A Journey Through the Bible, Part Seven

Old Testament

Genesis 14 and 15

Genesis 14:18-20—“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he gave him a tithe of all.” We know nothing of the history of this Melchizedek except what is told here. He was king and priest of Salem (Jerusalem), and he was such an honored man that Abraham gave him some of the spoils of victory in the wars that he had just fought. The New Testament, in Hebrews 7, uses Melchizedek as a type of Christ: Jesus is also a King and Priest. No man, under the Law of Moses, could be both king and priest, because priests came from the tribe of Levi, and kings from the tribe of Judah. But Zechariah prophesied that the Messiah “Shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne” (Zechariah 6:13), showing the dual functions of the Christ—He is king and priest simultaneously. Incidentally, this idea proves that there will be no 1,000 earthly reign of Jesus, because He can’t be a priest on earth (Hebrews 8:4)—wrong tribe. He will be king and priest at the same time; but since He can't be a priest on earth, He can't be a king on earth.  He is king and priest right now (I Tim. 6:15; I John. 2:1) from His heavenly abode. And when He returns, that will be it for this world (II Peter 3:10). Further, regarding Melchizedek, Psalm 110:4 made this prophetic pronouncement: “The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.’" Thus, in Genesis 14, we are introduced to this obscure man named Melchizedek, and it is only through subsequent reading of Scripture that we learn of his importance. He was of such consequence that even godly Abraham honored him.

Genesis 15—There are a couple of interesting ideas I would like to explore from this chapter. First, verses 13-16: “Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions…But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’"  Four generations would be the 400 years mentioned—100 years per generation. Thus, this is a prediction of the Egyptian bondage, the 400 years the children of Israel spent in bondage in that country, and the eventual exodus. But notice part of the reason for the Israelite sojourn in Egypt: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” The “Amorites,” representing all of the people of Canaan, were exceedingly wicked, but they hadn’t, in Abraham’s day, exhausted God’s patience yet. However, by the time God was ready to give Israel the land of Canaan, His tolerance will have ended. So the Jewish conquest of Canaan had two purposes—one, to fulfill the promise to Abraham that his descendents would possess that land, and two, to meet out punishment on a depraved peoples whom God was fed up with. The wisdom of Jehovah is amazing.

Genesis 15:18—“On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.’” This is broadest extent of land that Israel ever possessed. The “river of Egypt” is not the Nile, but a river (Sichor) on the eastern border of Egypt. This promise was fulfilled in the days of David and Solomon, but Israel, because of their rebellion against God, did not possess this entire territory for very long. It’s not really that much land. Israel was never one of the great ancient Middle Eastern empires. They never had the strength or extensive territory that Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome had. We have a little bit of a jaundiced view, if we study only the Bible, which presents ancient history from the Jewish perspective. Israel became more powerful than many local tribes (Girgashites, Jebusites, Kadmonites, etc.), but never a powerful empire. But that’s not what God intended anyway. Israel existed to be the people through whom the Messiah would come—and that’s the greatest blessing God could ever give any people. Unfortunately, the Jews were not—and are not—content with that astounding honor. The world appealed to them too much, so they fell into the trap of wanting to be “like all the nations” (I Samuel 8:20). Very few of us are satisfied with the blessings God gives us; we want more, usually to our own harm. Trust in God, be obedient to Him, be thankful for what you have, and let Him provide other benefits and blessings as He sees fit.

New Testament

Matthew 9

Matthew 9:2—“Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.’"  Since only God can forgive sins, this passage proves conclusively that Jesus was fully divine, and not some created “god” as some teach. The scribes who were there at the occasion certainly recognized what Jesus was claiming because they accused him, “within themselves” (v. 3) of blasphemy. But Jesus knew what they were thinking, and to prove that He indeed was God, He then healed the man who was paralyzed. The miracles were performed in confirmation of Jesus’ word. Supernatural testimony—“Jesus is the Son of God” needs supernatural confirmation—miracles. Ordinary events—I was born in Texas—can be proven, or confirmed, through ordinary means, e.g., a birth certificate. But what Jesus and, later, His apostles preached was by no means ordinary. Thus, God gave them miraculous abilities to support their declaration of miraculous truths.

Incidentally, which was the greater blessing Jesus gave to the paralytic—the forgiveness of sins or physical healing?