Hebrews: Christ Is Greater and BetterSýnishorn

Melchizedek–Priest and King Read Hebrews 7:1-10 Not being Hebrews and steeped in the Torah or Law we may find ourselves totally lost with this reference to Melchizedek. We are keen to go on and know more about being sure about our faith but instead run into this detour. We are taken back 2000 years before Jesus and told of how Abraham meets this ‘king of righteousness’ who was also priest of God Most High. He stood apart from Abraham and all the other kings who were on one side or the other in war. He blessed Abraham and received from him a ritually significant offering. Neither he nor his people are ever mentioned again. In Abraham’s day there were no other priests of God. Israel’s descendants who were to be priests were not yet born. Yet God planned this encounter to show that even the great Abraham needed a priestly mediator. In this passage, the meaning behind Melchizedek’s appearance is not yet discussed but here is a priest unlike the sons of Levi, one mysteriously sent by God. There is a reference to him in Psalm 110, which is a prophetic psalm significantly referring to the Messiah as a priest in the order of Melchizedek. God always provides the means we need to go to him. Our minds cannot grasp the majesty of the immortal and invisible God, nor can we approach him acceptably. We need a mediator and no one fits the role better than Jesus to be our priest.