Melekzedek and the Priesthood of the Firstborn
January 20, 2011 Leave a comment
>
>
Preface to this study by the author
The understanding in this study is the Key to the whole assembly of believers in Yehoshua, (the Mashiach of Israel concealed in the heavens), being allowed to go on unto the perfection of spiritual maturity. It has been primarily the lack of the knowledge of the relationship between the priesthood of Meleki-zedek and the priesthood of the tribe of Levi, (which is holding the position of the the priesthood of the firstborn in Israel), which has prevented the assembly of believers from going on to maturity. The following study is directed toward uncovering the key to that knowledge. I intend to update this post to further clarify it in the near future.
May the God of Israel, through His kindness and grace, bless this study and bring true understanding to all who he calls to read and join with me in the pursuit of this study.
מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶֿק Meleki-zedek and the Priesthood of the Firstborn Part I
The priesthood of מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶֿק Meleki-zedek is mysterious because it is the priesthood of Adam after Adam was sentenced to death. The priesthood of מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶֿק Meleki-zedek represented the priesthood of Adam before any son of Adam had been given authorization by God for such a priesthood, and for this reason it was even more mysterious, for it represented the possibility of hope.
Indeed, this priesthood, that was carried by Noah to Shem, (who the sages of the Torah say was Meleki-zedek), was based on Adam having been the first human being. However, this was no longer simply a virtue, as Adam had become a sinner and was under the curse of God and the sentence of death. The hope that Adam and Seth (in place of Abel), and then Noah and Shem, based this priesthood on was a mysterious hope to them, as well as to the whole human race. Had not this priesthood been honestly represented as mysterious by them, a false testimony from the order of the priesthood could have resulted. A false impression could have been given to the world that Adam’s crime would not necessarily result in death.
Although it was Able, the firstborn, who first acted as a priest and expressed hope through sacrifice, that there could be mercy from God, Adam had himself laid the foundation for this priesthood when, even after they had sinned, he named his wife cHavah, the Mother of All Living. Adam did this after overhearing God promise that an offspring of the woman would destroy the offspring of the serpent. Abel had successfully begun this firstborn priesthood of hope and, while God did not formally sanction it he did show acceptance of it, and in time Adam, as head of Humanity, sanctioned it through his own act of repentance and expression of hope in God.
Thus Adam embraced the priesthood of hope, as it was carried on by other of his children, after Abel was killed. But, even when Adam fully repented and returned to cHavah his wife, so that Seth was born, God never formally sanctioned the priesthood of Adam’s firstborn, even when he saved Noah and his family from the great flood. For after the flood, God did not promise Noah that he would not destroy the world under any circumstances again, or that he would bless all the world through him. He only promised him and made a covenant that he would not destroy the world again by water.
All of this changed when God called Abraham and began to clarify the mysterious hope that caused the day of Adam’s personal death to be stretched out into a thousand years and was causing the death of corporate Adam to be stretched out to many more years. In calling Abraham, God for the first time gave the promise of the offspring of the woman to a specific member of the family of Adam. Before Abraham this promise had not been made as a promise to anyone but only as a promise against the serpent, which God had spoken in the Garden of Eden. Now, therefore, God did not so much sanction the priesthood of the firstborn, the priesthood of hope that Shem was maintaining, as create a new priesthood based on his own calling.
This fact is enigmatically taught by the commentary of the sages of Israel on the passage on Abraham and Melekzedek meeting that is recorded in Genesis. The sages teach that because Shem failed to bless God before Abraham the priesthood was taken away from him and given to Abraham, who never failed to honor God more than the creature.
This is a necessary teaching, in that there is an aspect in which there is a cutting off of the old order and of putting the new order in its place. However, on an other level, there was also an acceptance of Shem’s, Melekzedek’s, testimony that the true hope and blessing of Adam was to be found in the word of God spoken to Abraham. The accepted testimony of Shem is the prototype of the final and ultimate rejoicing of the nations with Israel in the final and ultimate redemption of Israel, because it is this that results in the blessing of all families of the earth.
And so there is a certain way in which the priesthood of the firstborn coming through Noah was redeemed and fully and formally sanctified by God, even as he was formally setting it aside for the sake of the priesthood of Abraham. For Shem, in blessing Abraham was making himself a convert to the faith of Abraham and not only himself but also the whole order of his priesthood. This was a great and mysterious act, for it was made the basis upon which Abraham’s relationship to Adam would also be redeemed.
Melekzedek and the Priesthood of the Firstborn Part II
When Israel was redeemed from Egypt it was on the basis of all of the firstborn of Egypt being slain, but the firstborn of Israel being preserved alive on the basis of the blood of the Passover Lamb. The death of the Passover Lamb was, so to speak, the death of the priesthood of the order of Melekzedek, which was, spiritually speaking, then resurrected in the priesthood of the firstborn of Israel.
There could be a priesthood of Abraham, called to the blessing of the world, called to the certain promise of the resurrection of the dead, but only on the basis of the carrying out of God’s word in the sentence of death upon Adam. Thus, the firstborn of Israel would forever always have to be redeemed by blood, in a way acknowledging the necessity of the carrying out of the sentence of death upon Adam, individually and corporately. This commandment was, therefore, the witness given with assurance through the very existence of the firstborn of Israel, that there would come a resurrection of the dead.
In this way, God had created for himself a priesthood of the firstborn, a priesthood of a certain hope. For Mashiach to be called a priest after the order of Melekzedek is to refer to him, by implication, as the Passover Lamb, which lamb represented the death of all of the firstborn of Israel, but did so in a substitutionary way. Because the blood of the lamb would be seen as the blood of the firstborn of Israel, the angel of death would passover their houses. It was not that they were any less subject to the sentence of death than any other children of Adam but that they were made to be a sign of the promise of the resurrection of the dead.
In this way, the priesthood of Melekzedek was redeemed from being a priesthood of a world condemned to death and was given over to the priesthood of the firstborn of Israel as a priesthood of the certain hope of the resurrection of the dead. When Israel sinned with the golden calf the priesthood of the firstborn of the tribes of Israel could no longer serve in this office. The place and the office of the priesthood was filled by the firstborn of the tribe of Levi. Now it is evident that this could only be until the one who God promised against the serpent came, the one who would be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It is he who causes the firstborn of Israel to live. Therefore it is to be understood that Israel’s sin is removed through him and the priesthood of the firstborn is restored to all of the tribes. This is the redeemed priesthood of Melekzedek. And the Mashiach of Israel, anointed of God, though not yet of all the tribes of Israel, is, being the firstborn of the dead of the tribe of Judah, made the High Priest of Israel eternally, in heavenly places, according to the order of Melekzedek.