Pastor John,
Actually who was Melchizedek? What did GOD mean when HE said Melchizedek was the image of the Holy Ghost?
Lona Faye
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God never said that, Lona Faye. At least, it isn’t in the Bible. Melchizedek was just a man who served as a priest to God in very
ancient time.
jdc
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Pastor John
I feel you didn’t understand my question. Please help me understand. I will try to explain myself better.
In Hebrews 7:3, Paul says that Melchizedek was without father or mother. The Most High God is the Father of Jesus (Luke 1:32). But, God WAS NOT the father of Melchizedek. Paul is clearly saying that Melchizedek, like the Most High God, was without parents. Neither of them had beginning of days nor end of life. The two of them had always lived and there had never been a time that each of them had not lived. Melchizedek had always possessed life inherent. Life was not given to Him, He was not anyone’s son.
“’You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek . . . ‘ ” (Hebrews 5:5-6, NKJV)
“Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’ ” (Luke 24:1-5, NKJV). Melchizedek is He who lives.
What is this saying? Jesus was Melchizedek in the beginning, and when he was born of Mary he became the Son of God in the order of Melchizedek who had to be preeminent in righteousness. He had to be the “king” of righteousness.
Malachi said that the Sun of Righteousness would arise with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2). Malachi was precluded from using the word “son” because that would have implied that the One who became Jesus was someone other than Melchizedek. The term “Son” would have suggested that Jesus was in some way a son or a descendant of Melchizedek. Actually, the prophetic Sun of Righteousness and the King of Righteousness is the same person, Jesus Christ. Malachi said the Sun of Righteous would arise, and he meant that in a literal sense. Christ will descend from the sky, but before He descends, He will have to ascend (see Psalm 82:8).
Am I even more confused? Please help me understand!
Lona Faye
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Hi Lona Faye!
Thank you for writing back.
Jesus was not Melchizedek. Melchizedek was just a man, possibly the greatest character who ever lived before Jesus, according to Hebrews 7:6-7. He was probably a Canaanite, but at any rate, he was human. He had both a father and a mother; there was just no historical record of them. The author of Hebrews was not saying Melchizedek was non-human. He was simply using the priesthood of Melchizedek as a pattern for the priesthood of Jesus. As far as the priesthood was concerned, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary and (it was believed) of Joseph, was “without father or mother”, too. One’s genealogical record was of extreme importance under the law; if a priest lost the record of his genealogy so that he could no longer prove on paper that he descended from Aaron, he was kicked out of the priesthood. This happened to a family of priests. During the Babylonian captivity, they had lost the record of their ancestry, and “these sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood” (Ezra 2:62; Neh, 7:64).
In pointing out that there is no historical record of Melchizedek’s birth or death, the author of Hebrews is simply using the lack of historical records to make another point. Melchizedek was born, and he did die. We just don’t have any record of when or where. But Melchizedek was born, and he did die. He is, in a figure, like the Son of God, in that there is no historical record of when he came into existence, but his human birth did take place.
Melchizedek is not the one being referred to, in the phrase “he who lives”, in Hebrews 7:8. “He who lives” is Jesus Christ. He receives the tithes that God’s children bring to men on earth if they bring God’s tithes to a man anointed by God to minister heavenly things to them and to receive those tithes.
For centuries, from every theological direction, there has been mountains made out of the simple mole hill that we find in Hebrews 7 concerning Melchizedek. He was a very great man, but he was human. He was not an angel; nor was he the Son of God. You can forget what you have been previously taught about Melchizedek, and you need not fear that you will displease the Lord by doing so.
I hope my explanation helps. Although there were many holy men in ancient history used as figures of the Son by the writers of the New Testament, no one is like the Son of God to the extent that you have been taught that Melchizedek was.
Thanks again for writing. God bless.
Pastor John