Who Was Melchisadek & Why is He Important to Us?

someone sent an email and they said we've been studying Melchizedek all summer or in in the home groups of course I've been in 12 by 12 and I haven't been that but I do know John MacArthur study on Hebrews and they said could you relate Melchizedek to us non-jewish people why there's so much space I mean a whole chapter you know Hebrews 7 given to him so we'll talk about Melchizedek Melchizedek is only three times in the Bible and I guess they asked why is it so important for us non Jewish people to know about Melchizedek so whenever you're studying any topic in the scriptures I mean you just you do an analysis and kind of take apart the scriptures and you find that Melchizedek is only in three places in the scripture Genesis 14 Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7 now immediately my mind starts thinking about this Genesis 14 that's with Abraham was about 2000 BC Psalm 110 as David wrote it was about 1000 BC and Hebrews 7 is you know sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem so somewhere in the 60s ad so we're talking about one person that's talked about over a 2,000 plus year almost 20 100 year period of time in three different scriptures and and you start saying why would God in Hebrews 7 say so much about this this very mysterious figure so for just a second we won't go very long look at Genesis 14 with me and let's look at Melchizedek and I'll just tell you basically there are three views of who Melchizedek is one is that he's kind of like a good guy Balaam if you remember Balaam in Exodus 32 to 34 is the one that what we're going to see him in the church in Pergamos but he was the prophet for hire and and but he knew God and he knew the true and living God and he communicated with God he knew God's name he knew how to be in touch with God he was a bad guy well Melchizedek and Genesis 14 also knows God he knows him very well in fact he knows him and calls him by his name that that is one of his great names you know the the God Most High but but look you know the the whole battle of the Kings taking lot and and all that and Abraham pursuing him verse 14 as far as Dan but this is where it gets interesting in verse 18 Genesis 14 18 then out of the blue nowhere before mentioned Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine he was the priest of and there's that El Elyon name of God God Most High now remember every time a demon gets all fired up in the presence of Christ you remember what they say we know who you are your and they'll either use this title or another title they'll call you the Holy One of God or you are the the one of the Most High got this this seems to be a spirit world well-known title that that that the Lord is the Most High God and He blessed him and said verse 19 blessed be Abram of God most high and this now it describes this name of God possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand and he that's Abraham verse 20 at the end gave him that's Melchizedek a tithes of all now that that is very interesting now the kings of Sodom said to Abraham Abram give me the persons and take the goods for yourself but Abram said to the king of Sodom I have raised my hand to the Lord God Most High possessor of heaven on earth and I will take nothing but a thread nothing from a thread to a sandal strap that I will not take anything as yours lest you should say I've made Abraham rich and except only what the young men and he finishes off saying you know I don't want anybody to think that you helped Abraham God Most High did I mean that is a not a lot of stuff and from that first mention of both Jerusalem and Melchizedek we have in some 110 the Lord saying I swear that you're going to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek who was Melchizedek that's the question why would would this happen then the whole turn over to chapter 7 of Hebrews look at what it's talking about in Hebrews 7 and those of you this is familiar ground if you're in our home groups for Melchizedek seven one king of Salem priests the Most High God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings blessed him two may bruh ham gave a tenth part of all by the way you want to know something that's a little unnerving for all the you know people say we're not under the law we don't tithe this is before the law and then interesting Moses didn't invent tithing Abraham to show honor to God before there was any Mosaic law no diet no Sabbath day nothing Moses wrote all that down but this concept was was known before that to honor God you give him the tempt and so I always remember when I was talking with John MacArthur about this when I started out a newlywed you know struggling to live in Los Angeles is expensive it was and I said John what do you do and he says I don't want to be a legalist he said I don't ever want any legalism so I never give 10% he said I give 11 you want the average American gives the average church-going evangelical American 1% and they think that's huge for God as long as were on tithing whoever asked this question thanks for asking it I've been waiting for a long time to talk about this it's not like 10% belongs to God and I get the other 90% it's like a hundred percent belongs to God and my goal in life is not to see how much of the money God has richly given me I can spend but how much I can put at his disposal and to think of leveraging every dime so that I can have the largest home and the newest car is a very ungodly unbiblical thought it's American but it's not biblical the goal is not how much we can amass it's how much we can sacrificially show the lordship of Christ over in our lives so thanks whoever stuck this you know under my door to get me started on that but let's get back to Melchizedek who was he well basically he if you're in the study you know that he is a contrast we have the Aaronic priesthood and we have the Melchizedek e'en priesthood and if you know anything about Aaron it was hereditary you could just hereditary you could just be a priest as long as you're in the right family and as you know there was some rascals and there are some good ones and there were drunken children of Aaron that got burned up by the Lord and other things so and they will come to that with the Christian and alcohol but with Melchizedek it was very personal it shows that God picked him another thing about the ironic priesthood was these were just men and and basically that we're dying you know we all are dying Melchizedek is described as having neither beginning of days nor end of life he he is pictured as being timeless and and you know there's I mean you're doing this in the study you can do this but what Melchizedek is is it is a picture of what Christ will do like the ironic only dealt with Israel I mean they were only priests for the nation of Israel Melchizedek is a priest that the kings of Sodom are recognizing that Abraham the the one from Earth de caldas is talking to long before there was in Israel and so he is what we could call global or or international or whatever it's a worldwide priesthood and so why Melchizedek is so important is he becomes what we call a type of Christ that Christ would be a personal priest that he is an eternal priest that's what the whole goal of of Hebrews seven is he has an and a never ending priesthood that saves us the uttermost and he isn't just saving the Jews even though Jesus said salvation is of the Jews but he's also so loved the world and so you can do the rest of the study but I still haven't answered who was he and so there are three views of that and I will just briefly tell you what they are now tell you the one I like Melchizedek could be one of three things either he could be a good Balaam in other words some pagan that came to know the Lord and and knew access so he was kind of like a good priest that knew God but predates predates any revelation that's written down and that's a view of some we still don't know where Balaam came from Balaam Balaam knew how to get directly in touch with God which few people in the Bible knew so Balaam is a mystery the one thing about Balaam though is Balaam wanted to by his own words he says let me die the death of the righteous he says that but you know what he didn't want to live the life of the righteous and so Balaam is forever a picture of someone that's talked but didn't possess that he talked about God God was near in his mouth but far in his heart and as far as we know Balaam is going to be suffering the blackness of darkness forever eternal perdition because he wanted to die the death of the righteous without living the life of the righteous in other words a life of faith but so he was a good priest number two some say that he was a theophany Melchizedek was theophany if you ever heard of that word theo means god fond OSes in a bodily form or a christophany which is the same idea Chris das Christ in a body a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ and the reason they say that is because how could someone be the king of a Canaanite city like Salem and be godly because the Canaanites were so wicked remember Moses said the iniquity of the amorite says not yet full they were in fact when they excavate around Israel they hardly showed the people what they find it's so horrible the Canaanite culture they were baby murderers I mean they used to bury babies alive in jars when they built something they just put a living baby in there and seal it up and offer it to the gods I mean they were cold cruel heartless murderous their perversion sexually is is even makes Jewish archeologists blush they're so perverted the Canaanites as they excavate their stuff and so people say the Canaanites are so bad how could anybody but Christ be the king of Salem then there's a third view which i think is very interesting and that is for everybody on earth there would be three people that as it says here if you look back in verse 3 of Hebrews 7 without father without mother without genealogy 'he's having neither beginning of days nor end of life this would be someone that just kind of like they couldn't figure out like he lived longer than everybody else seems like he wasn't going to die and he kinda was old when people just started coming around and it's like like he's from somewhere else and there is there there is someone like that and his name is Shem if you think about it because Noah had three sons and those three were a hundred years old when they stepped off the ark so they were already old but after the ark after the flood of Noah people began living normal basic lifespans a little elongated but not really anything and Shem lived five hundred plus years if you read what it says in Genesis 11 and so here's what I mean Shem lived four hundred years after the flood that means that Shem would have been around for about a hundred and hundred and lots 100-plus years I don't have my chronology in front of me of Abraham's life so Shem easily could have lived in Jerusalem why because Japheth lived in Joppa you know you remember Shem ham and Japheth remember what they did if this is the Ark Japheth went down to Jaffa and his family became what we call the Europeans those are the Jew FIDIC tribes and if you're ever interested in this there's a guy named bill bill I'll think of it in a second he spent his whole lifetime he's a British guy he spent his whole lifetime studying the table of Nations that's in Genesis 10 Genesis 10 says that from the ark overspread the earth 70 families and it names every family and it gives a specific name you know the misra amande the catherine and the Luddites and blue all these you know 70 names and japheth family hams family they went south they became the equatorial people the hot country people they became you know Africa the coastal areas and hams descendents some of them actually went a little north and became the Canaanites and if you remember that's who know occurs then there's Shem and Shem is the Semitic people's the people of the Middle East Abraham was a descendant so it's very possible that Shem is what are the I mean Shem fits with the good priest and the theophany thing quite well because all of them we don't know but it's very interesting that if you do the chronology it appears that Shem died the same year as the hundred and twenty-seven year old Sarah died and so if you know anything about Abraham's life he must have really mourned that year because he lost possibly this person that knew God from before the flood and told him about you know Noah and Noah would have known all the way back I mean through his relatives would have known and heard of Adam and so this touch all the way to creation Shem would have brought all the way here to Abraham's life but this this book that's written is fascinating because this man bill whatever his name is his book is called after the flood that's the title after the flood if you want these people like to read intriguing stuff he spent 30 years of his life systematically going through the archives of Denmark of Scotland of England of Germany of Italy of Spain and then he went to the Middle East and he went through turkeys and Syria's and you know he spent and he finished this book in this I think in the 70s and he used to be sold by Institute of Creation Research because it's so fascinating what he found is every one of the 70 families that are listed in Genesis 10 every one of them you can find in the Royal archives of these countries exactly spelled the same now these people don't study the Bible they don't even believe the Bible and they don't even care what's in their archives but the earth is not as old and that we'll get up to this question here the earth is not as old as a lot of people think because xem most likely knew Abraham Shems dad most likely had first-hand accounts of Adam and it's very possible Shem was Melchizedek because he would have known the Lord and he would have appeared to be verse 3 he would have peered to be without father without mother without genealogy having neither beginning of life nor end of days but made like the Son of God so that's a possibility probably the one that that most theologians favor would be this middle one and then others are here and others are here but that's why Melchizedek is here to show the type of the perfection of Christ's priesthood but who he was this gives you an example of what theologians do when they have very little to work with Genesis 14 is only that long but if you do the math and there's no reason to believe that the Bible means anything other than it says that Shem lived after the flood about four hundred years and so he would have been synonymous with Abraham

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Keywords: john barnett, dtbm, Hebrews, biblical, melchisadek, melchizadek, old testament, god, jesus, old, oldest, man, live, life, story, bible, answers, questions, john, barnett, church, calvary, learning, teaching, fable, legend, demon, angels, spritual

Id: OYTyWsd78Yo

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2015