Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #31 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we have been looking 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.

I will stop reading there. We have been discussing Melchizedek. We have spent some time in the New Testament, looking at the statements concerning him.

Now we are going back to Genesis 14 and we are going to look at what God says here concerning Melchizedek in our verses. Keep in mind that the spiritual meaning of this historical parable thus far has been that the first battle between the four kings and five typified the Great Tribulation, followed by a second battle of Abram and his servants going against the four kings that had overcome the five kings, winning the battle, delivering the captives and restoring the goods, which typified Judgment Day. The point of Melchizedek’s appearance and entry into this historical situation, as well as his entry into the Bible itself, spiritually points to Judgment Day. The second battle typified Judgment Day when Christ and ten thousands of His saints went against the forces of Satan and were victorious, just as Abram was victorious.

Once we understand this, then we can see what God is telling us here, as far as it concerns Melchizedek. We have spent a great deal of time looking at who he represents. He represents the Lord Jesus Christ and the name Melchizedek, king of Salem, has to do with king of peace and king of righteousness. He is said to be the priest of the most high God, in the sense that Christ offered up Himself at the foundation of the world, thus establishing the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek, which is the greater priesthood than the Levitical priesthood, and it was after the priesthood of Melchizedek that Jesus came. Jesus was the similitude of Melchizedek, meaning that Melchizedek was the reality and Christ (as He entered into the world and went to the cross) was the “likeness.” In history, or in time, Jesus was demonstrating the things that took place at the foundation of the world.

Melchizedek entered Biblical history at a point in time that represented Judgment Day and, therefore, it is extremely significant that the first thing we read about him is that he brought forth bread and wine. What does that mean? Why does God tell us that Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine at this point? We know that in the Bible “bread and wine” identify with Jesus, as Jesus said in John 6:48:

I am that bread of life.

Jesus is the “Word made flesh.” He goes on in this passage to tell people, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,” meaning that they must partake of the Word of God and of Christ’s atoning work (if they are one of the elect) and, in that sense, eat of His flesh or eat of the Word of God. So, the “bread” identifies with the Word of God, the Gospel, and the Gospel has gone forth in to the world throughout history, especially over the course of the church age and then over the second part of the Great Tribulation when God saved the great multitude from all over the world. Of the bread, it says in Matthew 6:11:

Give us this day our daily bread.

This was the typical situation in the “day of salvation,” which covered the church age and the Latter Rain period of the Great Tribulation. It was a time when “bread” was being sent forth, as this interesting verse says in Ecclesiastes 11:1:

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

The “bread” is Christ, the Word of God, that is sent forth into the world. The waters here typify people and the bread is cast upon the waters. We were to request “daily bread,” a request that the Lord would supply sustenance and nourishment for our souls. It was not only salvation, even though the “bread” brought salvation to His people, but it was also the spiritual feeding of His people after salvation – that was the “daily bread.”

It says in the parallel passage to Matthew 6, in Luke 11:1-4:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Again, it is a petition for “daily bread” and it is tied to a request for salvation: “Forgive us our sins.” Then it says, “And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil,” and the “evil” refers to the “evil day” of Judgment Day. It was a petition or prayer that the Lord Jesus taught all the readers of the Bible because it was a prayer for salvation and a prayer for spiritual nourishment after salvation, but there was a specific request for salvation and that is why the Lord’s Prayer, as outlined in these verses, is compatible for the day of salvation. It is a prayer designed for the day of salvation, but it is not appropriate for the Day of Judgment. Of course, the part of the prayer that says, “Give us day by day our daily bread,” is still a fine request, but the request to “forgive us our sins” is not because the salvation program of God was completed when we entered in to Judgment Day. Since it is completed, everyone that was to become saved has become saved and everyone whose sins were to be forgiven have been forgiven and, therefore, it is not correct to encourage people to pray for an ongoing forgiveness of sins because God is no longer forgiving sins in this Day of Judgment.

Just to be clear about this, when a child of God sins in Judgment Day and we go to God and request, “O, Lord, forgive me. I am sorry,” there is nothing wrong with that, so long as we recognize that God’s mercy and forgiveness is all past. The atoning work of Christ is the basis for that forgiveness at the foundation of the world, but the application of the atoning work of Christ was done through the sending forth of the Gospel into the world during the day of salvation; the atoning work was applied to the elect children of God through the Word of God. That is now past action and it was completed by the date of May 21, 2011. So, yes, we can pray to the Lord for forgiveness, but we must understand that forgiveness has already taken place and been applied to us in salvation. Of course, the child of God is very sensitive to sin and sorrowed by our sins and, in grief, we go to God with our remorse and, yet, there must be understanding of the day (time and season) in which we live, in recognizing that forgiveness has already been granted. In other words, God will not forgive any sin we commit today if that sin was not already forgiven in Christ at the foundation of the world and having applied that forgiveness to us prior to May 21, 2011 when the door of heaven shut. Because of that, the Lord’s Prayer is not something that we want to use to encourage people to go to as a framework for how they should go to God in prayer. Of course, there are certain parts that are not wrong, like addressing God as our Father or requesting daily bread, but there are other aspects that could give false encouragement to some. We do not want to give people the impression that today is like any other time when God could forgive sin.

It also says, “And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” Notice the synonymous nature of these two statements. We often talk of Hebrew parallelism. God is the Author of the Old Testament Hebrew and sometimes He carries these words into the New Testament Greek language, too, and here “temptation” is synonymous with “evil.” In other words, we have learned from the Bible that Judgment Day, the evil day, is also a time of severe testing, the trial of faith for the people of God. So, the prayer is requesting that He lead us not into temptation or into that Day of Judgment, because it was still the day of salvation. As it says in Isaiah, “Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” During that time, we could pray for forgiveness, beseeching the Lord and going boldly to the throne of grace. We could have cried out for mercy, not letting anyone try to silence us, like they did to blind Bartimaeus, and we could have cried out the more, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” But that was before the day of evil came and before the time of temptation (testing) arrived. So, again, aspects of the Lord’s Prayer are not applicable when you are in the day of temptation in the “day of evil,” during Judgement Day and the final judgment of the world. The whole matter has been settled and everyone’s spiritual condition has been fixed: the righteous are righteous still and the filthy are filthy still. There will be no translating of anyone out of darkness and into the light and anyone in the light will not return to the darkness. It is set and certain, so there is no need to pray to be delivered from temptation and from evil, especially since God’s people are with the wicked in the Day of Judgment. God is bringing one event upon all; it is the judgment of the “quick and dead” or the righteous and the wicked.

Therefore, for several reasons the Lord’s Prayer does not fit for the time of Judgment Day, which is a prolonged period of time. And, yet, God in His wisdom, did not leave us without guidance for approaching Him. I am going to read Luke 11:5:

And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

The Greek word for “loaves” is the identical word for “bread” used in Luke 11:3: “Give us day by day our daily bread.” You could say, “Give us this day our daily loaves,” but it is awkward in the English to say, “Friend, lend me three breads.” It does not sound right. Then it goes on to say in Luke 11:6-7:

For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

You see, this is why this passage has been given in verse 5 and following because the first four verses of the Lord’s Prayer would serve well for all the readers of the Bible throughout the church age and through the Great Tribulation until the conclusion of the 23-year Great Tribulation on May 21, 2011. However, then the door is shut. What about bread? As we have learned, the Bible teaches in numerous places that God’s people will be alive and remaining on the earth during the time of judgment, but God’s program has changed. It is not the same “time or season” as the day of salvation; the “sun, moon and stars” are not shining, as there are no Gospel lights in the world. There is no ongoing salvation. There is no more evangelization of the people of the earth that they might become saved. Many, many things have drastically changed. God, in His wisdom, provided the outline for prayer by His people in approaching Him in the Day of Judgment. Prior to that time, they would come to Him, saying, “Give us this day, our daily bread,” but these things had to do with forgiveness of sins and the deliverance from evil, so God is giving us a “revamped” Lord’s Prayer that would serve and be sufficient for the long period of Judgment Day. The Biblical evidence is mounting that points to an extended Judgment Day program that may well take us all the way to 2033AD.

During this period, we are apparently in trouble because it says, “Friend, lend me three loaves,” and the request for bread is made, but it says in Luke 11:7: “Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.” He has gathered all His elect children and they are with Him in bed and because He has all His elect children, He has no interest in sending out the Gospel or casting His bread upon the water any longer and He says, “I cannot rise and give thee.” That would be so tremendously grievous if we were left only with that response from God. There is a refusal. “Can you not see that the door is shut?” What would we do, on top of everything else? On top of the fact that the end of the church age has come; on top of the multiplication of iniquity in the world; on top of the severe testing God is putting His people through. The trials and tribulations and affliction are so grievous and they lead us to the Bible, which is bread, but God must bless His Word that it might become spiritual bread that nourishes our souls. And, yet, now He seems to be saying, “No bread will be given to you.” But this is the mercy of God, as it goes on to say in Luke 11:8:

I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

We talked about this word “importunity” before, which indicates a persistent and shameful coming, again, and again. But He rises and gives him as many as he needs. What was the need? It was the need for three loaves or three “bread.” The number “three” points to the purpose of God. Is that not interesting? It is the same number that appears in John, chapter 21 after the great catch of fish was brought in. The number “three” is greatly in view, as Jesus said three times, “Feed my sheep,” and that is no coincidence. God is doing everything He can to let us know of His purpose for the time after the Tribulation, the days in which the door of heaven is shut. No, it is not normal business, but there is still “bread.” And not only is there bread, but He is going to give “as many as he needeth.” God’s plan is to provide an abundance of bread and a great deal of spiritual nourishment for His people. They lack everything else, as far as the blessings that the people of God had in previous generations, except for the wonderful state of salvation and the eternal blessings to come. But, insofar that there has been an end of the church age, an end of evangelization and an end of salvation, God’s people are much afflicted. I believe that in the acknowledgement of that, God has a plan to bring forth “bread and wine.”