daily java

Daily Java:

And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was. That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him,
   “You are my Son.
      Today I have become your Father.”
And in another passage God said to him,
   “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:4-6)

I grew up in the church. And I remember hearing preachers thunder on about being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. The only problem was nobody ever explained what difference it made.

It became one of those big “So What” passages.

It wasn’t until I had been in the ministry for a while that I realized what difference it made. And it is great.

In Genesis 14, Abraham’s nephew Lot was captured by another kingdom. In those days, there was constant war, people trying to overcome everybody else. When Abraham found out about it, he took his army of 318 trained men and whipped the fire of the little city-state coalition of kings and soldiers and took Lot, along with the spoils, or everything else the other kings had, back.

On the way home, Abraham and his army came by the city of Salem, which would one day be called Jerusalem. Melchizedek came out to meet Abraham and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything he had taken in the battle.

He didn’t have to, but for some reason he did. There was the matter of tribute, of course. He was passing through Melchizedek’s kingdom, but I think Abraham had a superior force and didn’t really have to worry about it. Still, he acknowledged Melchizedek and sat a precedent.

The psalmist mentions it again in Psalm 110 when he says that the Messiah would come in the order of Melchizedek. Then it comes up again in Hebrews 5 and 7.

Only a couple of times in the Bible, yet it means a lot.

Melchizedek was independent. He was not even a Jew. In fact there were no Jews at that time. And he was a godly man who was also a king and a priest of his city-state, Salem.

When Jesus came, he came as the same. An independent priest and king. He was not qualified by Jewish law to be a priest, but God didn’t care. Jesus was independent.

When we come to God, we are independent. That means that no one can tell us what we can or cannot do in service to God except God himself. We are not members of a society, we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

We do not have to have credentials to preach, we do not have to have a stamp of approval to teach, we do not have to have permission to do anything in the name of God. We can just do it.

For the model for Jesus and his rule, God went back before the law, before the Ten Commandments, before all of the structure of the Old Testament and picked Melchizedek as the model.

If Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and we are priests also. In Revelation 1:5-6, John writes this: He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world.  All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. If we are a Kingdom of priests, and we follow Jesus, who was independent, then we are independent.

We are not here to satisfy any earthly authority. We are independent. And that means that if God is happy with us, and he says he is, then we are fine, no matter what others may say.

That takes a lot of pressure – or should anyway – off us in our service.

Quit worrying about what others think and just serve. That is our heritage in Jesus and what we can do in service to God.