Read Hebrews 7:1-10

Read Hebrews 7:1-10

This story from the life of Abraham is told in Genesis 14:11-24. Abraham was living in tents in the foreign land of Canaan (modern Palestine). Abraham’s nephew Lot was living in the city of Sodom and was captured during a war between rival kings. Abraham and his men attacked the victorious kings and rescued not just Lot but also the possessions and people from the city of Sodom. It was clear that Abraham had been successful where the king of Sodom had failed. We can imagine the king of Sodom saw Abraham as a threat. The king of Sodom came out to meet Abraham. Melchizedek brought Abraham bread and wine and blessed Abraham and God, and Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. After the meeting with Melchizedek, the king of Sodom offered Abraham a deal, saying “Give me the people and you keep the goods”. Read Abraham’s wise reply in Genesis 14:22-23. Even today we use the name Sodom to mean a wicked place. So Melchizedek met Abraham during a dangerous time in Abraham’s life. Read all we know about Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18-20.

Q1. From Hebrews 7:1-2, what do we know about Melchizedek? From Hebrews 7:3, what don’t we know about Melchizedek?

Notes.

The city of which Melchizedek was king, Salem, meaning “peace” (7:1), may be the city we now call Jerusalem. Ancestors and genealogy (7:3) were very significant to Jewish people. Genesis recorded no information about Melchizedek’s ancestors or his death – maybe this was in David’s mind when the Holy Spirit inspired David to write in Psalm 110:4 “You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek”.

Hebrews 7:1-2 quotes 2 surprising facts about Abraham and Melchizedek from Genesis 14:19-20:

· Melchizedek blessed Abraham

· Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder Abraham had recovered during the mission to rescue Lot.

In Hebrews 7:4-10 these two facts are used to show how great Melchizedek was. Abraham’s son Isaac had twin sons, one of whom was Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, one of whom was Levi (Hebrews 7:5), from whom Moses and his brother Aaron (the first high priest of God) were descended. So Abraham was the great grandfather of Levi. Levi was born maybe 125 years after Abraham met Melchizedek. The requirement to give a tenth (a tithe) of all agricultural produce to the descendants of Levi to support their work as priests and to support aliens, orphans and widows is described in Deuteronomy 14:22-29.

Q2. From the story of Abraham and Melchizedek in verses 4 to 10, which of these two men was greater? Note the lesser person pays the tenth to the greater person, and the lesser person is blessed by the greater person.

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