Getting Excited About Melchizedek (TGC 2011) by D.A. Carson

and so he says to me going down the stairs excite me Don so if you come out of here merely understanding Melchizedek and that's all it's a bit of a flop isn't it hear the word of God Psalm 110 Psalm 110 the chapter of the Old Testament that is quoted most often in the New Testament the Lord says to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies your troops will be willing on your day of battle arrayed in holy splendor your young men will come to you like Jew from the mornings womb the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek the Lord is at your right hand he will crush Kings on the day of his wrath he will judge the nation's heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth he will drink from a brook along the way and so he will lift up his head this is the word of the Lord let us pray and now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer for Jesus sake amen most of the controlling themes in the Bible do not resonate very well with the dominant secular culture of the West and for that matter with many other cultures as well think through many of the controlling categories covenant priests sacrifice blood offering Passover Messiah King Day of Atonement year of Jubilee I guarantee there are not a lot of people on the streets of Chicago asking themselves today boy I wonder when the year of Jubilee is coming King we speak of King Jesus when Jesus began to minister he did not announce the dawning of the Republic of God the last King we had here in America was King George the 3rd he didn't turn out too well and if instead we come from a Commonwealth country and we still have a lot of respect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second then nevertheless we recognize she is a constitutional monarch she has very little real power but the king of the Bible is not a constitutional monarch so even a notion that's common enough like King means something very different in our culture it has different resonances and meanwhile most of us are not thinking on the streets of Chicago hope my high priest is up to date and his repentance I when he offers that blood sacrifice this year I really feel the need for atonement and hope he does a good job in the most holy place that we we're not in those terms at all of course some exposure to priesthood is found amongst Roman Catholics and Episcopalians but that's pretty far removed from Levitical priesthood or Melchizedek Ian's priesthood yet Melchizedek turns out to be one of the most instructive figures in the entire Bible for helping us put our Bibles together and then beyond that not only helping us put our Bibles together but seeing clearly who Jesus is this is going to involve some hard mental work but I tell you the truth God has put these things together in the Bible in this way not only for our instruction but for our good Melchizedek shows up only two times in the Old Testament two little snippets one in Genesis 14 the other one is here and then he shows up in only one book in the New Testament that's it at several points but that's it and yet he turns out to be utterly revolutionary in in opening our eyes to the glories of our Savior we begin with Psalm 110 here we must ask two questions the first one will sound out of place Psalm hundred and ten who wrote it and you think Donn for goodness sake stay in the classroom in the classroom you ask a whole lot of questions about who wrote what and when it was written and those matters are called introduction and we burden our students with them and they have to pass exams on them just get us to the text and in many instances it doesn't make a lot of difference who wrote what but in this instance it makes a huge amount of distant difference so we have to ask the question and answer it in most of our English printed Bibles there's a little superscription you get in boldface Psalm 110 and then italics perhaps and and a little smaller font of David a psalm or something of that order but there are an awful lot of contemporary people who don't think that David wrote it they think that those superscriptions came in later supposing David didn't write it how would you read it if David didn't write it the Lord says to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet now it sounds as if the Lord Yahweh notice those capital letters the living covenant God Yahweh says to my lord apparently my lord the king in which case the person who's writing it is not the king but a quarter someone in the Kings Court there are a lot of Psalms written by a quarter so if we get rid of the superscription this was written by a courtier saying the Lord says to my lord the King sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool and then it sounds quite a lot like song two and other Psalms that are royal and Davidic and promised conquest over the enemies and so on but the superscription won't go away of them various manuscripts that have come down to us not one leaves it out in fact in our printed Bibles we have a little italicized font for up David and then bigger font for the song but of course they didn't have different fonts in those days they didn't have printing and so in all the manuscripts that have come down to us it's part of the song it it is not to be seen as an add-on that came along later it is part of the psalm it was counted as part of the song but if those were not arguments enough in this instance we rely on the words of the Lord Jesus himself for the validity of one of Christ's arguments turns on the Davidic authorship of this song you can find it in both Matthew and Mark in Mark's version of the account mark chapter 12 we read while Jesus was teaching in the temple courts mark 12 35 he asked why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David David himself speaking by the spirit declared the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet David himself calls him Lord how then can he be his son the large crowd listened to him with delight the point is if David has written this it's not a quarter addressing the king but David the king is actually writing the Lord said to my lord and then to whom does my Lord refer it can't be David he's not talking about himself and so the conclusion is drawn he must be talking to someone yet greater to whom does King David say my lord apart from Yahweh himself the Lord says to my lord the conclusion is drawn this has to be the anticipated Messiah it has to be and Jesus himself takes it that way in fact Jesus says you're used to thinking of the Messiah as the son of David and in one sense of course he is the son of David Jesus doesn't deny that but if he's just the son of David then in the order of thinking of the day that that would make you ultimately inferior to David we don't understand that well in the West because because we think that the really important people are the young people and of course in a sense that's true but in many cultures of the world the really important people are the older people so I am always of less honor than my father who is of less honor than his father was a less honor than his father and that means great David's greater son can't be greater he's got to be somewhat inferior down there if you think of Jesus as only David's son and nothing else you've got too small of Jesus but if you have in fact David himself anticipating this person coming saying the Lord said to my lord then you've got a picture of Messiahship that escapes mere sonship to David as important as that sonship is in fulfilling the promise of the Davidic line so we have to see that this Psalm is talking about the Messiah it's talking about Jesus it's talking about the one who was to come written about a thousand years before Christ during the time of David now that date is important I'm not just throwing it out there because you know I'm paid to do it I'm a professor it's important hang on to it so now we must ask what then does the psalm say that's the second question if you look at it closely it's divided into two Oracle's and after each Oracle there is comment and explanation the first Oracle is found in verse one the Lord says to my lord then Oracle sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet the second Oracle verse for the Lord is sworn and will not change his mind then the words of the Oracle you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek now let's take those Oracle's one by one the Lord says to my lord the exact words pick up an expression that is very common in the prophets especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel literally Yahweh's reference to my Lord that's the way it literally reads a very common prophetic declaration which is a way of saying that David here is functioning as a prophet did David is the one who is declaring what God is saying now to the one whom David himself refers to as my Lord and what he says is sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet that little expression sit at my right hand do you have any idea how often it's quoted in the New Testament it comes up again and again listen to some of the inferences that the New Testament writers draw just from this little expression here is Yahweh the great sovereign creator covenant god addressing the Messiah and saying sit at my right hand what do we infer from that number one he is greater than David acts 234 for David did not ascend into heaven but he ascends into heaven and sits at God's right hand number two he is greater than angels Hebrews 1:13 for to which of the Angels has he said sit at my right hand there is no other mediating person that sits at the right hand of God number three he is exalted to God's side as one author has put it God exalted him as emphatically as man rejected him again Acts 5 30 and 31 Jesus whom you killed God exalted at his right hand number 4 his session his seat is being seated at the right hand of God grounds his intercession for Romans 8:34 Acts 531 Christ who is at the right hand of God and who intercedes for us number five his session his being seated at the right hand of God signals the completion of his sacrifice Hebrews 10 every Levitical priest stands daily offering sacrifices repeatedly but Christ sat down at the right hand of God it signaled that his cross work was utterly finished the sacrifice of Christ does not have to be repeated number six he awaits the ultimate conquest and surrender of his enemies Hebrews 10 he sits to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet you pick up the stool language as well here do you see all inferring things about the Messiah from this one little phrase in Psalm 110 and after that phrase sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet that is what is envisaged here is conquest his active controlling confrontation of the enemies and God Himself is going to do it now that the sacrifice has been paid all of God's people we are told will be so transformed that they will serve willingly in messiahs Army the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies this is an astonishing passage it's not simply that that God confronts the enemies all by himself somehow he's calling together messiahs army and and makes them willing to do his bidding here you have an anticipation of the transformation that comes about in the gospel God's people become willing of the day of his power on the day of his judgement when he wants to use them well he makes them willing he transforms them and and that is part of what we mean is it not by regeneration and conversion so that our hearts now want to do his bidding when at one time we wanted to do only our own his troops become willing on the day of his power which already is telling you something about the strange nature of this army the strange nature of this service you find the same sort of overtone in a different context a more military context in judges 5-2 when the princes of Israel take the lead when the people willingly offer themselves praise the Lord so here we have a picture of the rulers of Israel operating and justice taking the lead against the enemies and and the people follow them willingly here now the Messiah at God's right hand displaying his power now so transforms his people in the day of this power that they willingly follow him and constitute the Lord's army as the enemies themselves are pushed back that's the vision the last part of verse 3 the text is translated in a lot of different ways I'm not going to go through those debates it sounds to me however as if it envisages a splendid army of the young arising freshly silently and in holy splendor to do their master's bidding arrayed in holy splendor your young men will come to you like jew from the morning's womb that's the first oracle the second oracle still is address to the messiah or the sequence of thought makes no sense the lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever it's still being addressed to the Messiah you are priest forever in the order of Melchizedek now we'll return to this verse in a few moments but on first reading it is staggeringly out of place after all according to the law of Moses which had been given some centuries earlier before a thousand BC a priest couldn't be a king and a king couldn't be a priest in fact the first king of the United Monarchy saw himself was destroyed by God himself because he tried to mingle those two roles David certainly understood that so what does David do doing now envisaging a messiah who is transparently the king the king from Jerusalem the king and David's line now being a priest regardless of the order it really does seem very strange and then Melchizedek what is he doing here what is going on in David's mind as he writes this I will come back to that in a moment look at the commentary that follows first and you get another slight shock once you've seen the two Oracle's and the two commentaries then you expect Oracle one all about the king then some comment on his reign and his ruling this confrontation of the enemies Oracle number two all about the priests so you would expect some commentary on the priesthood that's how much again what you get is more commentary on the kingship on the rule look at the words the Lord is at your right hand he will crush Kings on the day of his wrath he will judge the nation's heaping up the dead crushing rulers of the whole earth he will drink from a brook along the way so he will lift up his head you are really in the domain still of kingship and ruling and authority and confrontation and war in fact here the enthronement of the priest King his session at the right hand of God is therefore not the final setting but the prelude to world conquest and now look closely Yahweh and his Messiah act as one on the one hand verse 5 the Lord is at your right hand he will crush kings of the day of his wrath he will judge the nations he's also this human figure who drinks from a book along the way so he will lift up his head he here is here is God bringing about conquest but somehow doing it through this human figure who takes a drink along the way you know what the closest New Testament language to this passage is revelation especially chapter 19 for here you have moved from Hebrews and Melchizedek to the apocalypse and destruction revelation 19:11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true with justice he judges and makes war his eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns he has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself he is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the word of God the armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen white and clean coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nation's he will rule them with an iron scepter he treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty on his robe and on his thigh he has this name written king of kings and Lord of lords we have moved from the Melchizedek Ian's vision of a priest in Hebrews to ultimate consummation in conquest and judgment but what that does is make verse 4 the second Oracle all the stranger because because not only are we mingling priest and King but even after we've introduced the priests which seems strange enough we don't treat it so what is going on in David's head what is he thinking about I thought about that one for a long time and for a long time I think I got it wrong the fact of the matter is that inspiration in the Bible is by many modes sometimes it's by Rek direct dictation the God gives the words to Jeremiah Jeremiah dictates them to battle paddock writes them down that that's why when the ending enemies come along and pick up the scroll and start ripping it up you the reader are supposed to be laughing did you know this came from God you really think God's forgotten it I mean battle might not be able to get it down again and Jeremiah may have forgotten a few lines here and there but but but this was dictated by fight by God you're supposed to give a belly laughing you don't have to wipe it disclaim God's mental disks never get wiped clean so here the enemies trying to destroy the Word of God God has God forgotten oh well all he does is give it to Jeremiah in Jeremiah dictates of the bat who vow to cuss to write it all down the only person who comes out does a loser on this one is baddack because he got to write it all down again but you're not gonna lose the Word of God in this case you have inspiration by direct copying do you see by direct dictation and sometimes it's by vision and word that the agent the human agent himself does not even understand think Daniel Daniel asks what one of his visions mean and God says frankly Daniel none of your business just seal seal up the book and it'll you get sorted out later he's he's a he's a transcriber he's a witness but he doesn't understand the text says so on the other hand you're not supposed to think of David coming in one night you know from long session with his counselors time to go to bed this has been tough day and he stretches out and then a voice comes to not yet David I got another song for you to write take out your quill pen so he takes out his quill pen already ready the Lord the Lord is my shepherd is my shepherd I shall not want I shall not want he makes me its no way Psalm 23 was written that way he writes out of the fullness of his heart of his own experience he writes out of the overflow of creativity and his knowledge of the Living God and his own background and experience in in in the shepherd fields around Bethlehem but borne along by the Spirit of God so superintended by the sovereignty of God the words that come out are David's words and they are the Word of God that's another mode of inspiration do you see and one could easily mention several more so what's going on here is David writing down these words and saying well I don't have a clue what verse 4 means but it's going down do you see well it's possible yeah I just couldn't figure out how to read verse four in such a way that David could actually be making sense of it so I I thought this can't be a psalm 23 sort of thing it looks a bit more like a Daniel thing to me although it's not in an apocalyptic framework like like Daniel what do you do with this and so for a long time I thought it was one of those relatively rare places in the Bible where it seems as if the human authors themselves don't really have much of a clue about what's going on but I've changed my mind I think David got this in very substantial measure out of his devotions after all Deuteronomy 17 says that what the Kings are supposed to do when they come to power is a copy of the book of the law and and and make a nice clean copy there were no photocopy machines in those days and make it a nice clean copy because that copy was supposed to be there reading copy which they were then supposed to read every day for the rest of their lives so they would not swerve from from the law to the left or the right but but but they would know the Lord God they would please him and they would not think of themselves too highly that was what what what the Kings were supposed to do and although there were many many kings who didn't do it David at his best was certainly doing this sort of thing some of them were probably semi-literate but David was the sweet psalmist of Israel he had a decent education behind him so he was having his devotions out of the Word of God now remember the account of David he begins his reign in Hobart on down on the south just over the bottom two tribes after seven years he takes Jerusalem and becomes king over the twelve tribes so he's moved to Jerusalem 2 samuel 6 says that once he's in jerusalem then the tabernacle is moved to jerusalem and 2 Samuel 7 establishes the Davidic dynasty that he hear that concatenation of things the tabernacle and thus the entire priestly system in Jerusalem for the first time in the same place as the king and the king in Jerusalem Jerusalem and now there is David having his devotions and he comes to Genesis 14 so now we turn to Genesis 14 and try to think through what David read Genesis 14 that's the first time the Melchizedek figure appears let me remind you of the context there were four we're told Kings now by Kings you're not supposed to think Charles the third or Queen Elizabeth the second you're really thinking of small-town mayor a lot of so-called cities in the ancient world had five thousand people a big one was ten or fifteen thousand it was only really really really really big ones that went to two hundred thousand or this little thing so these are small town mayor's they're kings of these these communities and they make armies that are really little raiding parties and four of these get together under Kate early homer and they start these raiding parties that go all over the place and eventually they're moving farther south and farther south until they're coming into the area where Abraham lives and eventually he attacks the king of Sodom sodom and the king of gomorrah who themselves are allied with three others so now there are five kings there four kings against five kings and there's a nasty battle in the Tar Pits and so on and and the four under Kate early homework they win and what they do then is steal the women and children steal the cattle kill as many of the men as possible and take off beating it back up toward the north then we're told verse 13 a man who had escaped Kate came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew now Abram himself was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite who was also apparently as a small small town mayor King if you like a brother of s Colin an heir so Abram allies himself with him now it's Abram and these three and they go after this raiding party that's what we're told we're told that Abram heard that his relative lot who had been in Sodom had been taken captive so he called out the 318 trained men born in his household now again trained men they're not trained with RPGs they're not they're not trained with the latest in martial arts technique means there I've got a son who's a Marine I punched him in the shoulder a couple of years ago he's trained in the martial arts and I don't know how many weapons he put his big arm around my shoulder and he said dad do you have any idea how many ways I could kill you with my bare hands I don't punch him in the shoulder anymore they weren't trained in that sense you see they were fit they could do some stick fighting maybe the odd sword or two but they take off you see with whatever numbers came along from the other three and they pursue the others as far as dead now that's something like 120 hundred thirty miles to the north so these guys are really moving they're pushing pushing pushing but picking up things on the way but they're fit they can run walk run walk all the way up there and that they confront them during the night Abram then divides his men he attacks them he pursues them as far as Hoba north of damascus not just to damascus but north of that because that's the way a lot of those those fights went is not that they draw battle lines like World War one trench warfare mm room I'll and lob howitzer shells at each others that that's not what's going on there's a big clash and then one side is losing they start to run the other side keeps chasing and chasing and chasing and chasing and they go another hundred kilometers or so that's what happens and as they're doing so they're picking up they're picking up the the game they're picking up the material it had been stolen they're they're picking up the Y's that are being left behind and so on until they're really not a threat anymore and they collected all that they're going to collect and they start the long trek back 17 after Abram returned from defeating Kate early Omer and the Kings allied with him the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of shaveh that is the King's Valley skip 18 19 20 then the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the people and keep the goods for yourself he wasn't being generous that's the way it was done that is the reward for these mercenary groups was in fact the booty and you just get the people back but the booty Abram had every right to keep Psalms not being generous he's just following the custom of the day but Abram said to the king of Sodom with raised hand I have sworn an oath to Lord God most high creator of heaven and earth that I will accept nothing belonging to you not even a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you will never be able to say I made Abram rich I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me to Anna Ashkelon family let them have their share so if you skip verses 18 19 20 the account the account is entirely coherent we don't need verses 18 19 20 just as the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110 seems a bit anomalous what's it doing there the mention of Melchizedek in 1890 20 is already anomalous what's that doing there but in fact not only is it there it actually breaks up the account of the interchange between Sodom and Abram have you noticed that verse 17 Abram returned the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of shaveh and then you'd want to read on and the king of Sodom said to him but breaking it up we read then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was priest of God Most High and he blessed Abram saying blessed be Abram by God most high creator of heaven and earth and praise be to God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand then Abram gave him a tenth of everything now what should we learn from this from the most immediate context Melchizedek clearly is a foil to Sodom Abram won't have anything to do with Sodom doesn't want anything from him won't receive anything from won't give anything to him it's there's a coldness he Sodom represents part of the wickedness of the valleys but Melchizedek is in another order his name itself is significant as so often in the Old Testament it means quite literally king of righteousness the melk root means king the Zedeck is from za vac it means right he's king of righteous that's what his name means your majesty king of righteousness so he's the king whose name is king of righteousness at the same time we're told that he rules over Salem he's the king of Salem now in Hebrew your work by the consonants SLM SLM those are the same consonants as Shalom which all of us know about in one context it can just mean hi but more richly Shalom refers to well being well being with God well being with with human beings well being in the richest sense of human flourishing but undoubtedly this was the town of sailin there were lots lots of towns of salem in the ancient Near East it was a pretty common name and the chances are very high they're not 100% but the chances are very good since this is the area in which Abram is living at the time that this is Giroux say let there were lots of Salem's salem here salem there this was jerusalem apparently he was king of jerusalem not whether he was jerusalem king or just Salem's king i don't know but he was king of peace in terms of what the word means and geographically apparently king of jerusalem and his name in his king of righteousness he brings out bread and wine this is the only detail in these three verses that is not picked up in the New Testament it's not picked up in terms of Eucharistic symbolism or anything like that the only detail is not picked up and in fact there is no Eucharistic symbolism here he brings out bread which was the staple of the time and wine in those days wine was cut with water between three parts to one and ten parts to one it was a common table drink these poor chaps are famished and hungry and thirsty after their long trek back and he meets them with huge supplies as as he is able to provide food and nourishment for these troops that have come back bringing all the booty with him he was priest of God Most High now when Abram speaks of God verse 22 he says I have sworn an oath to the Lord to Yahweh God Most High the Covenant name for God creator of heaven and earth but Melchizedek doesn't mention any of this covenantal association he was a priest of God Most High and He blessed Abraham saying blessed be Abram by God most hi creator of heaven and earth which is exactly what then Abram picks up on when he speaks about God and praise be to God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand this is not finally in the last analysis your military prowess and the fitness of your 318 this is the work of God then Abram gave him a tenth of everything that's all that's it but if you're a good reader you have to start scratching your head and saying okay just within the context of Genesis what's going on here this is really strange it breaks up the account with what's it contributing not only so but everybody who is anybody in Genesis everybody who is enemy anybody is connected genealogically to other people so so long so begot so-and-so lived so many years and then he died someone so lived so many years begat so and so then it of so many years and then he died or alternatively can flip it the other way he was the son of someone so it was the son of so-and-so was Zeff and I we found this morning was the the son of three or four back just to identify him do you see this chap pops up disappears and there's no mummy there's no daddy and there's no genealogy now there are a few others in the book of Genesis without any mention of their genealogy but but at least they have the decency not to be important so you don't raise any questions but this one is so important that Abram actually pays him a 10 he pays him a time and he receives a blessing from him it's as if Abram himself vast landowner that he is rich man that he is impressive figure that he cuts nevertheless is is receiving a blessing for them he recognizes him as a superior so what's going on in the history of the church there have been two explanations for the figure of Melchizedek one is that this is a pre incarnate visitation of Jesus that is before you have the god man Jesus of Nazareth the eternal Sun appears in bodily form as it were an incarnation before the Incarnation and this is Melchizedek so Jesus is here on that reading explicitly in the Old Testament I'm sure there are many many Christians in this room who think that that's what's going on here it's possible if you want to hold that I won't criticize and in fact nothing in my argument till the rest of this sermon depends on saying that you're wrong and I think you're wrong that is there is no direct hint that this is a divine figure in this context at all and and interestingly he does not use the name of Yahweh what why should we think that Abram was the only person in the entire ancient Near East who believed there was only one God you know what that far removed from the judgments of the flood and Babel and so on there had to be some memory here and there so there were pagan kings around who did all kinds of ridiculous and cruel things why shouldn't there be a king or two around who acknowledged God most high creator of heaven and earth in which case Abram may well have found in him a rather sympathetic figure he may have become more intimately tied with him than he was with mamrie and Anna and h-dog and and so when he receives some supplies from him he pays him Jew homage now the passage is still strange because there's nothing said about this milk is a day that's not accidental God is putting this pea passage together for our learning but there are two other indications that make me think this really is unlikely to be a pre-incarnate presentation of Jesus although we'll see he points to Jesus one indication is found in some hundred and ten the other indication is found in Hebrew seven if this really is an incarnation of the second person of the Godhead that is the way we're supposed to read the text then the verse that we read in Psalm 110 verse 4 is more than passing strange the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a pre forever in the order of melchizedek why does it just say he is Melchizedek why doesn't he just say you are a priest forever you are indeed Melchizedek but that would solve the problem but but instead he's a priest in the order of Melchizedek milk is adeg provides something of a model here now what's going on in David's head don't forget he has succeeded Saul just a few years earlier and he knows that Saul has been bumped off because he tried to be a priest King David's not going to make that mistake and now he's having his devotions and as he's having his devotions he reads Genesis 14 and he discovers what there is a priest King what what's going on but there can't be anything intrinsically wicked about being a priest king that can't be even Abraham recognized Melchizedek as the priest King paid him homage receive blessing from him David knows that he can't be a priest King but that can't be anything intrinsically wicked about that now David knows that Abraham lived about 2,000 BC he didn't use BC in those days but nevertheless Abram lived about a thousand BC and then the law came and in the in the in the 500 years or so before David and and the law established you can't be priests and you can't be king that's absolute well if I wasn't there of course when Abram was around but it's now absolute in David's day he understands that but he can't help thinking as he's having his devotions that maybe someday we'll have a priest king again because there is this enigmatic figure Melchizedek superior to Abraham who sets off the entire covenantal race who is priest king priest king of God most high creator of heaven and earth and by whatever in sight beyond that the Holy Spirit carries him along and he picks up his tenth pen and he says the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind this King at God's right hand is also priest King you are a priest forever not in the order of Lavetta Leviticus that brings you back to Saul he get bumped off for that you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek and then that text hangs there for another thousand years it just hangs there when I say it hangs there that were in fact lots of speculations in various Jewish sources that are just before Christ none of them come close to the clarity of thought of Hebrews but now we do come to hebrews hebrews chapter 7 Melchizedek is mentioned in other chapters but we'll focus our attention on these verses the book of Hebrews is often said to distort the Old Testament when it quotes it twists things around gets them wrong listen to what the text says that this is serious exegesis it is reading what is there in the text this smell kiss addict was king of Salem well that's that's those are the facts that's what the text says and priest of God Most High well that's what Genesis 14 says he met Abram returning from the defeat of the Kings and blessed him that's what the text says that Abram gave him a tenth of everything now you start getting the exegesis that's just the summary of the text now the exegesis first the named Melchizedek means king of righteousness that works in Hebrew so although this is written by a Greek speaking writer with remarkable flourish we we can't be sure who the author is nevertheless he he thinks that the Hebrew name is important it is theologically significant and he knows that in Hebrew the named Melchizedek means king of righteousness and he spells it out then also he is king of Salem that's what the text says which means king of peace without father or mother so far as the text goes without genealogy that's the point without beginning of days or end of life so far as the text goes he is like the son of God like the son of God he remains a priest forever now of course if he really is the son of God he remains a priest forever because he is the eternal son of God but what the author is saying is there is theological wait theological significance in what is left out now arguments of silence can be very weak but an argument for silence is very strong if you're expecting noise read Sherlock Holmes the dog that barked in the night the point is the dog didn't bark in the night this dog always barks where there's a stranger around somebody came in and did something in the house the dog didn't bark the silence is significant because this dog always barks with her strangers therefore it had to be somebody was known to the dog do you see so the fact that there's no genealogy there's no mention mother or father that's neither here nor there on some orders but if everybody who's significant in the book does have a genealogy and now suddenly you don't have any genealogy and he's even more important than Abram he slipped in there then you have to draw some inferences and the author is saying as God has given us this account there is weight to the fact that there is no father no mother no genealogy as far as the record goes no beginning of life no end of days after all earlier on there are lots of beginnings of life and end of days so-and-so was born he lived so many years he produced so and so then he died so once oak was born he lived so many years produces hope and he died so once I was born he lived so many years produce tones with any beginning of life and end of days this chap he shows up he disappears and thus he is like an eternal priest who lives forever so if you want to hold it this is a pre incarnate appearance of the eternal son I'm not going to enter an argument with you but I don't think that it's necessary to go down that route I think what you're seeing is what you often see in the Old Testament patterns and institutions and people put in place with all kinds of symbol Laden structures around them that are pointing forward pointing forward pointing forward until you come to the reality itself now listen further to the exegesis just think how great he was even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder now the law that is the law of Moses which comes after all more than half a millennium after Abram here it requires the descendants of liebe Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people that is from their kindred even though their kindred are descended from Abraham the Lee veidt's the ultimate grant children of Abraham were authorized by the law given a millennium little less than a millennium few quarters of millennium after Abraham it authorized them to collect ties but this man however did not trace his descent from Levi he was even before Abraham yet he collected a tenth from a rim and blessed him who had the promises and without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater so all of this argumentation is used to show just how important Melchizedek is all of that is straightforward exegesis and then we come to a big jump this one is huge when we start talking about how do you preach Christ from the Old Testament one of the ways into that sort of discussion is start examining how the New Testament quotes the old so you start from the back end and see how the New Testament actually quotes the old and you discover it does so in a huge diversity of way sometimes by analogy sometimes by direct to prediction sometimes word association games sometimes common theá-- loud theological themes and so on sometimes by something we call typology that is where there is a pattern an institution a person place thing that gets repeated and repeated and ratcheted up and repeat it and ratchet it up and repeat it and ratchet it up until you're taught to expect that there is something bigger that brings it to a climax and then the fulfillment of that typology is the antitype and it always ends up with Christ in one fashion or another related to him this one's different again this one's different again it shows up half a dozen times in the Bible and hinted at in other places but this way of quoting the Old Testament is spectacularly insightful I'm going to get at this one through the side door if you were a conservative first century Jew and you were asked the question how do you please God how would you answer go file being the law how did Daniel police go he obeyed the law how did David police got he obeyed the law how did I sigh oh please he obeyed the law how did Abraham please God he obeyed the law oh wait a minute Abraham didn't have the law that was before the law oh yes but Genesis says that do you obeyed all my statutes he must have had a private revelation of the law he must have because it says he obeyed all of God's statutes how did he not please God oh you bade the law no wait a minute he was only seventh from front from Adam I mean you he doesn't have the law of you don't even have Abraham yeah they do that's really desperately anachronistic yes but the text says that he walked with God and that's common language after the giving of the law for for for obeying the law so undoubtedly Enoch if he was to please God he he had to obey the law did you do see don't don't you understand now what are you doing by this kind of reading of the Old Testament what you're really doing is elevating the law to be the hermeneutical control over the entire text so now you have taken away the steps of progress in history and all you've got instead is the law controlling things in an a temporal sort of way do you see that then you come to the New Testament writers Paul almost certainly would have interpreted the Old Testament account the way I've just described to you before he became a Christian but now he's a Christian and when Paul becomes a Christian he sees that sequence is important reread Galatians three the promise came before the law and the law Canton all the promise Abraham was justified by faith before the giving of the law that is a grounding that is established before the law comes that's a sequential reading of the Old Testament and first century conservative Palestinian Jews just didn't do that in other words the sequence of the account was really important for the Apostle to authorize that the gospel saves people by faith now you see something else of the same sort here look at the argument in verse 11 if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood now skip the next bit that's that's a parenthesis we'll come to it in a moment if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood that came through the law do you see why was there still need for another priest to come when in order of melchizedek not in the order of Aaron do you see what the author is saying if the ultimate priesthood was the Levitical priesthood and the law of Moses was final then why on earth is David saying what he's saying centuries after the law was given you start announcing who's gonna be priests in the order of Melchizedek you're really saying implicitly that the Levitical priesthood somehow isn't good enough it's not going to cut it it's got to be eclipsed so a thousand years before Jesus comes already David's Psalm is saying in effect we have to have more than a vertical priesthood it's not enough it's an implicit announcement of the need for something that outstrips that priesthood then watch how the argument goes when the priesthood is changed the law must be changed also go back to that little paren thick a bit that I left out in verse 11 if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood and the law and the priesthood are so tied together one establishing the other that if you take one away then the other one's gone too now sometimes we we think of the law as moral civil ceremonial law that's a common breakdown it's got all kinds of utilitarian value to it but what we tend to do with it is to say and the civil law is not all that important and the sacrificial law is not all that important the moral law is the really important thing and that means we meditate on on Exodus 20 because that's the Ten Commandments and we sort of skim through Leviticus but this text says you pull the priesthood out you change the whole law covenant that whole law covenant is principally obsolete as soon as you start announcing the obsolescence of the of the Levitical priesthood you're announcing the obsolescence of the covenant that's the very argument that is picked up in chapter 8 of this book here you have in David's time a structure of thought progress from Abraham with this vague figure of Melchizedek then the giving of the law that says you can't have priests and covenant then David after that saying yeah but we are going to have a priest who is a priest King you can't have priests in and King now you will have a priest king in the order of Melchizedek which makes this one in principle obsolete and now the writer is saying we do have a priest King not from the tribe of Levi that would be illegitimate from the tribe of Judah and that entire Old Covenant that law covenant is already announced as obsolete a new covenant is already announced in principle a thousand years before the coming of Jesus so we read he of whom these things are said verse 13 belonged to a different tribe and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar that's Jesus who came from the tribe of Judah verse 14 explains it it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry that's what the Levites were they had to have the right mummy and daddy they had to go back to Zadok before that all the way to Aaron you couldn't be a high priest unless you had the right mummy and daddy was a regulation as to ancestry but there is no ancestry in the historical figure of Melchizedek and Jesus ancestry according to the flesh you Joseph Joseph according to the flesh yes easy son of Mary but but his ultimate ancestry is grounded in the god of eternity without father without mother for it is declared you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek and there is Psalm 110 the former regulation that is the regulation about Levitical priests is set aside because it was weak and useless for the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God and it wasn't without an oath others became priests without a note that is when you became a priest in the Levitical system no oath was taken but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever because of this oath Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant and then pastoral implications spelled O because he lives forever verse 25 he is able to save completely those to come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them let me draw this to a close I've spent an undue amount of time explaining how these passages work because I want you to see that the New Testament authors are actually reading the Old Testament carefully and even observing their historical sequence in order to draw inferences that really can't easily be refuted you announce the coming of a priest king after God himself has said there must not be a priest King on the basis of a figure that shows up before that covenant and you are saying that that covenant that forbids it has got to be obsolete he's got to be temporary and that means that when we're looking for is not only the Davidic Messiah the kingly ruler he is also the priest we need to learn to admire to see to understand to follow the traces of the wisdom of God in putting together the whole Canon in these long trajectories that bring us on axis after axis after access to Jesus I followed one that is in three passages and has taken me an hour but but you can follow similar trajectories regarding the temple and regarding Passover and regarding Yom Kippur you can follow similar trajectories on rest themes and Sabbath you can follow similar trajectories on on day of Jubilee you can follow similar trajectories on the twelve tribes on the city of Jerusalem itself and and all of these lines can be tracked out tracked out tracked out you work hard at the New Testament handling of the Old Testament and you will discover how to preach the Old Testament because these New Testament passages are themselves showing these are the trajectories that God Himself has put in place and they point forward and they bring you to Jesus I'm telling you this not because anything I have said is clever it's not it's right there on the surface of the text but to give you confidence to read the Word of God listen to it carefully Pro and discover for yourself how the New Testament writers themselves read the Old Testament then go and do likewise but I want to end with one more observation beyond all of that you see I have focused a disproportionate amount of time as I've said on other mechanics of it how it actually works how it's handled together but you must see the theological payoff we have a savior who is not only the king the promised king who rules over our lives who confronts the enemies of God who brings in the consummation of which Mike Bulmer was speaking so eloquently a little earlier he is the king he is the Conqueror and we are to bow in submission to his kingship but he's also the priest if he's just a king we live in terror that's it but he's also the priest he's the perfect mediator between God and human beings because He is God in his human being he exactly takes up all the functions and purposes of the Old Testament priests but he outstrips them in one huge particular he never sinned the author goes on to talk about that here that's why he's an even better high priest than they were because because they had to offer sacrifices for their own sense moreover the sacrifices that they offered does the blood of a bull and goat actually have some sort of intrinsic moral value does that make sense the Bullock is not saying here's my throat go ahead and slit it I'm dying for you in that sense it's a a morally useless sacrifice and what does it mean to take the blood of a goat substitute it for the blood of a human being of it it doesn't make sense it it's pointing forward to something else but this one this one the Lamb of God wonderful beautiful Savior precious Redeemer and friend who would have thought that a man that al-ayn could ransom the souls of men what a lamb this one is he's priest then he turns out to be the sacrifice and he's the temple he's the place where human beings meet the holy God he's the temple he's the priest he's the lamb his body is the veil again and again and again he takes all of these strands into himself and we come to the New Testament text and our eyes see how the Old Testament patterns and God's perfect wisdom have anticipated all of this and we come before the fulfillment and we bow and we worship because God knows I need a king to subdue me and to bring in the consummation I need a priest to offer up himself as the supreme sacrifice or I am undone a perfect priest one of our kind a human being who is nevertheless one with God ultimately without mother without father in the most ultimate sense the everlasting of days this is the Jesus of the gospel we proclaim let us bow in prayer before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea a great High Priest whose name is love who strongly pleads for me Oh Lord God we do not want to make the reading of the Old Testament a merely cerebral exercise but we do want to understand what your word says that we may draw near in confidence to Christ Jesus our beloved king our priest made for us everything we need and we find confidence in in open our eyes that we may see and in seeing believe and in believing obey for Jesus sake amen you

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Length: 61min 53sec (3713 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2011