Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #26 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 14:18-20:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

We have been searching the Bible to find information concerning this man named Melchizedek. We saw he was mentioned again in Psalm 110 and we do not hear of him again in the Old Testament, but he reappears in the New Testament. We have read about him in Hebrews, chapter 5 and Hebrews, chapter 7.

We read in Hebrews 5:5-6:

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

We saw in this passage that God speaks of His Son and then He refers to Melchisedec. He did this two different times in five or six verses and God did the same thing in the last part of the verse in Hebrews 7:3:

…but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Again, we read in Hebrews 5, “Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee,” and “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec,” and the connection is that when the Lord Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God, it reads in Romans, chapter 1 that He was declared to be the Son of God through the resurrection of the dead. (We will look at this in further detail at another time.) We not only have that statement, but we have much other information of Biblical evidence that points to that same truth: Christ was declared to be the Son of God when He died and resurrected at the foundation of the world.

In Hebrews 5, verse 5, when it says, “but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee,” it is a quote from Psalm 2, verse 7.

There is another Psalm that speaks of this Father to Son relationship in the Godhead. It says in Psalm 89:26-27:

He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

Here, when it says, “He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God,” this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking and the response from the father speaking to His Son is, “I will make him my firstborn.” Many of us have grown up in Christian churches knowing this Father/Son relationship and taught the truth that God is One, but with three Persons of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The truth is that there are three Persons (in the Godhead) and each One has many names. You can search the Bible and find numerous names God has given Himself, like Faithful, True, Alpha, Omega, The Word, and so forth. All these names reveal important and significant truths about the character, attributes and Person of God, but when we look at the Bible we find there are three Persons. The Bible directly makes that statement in 1John 5:7:

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Here, it does not call Him the Son, but He is called “the Word.” We cannot fathom an eternal existence with no beginning point, but if we could go back forever into eternity past in our mind’s eyes, God has always been One God and three Persons. This is probably a good way of looking at God with His various names, but “Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit” go all the way back. It says in John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Just because we are learning from the Bible that Christ became the Son at some point in eternity past and, therefore, was not the Son prior to that point, does not mean that we are denying His existence as a Person of the Godhead, but it is simply a recognition of what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says in Psalm 89, verse 27, “I will make him my firstborn,” so there was a “future intention” of God the Father to make the Lord Jesus (the Word) His firstborn Son and Romans, chapter 1 says He was declared to be the Son by or through the resurrection. That statement does not stand alone. The idea that Christ was declared to be the Son based on His having risen from the dead also has additional Biblical support we are going to look at, starting with the verse we read in Hebrews 5:5:

… Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

This was the quote from Psalm 2. This word “begotten” is translated as “begat” when we look at the genealogies in Matthew, chapter 1 and other places. It is a word that means to be born. It is the same word found in Hebrews 1:5:

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Again, this is a quote from Psalm 2. It is the same word translated as “begat” and it is Strong’s #1080 and it carries the idea of “bringing forth” or “being born” or “coming into existence.” But when it is used regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be very careful because many religions (JEHOVAH’S Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims) make a mistake when they deny that Jesus is Eternal God or they deny He is the Son of God and equal with the Father. They deny this because they think Christ had a beginning or a physical birth. That is what their minds conceive of when they hear that Jesus is the Son of God. They think naturally, of course, because in the world when a man has a son, that son did not exist before he was born; upon the birth of a son there is a new child that had no existence prior to his birth. These groups have that idea and it is partly the fault of the New Testament churches for misunderstanding and erroneously teaching that Christ was the Son based on His birth to the Virgin Mary. They have gotten it wrong and that idea has multiplied and spread to these other religions. Of course, it is a result of God holding back the truth and blinding some, but it is still the responsibility of anyone handling the Word of God to handle it correctly and truthfully. This topic has been mishandled by the churches and if they did not directly state it, they certainly implied that Christ was called the Son based upon His birth and that idea is completely false; Jesus was the Son of God well before He entered in to human history to be born of the Virgin. He was the Son that was spoken of earlier in Hebrews 1:2:

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

The Son of God made the worlds. The Son of God spoke and the creation came into being. Going back to the verse I just read in Hebrews, chapter Hebrews 1:5-6:

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Then it says in Hebrews 1:8:

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

God said in verse Hebrews 1, verse 6 He bringeth in the “firstbegotten,” and the word translated as “firstbegotten” is Strong’s #4416 and it is translated as “firstborn” concerning the Lord Jesus in Matthew 1:25:

And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

Here, it is speaking of Mary’s “firstborn” and He was her firstborn. Jesus was her firstborn son.

It is also translated as “firstborn” in Hebrews 11:28:

Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

We understand that this is speaking of all the firstborn sons that died in Egypt and it simply means the first son to be born was the “firstborn.” It does not allow for someone to have been born before that person. Speaking of Jesus, it says in Colossians 1:14-15:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

(The word translated as “firstborn” is the same word, Strong’s #4416.) He is the “firstborn of every creature” and we could read it the way the translators translated as “creature,” but it is a word that can be translated as “creation,” as it is in Roman, chapter 1. In Romans 8, this word is translated as both “creature” and “creation.” The word “every” can also be translated as “all.” In Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible, it says, “the firstborn of all creation,” and that also would be accurate. But, either way, it is saying that Jesus is the “firstborn” and if you are “firstborn,” you are born to someone because there needs to be a father. Of course, the only father in view would be God the Father, as we read in Psalm 89, verse 27: “Also I will make him my firstborn.” God the Father had a firstborn Son. When was that Son born? The verse in Colossians states that Jesus was the firstborn of all creation and that fits very well with what we read in Hebrews, chapter 1 where we read that the Son created the world. He was already the Son and, therefore, the “firstborn.” When you are a male and the firstborn, you are the firstborn son and it was the Son that spoke to create and this is exactly what is in view in Colossians, chapter 1. Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and then it goes on to say in Colossians 1:16-18:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Wow! This passage is amazing! It is incredible. It is incredible information that God is sharing with the reader that has “eyes” to see and we must have spiritual sight given by God to understand what we are reading. Here, we find the “firstborn” is mentioned twice. The truth is unmistakable because no one can say that Christ was the “firstborn” because of His birth in 7BC. It said He was the “firstborn of every creature,” if you want to read it that way, or He was the “firstborn of all creation.” And, as the firstborn, it went on to describe how all things were created by Him, just as Hebrews 1, verse 2 said that the Son made the worlds.

There really cannot be any mistaking of the connection between these verses and what God is saying: Jesus was firstborn before this world was. That is the unmistakable conclusion that an honest reader of the Scriptures would have to make. However, if you do not have spiritual eyes, you are not honest because you still have a wicked and deceitful heart. Anyone with spiritual eyes would have an honest heart and able to see that God is declaring that He had a firstborn Son that was already the Son prior to creating the world. You can read about that in Genesis, chapter 1, where it uses the Hebrew word “El-o-heem,” which is the plural name for God, expressing the plurality of the Godhead: “Let us make man in our image.” The plural pronouns refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son made the world. He created the world in six days and then rested. God, the firstborn Son, made the world.

But how do we define “firstborn” and in what way is He firstborn? We know that in Psalm 89, verse 27 God said He would make Him His Son. Romans, chapter 1, in verses 3 and 4 reveal that the declaration of being the Son was through the resurrection from the dead. And in the context of the firstborn creating all things, we read further detailed information about what that means in Colossians 1:18: “…the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.” The phrase “from the dead” means that He was dead, but had risen to be declared the Son of God.