Little as is said in Scripture of Melchisedec, he stands forth as a most remarkable and unique personality. Very little indeed is said of him in Genesis 14:18-20—two short verses—whilst one verse makes a very remarkable allusion to him in Psalm 110:4, throwing a flood of light on his typical significance. It remains for Hebrews 6:20; 7:1-10, 15-17, 21, to complete the picture, which it does in an astounding way, establishing fully what we say, that Melchisedec was a most remarkable and unique personality. Indeed so much is this so, that it demands from us the most careful consideration of him as presented in Scripture. In one way he demands more careful consideration than any character in the Bible outside that of our Lord Himself.
The two verses in Genesis 14:18-20 refer to the time when the Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Bela, five kings, fought with Chedorlaomer, the King of Elam, Tidal. King of nations, Amraphel, King of Shinar, and Arioch, King of Ellaser, four Kings, typical doubtless of the great conflict that will take place in the last days at Armageddon. In that conflict of the Kings, four against five, Abraham’s nephew, who lived in Sodom, was taken captive with all his goods. Abraham, hearing of this, armed his trained servants to the number of three hundred and eighteen, pursued after the enemy, smote them, and rescued his nephew and all his goods, his women and his people, no doubt illustrative of our Lord delivering His people by the victory of Armageddon and the deliverance of Jerusalem, when His feet shall touch the Mount of Olives, cleaving it in two, and making a way of escape for His people.
There then appears without any previous intimation whatever this mysterious individual Melchizedek. We are told he was the King of Salem—Melchizedek meaning King of righteousness, and Salem King of peace. His name and title shed light on Melchizedek as a type of our Lord. A King connotes invincible rule. Who can unite righteousness and peace? No mere earthly monarch can do this. This King of righteousness and peace approaches Abraham fresh from conflict, the very reverse of peace, and ministers bread and wine to him as the priest of the most high God. So Melchisedek is not only a King but also a Priest—a King speaking of righteousness and peace, and a priest speaking of approach to God and ministry from God. Who then can bring righteousness and peace to this troubled world? Only One, the Son of God. On what ground can He do this? That of the cross. There “righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10)—there “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 3:21) is manifested—there He “made peace by the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20), and, on the ground of that, the day is coming when war will end war, and our Lord Jesus, King of Righteousness and King of Peace will in His kingly and priestly characters minister righteousness and peace to this world (what we call the millennium), and reign as King and Priest upon His throne. So Zechariah gives us the beatific vision, “Even He shall build the temple of the Lord: and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne [Here is the KING—righteousness and peace]; and He shall be a Priest upon His throne [Here is the PRIEST, representing the people before God] and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (chap. 6:13).
Melchizedek ministered bread and wine, bread, sustainment; wine, joy. Abraham paid him tithes showing how great was this person.
We come now to Psalm 110:4. In that Psalm David, the writer, says, “The Lord [Jehovah] said to my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (v. 1). This clearly points to Christ, the Son of God. Lower down in the Psalm the Son of God is thus addressed, “The Lord has sworn and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (v. 4). Here we get a most important and illuminating statement. This unique and extraordinary person coming upon the scene with no previous intimation, in the fulness of his power and position is now nine centuries later identified by the shepherd-King of Israel as a type of Son of God in Psalm 110:4.
We come now to Hebrews 6:20; 7:1-22. Here we get a flood of light on Melchisedec.
It is remarkable that in chapter 3:1 we are bidden to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Moses is then spoken of as a type of Christ as the Apostle, and yet in contrast, for Moses at best was but a ministering servant, whereas our Lord was not only a Son, but the Son over God’s house. We might expect then next in order to have Aaron brought forward as typical of our Lord, as the High Priest, but instead of that we find Christ introduced as the High Priest, not after the Aaronic order but after the order of Melchisedec. The writer of the Hebrews argues that as Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, and Levi was yet in the loins of his father, the superiority of the Melchisedec priesthood over the Aaronic was established. That there should be a Melchisedec priesthood proved that perfection did not come by the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood played its part inasmuch as our Lord, though a high priest after the Melchisedec priesthood, functions during the present time after the Levitical order, till the moment comes when He shall come King and Priest upon His throne, fulfilling the type of Melchisedec.
But now we come to another point. In the Old Testament Melchisedec was a priest of the most high God; in the New Testament our Lord is presented as a high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Does this not associate us as priests with our blessed Lord? Whilst the display of His priesthood awaits the millennial age, the ministry of worship and supplication is our portion. As we enter into the holiest we find our blessed Lord there, our High Priest over the house of God.
Now we come to the very important statement that Melchisedec was made “like to the Son of God”—like to a Person WHO ALREADY EXISTED AS THE SON OF GOD.* How was Melchisedec made like to the Son of God? First he was “without father and mother.” This could not apply to Adam, he was without father and mother certainly, but the verse goes on to say, “having neither beginning of days nor end of life,” and Adam had beginning of days and end of life as told us in Scripture. It could not apply to our Lord in incarnation. If He only became the Son in incarnation, as the Son He had beginning of days. Moreover as born into this world He had in infinite grace a mother, but the unique character of His real manhood is guarded in that He had no earthly father as He had an earthly mother.
{*“He was made a priest like—in his priestly character—to the Son of God; but as yet, the latter [the Son of God] is in heaven.” Synopsis, Vol. v. J. N. Darby, p. 281.}
Speculation may work and we may say that Melchisedec had parents, but that they were unknown, that he was born and died, but his birthday and death-day are not recorded. This may or may not be. Let us not explain away this mystery that surrounds this exalted person. He was made “like to the Son of God.” If that be the case the Son of God was “without father, mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (Heb. 7:3). Only a Divine Person can fit this description in an absolute sense. Melchisedec may be “made like to the Son of God.” He was “made like” he was the type, the figure, the shadow, but the Son of God was the Antitype, the Substance, the Reality.
Only Deity can answer to Hebrews 7:3. The Son of God had neither earthly father nor earthly mother, He was uncreated. He was from all eternity. It is true that in the unity of the Godhead there was the Father, Son and Spirit—one God, but the Father did not beget the Son in the earthly sense in which we use the term begetting. There was ever the Father. There was ever the Son. There was ever the Spirit. There was ever one God in His absoluteness—Father, Son and Spirit. The Son of God had no beginning of days and will have no end of life. He is the Son of God from eternity to eternity. It is to be noted by those who teach that the Lord was only the Son in incarnation that it never says in the accounts of His birth in Matthew and Luke that He was begotten of the Father, but Joseph was told “that which is conceived in her [Mary] is of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 1:20); and the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
We have in another Scripture (John 5:18), the Holy Spirit’s own comment that sonship in our Lord means Deity. We read that the Jews sought to kill our Lord because He said that God was His Father. The Holy Spirit’s comment on this claim is found in the words, “making Himself equal with God.” Now there can be only one God—unique, underived, eternal, from whom emanates all the wonders of creation and the still greater wonders of spiritual creation, the Source of all good. If our Lord spoke of God as His Father, He claimed sonship, and if He is in that claim equal with God, it establishes the great truth of eternal sonship. The only true answer of this is that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God—one God, unity in trinity, three in one, and one in three, incomprehensible to us in its mystery, yet the revelation of which feeds our souls and fill our eyes with the glory of God. Our Lord is the eternal Son.
So “Melchisedec … was made like to the Son of God” in such a fashion as to present the Lord Jesus as eternally such.
No wonder we sing triumphantly,
“Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father’s only Son;
God manifest, God seen and heard.
The Heaven’s beloved One;
Worthy O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.’’