Out With The New, In With The Old!

Religion can be a terrible thing when people get attached to the form of something and miss its essence.  About 500 years before Moses introduced the nation of Israel to the idea of having a whole tribe that were priests there was a man named Abram (which means exalted father) who encountered a guy who was both a king and a priest.  Abram recognized that this man was awesome and spontaneously gave him 10% of the loot that he had collected from a battle with a bunch of other kings. Then the man, who was a king-priest, refreshed Abie with wine and bread, and blessed Abram, giving him a new name... Abraham—father of many nations. 

Fast forward to Psalm 110 and King David gets a peep into heaven and observes a conversation between Father and Son. “The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool… The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow:
    “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.””

Who? This Melchizedek is the same one who blessed Abraham way back before the law. 

Fast forward to the book of Hebrews where the writer explains that Jesus comes from the highest priestly order, and not from the temporary and flawed Levitical priesthood.  “So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood, with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron?” Hebrews 7:11 (NLT)

In with the old, out with the new! 

Despite the amazing New Testament revelation that the old order (where there was a separate tribe of priests) is over, many claiming to be Christians are stuck in the old way of seeing and doing. There has been so much hogwash written about “some people are kings” and “some people are priests.”  Many church leaders are stuck on the idea that they are the priests, set apart, just like the Levites were.  Some businesspeople fancy themselves as kings, the people who run the marketplace. When Jesus came he superceded the Levitical priesthood and abolished the flawed king/priest separation. This gave people in the marketplace (non-Levites) permission to live the integrated life. It also gave Levi-inclined folks the opportunity to get their previously neutered business gene turned back on. Isn’t it time we took a closer look at Melchizedek?