Genesis 14: Melchizedek - who was he?

Genesis 14

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying,
   “Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
      Creator of heaven and earth.
   And praise be to God Most High,
      who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Genesis 14:18-20

The Lord has sworn
   and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
   in the order of Melchizedek.”
Psalm 110:4

Hebrews 7

In Genesis 14, Abraham gets involved in a spat between some local Kings when his nephew Lot is captured.  Allied with other powers, he delivers the captured people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Afterwards we read of an encounter with a Priest-King called Melchizedek.  The exchange only takes three verses, but elsewhere in the Bible we learn that it is of significance!  So, who was Melchizedek?

Who was this mysterious king?  One one level, and not taking into account the commentary on Melchizedek in the letter to the Hebrews (which we will go onto later) we could simply assume that he was merely the King of Salem - one of the many city states found within the area of Canaan and generally assumed to be Jerusalem.  The meal shared between the two can be viewed as accompanying a political agreement between the two, with Abraham acknowledging the King of Salem's superior power by giving him a tithe (a tenth of all the spoils of his endeavour), which would have demonstrated his loyalty and allegiance and ensured the latter's protection over him.

We also know a little more about Melchizedek.  Whilst the roles of Priest (mediator between mankind and God/gods) and King may have often been combined in the surrounding cultures, we learn this priest is Priest of God Most High - he served the creator God, he who Abraham also served, and who was powerful over all: the one who would later be known as Yahweh.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews points out that no genealogical details are given for Melchizedek, neither are details of his lifespan, remarking: Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:3). Does this mean that he literally had no father and mother and lived forever, or simply that his priesthood was self-existent and permanent, having not been inherited through ancestry and only whilst in office for a certain term?  Whilst the former is possible, commentators seem to generally suggest that the latter is more probable, being without father and mother being reflective of contemporary ways of describing those whose lineage was either unknown or insignificant.

We can assume that Melchizedek was a godly man and maybe his life would have been one we should emulate (although we learn very little about him), but his inclusion in God's message to us through the Bible was in order to provide us a picture of Jesus' priesthood, for David declares when speaking of Jesus:

The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
    in the order of Melchizedek.”
(Psalm 110:4)

This is not to say that Jesus is under the authority of Melchizedek, but that Jesus was 'like Melchizedek', or to be precise, Melchizedek's priesthood was a reflection of Jesus.  Jesus' priesthood was eternal and not dependent on ancestry.  More specifically, Melchizedek was not part of the Levitical priesthood - that is, the tribe of people descended from Levi (one of Abraham's 12 great-grandsons from who the tribes of Israel came into being).  He was greater indeed than Abraham, the great patriarch, and came before God set up his covenant with Israel under Moses over 400 years later, in which he established the Law, the order of priests, and the system of sacrifice and ritual.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews (see Hebrews 7) emphasises these characteristics of Melchizedek in order to emphasise that Jesus, and God's promise of salvation, is so much bigger and far surpasses the Jewish Law, which was there to show people how to live but also how to worship and learn about God.   The fact that God promised to send another priest 'in the order of Melchizedek' means that the former was not sufficient in taking away sin.  In contrast, Jesus offers us pure and perfect redemption, as the writer of Hebrews tells us:

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath (the 'oath' refers to God's words through David regarding Jesus being a priest in the order of Melchizedek), which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

(Hebrews 7:23-28)

Melchizedek as an individual showed that God's grace and love is bigger than just the central story of Israel in the Old Testament.  It shows that God was always a God of many nations.  However, God's choosing of Melchizedek to be but one picture of one aspect of the unequalled Jesus shows us even more - one who is far superior to those who perform earthly rituals, but purifies us completely, wipes the slate clean and restores our relationship with God, that does not require any sacrifice from us save that of a humble and contrite heart.  Jesus has paid it all - has done and forever will do.

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