A Priest Of God Most High

A Priest of God Most High

Melchizedek doesn’t seem to be an important person in the Old Testament. He appears in Genesis 14 and is referred to twice more in the Bible (Psalm 110; Hebrews 5–7). But in terms of helping us understand the unique superiority of Christ’s priesthood, he paints an important picture.

Genesis 14 tells us that after Abram rescued his nephew Lot from the armies that took him captive when they invaded Sodom, Melchizedek gave Abram bread, wine, and his blessing. Scripture says he was acting as “a priest of God Most High” (14:18). Abram received Melchizedek’s gifts and gave him his tithe, thus recognizing Melchizedek’s higher spiritual rank.

Much later in Israel’s history, King David reflected on this unique priest when he said that the Messiah would be “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). The writer of Hebrews uses this exact phrase to describe Jesus, saying that he was “designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10, NIV). What does it mean to be a priest “in the order of Melchizedek”?

The writer of Hebrews is saying that Jesus is not a priest from the order of Levi, as other priests in the Temple were. Jesus is a priest from the order of (or we might say, “along the lines of”) Melchizedek. This writer was trying to convince the Hebrew people that someone who wasn’t even a descendant of Aaron was the perfect High Priest. Everybody knew that someone couldn’t be a priest unless he was from the tribe of Levi, so the writer of Hebrews built his case by reminding his audience that hundreds of years before Aaron, there was a priest of God who was appointed by God and respected by Abraham, the father of their faith.

Jesus is not a priest by ancestry, like the Aaronic priests; he is a priest by appointment, like Melchizedek. Jesus is a priest because of who he is, not because of the family he came from. But the most important thing about the priesthood of Jesus that Melchizedek prefigured was that his priesthood was forever. When Melchizedek is described as being “without beginning of days or end of life” (Hebrews 7:3, NIV), the implication is not that he lived forever but that the order of priesthood in which he ministered is forever. For us this means that our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible.

My Priest forever, I rest in knowing that long after everyone I depend on in this life is dead and gone, you will still be alive, serving as my Priest and making it possible for me to approach a holy God.