Year 6, Day 111: Hebrews 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Before we can understand the comparison of Jesus to Melchizedek, we need to understand Melchizedek.  He is a virtual unknown who makes a meteoric rise to fame because of this chapter in Hebrews. 

1. As the author of Hebrews says, Melchizedek literally means “King of Righteousness.”  He was a God-fearing priest.  He was righteous in a land before the Hebrew people ever came.
2. He was the King of Salem, the town which eventually becomes known as Jerusalem.  Salem is the word for “peace.”  Melchizedek was a king whose place of ruling was known as “peace.”
3. He comes to us with no genealogy.  Certainly he had a father and mother; we just don’t know who they are!  His coming and his going isn’t important; what is important is how he reflected God while he was here.

We know that he was a priest in God’s eyes.  When David becomes king of Salem, and renames it Jerusalem, he becomes a priest in the order of Melchizedek.  This means that Jesus can be a priest even though he comes out of the lineage of Judah and not out of the lineage of Levi (Aaron).

What I love about this is the display of character that we see in Melchizedek.  He is a righteous man when the world around Him does not demand it or even teach it.  He is a man who seeks peace with his fellow man and His God; much like Jesus teaches us about God’s peace that He desires to have with us.  Melchizedek is a man of character.  He made his own name for himself and in his faithfulness to God he made it a good character.

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