don't now I'm moving on to talk about Melchizedek this is next-level Christianity stuff but if I have to rebuild the first floor with you there's no point I mean it's a really scary passage Hebrews 6 which I'm thankfully not teaching tonight yes save that for later there's we all have questions about Hebrews 6 so there's a lot here but just to mention here's a little bit of what we get

so far in Hebrews 5 about Melchizedek right priests help people in their relationship with God especially dealing with sin okay Jesus fulfills that they are sympathy because they have weaknesses too in fact their weakness is often stem from their own sinful natures Jesus is separated from them a little bit there he had weak physical weakness but no sin and so he he understands the frailty of humankind but but wasn't sinful so there's a difference there and Jesus is a high priest but he's unlike the ironic priests he's a Melchizedek Ian priest he's a priest after

the order of Melchizedek and he saves quote all who obey Him so I just gotta mention really quick because in the Mormon Church they believe they have an active priesthood called the Melchizedek II and priesthood and the young men in the Mormon Church will be ordained as priests after the order of Melchizedek that's a total twisting of the scripture there's only one person who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek his name is Jesus but what because this is a confusing passage because it's a hard passage this is what often time cult groups do

is they take hard passages build really detailed theology systems based off of a confusing passage and then they make you try to accept it because they quote a verse you don't understand and it's really kind of a weird tactic they have never let someone cause you to embrace all this theology because you don't understand a verse like just just go I don't understand that but I don't think it says all that like that's fair enough to say and it will protect you so yeah there's just one guy who's a priest after Melchizedek and his name

is Jesus so Hebrews six verse 20 the last verse in Hebrews 6 we come to our final passage about my own kiss attack and then I'm gonna try to answer a bunch of questions we've laid out a bunch of those things so far and we'll try to get to the answers verse 20 of Hebrews 6 it says where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf speaking of like that Tabernacle in heaven he washed us clean having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and now here's the inspired commentary you don't

need me to tell you what Melchizedek is about because God tells us right here in Hebrews 7 for this Melchizedek king of Salem priest of the Most High God met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him remember how he blessed him and to Abraham important to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything he ties he is first by translation of his name king of righteousness and then he is also king of Salem that is king of peace so far this is really easy no because they okay this I got this

this is easy peasy stuff right points of comparison the name Melchizedek means king of righteousness malik means king Tzedek means he's righteous king that's who he is that's what his name means so we have by the way there's a debate on this as well did it really mean king of righteousness or did it mean my king is righteous or did it mean that his name meant Malik King is is said ech which is the name of this pagan deity is my King Zedeck is my king okay pause the inspired commentary he says Melchizedek which means

king of righteousness so it helps us and translates this for us there's a big debate on this I'm not going to get into it but they've even found a text in Egypt that showed Melchizedek as simply a name that meant king of righteousness so we we have like ancient verification for this I share that because I never know who might watch these this commentary these videos and maybe they needed to hear that yes they actually found evidence to support that so easy peasy right Jesus is the king of righteousness he is the righteous King right

first John 2:1 it says my little children I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous he is righteous the only one who's righteous he is the remember when Jesus says why do you call me good no one is good but God and then first John 2:1 goes yeah Jesus the righteous like yes that's him he is the righteous one but he's also the king of peace see a righteous King implies he's gonna bring down a righteous

judgment on sinners but he's the king of peace bringing and restoring our relationship with a God king of Salem shown Romans 5:1 it says therefore since we've been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ he is ultimately the Prince of Peace he's our king of peace so there's a contrast here I love the the intensity of the cross when you really think about it conceptually about how the wrath of God and the love of God come together on the cross about how the righteousness of God and the peace of

God come to come together on the cross Psalm 85 10 is one of my favorite verses that capsule eights that it says steadfast love and faithfulness meet righteousness and peace kiss each other and I just picture the cross like righteousness which would require judgment and peace kiss each other they meet and through the cross were reconciled she's our king of righteousness and he's our king of peace this to me is more confirmation that God from the moment when Melchizedek is doing this stuff with Abraham God is planning out how this will come out in the

text of Scripture so that you could study it later and see Jesus that this was all an agenda on God's mind and this means something else names can have typological significance I mean if Melchizedek named and though he's king of Salem he's just the king but it means king of peace and I can go oh that relates to Jesus then this means that in my little toolbox I can go I can look up the meaning of a name and see if that maybe has some significance as a type of Christ as I'm studying the Old

Testament which is just kind of fun so now you can do this now I have no agenda here I don't know what names I'm gonna apply this to exactly except to say I think that God tends to do things consistently and if he does it with Melchizedek he may do it with somebody else and somewhere else in the scripture and I think I can't think of places where I think he does this and we'll get into that stuff in future weeks so does this mean every name is a type of Christ Adam and Eve no

no not necessarily but it means that it could be there and that's that's fun for me I can look at these New Testament examples of types to give me a tool a tool set to go to the Old Testament on my own I remember we had a class called hermeneutics when I was in the school ministry and in this book hermeneutics it was fantastic book they talked about principles for Bible study but when he came to types they had a few principles and the last they had like five principles on identifying types of Jesus in

the Old Testament the last principle I think was the fifth one I totally disagree with and the last principle was it's only a type if it's clearly identified in the New Testament as a type of Christ and I was like well why do you even need the other four principles if that's one of your principle I don't even need to think about types I just make a list of the New Testament examples and that's all we get but yet that's not all we get that's really not all we get there's no reason why I mean

Jesus on the road to emmaus we did this in the first week on this Jesus in the Old Testament thing the road to miss Jesus opened and beginning at Moses and to all the prophets right all the Scriptures he shows them the things that pertain to him there's more there's more and I think it's one of the noblest things you can do to soberly look for types of Jesus throughout the Old Testament so verse 3 let's continue verse 3 in Hebrews 7 he's without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end

of life but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever here's the debate now that's that's the verse right there that one verse gives us most of the debate we're gonna look at so he doesn't have father and mother so I mean he's eternal he's unborn he's undying no father no mother no genealogy he doesn't have a beginning of days and he doesn't have an end of life he resembles the son of God and he continues as a priest forever now depending on how you take this you may think that Melchizedek isn't a

type of Christ he's actually Jesus he just continues as a priest forever and he's okay who's who's uncreated Jesus right like that would that would fit that would fit so on the pro side for people who think that Jesus this is a Christ often an actual appearance of Christ um he's eternal unborn undying that would imply it Hebrews 7 8 might imply a Christ a phony as well because verse 8 it says in the one case tides are received by mortal men speaking of the Levites but in the other case by one of whom it

is testified that he lives well he lives like just Melchizedek still live today then is that the point but I have some things that make me think it's not a Christ often II so let me share that with you because that's my personal opinion we can feel we can disagree on this issue I certainly disagree with plenty of people on it but here's the reasons the Old Testament if you took it by itself you would never have thought Melchizedek was eternal right like if you just read the Old Testament in isolation as a new you

never would have thought he was eternal it just wouldn't you just he's a guy he's the king of Salem he's a priest of the Most High God like but but eternal unborn undying like those things no I don't think so um in verse 3 it says resembling the Son of God it doesn't say as the son of God if it was a Christ often II I wouldn't think he would be said to be resembling the Son of God I would think he would just be said to be the son of God right if it was

Jesus I would have thought having me the beginning of days nor end of life but as the son of God he continues you know as a priest forever but instead he's resembling the son of God in verse 20 of chapter 6 Hebrews 6:20 and quoting the Old Testament well it says you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek it doesn't say you are Melchizedek a priest forever that would be the implication if Melchizedek and Jesus are the same person but instead of Jesus is similar to Melchizedek we have that so that would uh

that would also cause some problems because Melchizedek was king of Salem so we're not talking okay every Christ often II I've read so far Jesus shows up and then leaves but if Melchizedek is a Christ often II he was literally ruling and reigning in Salem long term and functioning as a priest there for those people and that to me seems a little bit unlikely I'm not saying it couldn't possibly happen but it would almost imply that Jesus came and lived an actual full life before he came with the Incarnation and that's confusing to me so

you see why at first glance you go that's a cry that's Christ off on you but when you start to look at the other puzzle pieces you go that's kind of creating some problems for us if we have that perspective I think in verse 4 it says see how great this man was speaking of Melchizedek um I just want to know it doesn't say see how great he is it's just weird to refer to him in the past tense in that sense and in verse 21 of chapter 7 it says he was made a priest

by an oath and we'll get to there we'll get there in a minute he was made a priest by an oath and that took place either like a milk in okay Psalm 110 occurs hundreds and hundreds of years after Abraham and it says you are a priest forever well Hebrews sevens commentary on Psalm 110 says he became a priest by an oath meaning the person Psalm 110 is talking about was not already a priest was already a priest so if he became a priest by now that either happened at the time of David when the

oath was given or it was you are and it was declaration about Jesus and when he came he became the priest melk it you know priest in the order of Melchizedek there's another reason to think it's not a christophany um so Jesus was a priest made a priest long after Melchizedek had already been a priest so then those are two different people and in verse 15 of Hebrews 7 it says quote another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek okay so it's not the same guy that's the context I see there some people say no

no no Mike you're wrong it's not a christophany it's not a human who represents Jesus it's an angel who represents Jesus so Mike is the next different than Jesus but it's an angelic being that's why it can be said to be without father or mother except it also says he's without beginning of days or end of life and angels do have a beginning of days so I feel like that doesn't really apply to angels if we take that literally so how do I explain the the statements without beginning adays how do I explain that if

it's not if that's a human how's it human without beginning of days here's what I think and I hope I can express this well see I think I get it right but getting it out of my mouth to someone else that's the challenge that's the real challenge of teaching so um I think that Melchizedek had a beginning of days and an end of life in a genealogy I think the point is it's not written in the text I think Hebrews is saying God included the story written this way so it would be a picture of

Christ which to me is kind of exciting when you think about the implications so there was a there was more to the story of Melchizedek but the the particular details written and the ones left out were written in and left out so it would be a better picture of Jesus does that make sense I hope I hope this makes sense it means that as I'm looking at the Old Testament I not only look at the people and events but I look at how it was written why was this detail just that there was there was

more to that guy's life but it was left out because God wanted to draw a better picture of Christ through the Old Testament Melchizedek had a genealogy in my opinion I could be wrong but my opinion yet our genealogy but how is he without genealogy in the story in Genesis 14 there's no genealogy in Genesis 14 he doesn't start his life he doesn't end his life he just shows up does his thing and he's gone and we don't know any more details about him I think in that sense he's a picture of Jesus Christ in

the text and that's the point it means that the text was more the goal than the actual guy himself this means that the Bible is more profound and more important than maybe we've realized and so to me that that here's here's how I view it call me because it it could cry Stephanie you have to answer those other questions that I have real hard time answering I don't know how to answer those issues if you call Melchizedek a picture of Christ I feel as though I can answer the genealogy issue the without beginning of days

an end of life I feel like I can answer all those issues and the other issues and it all makes sense so that's my personal view yeah there's other guys too or you read about them Jephthah we'll get there I don't know why but Jeff's that's one of my favorite pictures of Christ interesting but but you read his story and you realize in these few verses in the beginning of a story it's so a picture of Christ in my opinion and if they had added more details more and more details about his life it would

have broke the picture down that's the point you see Joseph the story of Joseph we read we have a lot of him right but we if we read more and more and more about him it would eventually start to just look less and less like Jesus but we have less information in order to keep it looking more like Jesus that's the idea so that's my perspective my view on that for what it's worth and you may disagree but you're wrong alright so hebrews hebrews so we'll continue Hebrews 7 verse 4 it says see how great

this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the Spoils and now he's talking about the greatness of Melchizedek because it's relates to the greatness of Jesus Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus and those descendants of Levi who receive this is now this is a challenging part but stick with me here the descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers is realized tithe to the Levites tithe too though these are also are descended from Abraham but

this man who does not have his descent from them receives ties from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises those are the two points he's gonna highlight spoiler right here they tithe Abraham tithe and Melchizedek blessed him and he's gonna say these two things make Melchizedek better than Abraham because you tie this someone better than you spiritually in some sense at least in this context and then the one who blesses is greater than the one who gets the blessing so he's gonna he's trying to show how great Melchizedek is to show how great Jesus

is so verse 7 it's beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior Abraham then would be inferior to Melchizedek in the one case tie this back to the tithe issue are received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it has testified that he lives one might even say that Levi himself who receives tithes paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him let me highlight verse 9 one might even say that you could actually translate that phrase like in a

sense so Paul's again he's drawing analogies to Jesus he's not saying that Levi was literally in the loins of Abraham he's going to know in the story Levi's from Abraham so in a sense Levi's tithing - so what's the point milk is it x better than Levi and the milk is a dekyon priesthood that Jesus has is better than the Levitical priesthood which now you zoom out and go that's what Hebrews is about right Jesus is better Jesus is the fulfillment and the better fulfillment of all those Old Testament realities and what blows me away

is this means that the priesthood that was to supersede the Levites came long before the Levites and Abraham himself tithed to that guy that's pretty significant isn't it now if I was Jewish I'd be like good because I want to know there's a solid grounding in the Old Testament for who Jesus is and what he does so he's greater than Abraham for two reasons right Abraham ties two cos avec and two he blessed Abraham and the inferiors blessed by the superior you have examples of this in the scripture and other places you know the father

is going to bless the sons before he passes away that sort of thing to highlight this to draw our attention this verse six of Hebrews 7 it says he blessed him who had the promises remembering how great Abraham was in you all the nations of the world will be blessed and he comes and he blesses Abraham Abraham that's a kind of a big deal so how does this relate then to the melt to the to the Levites in the Melchizedek ian's thing going on here is again a part of Hebrews saying that even the system

of the law that was coming through the Levites that it was it was its forerunner or not for honor but it was preceded by this guy Melchizedek who interceded for Abraham to draw him to God by being the priest between Abraham and God and then yet he's a picture of Christ and then Psalm 110 prophetically speaks about this future priest king who will come in the order of Melchizedek cites I think it's just absolutely amazing it shows us the purpose of the whole like literally Melchizedek speaks to something about the purpose of the Levitical law

in general it's a pretty profound thing but we got to move on so verse 11 now if perfection have been attainable through the Levitical priesthood for under it that people receive the law what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron just highlighting what why bother having a priest after the order of Melchizedek if if the ironic priesthood is enough if the Levites are enough for when there was a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in

the law as well for the one of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar so Jesus this is speaking of Jesus he comes from a different tribe that's not the Levites he comes from the tribe of Judah the kingly tribe so how could he be a priest you're not part of the Levites because you're a priest after the order of Melchizedek do you see how the the question marks are answered with the exclamation point of Jesus price really neat stuff I wish I could

like pause and just teach for 15 minutes on that one concept alright verse 14 for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with what with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek who has become a priest become a priest as an he wasn't already a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life for it is witnessed of him you were a priest forever after the

order of Melchizedek highlighting the foreverness of that priesthood every one of the high priests would die it was kind of planned out right in fact the whole City of Refuge thing happens when the high priest dies not like this is kind of expected but Jesus when he comes as a priest he's a priest how long forever so there was an eternal priesthood promised and the Levitical thing was a temporary thing to be a schoolmaster lead us to Christ is the idea so this solves a problem with Jesus Jesus he can be the king of Israel

because he's of the tribe of Judah so he's in the proper line of descent but how could he be a priest how could he intercede on our behalf how can he ever live to intercede for me because he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek and this is an Old Testament promise an Old Testament truth and it's only answered in Jesus and it predates the Levitical priesthood and one of the messages that we get as we're doing Jesus in the Old Testament is this is not about us reading Jesus into the Old Testament it really

is kind of like saying guys the Old Testament doesn't make sense without Jesus it just doesn't make sense without him you have lots of passages where I don't even know what you're supposed to do with Melchizedek or the promise in some 110 without Jesus how do you answer this without him you don't alright verse 18 we're continuing Hebrew sevens a long chapter four on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness for the law made nothing perfect it was good the law was good it just couldn't fix you

it just pointed out your error but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God and it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such with an oath the Levites the air the ironic as well which is like a subdivision within the Levites verse 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him the Lord is sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever now I'm so pause for a second please

don't underestimate the incredible importance of seeing Jesus throughout the Old Testament you can't do this with Mohammed and I like when people try you can't do this with Joseph Smith remember what happened with Joseph Smith looked to find prophecies about himself in the Old Testament he added extra verses at the end of Genesis in order to make something there because it doesn't exist the the the passages because I Mike people can find anything they want in the Old Testament I'm like go ahead you find your proof text for whatever guy you want on song-song or

some other weird thing going on and I'll get my proof text for Jesus and let's compare the quality of those texts how's that sound you can't do this with anyone else in fact if Jesus isn't the Messiah then the truth is the Old Testament is just failed if he's not the Messiah the Messiah didn't come at all and it's over and the hope of mankind is is just gone but he is so verse 22 this makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant the one who guarantees it the former priests were many in number because

they were prevented by death from continuing in office which is something that prevents a lot of us from continuing but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever consequently he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them now sometimes we read this person we think Jesus is praying for me he's interceding for me it's a different kind of thing it's not that he's praying for you it's kind of better than that it's that his constant life his living life after

sacrificing for you is constantly making you close to God it's like the blood of the intercession of blood how can you draw near to God I'm living to intercede am i enough to bring you to God yes and Here I am always here always alive always interceding for you that's a powerful verse to remember for those who struggle with feeling condemned feeling beat up with feeling like you're how could I be forgiven I'm like in Jesus how could you not be forgiven really how on earth can you not be forgiven in Christ I don't see

how it's possible verse 26 for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest wholly innocent unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself for the law appoints men in their weaknesses or their weakness as high priests but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who's been made perfect forever

and this is where we could easily miss I think some of the points we should catch the word of the oath is that verse in Psalm 110 for right you're a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek that's the oath I have sworn and will not relent you're a priest that oath came after the law meaning after the Levitical laws already in place God promises some future priests why bother promising a future priest if the priests we have are enough do you see the insufficiency of the law is written into it so that we

would know it was temporary and that's the point there really means stuff man one of these days I'd love to actually do a full on teaching through the book of Hebrews like taking our time going through it on like Sunday nights or something like that and and maybe by then I'll figure out what to do with Hebrews six I hope I'll just get a guest teacher for that day I did last time so so the Melchizedek priesthoods better because it's eternal it's got better sacrifice it's got a better effect it's one time with a constant

effect that lasts forever instead of a bunch of guys rising up and dying and insufficient for actually perfecting you and all that sort of thing so in conclusion after I feel like I've just been going a mile a minute like remember those micro machine commercials that micro machine guy that would talk like super fast I feel like that's I've been doing it so I just knew how much I had to get through so our tools we got two things right one we have Melchizedek and all the incredible richness of theology the clarity on the-- Allah

who Jesus is and what he did for us when we see Melchizedek in Genesis 14 Psalm 110 and the explanation in Hebrews six and five and seven on the other side we get tools so that we can get better and better at finding Jesus in the Old Testament in the passages the New Testament doesn't specifically identify and that's what we're doing so here's what we're adding to our tool set in particular one thing that's really neat is names alone can be significant in finding types of Christ in the Old Testament I don't know how you

can argue with that point after finding out about Melchizedek his title even he's king of Salem like the town he's the king of ends up with having meaning as far as how it pictures Christ I think that's neat we also see something else it's not just Melchizedek king of Salem look at how many points where Melchizedek connects to Jesus he shows up he just he doesn't have a genealogy whether that's literal or if it's because the story has no genealogy so it's a picture of Christ whichever side you take on that so there's one point

no genealogy no mom or dad right no beginning event or end of days he's a priest and he's a king his name means king of righteousness he's the king of peace Abraham tithes to him he brings Abraham bread and wine and there's a promise that this priesthood will so like there's something hanging in the text that that leaves you with a question going how will this be fulfilled this Melchizedek Ian promised is priest forever so there's like 10 points of correspondence to Jesus in this story so the two tools I want to focus on is

names matter not that they always matter but they matter and to multiple points of Correspondence if you want to say this is a type of Christ it's probably going to need to correspond to Jesus in more than one way because God is able to do that so yeah so that's what I have for you guys today and I don't even know what we're gonna do next time because I haven't had time to think about that because I'm gonna be coming to Florida and they won't be doing this again for two weeks or three weeks well

if the Jesus in the Old Testament what we'll do the Q&A thing coming up soon so let's pray father God we're excited yeah we dipped our toes maybe even our whole legs into this topic of hook is a deck there's obviously more much more there in the theology of it and all that but it's exciting God to think that in Genesis with Abraham you have this priest show up who's a picture of Christ that ends up superseding the Levitical priesthood yet it's all Old Testament that's so exciting to us lord help us to see how

you have have embedded in the Old Testament more and more about Jesus and about who he is and what he would do help unveil our eyes so that in our reading of the Scriptures the Old Testament we see what you always intended for us to find in Jesus name Amen [Music]