Solid Food
The last two sessions, we looked at the first half of Psalm 110 and the second half. The first half—Messiah rules among his enemies as sovereign king. Then verse 4 about priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. That verse is weird, doesn’t seem to fit the theme, strange reference to an obscure character, so we just skipped over that verse. The second half of the psalm—again, the Messiah as conquering king. But this part looks to the end of time when he judges the nations on the day of his wrath and lives gloriously ever after. Wonderful ending, wonderful psalm, beautiful symmetry but … we’ve still got that strange verse 4 to deal with.
Psalm 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
That verse seems so out of the blue. Take out v.4 and the whole psalm fits together perfectly with one, unified theme—Messiah as conquering king. Liberal scholars say that verse must have been added in later because it has nothing to do with the rest of the psalm. But if that’s the case, why would they add it in later? All that does is shift the question of why David would do it to why someone else would do it.
How does his verse fit? And why bring up such an obscure figure? It’s tempting to say, “That verse is weird, don’t know what to make of it—I’ll just skip it and move on.” But there’s a problem with that. The problem is, according to Hebrews 5, your spiritual maturity can be measured based on how interested you are in teaching about Melchizedek. Hebrews 5:11-14 is that passage that talks about how we should stop being spiritual babies and move on to maturity. Instead of only taking milk, move on to solid food. I read that and think, “Yeah, right on. I want to be mature—give me the solid food! I’m ready for the meat of God’s Word.”
So then I keep reading and I find out what the meat is that he’s talking about. It’s all these tedious details about Melchizedek. And I have to be honest. I read all that stuff about Melchizedek and the priesthood in chapters 7-9 and think, “That’s the meat? Hmm. Maybe I don’t have so much of an appetite for that afterall” and I flip over to the really good stuff in chapters 10-13.
And I don’t think I’m alone. I’ve never read anything about Melchizedek on a coffee mug or greeting card, never read a devotional about him. And despite all that is said about him in Gen.14 and Psalm 110 and Hebrew 5,6,7, and 8, still, he’s never really caught on as a big hero in the Bible. He’s nobody’s favorite character in the Bible. I’m guessing not one of you, when your kids were born, even considered naming one of them Melchizedek. But if God says this stuff about Melchizedek is the meat of his Word, then let’s roll up our sleeves, get out the knife and fork, and get some spiritual protein.
Centerpiece
Let’s go back to Psalm 110, where the verse about priesthood is right in the middle of the verses about kingship. Right in the middle. But what did we learn in our study of Mark about the middle? In Jewish writing, what do they often place at the center? The centerpiece. The main point that’s showcased and pointed to by everything on both sides of it. What if that’s why the first half and the second half are so symmetrical—to point all our attention to this other thing in the middle? Let’s consider that for a minute.
Right in the center of all this conquering and judgement and heaping up of bodies and punishment on people who are alienated from God, stands a priest. And what does a priest do? Priests bring people to God. So the structure is this:
Beginning: Messiah defeats sinners End: Messiah defeats sinners Middle: Messiah saves sinners Judgment here, judgment here—in the center, salvation.
Psalm 110:4 is not a stray idea that doesn’t fit the context. It’s the beautiful centerpiece to which the whole rest of the psalm points. It’s the diamond of salvation that shows all the more brilliantly against the black velvet background of judgment in the rest of the psalm. The whole world is in for furious, unstoppable wrath and judgment from the Messiah… , but right in the middle of all that… , that same fierce, conquering king Messiah is also a priest who invites anyone who is willing right into the presence of God. The same king who sentenced you to eternal damnation stands there at the very precipice of hell and holds the door open into the household of God. Psalm 110 is not disjointed. It’s a coherent portrait of the Messiah that shows that same person in charge of damnation is also in charge of salvation.
The Portal to Heaven
But when we think of Jesus accomplishing salvation for us, we mostly think of him as the lamb, not the priest. We talk a lot about him as the sacrifice, not nearly as much as fulfilling a priestly role, so let’s take a look at that.
What is a priest? To understand what a priest is, we need to back up and see the whole, big picture of the story of the entire Bible so we can see where the priesthood fits in.
The Bible begins with the Garden of Eden, where God and humans shared the same home. Heaven and earth were the same place. The definition of heaven is the place where God dwells. Heaven is God’s home. Earth is man’s home. And right away on the opening pages of the Bible, God wants us to know that his original design was for heaven and earth to be the same place.
That’s why it says Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. Eve comes home at night, “Adam, you’ll never guess who I ran into today.” “God?” Yep! I was just out for a walk, came around a corner, and boom, there he was.” If you were in the Garden back then and you went out, you might bump into Eve, you might bump into Adam, you might bump into God—they all lived in the same place.
That was God’s design, but then when sin entered the picture, humanity was banished from God’s home. We were kicked out of the Garden and a terrifying, fiery heavenly warrior was set in place to guard the entrance. So no matter how sneaky you are, if you made an effort to get back in that place, your chances of slipping by him and getting in are 0.00 percent. We are banished from God’s dwelling place.
We can’t be in his presence and we have no access to his glory because of our sin. You might be thinking, “Well, I have some access to God. I can pray and worship and hear from him through his Word…”—forget about that for a minute. Let’s just follow the unfolding revelation of Scripture in order. God creates man in the Garden, man rebels, and God banishes him. Now man has no access to God at all.
And so the goal of all of history is to reverse that problem. And that goal is finally reached in the closing pages of the Bible.
Revelation 21:3 I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.”
On the last page of the Bible, we finally make it back to the Garden. The tree of life is there, God is there, heaven and earth are reunited. If you want to summarize the story of the entire Bible in one phrase, it’s this: Humans live with God, humans are banished, humans are back living with God. That’s the story of the Bible.
Your Biggest Problem
Your problem is that you live in between the opening pages of the Bible and the closing pages. That’s your biggest problem in life. Your biggest problem is not health issue—even if you have a terminal illness. It’s not a financial crisis or the fact that you’re about to be laid off. Your big problem isn’t a broken relationship, a divorce, a wayward child, or the death of a loved one. Your big problem is that your ancestors were banished from the Garden, heaven and earth are two separate places now, and you’re stuck on earth. You’re stuck in this realm, separated from God’s realm.
Personal Portal
And so your biggest need is to find some kind of portal that could transport you from this realm to that realm where God lives. My first novel, Escape from Paradise, is in a genre they call portal fantasy. That’s a story where a person in the normal world passes through a portal that brings him into a different world. In my book, the portal is a swimming pool. The main character dives into a swimming pool and comes up in a completely different realm.
If we want to get back into God’s presence, we need something like that. We need a portal that connects earth with heaven. God provided that portal. But the portal is not a swimming pool or a keyhole or a wormhole or any place or thing—the portal between man and God is personal. It’s a priest. The porthole between the human realm and God’s realm is the priesthood. We can’t have direct interaction with God, but we can meet with him through the mediation of a priest.
Glory Costumes
When God created man in his image, there are three of his attributes that are so fundamental, that God put special emphasis on those three. And one way he did that is with the leaders he appointed over his people: kings, prophets, and priests. Each of those roles reflects one of those three attributes. Kings represent his sovereignty, prophets represent his Word—what about priests? What attribute do they represent? Answer: Glory.
You might have missed that because God revealed it in one of the most boring portions of the whole Bible. It’s the place where people very often give up when they decide to read the Bible front to back because it’s so tedious. You get through Genesis, then the first half of Exodus with all the action—escape from Egypt, the plagues, Mt. Sinai—interesting stuff. Then Moses gets to the top of the mountain to get the law, and God starts describing the details of the Tabernacle. Then it’s chapter after chapter of this detail and that detail—the table needs to be this size, and make this curtain this way, the drapes, the furniture, the courtyard—on and on and on. And right in the middle of all that is this long section with minute detail about the priests’ clothing.
It seems so tedious until you notice the structure, you see it’s all laid out in a grand design, and once again—what’s showcased right in the center? The priest’s clothing. That’s the highlight.
And the descriptions of the clothes are all full of connections with descriptions of God’s glory. If you saw a priest dressed like this, he would be bright and shimmering, decked out with the same Jewels associated with God’s throne—a walking model of God’s glory. They were never allowed to wear those clothes any other time—only when they are carrying out priestly duties. God gave two full chapters laying out the descriptions of their priestly garments and then strictly forbade any use of those clothes outside of priestly work because those clothes are designed to be a glory of God costume.
You can’t meet directly with God because his glory would consume you. So God provides priests who are wearing glory of God costumes to represent the fact that you are meeting with God through the mediation of the priest. Priests were portals between our realm and the realm of God’s glory.
Intercessor
Priests bridge the chasm between man and God—in both directions.
From Man to God
We know we need an intermediary for our worship to be acceptable to God.
Hebrews 5:1 Every high priest …is appointed to represent men in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
There is no approaching God without going through a priest, ever. All worship must go through a priest or God won’t accept it.
From God to Man
But the ministry of the priests goes in the other direction as well—not just bringing man’s worship to God, but also bringing God’s blessing to man. You can’t receive blessing from God without an intermediary. So the other half of the priest’s job was to bless the people on God’s behalf.
Deuteronomy 21:5 … the Lord your God has chosen [the priests] … to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 30:27 The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people.
So the priest goes to God and says, “God, here’s the worship Darrell offered you. I’m bringing it to you in the way you prescribed.” And God says, “Excellent! I accept his worship.”
Then as the priest turns to leave, God says, “Hold on, before you go—I’ve got something for you to carry back to Darrell. Bring him this blessing.”
Bringing God’s blessing to man was a huge part of the priests’ work.
Numbers 6:23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 "' "The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."' 27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
Intercession
So the priest brings your worship to God and God’s blessing to you and then a third element—intercession. The priest speaks up on your behalf before God. It’s not just that he goes in and drops off what I offered and sends him back with a blessing. The priest plays a role. “Here God—this is what Darrell offered. I know it’s not what it should be, it’s hard for Darrell to focus in situations like this, but there’s a seed of faith beneath it. Will you please overlook the halfhearted part and the selfish motives that are mixed in and accept it?” And God says, “Because you’re the one asking, the answer is yes.”
Then on the way out, the priest turns around and says, “God, I know Darrell really well. He’s having a hard time, and he could really use some of this form of grace right now. Oh, and a little of that, and some of that grace. Can I please bring those blessings back to him?” God says, “Since you asked, yes, go ahead.” And the priest says, “Not to be too forward, but Darrell really needs a lot of grace. As a personal favor to me, would you double that one up?” God smiles and says, “Here, make it triple.”
God smiles because he loves seeing one human speaking up on another human’s behalf out of love. God loves that. One of the reasons God made the portal between heaven and earth a person instead of a keyhole or swimming pool or magical place with large stones is that God loves seeing love. He wants to bless you in response to the request of a person who knows you and loves you. When my kids were little, and I saw one of them showing genuine love to their siblings, that always made me so happy. If one of them would speak up for another, or lobby for me to give something good to their brother or sister even if it didn’t benefit them—I loved that. God really loves that. God loves seeing love, so he made his grace and his blessings and salvation itself flow through the portal of a person who prays for you.
That’s God’s design. He wants to bless us, he wants our worship, he wants to interact with us… , but we also need to have constant reminders that we are shut out of his realm and cannot approach his glory because of sin. That’s why everything has to happen through an intermediary, and that intermediary has to be wearing a glory of God costume. It’s so we don’t forget—that glory is what I need and it’s also the reason I can’t approach God because of my sin.”
King-Priest
Now, back to Psalm 110. We have this beautiful structure—a whole psalm about the Messiah as a mighty king punishing sinners, then right in the center he’s also a priest bringing sinners to God. But there’s a big problem—the same guy is both a king and a priest. That’s a huge problem in David’s time because the law of God was very clear—only people from the tribe of Judah can be kings and only people from the tribe of Levi can be priests. And if you wonder how serious God was about that, just remember who’s writing this—King David.
How did David become king? There are only 2 ways a person becomes king. Either his dad is king and dies so he inherits the throne, or he takes the throne by military force. But neither of those happened with David. How did David become king? The way David got the throne was God took it away from Saul and gave it to David. Why did God take the kingdom from Saul?
One of the big reasons was that he tried to combine being a king with being a priest. The Philistines were about to attack, Saul wanted to make sure the sacrifice got done before the battle so they would have God’s help, Samuel was taking forever to get there, so he went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself. Here’s the consequence for that decision:
1 Samuel 13:13 … Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command."
God took the throne away from Saul because he tried to combine the kingly role with the priestly role. And Saul’s not the only Jewish king that got in trouble for doing that. King Uzziah, who had been a very godly king, in his later years he became proud and decided he would go into the altar and offer incense. God struck him with leprosy on the spot. He was never allowed to even enter the Temple courts again the rest of his life because he was unclean.
God was serious about keeping those roles separate. And yet here David is writing a prophecy about how the Messiah will be a king-priest. Did he not learn from what happened to Saul? Could it be that when David wrote Psalm 110, he just forgot? He got so caught up in writing the psalm, it just slipped his mind that he got his throne because God took it away from a man trying to combine the kingship with the priesthood? No. The language David uses is specifically designed to point our attention to what happened to Saul. Let’s look at v.4 again.
Psalm 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
That part where he says he will not change his mind stands out, since God doesn’t say that often. In fact, the only other time when God said that in reference to an individual was when he took the kingdom away from Saul.
1 Samuel 15: Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom … from you today and has given it to … one better than you. 29 He who is the Glory of Israel will not … change his mind.”
David didn’t forget about the whole Saul thing—he’s pointing us to it. He wants us to think about Saul here. When God swore that he would never change his mind about ending Saul’s reign after Saul tried to be a king-priest… , God swore just as emphatically that he would never end the Messiah’s role as king-priest. How can David, of all people, write that?
Because he knew his Bible. If you take just the parts of the Bible that were around in David’s time and read them carefully… , you can see that the dividing of the roles of king and priest to two different lines was not God’s original design. David goes back to the very first priest ever mentioned in the Bible, Melchizedek, and he’s a king-priest. This is the first time the word “priest” ever appears in the Bible.
Genesis 14:18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.
And he’s like a spiritual superstar—greater than Abraham. He brings God’s blessing onto Abraham, Abraham tithes to him—he’s clearly portrayed as greater, which is amazing because Abraham was the greatest person in the whole Bible up to that point. God’s whole plan to reclaim the nations and save the whole world all went through Abraham. He’s literally the most important person in the world, then king-priest Melchizedek shows up and he’s even greater than Abraham.
So just as God’s original design was for earth and heaven to be the same place, so his original design for leadership was for priest and king to be the same role. In fact, God even promised to make all his people into king-priests.
Exodus 19:6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests.
So what happened? How did the roles of king and priest get broken apart?
Combination of Roles
Originally, all three leadership roles were combined in Moses. He was a prophet (he’s called that in Genesis 18). He functioned as a priest—constantly interceding for the people before God. And he was the political leader of the nation.
All three roles were one until something shattered that design. God takes the priestly line away from Moses and gives it to Aaron and his descendants. Why? Because God was angry with Moses. This is the first time in the Bible where it says God was angry. God sends Moses to do a job, Moses keeps arguing, finally it says
Exodus 4:14 Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?”
Bringing Aaron in to take over the priestly role from Moses was a response of God’s anger. Whenever the Bible says the Lord’s anger burned about something, what follows is always the consequence. And what follows here is the division of the leadership between Moses and Aaron, where Aaron’s line becomes the priestly line.
And from that point on, the priesthood is a train wreck. Instead of being a portal to lead the people to God, Aaron makes a golden calf and leads the nation into idolatry. That’s about as bad a failure of priesthood as is possible.
What about his sons? They were such bad priests that God struck them both dead on first day of their priesthood. That’s how the Aaronic priesthood gets rolled out. And from there it descends into corruption. Eli’s sons were stealing the people’s sacrifices for themselves—stealing the meat. They were fornicating with women in the Tabernacle.
When the priesthood was broken off from the kingship, the word “broken” is the right word. It was a shattering of the image of God as a consequence for Moses’ disobedience.
Broken Models
This happens very frequently in the OT, where some model designed to point to the Messiah falls short. Moses seems like such an ideal model of the Messiah … until he’s not. David, the man after God’s own heart, invincible king, the shepherd of Israel, worship leader for the nation, spitting image of the Messiah … until he commits adultery, murder, a cover-up, his baby dies, his family falls apart, and the rest of his life is a disaster. Israel itself looks like it’s headed for the fulfillment of all the glorious promises God made about it, but then they faulter and fail. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, the priesthood, the kingship, Israel itself— Why does God keep building up these models of the Messiah and then they not only collapse… , but the Holy Spirit makes sure to include the historical account of those failures in the Scriptures? (Remember, it’s God’s idea to turn the priesthood over to Aaron’s line and to forbid anyone else from being a priest.)
I believe it’s because God is teaching us about Jesus from both the positive and negative. If you want someone to understand something, you don’t just say, “It’s like X.” If you really want them to understand, you say, “It’s like X but not like Y.” Every failure of a Messiah model in the OT gives us further insight into what Jesus is like by saying, “He’s like this, but not like this.” And so we have a long section in the book of Hebrews pointing out all the ways that Jesus’ priesthood is different from the inadequate Aaronic priesthood.
The inadequacy of the Aaronic priesthood wasn’t new information in the book of Hebrews. They understood that even in OT times. David could write what he wrote in Psalm 110 about the future king-priest Messiah because he understood God’s original design from Scripture.
Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.
That’s the Messiah, and David knew that God made that promise to Moses before the roles got split apart. So the people in OT times, when they thought about the coming Messiah, would have imagined a leader who would be like Moses was prior to the shattering of roles. That’s verified in Zechariah.
Zechariah 6:12 Here is the man whose name is the Branch … 13 he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.
He’ll be a prophet, he’ll be a high priest who intercedes for the people and brings them to God, and he’ll be a benevolent ruler who leads the people in God’s way. God’s Word, God’s sovereignty, and God’s glory will all be represented in one man. And not just represented. He IS the Word, he IS the sovereign God, and he doesn’t have to put on a glory costume, when Jesus went up on the mount of Transfiguration, his own intrinsic glory turned his clothes glorious.
The Other Intercessor
Some people have asked me why the Bible says intercession is Jesus’ role, but it also says Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Ro.8:26). Why is that?
It seems that the point of all this inter-trinitarian intercession is to show us how central this concern is to God’s nature. I love the way Tim Mackie put it:
"What it means to believe in the Christian God is to believe that God has included within God's own self a representative of the human plight, so that our trouble is not external to God. God does not hear our cries as something external to him, but they are a part of God's own being. ... What Christians mean by the word 'God' includes a human who represents the concerns of humanity within the very being of God himself."
God’s desire to bless us despite our unworthiness goes down so deep into his very nature that it would be impossible to overstate. From the very fabric of his being, he wants to bless us.
Jesus the Priest
So, what is the significance of the fact that Jesus is your priest? How should all this information affect the way you live? The most obvious application is in Hebrews 10:21.
Draw Near
Hebrews 10:21 Since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Since you have a priest who enables you to draw near, what should you do? Draw near! It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. You have a portal between earth and heaven, so what should we do? How about use the portal!
We so often complain about the fact that God seems distant, and yet we make barely any effort at all to draw near to him. You get up in the morning and have your prayer time, when you’re done, just ask yourself, “Could what I just did possibly be described as seeking hard after God?” Jesus makes it possible to draw near to God, so … draw near to God. He cleansed your conscience, purified you, sanctified you, prepared you, opened the door—so step through the door.
Trust Your Intercessor
And how do you do that? Through trust.
Hebrews 10:21 Since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God … in full assurance of faith.
Put your confidence in his intercessory work.
Ongoing Work
I think most Christians rarely think of Christ’s intercession because they think all that matters when it comes to salvation is the cross. They think, “Jesus accomplished redemption for me 2000 years ago on the cross. He did part of it 2000 years ago. He paid the penalty for your sin. But there’s a whole lot more to your salvation than that. Romans 5:10 says if his death was enough to reconcile you to God, just think how much more salvation you get through his ongoing life! Did you know it’s a project Jesus is working on every day?
Hebrews 7:21 … "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.'" … 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Think of the logic of verse 25. The reason Jesus is able to save you completely is that he always lives to intercede for you. That means if there were ever a moment when Jesus stopped interceding for you, your salvation would stop. Jesus’ death was a once for all event that never needs to be repeated, but his intercession isn’t like that. In order for you to be saved forever, Jesus has to intercede for you forever.
When you turn on your faucet and water comes out—do you have any idea how much work it is to keep that system of indoor plumbing up and running? Drive around Denver on any given day of the year and you’ll see crews all over the place down in pits working on water pipes, gas pipes, sewer pipes. There are thousands of workers going every day all year round working to keep that system going. It’s a ton of work.
Your salvation is like that. Jesus is working constantly, around the clock, year-round to keep your salvation up and running. And a lot of that work that needs to be done in heaven takes the form of intercession, where Jesus steps in and speaks to the Father on your behalf.
Every aspect of your salvation depends on his priestly ministry. Every instance of grace from God that you ever receive must be requested for you by Jesus.
Why Intercession?
Why? Why do you need Jesus to intercede? Does that mean the Father is against you and Jesus is on your side? No. The Father is the one who gave Jesus this job, because he wanted you to have an intercessor. He’s the one who told Jesus, “I want you to intercede for them.”
There are a few reasons why God set it up that way. One reason God blesses his people in response to the prayers of intercessors is to show everyone how much he favors that intercessor. When God told Job’s friends, “I’ll forgive you only when Job prays for you,” that was to show those friends how much he favored Job. God is eager to bless you, but he won’t do it until Jesus asks for it because he wants every blessing he ever gives to be done as a favor to his Son. That’s how the Father brings honor and glory to the Son.
Another reason is that Jesus is way better at praying for you than you are at praying for yourself. He knows your needs more than you do, he knows your future, he knows what kind of preparation you need… , he loves you more than you love yourself so he prays harder and more earnestly than you pray for yourself. If asking God for good things were only up to us, we would botch it. We need a pro.
And a third reason is the one I mentioned earlier—God loves seeing love. The Father could just give you the blessing directly, but he’d rather do it in response to a fellow human being pleading with him to do it because the fellow human loves you so much. God loves seeing love among his children.
Blessing
So Jesus prays for you. And when he does, what does he ask for? What did God tell priests to ask for on behalf of the people?
Numbers 6:23 "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 "' "The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."' 27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
If that’s the blessing from God the people God through the old Aaronic priesthood, do you think the blessings we get through our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be any less? Jesus asks the Father to turn his face toward you—especially in those moments when Jesus knows you really, really need God’s favor. And when Jesus asks the Father to do that for you, the Father can’t say no. He just loves his Son way too much to say no to a request like that.
How about the very last part—for God to give you peace? Shalom—prosperity and success and overall wellbeing—how does that sound?
How about this one: The LORD make his face to shine upon you”? That’s a Hebraism for a smile. Do you want God’s smile on your life? Do you like the idea of his grace shining on you like the sun at high noon?
Would you like the LORD to be gracious to you? To keep you? To bless you? Those are the kinds of things Jesus will be asking the Father to give you over the next several hours. They are all things that are going to happen to you that wouldn’t happen to you apart from Jesus asking the Father for them on your behalf in those exact moments.
Think of a challenge you’ve faced recently that has produced some anxiety. One of those things where you get a knot in your stomach and say, “Oh boy. I’m not sure how this is going to go.” Maybe it’s a hard meeting or a confrontation with someone. Or some new situation at work you don’t know if you’ll be able to handle. Maybe it’s just something really simple—you have a really rough night and you’re dead tired, or you’re just not feeling well. And you’re not sure how you’re going to get through the day.
When stuff like that happens, we usually say, “Help me get through this God!” And that’s fine. It’s good to ask God for help. But take it a step further. Remind yourself that Jesus is also asking the Father to help you. Think about that.
One reason why God made such a production out of revealing Jesus’ priesthood, swearing an oath and all the rest, was so that you would be encouraged. He wants you to feel a certain emotion—encouragement—when you think about Jesus interceding for you.
Hebrews 6:18 God did this [swore an oath that he would make Jesus a priest for us] so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
So anytime you feel overwhelmed or you get that knot in your stomach, remind yourself—“If I need anything to do God’s will today, Jesus will ask the Father for it, and I’ll get it. 100 percent, guaranteed.” Put your trust in Jesus’ intercession.
I wish we had the time to go through how the intercession of Christ applies to every single problem in life, because it does. When you face something hard or when life itself is hard, let every feeling of inadequacy call your attention back to your intercessor in heaven. Let every wave of oppressive guilt… , every hard day, every needy moment… , every stumble, every dumb thing you bumble into… —everything that reminds you that your ancestors got you banished from Eden—… let it remind you to put all your confidence in your perfect high priest who not only represents God’s Word, sovereignty, and glory… , but who embodies them. You have the perfect portal. Jump through it.
Summary
God’s original design was for heaven and earth to be the same place, and that’s how the Bible ends. In between, man’s biggest need is a portal to heaven. God provided that in the priesthood. Priests bring our worship to God, God’s blessing to us, and serves as an advocate for us. God’s original design was for the priesthood and kingship to be combined. Jesus is our king-priest, so use that portal to draw near to God. Trust your intercessor with confidence he will ask the Father for whatever you need to do God’s will.
Appendix on Melchizedek
The Genesis Account
So why is Melchizedek important? He’s only mentioned one other place in the OT—Gn.14. If we didn’t have any New Testament help, what could we learn just from Genesis 14 about what God wanted us to notice about Melchizedek?
The context of Gn.14 is this—Abram gets word that his nephew has been captured in war. Lot was living in Sodom, and a group of kings ganged up, defeated Sodom, and carried off all their stuff and a bunch of their people. Abram gets word of it, gathers 318 men, and goes after that invading army. Abram is a stud, he has God’s blessing on everything he does, so of course he catches up to them, defeats them, gets all Sodom’s stuff back, and rescues not only Lot but all the other captives.
He brings it all back to Sodom, and of course, the king of Sodom is thrilled. He just went from total defeat and having nothing to being right back where he was before the war. So he comes out to meet Abram and says …. Says what? The narrator interrupts his own story right at the most dramatic moment and shoehorns another story in that spot—the story of Melchizedek. “The king of Sodom came out, and he walked up to Abraham, and … oh, before I tell you what he said, let me tell you about this Melchizedek guy.” Then after the Melchizedek part, “Anyway, here’s what the king of Sodom said to Abraham.”
It seems even more abrupt and out of place in the original context of Gn.14 as in Ps.110. The narrator interrupts himself in mid-sentence to tell us about Melchizedek, right there between vv.17 and 21. If you take out the account of Melchizedek, and just jump right from v.17 to v.21, the story flows seamlessly, like two puzzle pieces fitting together. Just snip out the whole account of Melchizedek, and it sounds like this:
Genesis 14:17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). …
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself."
The reason that’s significant is it draws your attention to the Melchizedek story. By dropping it right in the middle of something else, the narrator is saying, “Abram wins the battle, retrieves all the stuff and the captives, brings them back to Sodom, the king of Sodom comes out to meet him, and you want to know what happened? Well, first let me tell you this …” The Holy Spirit might as well have just taken your yellow highlighter pen right out of your hand and marked up his own text highlighting vv.18-20 and then wrote in all caps in the margin, “IMPORTANT!” with an arrow pointing to that paragraph. “Don’t worry about what the king of Sodom said. I want your attention on this other king.” So, it’s very obvious from the text that Melchizedek is super important.
Greater than Abraham
A second thing that stands out in the account of Melchizedek is that he’s greater than Abraham. Up to this point, Abraham is the man. He has God’s blessing, he’s the key for everyone else in the world to get God’s blessing (whether or not God blesses you depends on how you treat Abraham). The promises are made to him. He’s the one in charge in this whole rescue mission. He’s the one the king of Sodom wants to meet with.
And in the bigger picture, he’s the central figure in God’s plan to preserve the world from divine wrath and to reclaim the nations. At the Tower of Babel, God disowned the nations, and you think, “Oh, are they discarded by God forever?” And the answer comes immediately, “No, there is still a path for them back to God’s blessing, and that path runs through Abraham.”
So Abraham is the man … until Melchizedek shows up. And right away it becomes obvious that Melchizedek is Abraham’s superior. Instead of seeking Abraham’s blessing, Melchizedek places God’s blessing on Abraham, blesses God on Abraham’s behalf, and Abraham gives a tithe to Melchizedek. Abraham doesn’t want anything to do with the king of Sodom. But he tithes to Melchizedek.
Authority from God
A third point that stands out is the lack of family information. That stands out because anybody who’s anybody in the book of Genesis has a genealogy. This person is important because he was a descendant of so-and-so, or because he belongs to this line or that tribe, or, in Abraham’s case, he’s super important because of his descendants. He’s the father of the nation of Israel. Everyone’s significance and position come from either their ancestors or their offspring. So it really stands out like a sore thumb when you get to Melchizedek, who is clearly an important figure, above even Abraham, and not one peep about where he came from, no genealogy, we don’t know who his father was, no mention of any offspring who might inherit his throne or his priesthood or anything like that. After reading about every other character in the book of Genesis, that stands out as very conspicuous—especially because of the fact that he’s a priest. All the original readers of the book of Genesis lived in a world where being a priest was all about who your mom and dad were. You had to be descended from Aaron. But all we’re told about this priest is that he was a priest of the Most High.
Priest of the Most High
And that title is a 4th point that stands out. That title “God Most High” stands out because this is the first time in the Bible it is ever used, and it’s repeated four times.
Genesis 14:18 He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, … 20 And blessed be God Most High. … 22 “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High …”
So we see this brand new title for God, it’s repeated 4 times, then it’s never used again in the Pentateuch except for 2 times: Nm.24 and Dt.32. Dt.32:8-9 is the account of God disowning the nations and Numbers 24:16-17 is a prophecy of God reclaiming the nations by means of a scepter rising out of Israel.
The Head of the World
So you have all these hyperlinks to this concept of one of the biggest, most important storylines of the whole Bible—God’s Messiah reclaiming the nations for God. God turned the nations over to what Dt.32 calls the sons of God—the divine counsel of spiritual beings who rebelled against God and enticed the pagans in all the nations to worship them. Reclaiming the nations will require defeating the gods of the nations. And, of course, that means defeating the chief of all the pagan gods—Satan.
And isn’t that the promise God gave right at the very beginning of the Bible, when God said told the serpent that there would be conflict between him and the seed of the woman and the serpent would strike his heal, but the woman’s descendent would strike the serpent’s head? (Genesis 3:15) That’s been the promise from the very beginning—the Messiah would someday come and strike the serpent’s head. Is it a stretch to think David wants to call that to mind in Psalm 110 when he says: Psalms 110:6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the head of the whole earth.
This is the second oracle, where Yahweh speaks directly to the Messiah. And since the entire psalm is about the Messiah as a conquering king, you expect Yahweh to say, “You are a king forever.” But look what he says instead.
4 You are a priest.
The Story of Melchizedek
So with all that in his background, can you picture David sitting down one day, and begins writing as a prophet. He’s penning a message directly from God that includes two oracles. In one of those oracles, Yahweh speaks to the Messiah and says, “Sit at my right hand.” In the second oracle, Yahweh tells the Messiah, the great conquering king, that he will also be a priest. And David writes this phrase that God said to Saul, “The Lord will not change his mind.” When God ripped the kingdom away from Saul for trying to also be a priest, he said, “I will not change my mind.” And now he says to the Messiah, “You’ll be a king and a priest and I will not change my mind.”
and reading Genesis 14 about Abraham rescuing Lot. Abraham doesn’t want anything to do with the king of Sodom, but when King Melchizedek comes to him, Abraham tithes to Melchizedek.
Genesis 14:18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.
And David stops reading right there and says, “Wait, what?” King and priest? Isn’t that what made God reject Saul? But here it’s presented as a good thing. Melchizedek is even greater than Abraham.
Maybe David had that underlined in his Bible, trying to figure out what to make of it. How is it a good thing that this man was both a king and a priest, and how was he a priest at all before the priesthood in the Mosaic law even existed? In Israel, you had to be a decedent of Levi to be a priest, but this is way before Levi or Aaron were even born.
So you can imagine David mystified about that, and then one day, God speaks through him as a prophet, and gives this oracle about the Messiah:
Psalms 110:4 Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
A thousand years before Jesus, David knew that when the Messiah came, there would be a massive change in the Mosaic law.
The Messiah would be a king and a priest
Mark 12:35 Jesus makes the argument from Psalm 110:1 that the people were wrong to think they were showing honor to the Messiah by calling him the Son of David. They thought it was a compliment to the Messiah to associate him with David, the greatest man in Jewish history. And Jesus said, “No, that association doesn’t elevate the Messiah, it elevates David.” It would be like if you said a certain President was up there with Lincoln and Washington, and that President said, “You are paying those guys a high honor by mentioning them in the same breath with me.”
