Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 14:18-20 ESV

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

19 And he blessed him and said,
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!"

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, can be seen as the progress of salvation.

Genesis is about Divine election, beginning with Adam and extending to the Fathers of national Israel.

Exodus is the account of redemption. One of the explanations of redemption in the Scriptures is Exodus 12.

Leviticus contains the believer’s life before God in his sanctification. In the sacrifices and the feasts we learn the grounds and the privileges of the believer’s walk with God.

Numbers is about service. The essence of service is found in Numbers 1:54.

⁵⁴Thus did the people of Israel; they did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses.

“Thus did”, “they did” please note Ephesians 2:10.

¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,that we should walk in them.

Deuteronomy teaches the necessity of repentance. In Deuteronomy the Law is repeated to emphasize the necessity of the Law for every believer. This is not for conversion, but to be a, “lamp unto our feet and light for our path”.

Genesis 14:16-24 is an introduction to another unusual Biblical personality, Melchizadek. This man is here in this context a distinct and unusual person. He has no introduction and there is no further information or as the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 7:3 states, without “end of life”. He is not a Hebrew. There is nothing more about him in any historical context. Yet David in Psalm 110 names him in such an extraordinary way that it becomes in Hebrews 7 the grounds and explanation for the High Priesthood of Christ. One of the great questions for unbelievers to answer “why would Melchizadek be mentioned in Psalm 110 separate from inspiration?”

In the context of Genesis 14:16-24 there are four outstanding facts of interest. They are:

1. The appearance from nowhere of Melchizadek and the unquestioning honor given to him by Abram.

2. The fact of the two kings who meet with Abram, one who can bless him and one who can bring a curse on him, instructs the believer in the continual fact of the two ways.

3. Abram the great example of a believer, faced with the choice, gives rather than takes.

4. The principle of the believer and the tithe is made plain. Genesis 14:20c, “And Abram gave him a tenth from the top of the heap.”

A look at Hebrews 7 shows the tithe being giving to Jesus as the High Priest who alone is able to bless the believer and return the believer’s gratitude to God.

Jesus as our Intercessor takes our words to God and brings His words to us. I Timothy 2:5

⁵For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

Though the Bible is not a handbook of “do’s” and “don’t’s” it is filled with Divine principles by which we can order our lives.