Hebrews 7:1-10

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We're at Hebrews chapter 7 verses 1 through 10. We've talked a lot about Melchizedek. Who is he? How is he tied to Jesus? Let's go ahead and talk about that today. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, what a blessing it is that we get to read your word. Lord, we pray that you would please help us. Lord, help it to seep deep within our hearts to become a joy to us. That we might love you because of it, that we might have our eyes enlightened, that we might have hearts of faith to understand, that we might see, hear, know and believe. God, we need your spirit to do this in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Hebrews chapter seven, the first 10 verses. Here we go.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of all part of all, first being translated King of Righteousness and then also King of Salem, meaning King of Peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually, Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And indeed, those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham. But he whose genealogy is not derived from them receives tithes from Abraham, and blesses him who had the promises. Now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the greater. Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them. of whom it is witnessed that he lives. Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him?
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do about it? So, A, what is this about? Well, this whole passage is introducing us about how does Jesus tie together with Melchizedek? So, who was Melchizedek?
Well, we're able to go to Genesis chapter 14. You'd have to look two years ago in Coffee and Devotions to find that. But in Genesis chapter 14, Abraham, the one who received the promises from God, goes out to war, right? He goes out to war and he's victorious in the battle and he deserves all the spoils.
But then out of nowhere, this guy Melchizedek shows up, Melchizedek, right? So Melchizedek, this is Melchizedek, is king. Melchizedek is of righteousness. And so he just shows up out of nowhere. Now, where was he king of this King of Righteousness? Well, he was Melech Thalim, so King of Salem. Thalim is from the same root for Shalom, so the word for peace. So elsewhere translated King of Peace. So Melchizedek shows up out of nowhere.
He doesn't have any genealogy in the Bible. There's nothing that tells us in Scripture where his parents came from. There's nothing that tells us that he went off and he died somewhere. He he doesn't have a beginning. He doesn't have an end in Scripture.
He just shows up. And Abraham, who has the promises, comes to this Melchizedek, this king of righteousness, this king of peace. And he gives him a tent. A tithe of all the spoils of war. Very odd. And then this Melchizedek gives him bread and wine. This is interesting interchange between this King of Salem and the one who received the promises of God. Where did this Melchizedek come from? Where did this priesthood come from? I mean, he's acting as a priest to Abraham. He gives him bread and wine and he receives a tithe from Abraham. And so he says, what the author of the Hebrews is saying here is that. That.
King of righteousness, that Melchizedek had also promised in Psalm 110. That the Messiah would be of the order of Melchizedek. Genealogy that seems to come out of nowhere. and a life that seems to not end and a priesthood that endures forever. And he says, notice even the priest who came from Abraham's line, the Levites, in a sense, they give a tithe to a greater priesthood because they were in the loins of Abraham they were still within the body of Abraham is what he's saying metaphorically here that this the the Levites actually paid a tithe to a greater priesthood to Melchizedek himself so this whole point here is that Jesus is this type or Melchizedek was a type for Jesus That Melchizedek came out of nowhere.
He's gone. We don't know where he goes. The story just moves on. In a similar way, that's the way of Jesus's priesthood. He's a priest forever, according to God's appointment, according to God's design, according to God's purposes. And so he's greater than even Abraham.
Before Abraham was, I am, Jesus said. That got him into a lot of hot water, I'll tell you what, with the Jews. They did not like Jesus. They did not like Jesus saying that he was greater than Abraham, that he was greater than Moses. But Jesus indeed has a greater priesthood than even Aaron. And that's what we're going to be getting on to, right?
The whole book of Hebrews is a big section on how everything in the Old Testament, especially all the Levitical laws and the priesthood and the tabernacle and later the temple, all of that was pointing to Jesus. And here we get that way before the tabernacle, way before Moses, there was a priest who came out of nowhere.
His name was Melchizedek, king of righteousness, king of peace. He was a type of Jesus, our Prince of Peace, our King of Righteousness. That's what this passage is getting at, that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek. That's how he's a priest. So what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I have verse 6 and verse 9 underlined. That's what I have underlined in my Bible. Maybe you would have something else underlined. What would you do? Feel free to write in the comments. Last, seek calling. What are we called to do?
This gives us a great deal of hope. that God made promises to Abraham. Chapter 6 verses 10 through 19. God made all these promises to Abraham. He made them immutable. They weren't going to change because God's counsel doesn't change and he verified it with an oath with the truthfulness of his own name. And even Abraham, with those promises, bowed to Melchizedek.
And so the hope that we have is, if we have that same faith that is shown in Abraham, the promises God has made to us are just as good, because we serve one in the order of Melchizedek as well. We go to Jesus, who went behind the veil as our high priest. who sat down at the right hand of God the Father and who continually makes intercession for us. Our calling is to hope, to have that as a sure anchor of hope in our souls, that our priest lives forever because he's in the order of Melchizedek.
So take hope today. God's promises are sure. And Jesus is eternal as our high priest. Let's pray. God, what a cool thing it is to think about. how you accomplished so many amazing things in the past. And these all are meant to show us how good you are. Lord, please give us faith, give us hope. Let us persevere to the end.
Thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you trust and rest in Jesus Christ alone. I pray that these words would be stored up in your heart, that you would treasure them, and that you would practice it in your life. I'll see you next time. Bye.