GREATER THAN (A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF HEBREWS) WEEK 15 - WHY 10

We don’t know a whole lot about him, and what we do know is buried in mystery. We know that he was the King of Salem, we know that he was a priest of the Most High God, we know that he had a funny name and we know that Abraham thought enough of him that he made an offering of ten percent of everything he owned to him.

He is fairly obscure. He’s first mentioned in Genesis 14 where he is given a total of three verses. He’s not mentioned again until Psalm 110:4 where David makes reference to the coming Messiah and writes: “The LORD has taken an oath and will not break his vow: ‘You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.’”

And then nothing, not in Proverbs, or Ecclesiastes, none of the prophets mention him. Melchizedek’s name doesn’t come up in any of the gospels or the book of Acts. Paul doesn’t mention him - but then, all of a sudden, the Author of Hebrews writes  17 verses about this mystery monarch.

We actually have preached a couple of times in the past year about Melchizedek. Last summer we studied the life of Abraham, where we first encountered him, and earlier in our study in the book of Hebrews we talked about the priesthood of Jesus being like Melchizedek and not like Aaron and his descendants.

Today I want to focus on yet another aspect of these verses - one that is perhaps not as obvious, but definitely is worth stopping and taking note, especially because the story found in Genesis 14 is the first recorded instance of somebody sacrificing financially to provide for the work of God in some way. Before Genesis 14, there were definitely sacrifices made by individuals as a way to honor and worship God, but this event in the life of Abraham is the first time a priest of God is given a portion of someone’s resources.