Once, long ago, there roamed upon the earth a very peculiar man. He was a man steeped in mystery, and so great, that even the beast he rode must had been especially chosen by his God. He was a solitary man. By all means he was a king. Yet he had no kingdom in our world. Beyond this he was a priest. Yet he had no temple in which to perform ceremonial acts. Instead, his service was directed straight to the heart of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. As king he ruled not over lands; neither did he rule over peoples. But the dominion of his inheritance was all virtue perfected, all goodness complete. Thus we are told that Melchizedek was “king of righteousness” and “king of peace.” Also, it can be read of him that he was “without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.” To add, his priesthood would be forever. In him there would reside no condemnation, nor would there be any darkness of the soul.
Melchizedek lived about five hundred years before a Hebrew people were liberated from the land of Egypt by the hand of God himself. This put him as a contemporary of Abraham’s. Following Israel’s miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, en route to a land that the Lord was preparing for them, a society of their own needed to be formed. At the very heart of this society would be a religion known as Judaism. At the center of this religion would be the Levitical Priesthood. Both for the priests and all the people, rules and regulations beyond number were given. These needed to be revered and obeyed. They were handed down to the priests by the man Moses. But these were entrusted to Moses by none other than the Almighty, who would descend upon the gloomy mountain called “Sinai.” There God’s law was given to the man of His choice, through the mediation of angels. Since man had become estranged from his Creator, and there were none who walked “in the way,” the law of God was needed to govern and give structure to a people He would call unto Himself. Still, all of the law in its entirety would only be needed until the arrival of a future time, a new day, one far superior to the day of Moses.
Generations rose and generations fell. The racing hands of time swept even the centuries along. Yet one thing that would ever remain in the minds of the Hebrew people was the coming of a messiah. This concept was to them a Rock, and at the very core of their beliefs. It was a Rock that could neither be moved nor shaken. They looked for a Deliverer - a leader by who Israel would one day rule the world, casting off forever all of the yokes which had been placed upon them by other nations. In fact, their focus was more on a worldly kingdom than it was on a heavenly one. A Messiah indeed was waiting in the wings, but little did the Israelites know that the works he would perform would be so fantastic that they would greatly stagger the minds of men. They would go far beyond the ruling of the nations. For his ultimate purpose , where it concerned his brethren - those over which he would wisely govern and gently lead - would be to reinstate for them an order which had existed long long ago - the order of Melchizedek. He would in that day bring the Levitical order to extinction.
But who was this man of mystery? The man Melchizedek has baffled the minds of theologians through the ages, having become a very controversial character. I believe the answer is that his identity is really not so important. And so, it seems to me that even some great theological minds have somehow missed the point here. God did not move upon the author of “Hebrews” to write of this man so that we can spend a lot of time and energy guessing who he might have been. Instead we need to realize that our Heavenly Father had set within Melchizedek what the life-style of the man of faith is destined to become, and that through the Spirit, it should be diligently directed to that end. But don’t the scriptures clearly tell us that it is Christ that we are to pattern ourselves after? Most assuredly. Therefore it is none other than Jesus who shall be, and in fact is today, at the head of this new order. Surely this is inferred in the book of Hebrews. Who else, since He is God in the flesh? Certainly He will not be second in line to Melchizedek. Remember that the scriptures call the Lord the “Son of David.” But he is not David’s subordinate in any sense of the word. Likewise, the same holds true with Melchizedek, although, in the case of this man, it can very well be, that he and the Christ could never be set apart from one another.
The order of Melchizedek existed long before the Levitical Priesthood. Still, it only consisted of a single man. Though in some mystical sense he was many. He was a forerunner - one who would come to prepare a way for an order that would some day be an eternal priesthood, following the demise of all things Levitical. Moreover, in olden days, prior to the birth of the Redeemer, there were priests, and there were kings. No man, however, was both a priest and a king - excluding Melchizedek himself. Yet in the eternal priesthood that was to come from him, every priest would be a king, and every king a priest, even as the one who would spearhead the everlasting race.
Each man as priest would minister to the God of the heavens and the earth all love, devotion, reverence, and obedience, along with every good virtue rooted in the hearts of the living. Then from a heart pure, in which sin could no longer find a place, he would intercede for the many. To the great and Holy Father of lights, he would petition; this so that his kinsmen may prosper through untold blessings. By such communion his spirit would thrive all the more.
As a king, he would set his love upon all those his God would bring him. Upon their heads he’d set it. Because of his love, there would rest upon his own head a golden crown. For truly, love is as a crown of pure gold by which men become kings. And so his crown is for a sign that he sheds his love abroad. In unsurpassing gladness he’d serve and bless a great host of God’s creations all the days of eternity. He’d live under no law. For such a life is not in need of law. The love of the One who reigns on high would ever be its sole governing power.
Now, here is what has remained hidden for too long from the church of the Living God. The order of Melchizedek has already begun. Or should I say that it has taken up its Life once again? This came to pass in the days when the Son of God rose from the dead, at the time when He walked immortal among His disciples, and when He, before many witnesses, ascended into heaven. On the day that the Savior put off mortality, and became a new creation, the order of Melchizedek was reinstated. However, it is no longer made up of one mysterious man, but of multitudes upon multitudes of peculiar people.
In the second chapter of 1 Peter, “peculiar” is how the church is described: “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” In this verse, “special people,” is found under the word peculiar in Young’s concordance. And so, all who have been elected to follow the Son in the eternal and “royal priesthood” have been made to be of a curious breed even as their forerunner. Now every person born of faith, every son and daughter of the Father, has been called to follow His Christ in the order of Melchizedek. It then behooves all men to walk as kings and priests unto their God, even as it has become every woman’s desire to minister unto Him in spirit and truth, and in all of her royal beauty.
The Day is upon us; the sun is rising in the sky. And today, we the church must open our eyes more than ever before. We who make up the Body of the One who is God in the flesh must give strict attention to the apostle’s admonition in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Romans: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” Again he says in the fifth chapter of Ephesians: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” The time has come for us to rise above all of the weaknesses of our religious ways. Is not the end of all things at hand? Hasn’t the day arrived that the yoke of religion with all of its futile efforts be cast off from us? Or for what reason is it written, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty?” It is written because the Lord our God desires to liberate us from an order that has long ago become extinct. This was an order by which all men were bound by its laws, and by the works of their own strength. And through it, writes the author of “Hebrews,” “there was nothing made perfect.” But in the new order that has come with our Lord - “the Lord who is the Spirit” - all things have been made perfect. “And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” What then must we do? We must invoke the Spirit of the Lord, so that we may be made free - free from the old Levitical Priesthood and set at liberty from the bondage of religion. If from our hearts we desire for the Spirit to rain down upon us, He will come. Then it will be for us as it is written in the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Do we as believers in the One, True, Triune God, still hang back? Are we yet restrained by cords of slavery, not being able to break free from an ancient priesthood - an order, though dead, its influence lives on? We must give every effort, and utter every prayer to the Father in heaven, to be loosed from what is no more. Then we may take our rightful place in a new order - an order that will remain through ages everlasting. Then truly will we reign with the Son, where He is forever seated at the right hand of God.
- J. Pecoraro
November 25, 2008
“To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”
In the Holy scriptures there has been but one man besides Jesus to whom the office of both king and priest have been ascribed. It is the man Melchizedek. For the bible to ascribe all of God’s children as of his type, I would think that the intent is clearly to link us together with him.
Melchizedek’s ministry was in effect for hundreds of years before the Levitical Priesthood had ever begun. Then following a long period of Levitical intervention to the Almighty, on behalf of Israel, it arose again – as from the dead – to take up it’s life a second time; but now forever. No longer, as under the law, would one priest enter the “holy of holies,” to represent before God all of His chosen people. For upon the cross, when the Son cried out, “It is finished,” the curtain of the sacred sanctuary was torn by Hands invisible – from top to bottom. Now all born of the Spirit have been granted access into that most holy place – yes, even the secret place of God. Now every son has become a priest.
Likewise there would no longer be one king set over a great number of people, and for the mere purpose of ruling over them. For all who have become part of the second creation have also with this been made kings. Many – perhaps the vast majority – may never rule over a single soul. But a king is not one who simply reigns over others. Neither was it ever meant to be so by the Creator above. For what in essence makes a man a king, is when all of the grand and glorious fruits of our Heavenly Father flourish in him even as the oceans’ floors team with life in a vast array. For what is it that the bible tells us Melchizedek was king of? Not of a people, but of righteousness and of peace.
In the sacred writings of our God, He has done more than to take us from Levi to Melchizedek. He has gone from a garden in the beginning to a wondrous and brilliant city of gold in the end; He has moved from a single nation to the whole world; from law to the gospel; from the shadows of the old world to the substance of the new; from the flesh to the Spirit; one priest, He has multiplied into innumerable figures – one king, into an untold number. From little, to much, to the cup overflowing – this has and shall forever be the workings of our God.
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