SUGGESTIVE PROPOSITIONS ON THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST.
Essentials of the Melchizedek Priesthood.
WE may better understand the Melchizedek priesthood by noting some of its essentials. The first of these is that the term "Melchizedek" is a title rather than a name. It is compounded of two Hebrew words, melek, meaning, a king, from malak, to reign; and tsedeq, meaning, right, righteousness,—"King of Righteousness," just what every king under God over every dominion God-given must be. We have also meleketh, a queen; Melchi-shua, king of wealth; Melchi-ram, king of a high one. The term "Melchizedek" is therefore God's description of the right kind of a king, of the true character of a king, a king of righteousness. The king of righteousness must also be king of peace, for he only is truly at peace with God and His universe who is righteous. In that ideal time, when sin shall be forever banished, the "King shall reign in righteousness;" "and the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever." Isa. 32: 1, 17. Therefore the King of Salem is also a descriptive title, meaning, king of peace, the result of righteousness. The conclusion, then, must be that the exalted being whom Abraham met, and who blessed Abraham, was not by name, but by title, Melchizedek; and by description, king of peace, from melek, king; shalem, peaceful. For there seems to be clear evidence that Salem, as Jerusalem, the city of God, did not then have an existence. The term is used of Jerusalem later (Ps. 76: 2), but in Abraham's time Mt. Moriah, where afterward was built the temple, appears to have been destitute of inhabitants. Gen. 22: 2, 9, 13, 14. Jebus, afterward Jerusalem, the stronghold of the Jebusites, if it existed at all in Abraham's day, must have been a very small place, a fortified threshing-floor, not more than one-third of a mile from the summit of Moriah. The condition of Canaan, the greatness of Melchizedek, the utter absence of mention so far as the record of geography or history is concerned, of a city of Salem in Palestine lead to the one conclusion, that Melchizedek was not a local king by that name, but a temporary visitor with that title, greater than Abraham (Heb. 7: 4, 7), one of the perfect units in God's great plan of the universe, whom Abraham recognized, and to whom he rendered as the representative of God, a tenth of the spoils he had taken. The one who holds place in the Melchizedek priesthood must be a son of God. In fact, the priesthood and the sonship are used as identical terms. "So Christ also glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, but He that spake unto Him, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee; as He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Heb. 5: 5, 6. The sonship of God is equivalent to the divine priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. But this sonship, referred to in Hebrews, was not the eternal sonship of Christ, of which men so often speak, but the sonship which Christ won through righteousness, acquired in His humiliation and humanity, through suffering, self-denial, and death, for which He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom. 1: 4. Then it was said, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." Acts 13: 33. It was not in God's plan that this sonship should come through suffering, but through the gift of God and the maintenance of a holy character. Therefore, when God created this world, He placed one at its head, gave him dominion over it all as earth's king, a king of righteousness,—Adam, "the son of God." Luke 3: 38. But in God's universe are other worlds, and over each of these worlds God has placed a king, a son of God. Before this world came into being there were other worlds; and when this one was set forth in the development of the infinite plan, "all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38: 7. But Adam did not retain his sonship. He yielded all to Satan, who became king of this world de facto; therefore, when the sons of God, the kings of the worlds, came together to the throne of the universe, to meet with the King of kings, Satan, as holding Adam's dominion, where he went to and fro, and walked up and down at will, "also came among them." Job 1: 6; 2: 1. The sum of which is this: God is one; His plan for the salvation and development of character is one. As Adam the king of this world was "the son of God," so these "sons of God" were each of them the kings of some world in God's universe, and the priest after the order of Melchizedek in that world. The one who holds place in the Melchizedek priesthood must also be a father of those over whom he is priest,—father under God, even as he is king under God. Thus Adam was to be the father of all who populated this world. Every one in all this world's millions would call him father. From him would they receive life, disposition, character. God created Adam after His own likeness and image. Gen. 1: 26, 27. "Adam . . . begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." Gen. 5: 3. He gave of his own life to all his children, and had he remained holy, all would have been blessed in him. To him they would have always looked for counsel and blessing; and he would have been to them a minister of the life-blessings of God. But he failed. Sin perverted the image of God in him, and turned his blessings into curses. His life became death. His children became the children of sin, obedient to the prince of the power of the air,—to Satan, the spirit of evil. Then the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, under God, the Father of all the peopled spheres, stepped down from His high estate to save the one lost world. He must become its second head, its second Adam. He must pour out Himself; He must become flesh, must overcome in the weakness of the flesh where Adam failed in its strength, and so become the second Father to the race saved to all eternity. After recounting His humiliation, His taking upon Himself our nature in all respects, His praying and crying with tears, the record continues: "And having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the Author [the Beginner, the Father] of eternal salvation; named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." Heb. 5: 9, 10. "Looking unto Jesus the Author [the Father] and Finisher of our faith." Heb. 12: 2. And so all those who are Christ's are born from above (John 3: 3-5), living stones of the Living Stone (1 Peter 2: 4, 5), children of the Life-giving Spirit, of the second Adam, bearing the image of the Heavenly (1 Cor. 15: 45-49). Therefore shall Christ be called the "Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isa. 9: 6. The winning of the right to be the Father of this world was not completed till Christ died upon the cross and rose again. In the Melchizedek priesthood of this world there was conferred upon Him for this world's sake both the sonship of God and the fatherhood of the race. His relation to the King of the Universe is that of Son; His relation to the children of the world who turned from sin is that of Father. Thus He became the most mighty of advocates, the most merciful and helpful of priests,—our Advocate with the Father, His own Son; our eternal Saviour and Helper, our Father-priest. IV. The Universal Father and Priest.
But Christ Jesus our Lord is not alone the Father of the children of new birth of this world. Under God He created all the mighty universe, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers,—all were created by Him; and in Him all things hold together. All the sons of God, the heads, the princes, the kings of righteousness of all the worlds, were all the work of His hand, all His sons. He, therefore, was the Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness, of the universe; who gave life to all, who ministers life to all in one constant outflow,—the Son of the Eternal, the Father-priest of all the worlds. What a wonderful thought it is that He who was the highest of all, left the highest and undertook the forlorn hope of this poor, lost, sin-sick world, coming clear down to the lowest depths of death and nothingness, and then by the fulness of the power of His righteous character, ascending far up through and above all things a conqueror, that He might fill every vacancy in the universe which sin has made. Eph. 4: 9, 10. But when He ascended on high He took with Him, and takes with Him, into the heavenlies, a redeemed humanity. Eph. 4: 8; 2: 4-7. And in all the ages to come the praise of the glory of the grace of our great High Priest will shine forth in those redeemed from sin and death. Eph. 3: 9-11. Then will the Melchizedek of this world be the Melchizedek of the Universe, not to bring the universe down to this world, but to bring this lost world to the height of the sinless universe, so that where sin reigned and reveled, in curses, wo, and misery, even putting to death the Son of God, there shall the throne of God be established, the dwelling-place and center of Jehovah's dominion to all eternity; covering all the evil attempts of Satan with eternal, never-fading glory of the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Rev. 21: 1-6; 22: 1-3.