Who was Melchisedec?

The King James Bible Church
HARLEY HITCHCOCK
PO Box 310 Mt Ommaney,
Australia 4074

“Who was Melchisedec?”

 ¹  For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

²  To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

³  Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

⁴  Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. (Heb 7:1-4)

 
THE KEY
The key to understanding who Melchisedec was, is to be found in the last chapter of the epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews, where God says

Melchisedec was an angel sent by God, given the physical form of a man and assigned the specific task of accepting tithes from Abram the Hebrew (Gen 14:13, 20)

 
THE JEW AND ANGELS
From the beginning of creation, the appearance of heavenly beings on earth have been numerous.

To name a few, we see that after the creation week, Satan is cast from heaven and inhabits the serpent in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:1).

Also, we have the sons of God, having human form and taking wives (Gen 6:2); in addition there is Joshua by Jericho seeing a man with a drawn sword, the captain of the host of the LORD (Josh 5:13-15); and the two angels at Sodom (Gen 19).

Lastly, the Lord uses an animal, an ass, to speak to Balaam (Num 22:28) if he so desires.

Now, for the Hebrew, the sudden manifestation of angelic beings in human form was not an uncommon occurrence. Both Jew and non-Jew alike, accepted the fact that God would guide and assist men in their earthly endeavours, by sending the heavenly help of angels in human form.

And of course today, we are not to be surprised at this, as Jesus, God himself, was manifest (1Tim 3:16), with God as a Spirit (Jn 4:24) taking on the form of a man.

 TWO NAMES

Now, Jesus Christ has the two names of the Son of God and the Son of man – the non-physcial becoming physical. Now unlike Jesus who had a mother (Matt 1:18), Melchisedec

                        

appears on earth, seemingly out of nowhere, and having by-passed a physical birth as he is without mother (Heb 7:3).

 Although a man, no reference is made to his being a son of man. Not having a mother, he cannot be called a son of man unlike Daniel (Dan 8:17) and Ezekiel (Ezek 2:6) for example.

    LIKE THE SON OF GOD

There is another Bible instance where God gives an angel a form like the Son of God. In Nebuchadnezzar’s fire, a man appears with Shadrach and his two companions such that “… the form of the fourth man is like the Son of God…” (Dan 3:25). Now, despite what many commentators will say, this appearance was not Jesus but a man like ‘him’.

So both this fourth man and Melchesidec have something in common, they are men but not the sons of men, as in Melchesidec’s case, he is without father, without mother, without descent Heb 7:3.

WHAT SORT OF FLESH BODY IS IT?
They have the flesh of a man that the Lord can simply make appear and disappear. A poor, but similar analogy, might be like Captain Kirk In the movie Star Trek where he says “Beam me up Scotty.”

WOULD THE PEOPLE OF SALEM KNOW WHO  

MELCHISEDEC WAS?
Yes. It would have been an accepted phenomena as stated with the sons of God (Gen 6:2) along with Joshua’s captain of the host and the two angels at Sodom – a man/angel appears from God with a job to do.

WHAT DID GOD SEND MELCHISEDEC FOR?
To receive the tithes from Abram/Abraham (both the names of Abram and Abraham are used with the giving of tithes).

Now before the priests of the law of Moses, Melchesidec was given that role at Jerusalem (Salem) as a priest unto the Lord (Heb 7:3).

Abraham is the father of Isaac, who is the father of Jacob, who is the father of Levi, the head of the Levites (the priests).

The scriptures say By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but … the Son …. is consecrated for evermore …. (Heb 7:22,28)

For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; (NOT LEVI) of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Heb 7:14

                                                                                                     
LEVI (THE LAW) FULFILLED IN JESUS

SHOULD WE GIVE TITHES TODAY?

Many pastors say today “You should give tithes because this was done before the law was given, and as Abraham is our father in the faith and we should follow Abraham and they quote the following

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Gal 3:7, 9

BUT they fail to see that although Abram/ Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedec before the law was given at Mt Sinai a few hundred years later, when Abram/Abraham gave his tithes he was NOT a man of faith at that time.

Follow the time line of events:-

Harley Hitchcock

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