Honor the King

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

HONOR THE KING

Heb 7:1-3

7:1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

NIV

This is all rather strange about this person, Melchizedek being someone who was without a father or a mother, and without genealogy, who had no beginning or end of days. We are told he is, and we use the presence tense because he is without end of life, the king of Salem. The Hebrew word for Salem was the early name of Jerusalem, although some of our scholars of old thought he lived as king of Shechem. Nevertheless, no one knows about the king of Salem, this king of peace, this king of righteousness without beginning or end of life. It sure sounds to us as though Abraham was met by God himself in the flesh. We cannot be sure whether Abraham was met by Jesus or by the Father, but for someone to hold the title of king of righteousness and peace must be God. Jesus was given the title of King of the Jews, with Jerusalem being the head city, thus Jesus would be the king of Jerusalem or king of Salem. Of course, this is all supposition without having any proof whatsoever other than the influence of the Spirit. Our scholars of old did not make that kind of connection but considered this tenth of the spoils of war being nothing more than a custom of those days. Of course, we Christians have turned it into meaning we are obligated to tithe to the church. Abraham gave a man, a priest who blessed him, a tenth of the spoils of war. This is all in the account given in Genesis 14. What is interesting is that Melchizedek brought out bread and wine when he blessed Abraham. Jesus used the bread and wine at that last meal with his disciples that we have turned into our communion, although we insist on using grape juice. But we still come back to this high priest of God Most High. This blessing included the fact that it was God who delivered Abraham's enemies into his hands. If there is anything we can take from this, it is the fact that God is the one who delivers all things into our hands. If we think we have created our own slice of life, with all our possessions because of all our abilities, skills, or education, we are sadly deceived, for all we have is given to us by the hand of God, and all we are is due to the hand of God, and all we do is empowered by the hand of God. Because that is true, then we should give God Almighty, the Most High, and tenth of all our spoils of labor, and of course, the church stands as the agency of God, or at least it should, so we follow what Abraham did and what Melchizedek did. Let us give our Lord God all the glory, all the honor, and praise He and He alone is due.