Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #34 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going 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.

I will stop reading there. We have spent a good deal of time looking at Melchizedek, whose name means king of righteousness. He is also the king of Salem, which means king of peace. I could say he is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Bible says that Jesus is “after the similitude of Melchisedec.” Jesus’ priesthood was after the order of Melchisedec, showing that Melchisedec’s priesthood came first and Jesus followed after that order.

We see this mysterious man with this mysterious priesthood. When we read about him, we find language that points to an Eternal Being. It says in Hebrews 7:1-3:

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

He is a continual High Priest or an everlasting Priest. Melchisedec was priest of the most high God and his priesthood was everlasting, from everything we read in the Bible. We must ask a question that some others are not interested in asking, but we desire to know. If Melchisedec was an eternal priest, without father or mother, without descent and without beginning or end of life, what did He offer as a priest? Priests are made to offer gifts. We are more familiar with the priests of the Levitical priesthood and they would slay the sacrifice. They would burn them. They would perform ministry in the temple, especially related to offering of sacrifices, according to the commandment of God. So, from everything we can gather in the Bible, the priest served the function of offering up sacrifice. Melchisedec is a priest that was before Jesus, because Jesus was “after the order of Melchisedec.” Jesus was in the similitude or likeness of Melchisedec and we know that when Jesus went to the cross in 33AD He performed the role of a priest by offering up Himself. We are told that Jesus offered Himself, in Hebrews 9:11-12:

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Christ offered Himself once at the foundation of the world in payment for sin, since it speaks of having obtained “eternal redemption for us,” so it looks like that is what is in view. But He also offered Himself in time at the cross in 33AD to make manifest what He had done previously at the foundation of the world. So, there was one offering of payment for sin performed at the point of the foundation of the world and there was another one-time offering of demonstration, in which payment for sin was not being made. Since this passage speaks of Jesus offering Himself, I want to read it. It goes on to say in Hebrews 9:13-14:

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

You see, Jesus offered Himself and in doing so, He was performing the work of the Priest. That is what priests do – they offer sacrifice. In this case, He Himself was the sacrifice. So, Christ did High Priestly duties when He went to the cross in time and history. The name “Melchisedec” is the name that God gave to Him for His High Priest duties performed at the foundation of the world. What did He offer? He offered up Himself. Jesus offered Himself at the foundation of the world, thereby establishing the “order of Melchisedec,” the eternal priesthood of Melchisedec. It was a one-time offering to pay for the sins of His elect people.

It says in Genesis 14:18 that Melchizedek brought forth “bread and wine” and we discussed this. Spiritually, the point of Melchizedek’s entry in to history identified in that historical parable with Judgment Day, our present time. And God brought forth the Gospel, as it says in Romans 2, verse 5, which speaks of “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” We could say it was the “revealing” of the righteous judgment of God as God opened up the understanding of His people to the thing written in the Bible regarding the final judgment. This was represented by the bringing forth of “bread and wine.” It serves to feed the sheep. We spoke about the bread. As far as the wine, the Bible says that Christ tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. The Bible reveals this day of wrath and God reveals these terrible things for mankind. The door of heaven is shut and the Light of the Gospel has been put out and as God reveals these things it is as if He is treading the wicked like grapes under His feet, crushing the life out of them and their “blood” comes forth out of the winepress, as it says in Revelation, chapter 14. It is punishing and destroyed them and, yet, this same information is the spiritual nourishment for God’s people, because God’s elect are left on the earth until the completion of God’s judgment program. We are going to the Bible and the Bible is revealing this righteous judgment program of God. As the child of God hears the door was shut on May 21, 2011 and there is no more salvation and as we see these things are proven in the Bible. it nourishes the soul of the child of God. It is like a wine we are drinking that has been tread underfoot by the wrath of God. Christ Himself is treading the winepress and destroying (unsaved) mankind and, yet, out flows “drink” for the child of God.

Melchizedek, the king of righteousness and king of peace, brings forth this bread and wine and he is the priest of the most high God. He is Christ Himself and He is feeding His people. Interestingly, God has opened up more and more information about Melchizedek and the payment for sin at the foundation of the world; and about Jesus’ life and death on earth being a tableau, as we read the Gospel accounts. We began to learn these things during the Great Tribulation and now we are learning even more in the Day of Judgment. I do not know the significance of that, but we see that Melchizedek is a key figure and it has to do with Judgment Day.

Let us not go on until we look at how God is referred to as “the most high God.” That is a very God-glorifying name. He is the priest of “the most high God.” The word translated as “most high” is Strong’s #5945 and it means “higher” or “highest” and it is found in Psalm 18:13:

JEHOVAH also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

It could be translated as “the most high gave his voice,” but it is translated here as “Highest” because that is what it means. There is no one higher than God. He is the “Highest” and, therefore, “the most high.” He is the highest in every area. He is the highest Power.

It is interesting that in Alcoholics Anonymous they do not speak of God because they know that turns some people off, so they refer to God as a “Higher Power” and they tell people, “You do not have to pray to God; you can just pray to your higher power and you can have any kind of higher power you want.” Of course, that is ridiculous, but that is what they say. The tern “Higher Power” is accurate, but there are not many higher powers. There is no one more powerful than God. That is why He is called Almighty God, because He possesses all power and might. He can crush anyone and anything. He can destroy a universe with fire in a “snap of the finger” and He can speak and create a universe that is boundless, from everything we have learned. We have not found the end of our own universe because it just goes on, and on, and on into what seems like an infinity of space and, yet, it was created simply by the Word of God, the speech of the “most high God.” He is all-powerful. Certainly, He has given evidence of that throughout the Bible.

God is also most authoritative. He is the “most high” when He speaks. His Word is the final authority and there is nothing above it. The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the supreme authority in everything it says. This is a difficult thing for the natural-minded man to grasp and he does not want grasp that truth. He likes the idea of man being in authority. There are courts of authority in the world. In our country, we have lower courts and higher courts and we have the Supreme Court. When lower courts struggle with certain matters, it is passed on to higher courts and may even reach the Supreme Court. Then the Supreme Court considers the matter and they vote. There are nine members and the majority rules and what they decide is the law of the land.

But there is a higher authority that is above the Supreme Court. In fact, the Supreme Court is not very “supreme” in comparison to the “most high God” and the Word of God, His statutes and commandments. You can find the most honorable men possible and, yet, what does “the most high God” say about them? He says, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” and He says, “There is none that understandeth.” He says they are desperately wicked and all have come short of the glory of God. God is most high in His glory, as well.

God looks upon the courts of men and He looks upon their rulings. The world even tries to put together a higher court when they gather together in a group like the United Nations and they make judgments and determinations. If you have the most honorable from one nation, it is tremendous authority, like the Supreme Court, but if you gather all the nations together and they make a decree or determination, then man thinks they have attained to the highest authority and power. The entire world has come together to make a law or to declare a certain matter, but the Bible says that all the nations are as nothing before God. Remember how Almighty God speaks of the nations of the world in Isaiah 40:12-17:

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of JEHOVAH, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

These are the Words of “the most high God.” He is so high that He looks down upon the billions of people in this world and He sees us as “the small dust of a balance” and He sees the continents as “a very little thing” and He sees all the nations “as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.”

We may think we are a “big deal” and we may think our decisions and our determinations are so important and carry a lot of weight. We may think we can determine that two men can marry or two women can marry or that it is a woman’s right to abort a child and kill a baby in the womb. We may think we possess power and authority, but we are doing what mankind does best – deceiving ourselves and lying to ourselves and to one another. It is not the truth.

There is a higher court. There is a “most high God” and a Supreme Law that transcends all of man’s courts and laws. All mankind is subject to the Laws of the most high God. He is the most high and there is none that can approach unto Him. It also says in Isaiah that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. We speak the words, “most high God” and, yet, we have no ability to recognize just how incredibly higher the most high God is, compared to us tiny, finite creatures that live in the world He created with Words. He just spoke and everything came in to being. How incredibly awesome is the most high God, who has given us the Bible by moving holy men of old to write these things down for us in His most Holy Word. It is the Holy Word of the most high God and that makes the Bible the most high writing and most authoritative writing and the most powerful writing we could find anywhere in the world. There is no comparison.