A rather obscure name appears 11 different times in the Old and New Testaments. It is a name that is also used to describe Jesus, “Where Jesus has gone before us, as a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,” (Hebrews 6:20). With such an important distinction ascribed to him, who was this person, exactly? Why is he associated with Jesus? Let’s see what we can learn about this personality by opening the pages of the Bible.
Melchizedek is first seen in Genesis 14:18-20 after Abraham returns from rescuing his nephew, Lot, from being taken captive by King Chedorlaomer and his allies.
“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 a tithe of all.”
That is all that is mentioned about him at this point in the Bible. David mentions Melchizedek again in the middle of a messianic prophecy found in Psalm 110, “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'” (v4)
This Psalm is cited many years later by the writer of Hebrews, who expounds upon who this man was and why his characteristics are used to describe Jesus. It turns out that Melchizedek is a type and anti-type comparison of the Christ, which highlights the perfect harmony of the Bible and God’s divine plan of redemption.
According to the writer of Hebrews, the name Melchizedek means, “king of righteousness” (Hebrews 7:2), which is an accurate description of Jesus (Revelation 17:14). In that same verse, he is also called the king of Salem, meaning, “the king of peace,” which harmonizes with Isaiah’s prophetic description of the Christ, being the “Prince of Peace,” (Isaiah 9:6).
However, the most striking superlatives are found in Hebrews 7:3. Here, Melchizedek is described as being “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.”
What could that possibly mean? Is he some special, supernatural being that God inserted into redemption history? No. The writer is simply stating that, unlike the Jewish Levites, who kept and guarded meticulous genealogies in order to determine who was eligible to be a priest in God’s temple, there exists no scriptural record of Melchizedek’s particular history. We do not know when or where he was born. We do not know his ancestry. We do not know when, where, or how he died.
Instead, he stands in perpetual, infinite history, having appeared once, in an isolated incident recorded in God’s Holy Writ. More importantly, Melchizedek is described as “the Son of God,” and he is called a “priest” who remains continually. Again, those are also descriptions of Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews is using an historical figure to elaborate upon the fact that we don’t actually know the whole story of Jesus. Yes, we have accounts of His life recorded in the pages of the Bible, but His true pedigree is a divine, heavenly mystery. Jesus is both king and priest, which was an impossibility under the Jewish economy. The Law of Moses dictated that only Levites could be priests (Deut. 18:1). The Old Testament also reveals that the majority of kings came from the tribe of Judah, also the tribe through which the Messiah was prophesied to come (Genesis 49:10; Ps. 89:3,4).
Jesus is a descendant of Judah, not Levi. But, as Hebrews 7 explains, if God could make Melchizedek of Salem a king and also His priest, then He could do the same with Jesus of Nazareth (7:14-16).
Melchizedek was a type of king and priest who served as a foreshadowing of the kingship and priesthood of Christ. Jesus would not come by some fleshly descent, but rather, through a higher, moral excellence, making it infinitely superior to anything the Law could provide. It is a priesthood like Melchizedek’s, not Aaron’s (Hebrews 7:11-28).
-Troy Spradlin