According to verse 2, Melchizedek is interpreted as the “king of righteousness,” and he is mentioned as the “king of Salem, which is king of peace.” As Melchizedek, Christ is not only a Priest but also a King; hence, He is a kingly, royal Priest.
Melchizedek was a king, and his name means the king of righteousness. According to Isaiah 32:1 we see that the title king of righteousness also refers to the Lord Jesus. Christ is the King of righteousness, today’s Melchizedek. As the King of righteousness, Christ has made all things right with God and with one another. He has reconciled man to God and has appeased God for man. Righteousness issues in peace (v. 17). By His righteousness Christ has brought forth the fruit of peace.
Melchizedek was also the king of Salem, which means the king of peace, signifying that Christ is also the King of peace (9:6). As the King of peace through righteousness, Christ has brought in peace between God and us. In peace He fulfills the ministry of His priesthood, ministering God to us for our enjoyment.
The first time that the Bible speaks of the priesthood, it tells of a wonderful person who was the king of peace. The second aspect of his title is that of the king of righteousness. If we do not have righteousness, we cannot have peace, because peace always comes from righteousness. With Melchizedek there was both righteousness and peace. Based upon this righteousness and peace, he ministered the bread and wine to Abraham. Our basis for coming to the Lord’s table is neither pity nor mercy; it is righteousness and peace. According to Romans 3, 4, and 5, righteousness has been reckoned to us, and we have been justified. As a result, we enjoy peace. Romans 3 and 4 give us righteousness and justification, and Romans 5 gives us peace under righteousness. Based upon this righteousness and peace, we may enjoy the bread and the wine at the Lord’s table. The One who brought in righteousness and peace is the One who ministers the bread and wine to us. He is our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Neither Aaron nor any of his descendants were ever a king. They were only priests. They were not of the kingly tribe but of the priestly tribe. The kingly tribe was the tribe of Judah, and the priestly tribe was the tribe of Levi. Christ came out of the tribe of Judah (Heb. 7:13-14). Thus, we should not rank Him with Aaron, for He does not belong to Aaron’s tribe. Christ is a kingly Priest.
Christ is the High Priest, but His status is that of a King. As He functions as a Priest, He is a King. He is the King to be the Priest; so His priesthood is kingly, royal (1 Pet. 2:9). He combines the kingship together with the priesthood (Zech. 6:13) for God’s building and for His glory. Christ’s kingship maintains a peaceful order through righteousness. This peaceful order is necessary for God’s building. The building of God’s house is in a situation of peace. Christ’s priesthood ministers all the supply needed for the building of God. In this His glory is manifested.
A priest who offers sacrifices for pitiful sinners does not need to be a king. In order to be such a priest, one does not need to be a king of righteousness or a king of peace. But in order for the High Priest to minister the processed God to a victorious fighter, He must be both the King of righteousness and the King of peace.
In Genesis 14:20 Melchizedek said, “Blessed be God the Most High, / Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” We should not think that Abraham himself was able to slaughter Chedorlaomer and the other kings, who took Lot, Abraham’s brother’s son, and his possessions. According to Genesis 14:22, before Abraham went out to fight the battle, he lifted up his hand to the Most High God. This means that before he fought with the enemies, he contacted God. Therefore, it was not Abraham who slaughtered the enemies but God.
When Abraham lifted up his hand to God, the situation was without righteousness and peace. There was no righteousness because Lot and all of his possessions had been captured by the enemies. There was no peace because the enemies had not been defeated. But as Abraham went out to fight the battle, he trusted in God. After Abraham had slaughtered the enemies and Melchizedek had come to meet him, there was righteousness and peace. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, brought in this righteousness and peace. As we previously pointed out, while Abraham was slaughtering Chedorlaomer and the other kings, Melchizedek must have been praying. It must have been through his intercession that righteousness and peace were brought in. The Most High God answered Melchizedek’s prayers and delivered Abraham’s enemies into his hands. After this intercession and Abraham’s victory, Melchizedek appeared.
The Christ who ministers as the High Priest is the interceding One. As we are fighting during the day, slaughtering the negative things, Christ, the High Priest, is interceding for us (Heb. 7:25). At the end of the day, when we have finished our fighting and He has finished His interceding, He comes to us with bread and wine to have an enjoyable time with us. This is our High Priest. While the victor was fighting, Melchizedek was watching and interceding. He saw Abraham’s victory and knew when to come with the bread and wine. The ministering Melchizedek must also have been the interceding high priest. This is the kind of High Priest that we have today in Christ.
Before our Melchizedek ministers the processed God to us, He intercedes for us, praying that we may take up our sword and slaughter the enemies. We must slaughter the self, the natural mind, the wild emotion, the stubborn will, and other enemies. While we are slaughtering the enemies, He is interceding for us. After we have finished our slaughtering, He will change His interceding to the ministering of bread and wine. The proper Christian life is to slaughter the enemies during the day and to enjoy the ministry of our Melchizedek with the bread and wine in the evening. At the end of every day, when the slaughtering and interceding have been accomplished, He and we, we and He, may have an enjoyable time enjoying the bread and wine in righteousness and peace.
Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. After he came, there was righteousness and peace. It was in such an environment and condition of righteousness and peace that Melchizedek ministered the bread and wine to the victor. It is the same today. We need to fight for righteousness, and righteousness will issue in peace. Eventually our environment and condition will be full of righteousness and peace, and our Melchizedek will appear to have an enjoyable time with us. This is the ministry of our kingly High Priest.
We have righteousness and peace, but righteousness and peace alone cannot satisfy us; we need something to eat and drink. We need our daily supply. Thus, based upon God’s righteousness and peace, our Melchizedek ministers the bread and wine for us to eat and drink. He has redeemed us, and now He feeds us.
While the Aaronic priesthood solves the problem of sin, the kingly priesthood ministers God to us, as our enjoyment for our daily supply. When we mention God, we must think of Him as the One who has been processed and imparted to us to be our daily supply. There is no better worship to God than enjoying Him as our supply. The more we eat and drink of God, the more worship we render to Him. Eating and drinking of God are the best worship. The worship that satisfies God’s heart’s desire to the uttermost is that we enjoy Him as our supply.
That man should eat and drink of God was the original and initial intention of God in His eternal plan (Gen. 2:9-10). In God’s eternal plan, God intended to dispense Himself into man to be man’s everything so that man might become His complete expression. This intention can be accomplished only by Christ’s kingly priesthood, which ministers the processed God to us as our daily supply. However, before this was accomplished, sin came in. Therefore, the problem of sin had to be solved. But solving the problem of sin was not the way God originally intended to fulfill His eternal purpose; instead, it was added later due to the entrance of sin caused by the fall of man. Because of man’s fall, sin came in to frustrate and damage God’s purpose of ministering Himself into man as man’s daily supply. Since Satan had brought in sin to frustrate God’s purpose, the problem of sin had to be solved. Hence, there was the need of the Aaronic priesthood, which was brought in to solve the problem of sin. By this we can see that the Aaronic priesthood was not a part of God’s initial intention but was added later. Many Christians, forgetting the initial things and concentrating on what was added later, neglect the kingly priesthood and concentrate on the Aaronic priesthood. The Aaronic priesthood solves the problem of sin, whereas the kingly priesthood fulfills God’s eternal purpose. The Aaronic priesthood took away sin, and the kingly priesthood brought in God as our grace.
Christ as our kingly High Priest is perpetual, eternal, without beginning or ending. Hebrews 7:3 says that Melchizedek is “without father, without mother, without genealogy; having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened to the Son of God, abides a priest perpetually.” This shows that the order of Christ’s priesthood is eternal, being neither established nor chosen by men but by God.
Unlike us, Christ is presented as One who has no human father or mother, no genealogy, no beginning of days or end of life. According to Genesis 14, Melchizedek suddenly appeared and then disappeared. He seems to have had no coming or going, no beginning of days or end of life. Because our Melchizedek is eternal, He has no genealogy.
For all the important persons in Genesis, except Melchizedek, there is a genealogy. In the divine writing, the Holy Spirit sovereignly gave no account of the beginning of Melchizedek’s days or of the end of his life, that he might be a proper type of Christ as the eternal One, as our perpetual High Priest. This corresponds with the presentation of the Son of God in the Gospel of John. Being eternal, the Son of God has no genealogy (John 1:1), but as the Son of Man, Christ does have a genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38).
Christ abides a priest perpetually. This means that He will be a priest continuously and forever. He is the perpetual One, the constant One, the eternal One, having no beginning of days or end of life. He abides the High Priest perpetually.
According to Hebrews 7:4-7, Christ is greater than Abraham. “Consider how great this one was, to whom the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the choice spoils. And they of the sons of Levi, who received the priestly service, have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though they have come forth from the loins of Abraham. But he whose genealogy is not counted from them has taken tithes from Abraham and has blessed him who has the promises. But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.”
Our High Priest, Christ, is great. He is much greater than Aaron and all the Levitical priests. He was also greater than Abraham. This is proved by the fact that Abraham gave tithes of the choice spoils to Melchizedek (vv. 4, 6; Gen. 14:20). When Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, the Levitical priests, who as descendants of Abraham were in his loins, also paid tithes to him. Therefore, all the Levitical priests are lesser than Melchizedek, and the order of Aaron is inferior to that of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham (Heb. 7:6), and this also indicates the greatness of Melchizedek. Verse 7 says, “Without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.” He was greater than Abraham, and he blessed him with God as the blessing (Gen. 14:19).
Although Christ is a descendant of Abraham, He is greater than Abraham. This is indicated by the Lord’s words to the Jews in John 8:58: “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” Christ as the great I Am is the eternal, ever-existing God. He was before Abraham and is greater than Abraham (v. 53). Before Abraham was, Christ was there already. Christ is not old, but He is ancient. As our Melchizedek, Christ is more ancient and greater than Abraham. Hence, He is greater than all the Aaronic priests.