Hebrews: A 28-Day Musical DevotionalMuestra

Death and Melchizedek 

The writer now returns to the exposition about the priesthood of Christ, picking right up where he left off in 5:10. Here in chapter 7, he zeroes in on two important aspects of Jesus’ appointment as a high priest: he is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek and a priest who will never die. Both are linked to Psalm 110:4: “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The logic of chapter 7 is two-fold: (1) Melchizedek is superior to the Levitical priests and (2) Jesus, as a “Melchizedekan” high priest, is superior to the Levitical priests.

Melchizedek is a mysterious Old Testament figure. The little we know about him comes from Genesis 14, which describes an episode in which Abram, after a successful battle, encountered this “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High.” Melchizedek blessed Abram, and Abram responded by giving him ten percent of his spoils: the superior (Melchizedek) blessed the inferior (Abram), and the inferior gave tithes to the superior. As Levi’s forefather, Abram represented the Levitical priesthood, so “one might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes [from the Israelites], paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him (7:10).” The author thus reasons from this account that the Levites are inferior to Melchizedek because they, in a sense, also paid tithes to him.

Hebrews teaches us that Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. This is not to say that Melchizedek is an ancestor of Christ but that he is a pre-figure of Christ. The Bible never tells us where this king of righteousness and peace came from or how his life ended. Similarly, Jesus, the true King of Righteousness and Peace, is a priest whose days have no end. Unlike the priests of Levi, who die and must be replaced in succession, Jesus will never die. He is a priest who ever lives to intercede.

 So hail to the Son!