The mystery priest of the Bible

Hebrews 7: God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being.

The writer of Hebrews spends a great deal of time talking about a little known person named Melchizedek from the Old Testament book of Genesis. Abraham goes out to fight a great battle which he wins by the help of God. As he returns with the people he’s rescued and the spoils of the battle this “king of Salem” greets him. Abraham, the man with the promise of God, treats him as a priest, giving him a tithe of the spoils and receives a blessing from him. It will be centuries before Abraham’s descendants will have a formal priesthood and the case could be made that if anyone’s positioned as a priest it would be Abraham, not this otherwise unknown man. The Hebrews writer concludes that Melchizedek was ordained to the priesthood by none other than the Lord and that in him we have a priesthood that operates completely outside the Levitical priesthood of Israel. Then, many centuries later, another priest who’s outside the Levitical tradition appears. In a much greater way, he serves in the priestly role. This great priest makes the ultimate sacrifice for sins and thus blesses all people. The writer of Hebrews connects the dots for us that here’s another priest ordained, not because of lineage and not by man, but by God’s own decree. In Jesus we have a never ending, absolutely effective, God-ordained priest.

Take Away: Jesus is our high priest. We need no other.