LIVING HOPE - Reading With the People of God: Part 18ಮಾದರಿ

A Priest Forever in the Order of Melchizedek?

Today we will be reading Hebrews 5, and one of the things that will be coming up in this chapter is that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Why does this matter?

This matters because, according to the Old Testament, the Messiah would need to be a king in the line of David. Jesus is able to fulfill this role because he is literally born in the line of King David. Here’s the tricky part: King David was a Judahite, but in order to be a priest in Ancient Israel, you had to be a Levite. So, this creates an essentially impossible problem in which the Messiah could not be both a Levite in the line of Aaron and a Judahite in the line of David. Biologically he could come from both, but you can’t be a part of multiple Israelite tribes, and there is no indication that Jesus' lineage would connect him with Aaron. The writer of Hebrews explains that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek to resolve this problem.

Who was Melchizedek?

Melchizedek is an obscure figure who shows up and blesses Abraham in Genesis 14 shortly after Abraham rescues his nephew Lot and his household from an invading army. Melchizedek is introduced as a “king of Salem” (this may be an early form of Jerusalem, though that is debated) and a “priest of God Most High.”

What does he have to do with Jesus’ role as our high priest?

Here in this one figure we have both priest and king. And we’re not given any reason to believe in Genesis that there is a hereditary requirement for this priesthood like there is for the Aaronic (Levitical) priesthood. Be that as it may, it would be odd for the writer of Hebrews to make this argument if he didn’t have any other scriptural warrant to do so. That’s where Psalm 110 comes in. Psalm 110 is a Messianic Psalm that actually anticipates that the messiah will be “a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4 NKJV). The author of Hebrews will dig into this further in chapter 7, but this is enough information on this for now.

Why does Jesus’s role as high priest matter for us today?

Because Jesus is legitimately our High Priest, we can be confident that he is truly able to intercede for us. It is because of the sacrifice He offered on the cross, Himself, that we are made clean.

Primer contributed by Wesley Viau.