Who was Melchizedek

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Melchizedek and Abraham

^{Genesis 14:17}  (Where Abraham has just defeated Chedorlaomer, and rescued Lot from captivity)
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"And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.  And he blessed him and said:

“ Blessed be Abram of God Most High,  Possessor of heaven and earth;

 And blessed be God Most High,  Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

And he (Abraham) gave him (Melchizedek) a tithe of all.

Melchizedek appears out of nowhere, 

fourteen chapters into the first book of the Bible.   

Before there were Levites or any official priesthood,

a priest appears, apparently appointed by God himself. 

Melchizedek was important enough that even Abraham

tithed to him from the spoils of battle.

And yet, very little mention is made of him for the next 1000 years. 

And then in Psalms,  David relates a conversation between God and the future Messiah

 (who would be a descendant of David).

Psalm 110 –A Psalm of David.

¹ The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,  Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
² The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

³ Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
⁴ The LORD has sworn and will not relent,
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” 

So the Messiah would be a priest, but not a Levite,
(since he would be descended from David, of the tribe of Judah). 
He would be a priest from a higher order,
one appointed directly by God, just as Melchizedek had been.

Another 1000 years passes and Christ now has been crucified and resurrected. 

In Hebrews, the writer says:

Hebrews 5:1 

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
 “ 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 7:1

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, ² to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³ 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. 

Melchizedek's name means "King of Righteousness, King of Peace". 

He had no genealogy, no beginning or end and he was made "like the Son of God". 

His role as high priest allowed the Messiah to assume

that role as well and absolved him from having to be a Levite. 

For these reasons, many people believe that Melchizedek

was actually Christ in the book of Genesis.

As a result, there is a wide array of opinon on who

Melchizedek really was and what he stood for.

Charles Spurgeon:
"Consider how great this man was" as to the singularity of his person, "without father, without mother, without descent": that is to say, we know nothing as to his birth, his origin, or his history. Even this explanation hardly answers to the words, especially when it is added, "Having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." So mysterious is Melchizedek that many deeply-taught expositors think that he was veritably an appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are inclined to believe that he was not a king of some city in Canaan, as the most of us suppose, but that he was a manifestation of the Son of God, such as were the angels that appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre, and that divine being who appeared to Joshua by Jericho, and to the three holy ones in the furnace. At any rate, you may well consider how great this man was when you observe how veiled in cloud is everything about his coming and going—veiled because intended to impress us with the depth of the sacred meanings which were shadowed forth in him.

John Macarthur:

"And so he introduces Melchizedek, and he says, "Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." Now, there's all kinds of conjecture about who Melchizedek is. Some insist that he is an angel, and this is a common thought. However, in chapter 5 verse 1, I think that is done away with, because it says, "Every high priest is taken from among men." Therefore, he couldn't be an angel.  Others suggest that he is Jesus Christ, and the reason they say that is because there is so much mystery around him. However, it says in verse 3, "He was made like unto the Son of God." It does not say, "He was the Son of God." A rose is not like a rose. A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, you know. There's a difference between being like something and being that thing, and I think, clearly, that, in my own heart and mind, Melchizedek is neither angel or Christ, but he is a type of Christ, a man...whom God designs to use as a picture of Jesus Christ. But it's not for us to play with that anyway. The secret things belong to the Lord, so we don't wanna spend a lot of time on that.

A.W. Tozer

"The Genesis appearance of Melchizedek is brief and without explanation in Old Testament history. More information is offered by the writer to the Hebrews. When he notes that Melchizedek was "without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life" (Hebrews 7:3), the writer simply was saying that Melchizedek had no "family tree," no genealogical records through which his origins could be traced. In short, we do not know where he came from".

John Calvin:

"For this Melchizedek, etc. He (the writer of Hebrews) has hitherto been stimulating the Jews by exhortations, that they might attentively consider the comparison between Christ and Melchizedek. At the end of the last chapter, that he might return from his digression to his subject, he quoted again the passage from the Psalms; and now he enters fully into what he had before slightly referred to; for he enumerates particularly the things connected with Melchizedek, in which he resembled Christ.

It is indeed no wonder that he dwells so minutely on this subject. It was doubtless no common thing that in a country abounding in the corruptions of so many superstitions, a man was found who preserved the pure worship of God; for on one side he was nigh to Sodom and Gomorrah, and on the other to the Canaanites, so that he was on every side encompassed by ungodly men. Besides, the whole world was so fallen into impiety, that it is very probable that God was nowhere faithfully worshipped except in the family of Abraham; for his father and his grandfather, who ought to have retained true religion, had long before degenerated into idolatry.

It was therefore a memorable fact, that there was still a king who not only retained true religion, but also performed himself the office of a priest. And it was doubtless necessary that in him who was to be a type of the Son of God all things excellent should be found: and that Christ was shadowed forth by this type is evident from the Psalm referred to; for David did not say without reason, "Thou art a priest forever after the order Melchizedek;" no, but on the contrary, by these words a sublime mystery was recommended to the Church".