Melchizedek

Transcript

it's it's something that has always intrigued me um i guess ever since i can almost remember and so probably what i a lot of what i have to say is probably some of these things you you've already puzzled out as you've gone through your own studies um and if so maybe this will be a good review but i think there might be a few different things that i think that might come out tonight um so i want to go actually into the background a little bit of this meeting that takes place look at the meeting as

as it happens and and to see not just what happened there but what it pointed to and to look actually at melchizedek himself

and to see what scriptures have to say about it

so here we go now it's working so

when we look at the background of this actually i believe to really appreciate what happens and what's going to the interplay that's going to take place we have to actually get back into chapter 13.

and chapter 13 actually is dealing with lot and abram coming back up out of the land of egypt

and as they travel back from egypt they go up to the south of the land and actually they come up to just north of jerusalem and they're now as it says in verse 1

and 2 of chapter 13

they're between bethel and and ai um

and then we we go into this this issue that they have this combined wealth that's so great that the land can't baron we have the husbandmen fighting amongst themselves

um and actually something to think about here

um you know if we think about this this hasn't happened before and i put it to you that that i believe that it's that it's

not until

abram is down in egypt that actually he amasses so great wealth because remember it's pharaoh that's going to to um give him um more wealth to get him out of the land

before this lot actually was somewhat wealthy remember lot's father was heroin and died all the way back into er before the family started the migration

and so he with his wealth had gone with abram

but they hadn't had this problem until they come out of egypt

and and just as a um digression here and a

little side note if you could hold questions and comments till the end i'd appreciate it um because otherwise i'm truly going to get thrown off my brain doesn't work that fast anymore

so

um

we know that abram gives lot the choice doesn't he lock and choose anywhere to go and abram will go the opposite way so lot travels east to the plains of jordan in the jewish publication society

their bible in verses 11 and 12 states that he goes as far as sodom

and the thing to end to to start to think about here is this didn't happen overnight

from his vantage point here you can't really see sodom i've never stood on this on this pinnacle of this mountain but i don't think you can

because it's really down near the farther end of the the southern under the dead sea

but possibly you could but he can see this well-watered plane

but i do think this is going to have some significance to look at this a little later on

abram stays in canaan

this is the land that was that was given to abram this is the land that god told him to go to and he stays there so if we think about what abram is going through here

he too is standing right there with with

lot lot has seen this this well-watered plane and goes down to it

and if we think about that brother sisters just for a moment just that physical going down to the plains of jordan from the heights in the mountains of israel

and knowing what happens with lot later on we can actually see in that a parable of a spiritual descent don't we

in a spiritual descent that gradually and gradually brings him down as far as sodom

and you know i always remember bob lloyd you know when he was when he was teaching his classes one of his famous statements and talking about sin you know the more we we play around the the skirts and the out the um

edges of sin

pretty soon sin doesn't seem so sinful anymore

and this is what happens i think with lot i think he starts out with some good intentions but little by little becomes engrossed in the in the

wickedness of the of the world there

that being said we'll say a little bit more about this a little bit later on

but abram on the other hand he stays in the heights he stays in canaan

and it's right here at this point

that god promises abram the land remember he tells abram here to look out all the at the land that everything that he could see would be his

and when we think about this what god has done abram has has made a choice

and has made a choice to rely on his god because from way where abraham is is looking the land around him is is actually somewhat harsh compared to where lot has just gone

but god again says don't worry about that all that land that you see down there as well as all of this is is going to be yours

and again that he would make his generations a multitude

and again this had taken place right after lot had left

and abram is still up here on the on the mount um between bethel and haye and it's at this point that abram moves south to hebron in verse 18.

so if we just take a moment to look at a man

you can see my pointer here they've really traveled north here out of egypt and they come up to this vantage point

and it's from here

that these decisions are made so we've been on this map as which is actually fairly good for topography you can see that he probably goes down and actually he crosses jordan this is lot

and he goes to the east

and he's uh

he's uh sorry he's so he's now actually gone out of the land hasn't he so if you think about a spiritual descent here he's actually going away from the land of god the promised land and he's actually going to come down here and move down actually to this point here where they think sodom probably was so that's quite a journey that's that's over 100 miles down there from where he is and so like i say i think this is a gradual movement but it's from here at this point in time that abram now moves south to hebron

and so that actually leads us then into the battle of the kings in genesis 14.

so if you open your bibles to that that's what we'll be kind of looking at a lot at this point

so in the very first verse it says and it came to pass in the days of area king of el azar um

excuse me

eric let me start that again it came to pass in the days of ramaphell king of shiner eriakim al-azhar cheddar leomar king of elam and title king of nations and so this is actually the what i ca what i call the cheddar leona alliance ramaphal king of shinar

area king of elise alisar

cheddar lyomer king of elam

and title king of nations so if we put this into perspective shinar is actually babylon

alassa is actually is just south of babylon it's actually a little bit west of ur in that area

elam is actually now

east of babylon and the land's over there and it includes susa or shushan and remember that's where daniel goes right that's where esther is that's where that palace was

and then we have this title king of nations

and when you look at at um what people think this might have been some people think this actually was um he was actually a king of a confederacy of nomadic tribes other people think that actually he was he was a king of the city-states that would have included the hittites

and i think that that might be more in line with with what happens here but we're not we're not told anything here for sure

but if we think then about where these errors were so here's bad one

that's where cheddar leomar is

down here is earth so right over here is lasser where ariaka is over here is the is elam where we have aramaphel there exceed me cheddar leomar um babylon was

a ramaphala and up here we have the hittites

and these these city-states up here

which could have been under title

making a confederacy there

and all these um

are actually now and making a confederacy themselves make an alliance because what happens if we look down at at verse 2

these made war with bera king of sodom and with bersha king of gamora shinab king of admira and shemeber king of zebowim and the king of bella which is zor and all these were joined together in the valley of sidon which is the salt sea twelve years they served cheddar in the 13th year they rebelled

so because of this rebellion we have a confederacy forming

on the east of the jordan river again bear a king of sodom

bursa king of gomorrah

shinnab king of admira shemeber king of zebuium

and the king of bella we're not really given his name but it's also known as zor so if we look at a map

this is the area here that we're looking at

just at the southern tip of the dead sea this is where they they think that these these cities things actually were

and that inset

it actually puts it in particular

a little bit more um as to where this was in the land

so at this point in time

if we could it's actually off the map but way over here would be hebron where where um

abram is living

so the campaign

well what happens here the nations on the east side of jordan rebel after being subjugated for 12

years and they do this in the 13th year so in the 14th year

cheddar the cheddar leon

alliance sweeps the area north to south

and so they come in the north part of the land and they're sweeping down the east side of jordan going through all of these different areas and if you look at the um back at your at your scriptures and chapter 14 again

um and we look down at uh in verse five it says in the fourteenth year came cheddarly omar and the kings that were with him and smote the rephaims and ashrath karna and the zuzims and ham and eminems in the shava kerethane and the horites in their mount seer unto al-paran which is by the wilderness and they returned and came to en misfat which is kadesh and smote all the country the amalekites and the amorites that dwelt in haze on tamar

so if we think about what what's happening put this into perspective they swept down the east side of the of the jordan and now actually they're coming up partially up the west side and it looks like that they as far as about um

well what today is engetti which they call

hazes on tamar

and it's at this point in time that the four confederate kings rally

to for a battle in the valley of cider

and if we think about what's again happened here

now we looked at those at those city-states the the these five kings which were on the east side of the dead sea this is the area that these that the cheddar layout alliance has already swept through

and it could have been when they got to these states

that possibly

these

kings after looking at the the multitudes coming in of this army

they might have actually

again submitted themselves and possibly even paid a ransom

for their uh for the insurrection that had taken place um

but but um

now after the kings have gone

they feel that they can mount a mounted an offense and they can come back at the kings so what they do is they're actually

getting the kings on the west side of the dead sea now to come back

and so we look at this area here

and this is this is actually the valley of situm here we would have sodom up here and actually the the

host has gotten up about this far up to end getty

and hebron is actually up over here off the map just a little bit so it looks like the force is actually of the cheddar leonard alliance then travels south and come back

and so what's the outcome of this

well the outcome is

the confederacy

is routed

you know it's it's it's quite interesting when we when we look at this you know

here they are they're they're um making this this insurrection again against this host that they've already seen come through and yet they think that they can do this on their own

and then we see in verse 10

the true colors of the kings of sodom and gomorrah and if we read that it says um

and the veil of sidon was full of slime pits and the kings of sodom and gomorrah fled and fell there and they that remained fled to the mountains

you know the true colors of the kings of sodom and gomorrah are seen perhaps it's these two are mentioned in particular in particular because maybe they're the ones that incited the insurrection at this point in time and it could also be the other kings had already fallen at this point but when it says in the verse there it seems to imply that they that these two kings are destroyed they fall into the slime pits but actually if you go into other versions it actually talks about the armies that they had that a lot of the armies were actually falling and getting trapped into the into the slime pits and not necessarily them it looks like they just ran for it

and so now what happens well in verse 11

the alliance pillages the cities and surrounding areas says and they took all the goods of sodom and gomorrah and all their vittles and went their way so this time

instead of possibly looking for just a ransom

now they completely destroy the area that they decimate it they take everything so anybody that's left there would really taste face true hardship

and they would truly know what it meant to go against cheddar layover

there's nothing left not even food

and the other thing is as we know in verse 12

a lot and presumably his family are taken captive with the rest of the inhabitants of the area

and the interesting thing is note that la at this point in time is is associated in scripture with these people

with these people of sodom and gomorrah and these these other wicked areas

and you know it's it would be easy to say at this point in time you know well look how evil lot was but we know that's not quite true is it because when we go into the new testament we have paul's adoration of him saying talking about righteous lot who vexed his soul daily

when looking at these these areas that he was in

but perhaps brothers and sisters we can see something else perhaps we can see how god uses events in our lives to pull us back to him if we only will let him you know so many different things happen to us each and every day brother sisters that a lot of times we bemoan these things that happen to us but we have to think what is god trying to show us ask yourself that question in the evenings

what was god trying to show me today

and i think god is trying to show lot that he needs to make it make a change and the thing is he's still calling lot isn't he

but we also know that with all these trials paul also says that there's always a way of escape

and of course that way of escape is going to become formed come for him

but again living among them no difference is seen a lot than than the other people

but then we have the rescue

so if you look at verse 13

um

it says and there came one that had escaped

and told abram the hebrew for he dwelt in the plain of mamrie the amorite the brother of ashkal the brother of anger and these were confederate with abram

so abram was told of the situation that law is taken captive

and it's interesting [Music] that we have this captive that escaped that comes to abram and perhaps he had gone to the other um [Music]

cities and kings around there to ask for help and they wouldn't give him any help or perhaps

he had talked a lot and lot told him to go here to his uncle labor or perhaps he was even of the household of lot

and knew to go to abram

but abram then gathers his force of 13

318 men of his own household to chase after the retreating host if we look at those words in verse 14 and when abram heard that his brother this is lot now remember was taken captive he armed his trained servants born in his own house 318 and pursued them unto dan

and that if you might have a marginal note that that word trade

the margin might say instructed or taught

and i brothers and sisters i don't think that this just talked about training them and and hand-to-hand combat

but i think what abraham has done

is he's instructed them in his god

because this is one of the things that abram will do throughout his life and why he travels the land and why god has him travel the land

so that the land of canaan can learn about the god of abram

and if you think about it there's going to be echoes of this later on 400 years in the in the making actually 440 years in the making

when we see what rahab has to say when the spies come to her she knows she knows what about the god of abram

i think it's because these words have stayed with some people

and that preaching that he does there echoes throughout history

and these 318 men now trained in their in the god of abraham

have faith in that god and are willing to follow abram in that faith up against this massive host that has come down into the land remember there's only 318 men of them and we talk about gideon

and the 300 going up you know this was the first time this happened

and brother and sisters when abram does this i don't think he did this just haphazardly but knowing abram i think most assuredly he had prayed what he should do

and so it says he catches up to them in dan or laish and routes them to hoba the hiding place that's just a little bit north of of damascus and so the area that he has to travel from hebron where he is is about 200 miles up to dan and it's going to be another 40 to 50 miles

to keep routing that host all the way over to just north of damascus

but what happens in doing that

abram recovers everything including a lot and his family and their wealth

all the captives all the goods that were taken are recovered by abram through god's intervention

and so if we think again about what's happening here where all these events take place here's hebron this was the valley of the the bayless item down here so

what i do think it happens is the cheddar leomar alliance comes up the trade routes this way and they're headed home

they're coming back north out of the land and

abram and his 318 men are coming up this side of jordan

and if you think about the distances it then makes sense is why they finally catch up to them and dan

because it's going to take a while for them to get to get up there just as they're trying to get them and so here they are in dan and they chase them all the way over to just north of damascus

and this picture here actually just shows some trade routes that that they might have taken to do that

so we come up to verse 17.

abram is returning home

so it says he travels to the valley of shadow or the king's day

and this is located on the road back to hebron i didn't hear from you yesterday and and so this is actually talking about kidron the kidron valley which is about a quarter mile east of jerusalem and again right on the on the way back home

and who goes to meet him there

well the first thing we find out is the king of sodom goes to meet him there so if we look at that we go back to the scriptures here um

we look at verse 17 it says the king of sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of cheddar laomer and the kings that were with him at the valley of shavum which is the king's dale

so the king of sodom going out to meet him we have to think of well how did he know to go there

and perhaps perhaps some of the captives that that abram is freed has have has gone back to to the to the king of sodom and knows which way that they're going to be coming home

but i think there's another thing that we might be able to read into the situation here

he is freed abram has freed all these captives and i think brother and sisters that there's a lot of them that are seeing a difference in abram than they have

in the king of sodom and where they've lived

and i think at this point and this is going to come out a little bit a little bit clearer a little while that some of them now are there willing to follow abram rather than go back to this defeated these defeated kings of sodom and gomorrah they saw something better than what they had seen before

so again if we think about where the where where abram has come from

there's the these are the trade routes we probably would have come down this road

these are the trade routes through shechem

and then he ends up down here that would be the kidron valley just north of jerusalem

and so all this then leads up to the meeting with melchizedek

so who was he

well the interesting thing about melchizedek brother and sisters is we know he's only mentioned once in this whole narrative you know the king of sodom is is named and referred to

five times in this narrative and yet melchizedek only once milk in fact melchizedek won't be mentioned again in scripture until david mentions him in the 110th psalm and then it's only once so only have his name mentioned twice in the old testament

he won't be mentioned then again until paul brings him up in hebrews five six and seven and at that point in time it's nine times that he's going to be mentioned in the narrative

because it becomes a lot clearer as to why he's so important

now jewish tradition actually hasn't been equated with shem was noah's son

and it is possible this could be hashem would have been about 527 to 537 years old if you look at genesis 11 12 16 and 21

and take those time periods and actually do the math

that's what it would come out to be

so it could have been alive at this point in time and i think that abram did an ocean

hashem dies when he's 602 years old and that's going to be another you know roughly seven years away

it could be

that shen has been here and is trying to again establish god in the land but that's that again is just speculation

but just as quickly as he's mentioned here

he disappears from the record

so now if we look at a little more of the

what takes place here

we know that his name means king of right or as paul would say in hebrews 7

verse 2 righteousness

he was the king of salem or peace

you know quite strikingly and rightly

even if you look at the way it's written here his name is never even mentioned alongside of the king of sodom it's not even in the same verse is it

when melchizedek is mentioned it's his own verse separate from all of that

he brings out bread and wine

and he's the priest of the most high god el elyon

he blesses abram

and more so

he blesses god

and it could be also brothers and sisters that this this time this name melchizedek might have been a title

but again looking at the details

an interesting detail comes out in verse 18

where it says in melchizedek king of salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high god this is the first time in scripture that the word is priest is used in scripture

you know if we think about the priesthood

remember brothers and sisters the priesthood wasn't established at all

until the children of israel are in the wilderness

and it's only after they've gathered at sinai and what had god told moses to tell them at the foot of sinai when they're going to be melded into a nation he wanted to make them a nation of priests

but they refused that

and so because of that the priesthood was set up

we have that levitical priesthood and the ironic high priest coming down but before that it wasn't like that at all it was the head of the household who was the priest that taught about god and of course again this is what god wants us to do

this is what he wanted his people to do

but we know that he's a true worshiper of abram's god

and i can say that you know when he when he blesses abram in verse 19 it says and he blessed him abram and said blessed be abram of the most high god possessor of heaven and earth

and this is this is abram's god and we know that because abram does his does him obesity doesn't he

he comes to give

isn't it interesting he brings out bread and wine and the blessing from god

and he denotes abram as a worshiper of the same god that he worships

he denotes god as the true possessor of heaven and earth everything that that that he that is there is god's no false gods are being venerated by this king of righteousness none at all

in this blessing to god he declares that there is all that it is god that has brought the victory to abraham

it isn't abraham that's done this himself it's god there's this wrought the victory you know think of these these words are incredible in verse 20 and he blessed the most high god and blessed be the most high god which had delivered thine enemies into thy hand

again

putting

righteousness first putting faith first

again no false gods being venerated by this king of righteousness

and so he brought forth the bread and the wine

a covenant meal

and as we go down through the

narrative a little farther

i think we find an interesting thing because i think it's going to show us

abram didn't eat any of the foods from the stores that he took

when he recovered everything

he's still relying on his god eating of his own food that god has provided for him not what he has taken on his own not what he has taken from these people

but this meal this covenant meal he does

and i think this still shows that abraham is relying on god to provide

and it demonstrates that god will still provide for him because of his faith the meal would solidify the ties of brotherhood between abram and melchizedek through through the most high god

and when we think about the bread and the wine

pointing to jesus's sacrifice that we partake of every week

brothers and sisters i think this was part of what was going on here

because one of the things we forget

most often with these men of the old testament these righteous men who walked

they knew of the messiah

remember jesus said that

abraham saw my day and rejoiced and was glad of it

that's what jesus said about abram so we know that abram did

and i think we know that abram knew the complete mission of his of god's son

that he would die for the remission of our sins

and i think that this meal that he partakes on right here

is part of that

and it's the same meal that melchizedek has and both of them enjoy this this this meal and brotherhood

faith in action truly mirroring

abram's calling

and it says in that same verse in verse 20 and he gave him tithes of all

so abram gives this to melchizedek and respect

he seals the covenant between him melchizedek but he also sealed the covenant between he and god because in giving this to melchizedek he's actually giving this back to god

because melchizedek would be god's representative remember he says he's the priest

of the most high god

but then the narrative changes

what we see happening

we have an interaction now that's so different abram and the king of sodom

and what does the king of sodom do he comes to take what does he say if we if we look down at at verse 21 he says give me the persons and take the take the goods to thyself

well by right

abram really owns everything he's just recovered that's the spoils of war

he could lay claim to everything there

and yet he's not doing that

but it almost seems like an interesting thing for the king of sodom to say well give me the persons or the souls and take the goods to thyself

but i think this speaks to one of the opinions that i had that i i gave early on

but i think some of the people here

that were part of these cities of sodom gomorrah and the rest

they've looked to abram and seen something different and they want to align themselves with him

and in essence what the king of sodom is saying well let me buy these people back from you and perhaps thinking even you know if i buy these people back you can take all the goods but you know what

if i have all these people i can i can still get all those goods because i can come and take them myself

and i don't think that's out of the realm of possibility

but what does abram say

he says i have lift up my hand unto the lord the most high god the possessor of heaven and earth and brothers and sisters this is one of the ways that we know that abram still is in line with the god of melchizedek because this is the exact same thing

that melchizedek had said isn't it if you look back at verse 19

blessed be abram of the most high god possessor of heaven and earth and abram uses the same statement against the king of sodom when he says i lift up my hand that word hand is comes from the hebrew yad which means the open hand not cough which is the closed hand

he's showing it graphically to the king of sodom and everything i have

comes from god

i haven't gotten anything on my own none of this belongs to me

but i won't have it from you and he goes into that reason over here doesn't he in verse 23 he says that i will not take from thee a thread even to a shoe latch

nor and i will not take anything that is dying lest thou should say i've made abram rich

it is god that takes care of abram it is god that abram puts his trust in he won't take anything from the king of sodom

god has provided from eight for abram and abram denotes this and he was he states that it's coming from nowhere else

but interestingly remember

he had taken

the bread and the wine

but in what he says here

it demonstrates he's not even eaten in the spoils look at the words in verse 24.

he said save only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me aynor eshkol and mamrie let them take their portion doesn't say well you know you know

i'll also take the food that i've already eaten

i don't think he ate any of that

putting his complete trust in god

but also note their brother and sisters

it also intimates these also not of the same mind as his neighbors

of aynor or

they seem to be

eating of the spoils maybe taking some of the spoils of themselves

and abram even separates himself from these people

but again aligns himself with this king priest melchizedek

so now if we actually just look graphically at the difference between melchizedek and the king of sodom

so what does melchizedek do he comes to give

was the king of sodom there comes to take

melchizedek a worshiper of god

the king of sodom a worshiper of himself

melchizedek priest king

the king of sodom a cowardly king

melchizedek the king of righteousness and peace

and the king of sodom a king of wickedness and discord

again melchizedek being god's instrument filled with blessings whereas the king of sodom has got an example of wickedness and sin

and so from here it goes into chapter 15

and i think it's important for us to look at this just briefly brothers and sisters we're not going to spend a lot of time on this but in verse 1 if you look at the words that take place there after these things the word of the lord came unto abram in a vision saying fear not abram i am thy shield

and thy exceeding great reward

god comforts and reassures abram of his promises what has abram just done and what he said to the king of sodom he's actually insulted

because he puts his faith in god

and so that's why god is saying here i am your shield don't worry about him he cannot harm you

and don't worry about the riches that he had i am your reward

and if we have faith in god that's exactly what god tells us also isn't it

well we also know in the narrative abram knows he and sarah are older and wonders how the promises can be accomplished

and brother and sisters i don't think that this is an example that i've heard some people say of well this is where abram's faith is wavering because he says oh maybe maybe they should go through eliezer

my servant and it's not that's not what's happening here at all he's just wondering how this this plan of god is supposed to take place what is he supposed to do

but god does to note that the air will be from abram not a surrogate what god has promised he will accomplish and what he's saying that it to abram and his essence here is abram you don't need to know how

you just have to have patience and faith and brother and sisters that's what we see nowadays don't we we're seeing these things taking place in in the ukraine and in the baltic states we can see the world getting more and more in turmoil and all these things around us we know that these things have to come to pass but we don't know the details

think of our brothers and sisters in the ukraine right now and their faith is being tested

well brothers and sisters if they're asking why isn't god helping it isn't necessarily

that they've lost faith

we just don't know how god is going to accomplish these things

and you know what we don't need to know in fact we don't know don't we because it says we don't know the hour or the day

but we do know what's going to take place

we do know that

and god says to abram now look toward heaven and tell the stars if they'd be able to number them so shall thy seed be and if we think back to the title that

melchizedek had given god the god the possessor of heaven and earth when abram was back on in the mountains of of of judea between bethel and ai he looked over the land and he saw this this problem with the land and god said don't worry about this

because all the land even the land where lot has now gone is going to be yours

and now melchizedek has reminded him he's the possessor of both the heavens and the earth

and the beautiful thing about what god does here he says now look to the stars

if we look at look at this now in verse 5 of chapter 15 it says he brought him forth abroad and said look now toward heaven and tell the number of stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy seed be

that's amazing

if you can number these stars that's how how your progeny is going to be your descendants will be like this and notice where they are brothers sisters he didn't say just look at the ground he says look at the heavens

because they're mine

your descendants are my people

because we know that the heavens of the are gods and the earth has he made for the children of man and what did this do for abram

and he believed in the lord and he counted it to him for righteousness

and brothers and sisters that's what god does for us too when we believe in his plan when we believe in what he says we can ask him how we can ask him when

but it's in all in his good time

but all we really have to do is keep our faith brother and sisters

so again

how the details happen

and what it pointed forward to

the melchizedek prophecy in psalm 110 we know it's a messianic prophecy so if you turn over to psalm 110 really quickly you know psalm 110 says the lord said unto my lord sit down with my right hand until i make thine enemies thy footstool and the lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and the beauties of holiness from the womb of the mourning thou hast the dew of thy youth

the lord hath sworn and will not repent

thou art a priest forever after the order of melchizedek

the lord at thy right hand shall strike through the kingdoms in the day of his wrath he shall judge among the heathen he shall fill the places with dead bodies you shall wound the heads over many countries

he shall drink of the brook and the way therefore he shall lift up the head

so the messiah will be known and worshiped by his holy people and will usher in the birth of a new age you know the complete jewish bible renders verse 3 is on the day your force is mobilized your people willingly offer themselves

and holy splendors from the womb of the dawn that do of you or of your youth is yours

you again it gives us a little bit of a hint as to to physically what will look like in that time

again youth renewed so for those of us that are getting onto the older side that's actually quite a promise

we also know brothers and sisters that this title isn't one that he takes on himself it emphatically states that the title is awarded to him by his father the lord hath sworn and will not repent

thou art a priest forever after the order of melchizedek a change is taking place from the old law to the new a new creation

that psalm itself denotes a very powerful king priest

in young's literal translation in verse 6

it says he death judge among the nations he hath completed the carcasses hath smitten the head over the mighty earth

well who is the head over the mighty earth

sin

we're reflecting right back to genesis 3 verse 15 aren't we

the seed of the serpent bruising that head

that killing move that erases sin forever

so this king priest destroying the wicked and removing the mortal kings

you know on that last verse you know where it says um

he shall drink of the brook and the way therefore shall he lift up the head he drinks now from the living stream the waters of life this is what he has to has to offer to the world

life not death

he lifts his head high this time not as before

where he was tired where he was sad

when people wouldn't turn to him

when he was beaten down

this time he's the king

had lifted high

in perfect

reverence of his father

paul gives some further details doesn't he in hebrews

so in hebrews 5

again it emphatically states just as it did over here and in psalm 110

that jesus did not make himself a high priest but was ordained of his father

jesus is identified as that new melchizedek and in hebrews 6 20 again denoting a new time a new law that not that the melchizedek order is not inherited but it's ordained by god this is something brand new

or was it

interestingly do you know brothers and sisters the title of melchizedek was also echoed way back in jeremiah 23

verse 6 where it describes the messiah jeremiah 23 6 reads this way in his days judah shall be saved and israel shall dwell safely

peace

and this is the name whereby he shall be called the lord our righteousness

peace and righteousness

even as melchizedek was venerated by the great man abram so shall the second be also abram's gonna be there in the kingdom and abram looked forward to this

and he'll fall down before the new melchizedek

and we know that this order ushers in a new covenant and new laws

and that's the interesting thing isn't it brother and sisters this is the priest king who can save in all respects

so we have to say why is this important for us to know

because it applies to us also and i think this is one of the things we forget so many times when we look at this at this study of melchizedek

what is what does um peter say in first peter 2 verse 5 ye as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god by jesus christ revelation 1 verse 6 says and hath made us kings and priests unto god and his father to be to him be glory and dominion forever and ever in revelation 5 verses 9 and 10

and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou a slain and has redeemed us to god by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our god kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth brother and sisters we're not of the tribe of levi in fact brother and sisters in in in our in our numbers of christians there's not many jewish people we're most mostly gentiles

so we know that this is a brand new order

jesus the melchizedek ordained by us father and we are ordained by his son

so again all of this foreshadowing jesus

the conflict between peace righteousness and sin this was jesus's whole life and mission

melchizedek a mediator between god and abram and jesus is our mediator

the covenant meal of the bread and the wine that covenant meal which we partake of to remember our lord and the promises offered to us through him because that's also what this represents it's not