Melchizedek And The Lord's Supper

This morning as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper, we’re going to go back to the Old Testament and the book of Genesis to provide us with some new insight into that observance. I encourage you to take out your Bibles and follow along as I take us on a brief journey to what may very well be the Biblical roots of the Lord’s Supper.

We’ll begin in Genesis 14. The beginning of that chapter describes a series of battles between two groups of kings. During those battles, Abram’s nephew Lot, who was living in Sodom, was captured. When Abram learns of his capture, he assembles an army of 318 men and defeats the armies of 4 kings and rescues Lot. We’ll pick up the story in verse 17:

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Possessor of heaven and earth;

and blessed be God Most High,

who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

(Genesis 14:17–20 ESV)

Abram, whose name has not yet been changed to Abraham by God, is met by two kings – the king of Sodom, who is there to make a deal with Abram in order to get his subjects back and this mysterious king of Salem named Melchizedek.

This is the first and only time that Melchizedek appears in the Old Testament until we find a curious reference to him in Psalm 110 that we’ll look at in a moment. We know nothing about where he came from or where he goes after this. But we do know that he is unique among all the kings mentioned in the Bible because he is a priest, as well as a king.

His name means “king of righteousness” and he is the king of Salem -probably the name that Jerusalem was know by at that time – which means “peace”. So he is the king of righteousness and the king of peace.

And, most relevant to us this morning, he brings bread and wine to offer to Abram – thus the connection to the Lord’s Supper that we will observe this morning.

Bible scholars are pretty much evenly split on whether this is a preincarnate appearance of Jesus or whether he is an actual human king who is a “type” of Jesus. In the Bible a “type” is an actual historical event or person that is ordained by God to be a prophetic picture of something or someone later brought to fruition by a sovereign God. One of the best known types in the Bible would be Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice of his own son Isaac, which is a type of the fact that God would one day sacrifice His own Son on our behalf.

Either way, what we find here is that Melchizedek brings a blessing to Abram from God and that he accompanies that blessing with bread and wine. And in turn, Abram gives a tenth of all his possessions to Melchizedek. This is actually the first reference to a tithe in the Bible and it is important to note that it occurs long before God gives the law to His people through Moses. So this is completely a voluntary offering on Abram’s part.

But after this Melchizedek disappears from the scene until he appears in a cryptic reference in Psalm 110. So go ahead and turn in your Bible to that chapter. Psalm 110 is a well-known Messianic Psalm, which means that it is a prophetic Psalm that points to Jesus. It is therefore quoted frequently by the New Testament writers. We’re just going to look at verse 4:

The LORD has sworn

and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever

after the order of Melchizedek.”

(Psalm 110:4 ESV)

So here we find a clear connection between Melchizedek and Jesus. And if this is all we had, Melchizedek would still provide us with some insight about Jesus. At a minimum it would confirm the idea that Jesus is both the king of righteousness and the king of peace and that at the same time He is also a priest.

But fortunately the writer of Hebrews gives us a much more detailed description of this relationship between Melchizedek and Jesus.

He quotes Psalm 110 in Hebrews chapter 5 and again in chapter 7. A proper study of Hebrews 7 would take a lot more time than we have this morning. We could easily spend weeks on that chapter. So let me just summarize for you the main idea of that chapter and then we’ll look at just a few verses.