We continue on this morning with our study of the mysterious king and priest known as Melchizedek.
Yesterday we studied the first theory regarding his identity, which was that he may have been Noah's son Shem. We looked at reasons for and against believing this was the case. Today we move on to the second of the three post popular theories among Bible scholars, which is that the appearance of Melchizedek was an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ.
These appearances are often called "Christophanies" and they occur several times in the Old Testament. Generally, Christ is referred to as "the angel of the Lord" in these instances, but whenever He appears it is in the form of a human man. Sometimes He is mistaken for a mere man, at least at first. So we are going to look at some reasons why Melchizedek may be an Old Testament appearance of Christ, and then we are going to look at some things that will make us question this theory.
First, we noted yesterday that Melchizedek's name in the original Hebrew means "King Of Righteousness". As king of Salem his position would allow him to be called "King Of Peace". When we hear such titles, who do we think of? The Lord Jesus. If a person in our day were going around proclaiming himself to be the King Of Righteousness and the King Of Peace, we'd either conclude he is a wicked blasphemer or that he has a mental illness. The fact that Melchizedek could be called by these titles lends some credence to the theory that many scholars hold that he was an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. On the other hand, being a priest chosen by God may have allowed Melchizedek to be called King Of Righteousness by association---by his association with the Lord. In other words, any righteousness he possessed had been imputed to him by God, which is the only way any of us ever obtains righteousness. As the man who stood between the people and God to intercede for them, and as the man who set the religious example for the citizens of his city to follow, we can see why Melchizedek may have been given such a lofty title. This wouldn't have to mean he was perfect, but that the God whom he served as priest was perfect. Likewise, the title "King Of Peace" was probably a reference to the city with which Melchizedek was associated, for "Salem" means "peace". This title doesn't have to indicate that Melchizedek himself was capable of bestowing spiritual peace upon his people.
Melchizedek brought out bread and wine when he blessed Abram. We can't help thinking of the bread and wine of the Last Supper when Jesus told the disciples that the bread symbolized His body that would be broken and that the wine symbolized the blood He would shed. Does this mean Melchizedek was revealing himself to be Christ? Not necessarily. He might have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to bring these items as he prophetically looked forward to the coming of the Redeemer. We see the similarity between the meal he brings to Abram and the last meal the Lord Jesus ate before the crucifixion, but these items may have served a more practical purpose. What type of food quickly helps a person whose blood sugar is low? Carbs! Carbohydrates are rapidly broken down into sugar, so Melchizedek's idea to bring bread to Abram and his soldiers may have been prompted by his feeling that these men needed a fast fix. As far as the wine goes, a certain type of wine was provided to soldiers in ancient times to rehydrate them rapidly following extreme physical exertion or during long marches in high temperatures. The Roman army typically supplied a special type of wine (referred to as "vinegar" in the gospel accounts) because it worked in a similar fashion to the sports drinks we have in our day. When the Roman soldier offered Jesus vinegar because He complained of thirst on the cross, it was this specific type of wine that the army supplied to the soldiers. A number of scholars believe that the Roman soldier gave Jesus a drink from his own rations, thereby performing an unselfish act and also a merciful act, for he knew this wine vinegar would refresh the Lord quicker than water would.It supplied electrolytes, a thing the ancient people didn't understand; they simply knew that wine vinegar worked fast to revive someone suffering from dehydration.
In one of the Messianic psalms King David wrote, he made reference to Melchizedek when (by inspiration of the Holy Spirit) he spoke of God the Father anointing God the Son as a great high priest. David tells us what God the Father said to the Son, "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" (Psalm 110:4) The Lord Jesus applied verses from Psalm 110 to Himself in Matthew 22:45 and in Mark 12:37, clearly letting us know that the psalm was written about Him. In Psalm 110 God the Father told the Son that His priesthood would be "in the order of" (meaning "similar to" or "like") that of Melchizedek. What does this mean?
Well, for one thing, we don't know Melchizedek's lineage. The Bible doesn't tell us who his parents were, when he was born, or when he died. This doesn't mean he wasn't born in the ordinary way or that he didn't die, just that the author of Genesis never knew these details, likely because Abram never knew these details to pass along to his descendants. In that sense, it's as if Melchizedek had no beginning or end, which may be why the Apostle Paul said of him that he was "without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God". (Hebrews 7:3) Melchizedek resembles the Son of God because the Son of God has existed forever and will continue to exist forever.
Abram didn't know Melchizedek until he came to bless him after the battle. He knew nothing about his origins or who his people were. He didn't know how this man came to be both a king and a priest or how he came to be a worshiper of Abram's own God. He didn't know how old this man was. He never heard anything about when or where this man eventually died. I think the eternal priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ is compared to the priesthood of Melchizedek because Jesus Christ has no beginning or end. This is likely one of the reasons why the Lord says of His Son's priesthood that it will be "in the order of" Melchizedek.
Another reason that Christ's priesthood is like Melchizedek's is that neither of them came from the priestly tribe of Israel. None of the tribes of Israel even existed in Abram's day, but the Lord anointed a man named Melchizedek, who was not of the tribe of Levi, to serve as a priest before Him. In the same way, even though Christ is of the royal tribe of Judah and not the tribe of Levi, the Lord anointed Him to serve as a priest before Him.
Yet another similarity between Christ and Melchizedek is that God allows them to be both king and priest, something that will be forbidden to the men of Israel when the law is given later. But Melchizedek didn't live under the law and the law didn't apply to him. Christ perfectly fulfilled the law and ushered us out of the era of law and into the era of grace, so the law doesn't apply to Him either when He is granted an eternal kingship and and eternal priesthood. The risen Redeemer can be both king and priest under the law of grace, whereas He could not be while He lived as a man under the law of Moses.
The fact that the author of Hebrews says that Melchizedek's genealogy is not known is a problem when we attempt to conclude that Melchizedek and the pre-incarnate Christ are one and the same. We know the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know His family line all the way back to Adam. We know who His father was (God Himself), who His adoptive father was (Joseph), and who His mother was (Mary). We know He is of the royal line of Judah and has the right to sit on the throne of David, which the Lord has promised to Him. We know approximately when He was born and I'm sure the people of His day could have told you His exact date of birth. We know approximately when He died on the cross, a thing which people of His day knew precisely. Christ, in His human life, can't truly be said to have had no beginning or end, no genealogy, and no record of His parentage.
We also have to consider that God the Father did not refer to God the Son as Melchizedek when confirming His eternal priesthood. Instead God the Father said His Son's priesthood would be "in the order of" Melchizedek. Nowhere in the Bible is the word "Melchizedek" a name for the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul did not say that Melchizedek's appearance in Genesis was an appearance of the Son of God but that the similarities between his priesthood and Christ's made it resemble the priesthood of the Son of God. (Hebrews 7:3) Paul says that in choosing Melchizedek the Lord chose a priest who was not of the priestly tribe (the tribes of Israel not yet even in existence) and that in choosing Christ to be a priest the Lord was again choosing a man not of the priestly tribe. Paul points out that in this way Christ's priesthood is "in the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:11) and that Christ is "another priest like Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:15) Paul does not ever appear to say that Christ is Melchizedek. What he seems to be saying is that the similarity between Christ and Melchizedek is the similarity of their priesthood---a priesthood bestowed upon them by God's choice and not because they are from any particular lineage.
For many years I subscribed to the theory that the appearance of Melchizedek in Genesis was a Christophany, but the last time I did a really in-depth study of Genesis I found my mind changed. This leads us to the third top theory regarding the identity of Melchizedek, which we will discuss tomorrow.
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