And Melchisedec king of Salem brought out bread and wine. And he was priest of the Most High God.
Two kings come out to meet Abram after his rescue of Lot, and God arranges for the stranger to arrive first. This stranger is a king and a priest at once, and he comes with bread and wine.
The weight of the verse rests on two titles held by one man. Who else in Scripture is both king and priest?
He was a real man, not an imaginary figure — a man like any of us, but a king and a priest together. Melchizedek was priest of the Most High God, and both Testaments describe him that way (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1). God owned him as a priest. He was also King of Salem — the city we believe was later known as Jerusalem. So he held both offices in himself, which is true of no one else but the Lord Jesus Christ. The parallel goes further, since the writer of Hebrews notes that we are told nothing about this mysterious man's parents, family line, birth, or death: he has "neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever" (Heb. 7:3).
Hebrews translates both his name and the name of his city. The order matters.
First his name is Melchizedek, that is, "King of righteousness." Then he is "King of Salem," that is, "King of Peace." That order is always a principle in God's ways. In the millennium righteousness must first have its way before peace can come in... This is of course as true for the present as for the future, and fulfilled in the gospel in a far more wondrous way. As the effect of righteousness by the Cross peace has come to us, and our Melchizedek has indeed made good His name.
Melchizedek serves God under a particular name: "God Most High." That name says something about who God is.
But above all he was priest of the Most High God. This is the name of God as supreme Governor of all things, and Genesis adds: Possessor of heaven and earth... In Abraham's walk of faith, the name of God for him was "The Almighty." But here Abraham has won a victory over the kings of the earth. So Melchizedek, the king of righteousness, blesses him in connection with God as Possessor of heaven and earth, the Most High. This looks onward to the royalty of Christ, a Priest upon His throne, when by the will and the power of God He shall have triumphed over all His enemies.
Did he offer the bread and wine to God as a sacrifice? William Kelly says no, and points to what the scene lacks.
The priesthood here is clearly unlike any other. Melchizedek offers no sacrifice, and there is no intercession either. He brings out bread and wine for man, without a word of sprinkling blood before God.
The two elements carry their plain, everyday use: one feeds, the other gladdens.
Melchizedek, King of Salem (King of righteousness, King of peace) appears with bread, which speaks of the food that keeps life going. He also brings wine, which speaks of joy (Psalm 104:15). He came on the scene as "priest of God Most High," "Possessor of heaven and earth."
He did not appear during the battle. He appeared in the gap between Abram's victory and the king of Sodom's offer.
This stranger, commissioned by God, was on his way to fortify Abram's heart at the very moment when the enemy was on his way to attack... The enemy was about to hold out his shiny bait in front of the man of God. So Melchizedek is on hand to set the realities of God's kingdom before his eyes. He was about to feed and strengthen Abram's soul with the "bread" of the kingdom, and cheer him with its "wine," so that in the strength of that food he might rise above every attraction the world could offer.
So his ministry looks both ways: back over the fight just won, and on to the one about to begin.
The "bread and wine" refreshed Abraham's spirit after his fight with Chedorlaomer, the king he had just beaten. The blessing prepared his heart for his next fight, with the king of Sodom. Abraham had just conquered, and yet he was about to fight again. The royal priest refreshed the conqueror's spirit and strengthened the fighter's heart.
- Two crowns. King and priest meet in one man here — a pairing Scripture gives to no one else but Christ.
- Two names. Righteousness comes first, then peace: his name before his city, and the cross before our peace.
- Two hands. He brings bread and wine to a man, not a sacrifice to God — no blood and no intercession in this scene.
- Two conflicts. The bread and wine refresh the soldier coming out of battle. The blessing arms him for the temptation walking toward him.
- Two possessions. He names God "Most High, possessor of heaven and earth" Faith holds that title now. Christ will display it when He reigns as Priest upon His throne.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth.
Abram has just come back from rescuing Lot, and a king and priest named Melchizedek meets him with bread and wine. The blessing names God by a title that shapes everything Abram does next.
The title is not just another word for God. It points to one way in which He rules.
"Most High" is always the name of God that marks Him out as supreme over the earth. See, for instance, what Melchizedek said to Abraham when he came out to meet him, after the defeat of the kings who had carried off Lot: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:19). The same name meets us in Daniel 4:24-25. There it presents God to Nebuchadnezzar as the One who, in His rule over the earth, was about to step in and judge him.
The title also answered the state of the world at that time.
When man went astray and made many gods and many lords, He was then the Most High God.
The bread and wine come with a second title, and it reaches over both realms.
Abram takes this food from the heavenly priest. He receives the blessing Melchizedek gives him, the blessing of the Most High. That title speaks of His supremacy over all — over kings and all the power of the enemy, King of kings and Lord of lords. He is "Possessor of heaven and earth." That title will be openly displayed in the coming thousand-year kingdom of our Lord, yet it is already true for faith at all times.
Melchizedek does not appear before the battle. That order is itself part of the picture.
The battle Abraham fought, the first one recorded in Scripture, is a picture of the last battle of this age. That conflict brings in the reign of peace founded on righteousness, when God will show Himself as the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. Sin cut the earth off from what is above it. Since then heaven and earth have not been joined, and the power of God has not taken hold of them for the blessing of man… But the day is coming when Israel will rebel no more and the nations will no longer be deceived. Satan will be thrown down from the evil height he holds, every idol will vanish, and God will be left the undisputed and plainly Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth.
Verse 19 blesses Abram; the next verse blesses God. Melchizedek's work as priest is not what one expects:
He does not offer sacrifices at all. He blesses up, and he blesses down. After the victory of Abram is complete, he blesses him from the Most High God, and then he blesses the Most High God.
And the direction of the blessing settles a question of rank — Abram, the man of promise, is the one receiving.
Abram owned goods on earth, but as yet he owned nothing of what God had promised him. To be blessed by the One who is Possessor of heaven and earth must have meant a great deal to him. Abram received the blessing, and he gave a tenth of everything… And since the greater blesses the lesser, we see, as Hebrews 7 points out, that as priest Melchizedek ranked above Abram and above the priesthood of Aaron.
The king of Sodom is waiting with an offer. Abram meets him holding the words he has just heard.
It is especially sweet to notice the way Melchizedek introduces God to Abraham's thoughts. He calls Him "God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth." More than that, he declares Abraham "blessed" by that same God. This was what really prepared him for the king of Sodom. A man who was "blessed" by God did not need to take anything from the enemy. If "the Possessor of heaven and earth" filled his sight, "the goods" of Sodom could hold little attraction.
The scene also reaches into the present:
Melchizedek also pronounces a blessing on Abram (v. 19), just as the Lord Jesus pours His blessing on the church of God from heaven today. His hands were raised in blessing as He went up to glory after His resurrection, and this stays true through the whole present age of God's grace.
- Victory first. Melchizedek comes only after Abram defeats the kings. Scripture's first war pictures the last, and after it God stands out as Most High.
- Name. "Most High" is God supreme over the earth, the answer to a world that had multiplied gods.
- Gift. Abram owned none of the promise yet, and the One who owns heaven and earth called him blessed.
- Reach. The priest blesses downward to man and upward to God, and by blessing Abram he shows himself the greater.
- Result. Filled with the Possessor of heaven and earth, Abram had no appetite left for the goods of Sodom.
And blessed be the Most High God, who has delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him the tenth of all.
Abram comes home from rescuing his nephew, and a priest-king meets him with a blessing that runs both ways — from God to Abram, and from men back to God. Abram answers with a tenth of everything, which raises two questions: who won the battle, and who is greater than Abram?
Melchizedek speaks good of God as well as of Abram. One writer traces what that second blessing has to do with worship:
Blessing is often given a special meaning when addressed to God, and this meaning is closely related to worship and priestly service. The first priest in the Bible is Melchizedek, in Genesis 14. He came out to meet the victorious Abram, and he not only blessed Abram but also blessed God. This double blessing comes out from God to men, and then rises from men to God in response. Ephesians 1:3 shows it beautifully: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us." To bless means to "speak good." God's speaking good about His people has enriched them beyond all human dreams. Our speaking good to God cannot and does not enrich Him. But such a response from His children answers His love and gives Him His true place. It always rises to Him as a sweet aroma.
The blessing gives God the credit for handing the enemies over. One writer turns that into a question for the reader:
Then, on Abram's behalf, Melchizedek blessed God for the victory that had been granted. "Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" Let us stop and ask ourselves a question here. Is the Lord on high able to give thanks for victories we have gained? Does victory or defeat mark our lives? Are we like Abram, overcomers of the world, or like Lot, overcome by the world?
Abram gives a tenth of everything, and Hebrews reads that act as a ranking. The one who receives tithes and pronounces blessing stands above the one who pays and is blessed:
Abram paid tithes to Melchizedek. More than that, Melchizedek blessed him. As we are told, "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." The person who gives a blessing is greater than the person who receives it. So Abram did not try to bless Melchizedek. Abram's act implied that he was under Melchizedek. Melchizedek's act implied that he was over Abram. Here is a double illustration and witness of surpassing dignity.
That ranking reaches past Abram to the priesthood that came later:
The inferior is blessed by the superior. So, as Hebrews 7 points out, Melchizedek as priest took precedence over Abram and over the Levitical priesthood of Aaron. Once we know the One this picture points to, how clear it becomes!
One writer applies that word "all" to the reader's own life:
Everything you own belongs to God, and you are only a steward. But while many readily admit this in a general way, that is not all we have to consider. God has a particular claim beyond it. He claims a place in your everyday calculations — not just any place, and not second place, but first place… You may give Him a large portion of your time, intellect or money in a legal spirit. You may think you can then use the rest for yourself. And you can still be far, far away from the blessing… We read that Abraham gave him tithes — not of some, but of ALL. These are the terms. Place is greater than portion.
Melchizedek does not plead for Abram; he blesses him. One writer draws out the character of that priesthood:
But the priestly act of Melchizedek was blessing, not intercession — blessing from the Most High God. This is priesthood exercised in its Melchizedek character. The King of righteousness and peace blesses the people God has accepted. What a blessed, refreshing thought — evil is gone, and blessing flows out unhindered through the great High Priest, the Priest of the Most High God, who possesses heaven and earth.
The king of Sodom then offers Abram the plunder, and Abram turns it down. One writer ties that refusal to what Abram had just received:
Abram won the second victory, brighter still than the first, through fellowship with the very springs of divine strength. The patriarch's spirit was in victory here, as his arm had been before. He had so taken in what the King of Salem said, and so fed on the bread and wine of that royal, priestly stranger, that the king of Sodom spread out his feast in vain. Abraham's soul had been in heaven, and he could not go back to the world.
- Blessing down. Melchizedek speaks good of Abram from God. All blessing starts in that direction.
- Blessing up. The same priest turns and speaks good of God — the response that Scripture ties to worship.
- Credit given. The blessing calls the victory God's deliverance, not Abram's achievement.
- Tenth returned. Abram's gift admits a greater than himself, and with him, a priesthood greater than Aaron's.
- World refused. Fed by the King of Salem, Abram had nothing left to want from Sodom.
And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the souls, and take the property for thyself.
The battle is over and Sodom's king makes Abram an offer: keep the goods, just give back the people. Commentators call this a second battle — fought with a gift, not a sword — and they ask why Melchizedek appears just before it.
The world tried force against Abram and failed. Now it tries kindness, which writers see as the greater danger.
Abraham is not only victorious over the hostility of the world. He also stands firm against both its horrors and its gifts. We may rise above the world's hatred, and yet fall beneath its kindness. And we are never more in danger of a fall than in the moment of a victory. This the enemy knows full well and so comes with his temptations at a moment when we may be off guard.
Sodom's king goes out to meet Abram in verse 17, but he does not speak until verse 21. In between comes the priest with bread and wine.
This stranger, commissioned by God, was on his way to fortify Abram's heart at the very moment when the enemy was on his way to attack (compare verses 17, 18, and 21). So why did "the priest of the Most High God" not come to meet Abram earlier? Because this was the very moment when Abram most needed the strength he had to bring. The enemy was about to hold out his attractive bait in front of the man of God. So Melchizedek is there first, to set the divine realities of the kingdom before his eyes.
Sodom's king asks for the very lives Abram went to war to recover, and offers payment Abram never wanted. Older translations read "souls" where the ESV has "persons."
The king of Sodom tells Abram he will take the souls, but leave the goods to Abram. But it was for the sake of the soul of Lot that Abram had fought: he had no interest in the goods... The Possessor of heaven and earth had rescued Sodom. That should have driven Sodom to see they needed the same faith as Abram — a faith that gives God the first place. But the ungodly world only walks by sight, not by faith.
Abram had just heard that he was blessed by the God who owns heaven and earth. That changed what Sodom's goods were worth to him.
A man who was "blessed" by God did not need to take anything from the enemy. If "the possessor of heaven and earth" filled his vision, "the goods" of Sodom could hold little attraction... Abraham refuses to let the king of Sodom make him rich. How could he think of delivering Lot from the power of the world, if the world governed him? The only true way to deliver another is to be fully delivered myself.
There was a second reason to refuse.
Now that he was in touch with the Possessor of heaven and earth, the goods of Sodom had no value for him, however attractive they seemed to others. On top of that, they were all stained with the huge sins of that city, and they carried that defilement with them.
The king's offer looks generous. One writer points out that Abram's answer is more generous still, and that it does not stop with himself.
Abram at once shows us that faith is more generous still. He knows what it is to be rich toward God. He refuses to tarnish His testimony by anything that would let the king of Sodom say, "I have made Abram rich." At the same time he pleads for the others. However self-denying Abram's grace may be, his large heart does not forget what is due to those who did not have his faith. He asks for Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, who had helped him.
The same test comes to Christ, and through Him to us.
The pilgrim man of faith sees Christ claiming, on God's part, all that is His own. That sight is the true antidote to the world's offers. Christ could not accept the kingdoms of the world from Satan's hand, but only from His Father. His followers can no more accept riches from a world that has rejected Christ for Satan. And that bread and wine which we receive from our true Melchizedek is the memorial of those sufferings that alone make us rich. For anyone who has tasted it, it means refusing a portion here.
- Victory — the moment after a win is the moment of greatest danger; the enemy who lost by force returns with a gift.
- Provision — God sent bread, wine and blessing before the offer came. He feeds His people ahead of the test.
- Fullness — the man who knows the Possessor of heaven and earth sees Sodom's goods as small. They are also stained with that city's sin.
- Refusal — Abram will not let the world claim credit for his wealth. Only a man free of the world can pull another out of it.
- Generosity — his refusal binds himself alone. He still asks that his allies receive their share.
And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth,
The king of Sodom offers Abram all the recovered spoil. Abram answers with an oath, sworn under a name for God he had heard only minutes before.
Melchizedek, the priest who had just blessed Abram, named God in a way Abram had not heard before. One writer traces what that name did to Abram's sight:
Melchizedek leads Abram's soul into present communion with "THE MOST HIGH GOD, THE POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH." This completes the wonderful contrast between "the King of Sodom" and "the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth" — "the goods of Sodom" and the vast possessions of heaven and earth. What a contrast, which faith always draws! Abram at once rejects the offer of the King of Sodom. The bread and wine, and the blessing of "the priest of the Most High God," had lifted Abram to such a height that he could take in the vast possessions of heaven and earth in one sweeping glance. From there he could look down on the contemptible proposal of the King of Sodom and reject it.
The title is not decoration. It marks God out as supreme over every rival claim to rule:
I have been looking into the force of the Hebrew words for Most High. It clearly refers, in the end, to God in the millennium — the coming age of His reign — as the supreme God then revealed, with everything false shut out. This is the force of the word. It names the One who, above and beyond all others, holds the place of the one true God, exalted as supreme in government. Jehovah is, as we know, the God who is in relationship with Israel, but He is the supreme God, the Most High. The full statement of the title, and the time of taking it, is in Genesis 14:19-20, 22. Israel's enemies are completely defeated and given into his hand. The heir of promise receives blessing from Him who possesses heaven and earth. He is supreme, and has taken all things into His possession.
Abram does not just repeat what he heard. He joins the new title to the covenant name of God, printed as "the LORD" in the ESV and as "Jehovah" in older translations:
Abram rejected the evil temptation of Sodom's king because Melchizedek had made known the name of God in a new way, "The most high God." Abram uses this new title and adds "Jehovah" to "the most high God."
Raising the hand was the gesture of swearing. Abram had settled the question with God before the king of Sodom ever asked it:
He tells him he had sworn to the Lord God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth. He would take nothing at all that belonged to Sodom, not even the most trivial thing. Otherwise the king of Sodom could take the credit for making Abram rich (vv. 22-23). The Possessor of heaven and earth had brought about a deliverance for Sodom. That should have driven Sodom to realise they needed the same faith as Abram — a faith that gives God the first place. But the ungodly world only walks by sight, not by faith.
A man already supplied has nothing to gain from an offer:
So, in verse 23, we find language of great decision. The young men had eaten certain things, and Abram's allies and helpers might take their portion. But as for himself, he would take nothing, not even the smallest item. He had been so fully enriched, both spiritually and materially, by God Himself, that he needed nothing more. Giving the king of Sodom the chance to say he had made Abram rich would have spoiled his testimony to that. It is the same in principle for us today. If we are enjoying the spiritual blessings that are ours, we have no need and no desire for the gifts or backing of the world.
Abram had just heard the title from someone else. That raises an uncomfortable question about our own vocabulary:
Has he merely picked up Melchizedek's phrasing in speaking of God like this? How easy it is to pick up mere forms of speech — words and expressions whose meaning and power we do not know! How far are we prepared to be held responsible for the language of even the hymns we sing?
- Seen — Abram met the priest of the Most High before he met the king of Sodom. That order decided everything: seeing God as Possessor made Sodom's offer look small.
- Supreme — "Most High" names God as the one true God above every rival, holding all things in His possession. Commentators link the full taking of this title to His coming reign.
- Sworn — Abram joins the covenant name, the LORD, to the new title and lifts his hand in an oath. He had settled it with God before the offer came.
- Shielded — He refuses the smallest item, so no one can ever claim credit for making him rich. His testimony to a God who supplies stays unspoiled.
- Satisfied — Enjoy the blessings God has given, and the world's offers lose their pull. The danger is repeating Abram's words without knowing their power.