Melchizedek מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק

Our word for today is another of the five words that we find used for the first time in the Bible all in chapter 14 of Genesis. It is also a person’s name. As we have seen already that names in the Bible have something to do with their story. Like Adam comes from the word dirt and Noah rest. God is working in their lives from the very beginning when they are named guiding them to how he will be working in their purpose. And we know that God’s purposes are good pleasing and perfect. We don’t always see what God is doing while we are going through challenging times here in the fallen, messed up corrupted place. But God is redeeming, that is bringing value out of the mess we find ourselves in. The name and word for today is מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק Melchizedek. It is only used 2 times in the Hebrew Bible our Old Testament. The other use is in Psalm 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק Melchizedek.” We will look at the word for priest tomorrow but notice that there is an order of priest with the title of מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק and that this kind of priest has an eternal dynamic to it. That is interesting. What is also interesting about this name is that it is a compound word made up of two words, מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק. The first word in Hebrew, because we read from right to left, is מֶ֫לֶךְ king which we looked at yesterday. If you remember we have ten different kings in Genesis chapter 14 and nine of them had titles that included the land where they rule over as part of their description like “Amraphel מֶ֫לֶךְ king of Shinar” in verse one. What we have here with our tenth king instead is not an earthly designation of their domain but this description of his realm the other word in his name צֶ֫דֶק which means righteousness. So this priest is an eternal priest as well as a king of righteousness. And it gets better this priest king is also called the king of Salem in verse 18. Genesis 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem … was priest. The word for Salem is שָׁלֵם peace. Which we will look at another day. So, there is a lot going on with this Melchizedek guy which we will explore on other days. The one thing I will says as we wrap up our word for the day is one of my favorite things about God that our word reminds us of. It is impossible for God to lie. Wow! I really love that because people can lie and in this fallen corrupted world the evil one lies all the time. It is refreshing to know that God can not lie to us because he is righteous, and this God makes promises to us that we can count on. I like how the Holy Spirit writes through the New Testament book of Hebrews about this. Hebrews 6:19-20 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. The good news is that no matter how hard things may get our hope is in Jesus who is our priest and king of righteousness and peace.