For this Melchisedec, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from smiting the kings, and blessed him;
The writer of Hebrews goes back to one short scene in Genesis. A king who was also a priest met Abraham on his way home from war. Everything hangs on who this man was, what this verse calls God, and why so brief a meeting says more about Christ than Israel's whole priesthood could.
Was this man real, or only a figure in a story? And how did he hold two offices Israel always kept apart?
He was a real person, not an imaginary one — a man like any one of us, but king and priest at the same time. In the Levitical service and in Israel's history these two offices were quite distinct. The high priest was of the tribe of Levi. The king was of the tribe of Judah... Melchizedek, however, was priest of the Most High God, and both Testaments describe him that way. God owned him as a priest. He was also King of Salem, the city we believe later became Jerusalem. So he held both offices in one person. That is true of no one else but the Lord Jesus Christ.
This verse calls God "the Most High" — not the name Abraham lived under day by day. Both the title and this man's priesthood point ahead.
Melchizedek was king of Salem, that is, king of peace, and his own name means king of righteousness. Righteousness and peace mark his reign. But above all he was priest of the Most High God. This is the name of God as supreme Ruler of all things — and Genesis adds, Possessor of heaven and earth... For Abraham's walk of faith, the name of God was "The Almighty." Here Abraham has beaten the kings of the earth. Melchizedek, the king of righteousness, blesses him, and that blessing comes in connection with God as Possessor of heaven and earth, the Most High. This looks on to the royal rule of Christ, a Priest upon His throne, when by the will and the power of God He has triumphed over all His enemies... His royalty was not all. Psalm 110 describes Melchizedek as a priest with a lasting, unbroken priesthood. Unlike the sons of Aaron, he had no priestly genealogy, and his term of service had no fixed end.
Melchizedek does not appear during the fight. He comes out only when the battle is over. The mystery around him is deliberate too.
This man is deliberately wrapped in mystery. In certain ways he is "made like to the Son of God", so that he can serve as a fitting picture of our great High Priest, the Son of God. The enemy kings had carried off the people of God as captives. Only after their defeat does Melchizedek come out to meet Abraham. He was also the "priest of the Most High God". By that defeat of the kings, God had shown that He can deliver His people from their enemies and overthrow every rival power.
The verse says he blessed Abraham. In Genesis he blesses God too.
In his priesthood Melchizedek stood between Abraham and God. As the representative of God before man, he blessed Abraham on behalf of God; as the representative of man before God, he blessed the Most High God on behalf of Abraham. He brings blessing from God to man, and leads the praise from man to God.
If Melchizedek's day is still future, what is Christ doing for His people now? Hebrews answers by keeping two things apart.
The all-important truth to grasp is this: the Epistle argues only from "the order" of Melchizedek, in contrast with the order of Aaron. When it speaks of priesthood in action, Aaron is the type, not Melchizedek. Then we hear of sacrifice and intercession, of blood shed and a sanctuary, and of Israel's priestly ritual. Clearly none of that belongs to Melchizedek. It belongs to Aaron, who pictures what the Lord is doing now above, on the ground of His atoning work for sin.
Yet the Genesis scene still speaks to believers today. Melchizedek came out with something in his hands.
Abram the Hebrew — the name means "pilgrim" — is coming back from his fight with the kings of the East. At the king's valley Melchizedek brings out the "bread and wine". They speak to us so clearly of our Royal Priest's provision for us, and they carry the memorial of a sacrifice offered once for all... Abraham's faith counts God to be "Possessor of heaven and earth". Faith now receives that very same ministry from the true Melchizedek, and owns God as Possessor in the place where He looks most displaced.
- Person — Melchizedek was a real man who wore the crown and held the priesthood at once. Israel's law never allowed that, and his priesthood had no genealogy behind it and no fixed end. Only Christ fulfils it.
- Name — "Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth" is God's title as ruler of all. It points on to Christ reigning as a Priest upon His throne.
- Moment — he comes out only after the kings fall, so the scene pictures blessing on the far side of victory.
- Ministry — he blessed Abraham from God, and blessed God for Abraham. A priest carries blessing down and praise back up.
- Order — Hebrews argues from Melchizedek's order, not from priesthood in action. Christ's present work of intercession follows the Aaron pattern. Faith today still receives the bread and wine of the true Melchizedek.
to whom Abraham gave also the tenth portion of all; first being interpreted King of righteousness, and then also King of Salem, which is King of peace;
Melchizedek, the king-priest who met Abraham after a battle, gets only a few verses in Genesis — yet this verse turns on the meaning of his two titles and the order they come in. Why does righteousness come first, what does Abraham's tenth prove, and is Salem a city or a title?
The two titles say what the King-Priest is in Himself, and what He has secured for us.
We look at Him next as Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1-3), both King and Priest. As King He displaces Moses, Joshua, David and all the kings who had gone before Him. He is King of "righteousness." His kingship rests on two things: His own righteousness, and the way He has magnified the righteousness of God. He is also "King of peace." That is, He has brought about eternal peace, and on that ground God can be the God of peace for us.
The order of the two titles is fixed: righteousness first, peace second. That order is a principle of God's ways, and it runs from the coming kingdom back to the cross.
First, his name is Melchizedek, that is, "King of righteousness," then "King of Salem," that is, "King of Peace." That is always a principle in the divine ways. In the coming kingdom righteousness must first have its way before peace can come in. As the prophet says, "The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever" (Isa. 32:17). This is of course as true for the present as for the future, and fulfilled in the gospel in a far more wonderful way. As the effect of righteousness by the Cross, peace has come to us, and our Melchizedek has indeed made good His name.
Reverse the order and nothing holds.
Notice too the emphasis on the order. He is first "King of righteousness"; after that, "King of peace." Until righteousness has every demand met, there can be no true reign and no peace at all.
Commentators differ on whether Salem names a real city or only carries a meaning.
Salem is probably the title of Melchizedek as king of peace (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1-2). Various cities, however, have been suggested. Some think the name points to Jerusalem. Jerome was sure the true place was a town named Salem, near Scythopolis. Others judge it to be a title.
Abraham had just won a battle, and he gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek. Why does Hebrews make so much of it?
The apostle says: think how great this man is. Even Abraham, the head of the Hebrew race, gave him the tenth of the spoil. The giving of the tenth was the acknowledgment of superiority. Tithes are given to a superior. So if there was One above the head of the whole Jewish race, how important for the Hebrews to dwell not on the greatness of Abraham, but on the One greater, even Christ Himself!
That one gift reaches forward to the whole priesthood Israel later lived under.
The writer brings forward Melchizedek and his connection with Abraham for one chief purpose. It is to show that Melchizedek was greater than Levi, and that his priesthood was better and higher than the Levitical priesthood. Abraham gave him the tenth part of all the spoil. The whole Levitical priesthood did not yet exist. Levi was not yet born; he was still in the body of Abraham, his ancestor. So in Abraham, Levi gave tithes to Melchizedek.
The same order — righteousness, then peace — marks Christ's priesthood now, and points on to a victory still ahead.
Even in the Lord Jesus we find the same order, as in Hebrews 7:2: "He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace." Such is the application of Melchizedek, king-priest of Salem. It is a picture already more than fulfilled in the order of Christ's priesthood now. Its exercise waits for the end of the age, after the victory over the Beast and the kings of the earth and their armies.
- Order — The verse fixes a sequence: righteousness first, peace after. That is a principle of God's ways, not an accident of one man's names.
- Person — Christ is King of righteousness by what He is. He is King of peace by what He has secured, so God can be the God of peace toward us.
- Cross — The same order runs through the gospel now. Peace comes to us as the effect of righteousness at the cross.
- Tenth — Abraham's tenth owned a greater man. Levi was still in Abraham, so Levi's whole priesthood owned it too.
- Kingdom — Melchizedek met Abraham after a victory. Christ's priesthood already has that order, and its full exercise waits for the end of the age.