Who is Melchizedek? Understanding the "Most High God" & His Names

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Good evening. Good to have you all back, and as usual, we're just going to go right back and pick up where we left off our last program, and that, of course, was in Genesis 14. So while you're turning to that, we want to welcome our television audience, and we trust that you, too, will take a Bible, and especially in the next couple of programs, have a notebook and a pen handy, because we're not going to take time to look up all these references, but as I give them, it would be nice if you could write them down, and then at your leisure read the chapter from which these are taken. Now, for those of you here in the studio, if you've got your Bible, and you're at Genesis chapter 14, beginning with verse 17—now, for just a little review, you remember the last time we were together, Abraham and Lot had separated. Lot had pitched his tent down toward Sodom, and Abraham remains up in the central part of what we now know as Israel, in the highlands. And after Lot had gotten situated in Sodom, some kings from other tribes to the east, as was so prevalent in the ancients, they would just come in and overrun another group of people and take everyone captive with them. And this, of course, is what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some other tribes and their kings and their troops, as we would say, came in and overran them, took them all captive, and headed north. Well, Abraham, of course, had enough of his hired help and so forth that he could raise a small army out of his own people, 300 and some men, and they pursued these conquerors of Lot and his fellow Sodomites. And then, as you noticed in chapter 14, he overcame them, defeated them, and took all the spoil, and as he's returning to the area of more or less central or southern Israel, in the area where we now know Jerusalem exists, he came across what the Scripture introduces as the High Priest of Salem. And I always like to remind people that word Salem, you see, is the last five letters of what today's city? Well, Jerusalem. So it's the same area, although it wasn't a city back in those days, but from the area of Jerusalem comes this priest of the Most High God, Melchizedek. I guess Melchizedek has aroused more questions over the years from my class people than has anything in Scripture. And so we're going to take the time to identify him and what was the purpose of this meeting with Abram. Now, if we'll come down then to verse 17, about where we left off, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedolamor, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shavah, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he, Melchizedek, was the priest of the Most High God. Now, before I go any further, I'm going to give you the most absurd illustration I could think of. And it's going to be absurd to the extreme, and the reason I want to do it is to make a point, hopefully, before this half hour is over. And if not in this half hour, we'll come to it in the next one. Imagine, if you will, that here we have, laying on a table, a beautiful, very expensive Swiss watch. I mean, as expensive a watch as you can possibly imagine, not only because of its gold casing, but because of the very working within it. I want you to picture a watch that is so complicated, and is so meticulous in its makeup, that even the average watchmaker wouldn't even attempt to fiddle with it. Over against that, I want you to picture just an old $5 Big Ben alarm clock. I don't know whether you make them anymore, but I think you're all old enough to remember them. That old, big, round alarm clock. You wind it, and it sounds like a piece of machinery as it's ticking off the minutes. Set them side by side on the table, and I want you to give a vivid picture of this. Here's this tremendously expensive, exquisite, meticulously made Swiss watch over against this old, cheap $5 alarm clock. Now if you can take your imagination one step further, let's assume that some great, famous jeweler, who is known for his trade, and he comes along, and with all the arrogance at his disposal, and with all the pomp and circumstance, he picks up the watch, he lays it down, and he says, well, there's not a nickel's worth of difference between this watch and this one. And you say, that's absurd. It would be. Now remember that. Put that in your computer, and we're going to come back to it. Now if you will, and like I said, I'm not going to have you chase all these references with us, but at least go back with me to Genesis chapter 1 and 2, because if you'll remember, as we read verse 18 in chapter 14, I should have emphasized it, I'm sorry, but you'll see that Melchizedek was the priest of whom? The Most High. Now you've been with me all the way since Genesis 1-1, and you have never seen that term used before, have you? Well now, always remember that the Bible is a progressive revelation. Now I want you to go back to Genesis chapter 1, and all the way through chapter 1, we merely have the three-lettered word God, and God, G-O-D, did this, and God said that, and that's the only term of deity we find through the whole chapter. But then all of a sudden, in chapter 2 of Genesis, verse 4, we come to a different term of deity, and it's no longer just God, but it's what? Lord God. And now be careful, as you look at the word Lord, it is all capitalized, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Now keep aware of this as you go up through Scripture, because there's a lot depending on this. So now the Lord God in chapter 2, and now I almost have to go to the board, beginning back in chapter 1, the God of that chapter is known in the Hebrew as Elohim, and if you'll remember way back, way, oh, last winter when we were in Genesis 1, we equated Elohim with the trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That was Elohim, and Elohim, remember, was a plural word in the Hebrew, and so it had to be plural to envelop all three persons of the Godhead. But now as we move into chapter 2, the term is no longer just God, but now it is Lord God, all capitalized, and it would still be Elohim, or as chapter 1 would call Him, God. Now who is the Lord God? Well, we've equated it before as He is Jehovah, and Jehovah is God the Son. Are you with me? Now all of this is for a purpose, of course, that after the first chapter of restoration of creation and man has now come in to fill the scene, God knows that there's going to have to be a plan of redemption, because God knows what man's going to do, but not only a plan of redemption, there would have to be a person of the Godhead who could continue to communicate with His created beings. You remember way last winter we took you into John's Gospel, chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and then the Word became flesh. Well, that's all in reference to God the Son, who now is fulfilling the role of the plan of redemption, and His name becomes Jehovah, and Lord and Jehovah are always synonymous. So keep that in mind. And then as we move on through the Scriptures, we find that even though Jehovah is the God of all, even back in chapter 14 when we get back to it, you're going to see that Abraham addresses Him as Jehovah, the Most High, and yet we've got to separate Him in order to realize what the Bible is trying to do. Now as we come out of Genesis chapter 2 and God deals with the whole human race in the person of Jehovah, or the Lord, that's always the terminology now, the Lord, the Lord, as Abraham comes on the scene, beginning in Genesis chapter 12, Jehovah now then becomes intrinsically the God of Abraham or the person of the Godhead who is particularly dealing with the nation of Israel. In other words, when the Bible says the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, who is it referring to? Jehovah. But remember too, He is still God the Son. Now as you come on up through the book of Genesis then, you'll find that Jehovah becomes everything that the nation of Israel could possibly hope for, in all of their needs, physical as well as spiritual. Now, I don't expect you to look these up. You can if you want to. But you come right down to Genesis chapter 22, and now we find that Abraham is acquainted with Jehovah with an extra name behind him, and in this case it's Jehovah Jireh. Now, you've never seen that before. But Jehovah Jireh, you see, was the God who provided the sacrifice when He spared Isaac. Do you remember the story, how that God held his hand and kept him from sacrificing Isaac, and He turned around, and what was in the thicket? The ram. And so Abraham called it Jehovah Jireh, because Jehovah provided the sacrifice, and we find that in Genesis chapter 22. Now, like I said, I'm not going to give you the individual verse, because I want you to be able to go home and pick it out of the whole chapter. Then as you move into Israel's history, or as she's coming up through history, she's just recently come out of Egypt under Moses, many years after this now. And the first thing God promises Israel, that if they will be obedient, He will be their healing. Now, you'll find that then as Jehovah Rapha, R-A-P-H-A, who would be their healer, predominantly, of course, in the area of the physical. He said, none of these diseases that were in Egypt will be upon you. So He becomes their healer, but it's also implied for the spiritual as well, and we find that, of course, in Exodus chapter 15. Then just a couple chapters later, in Exodus 17, we find the term Jehovah Nissi, N -I-S-S-I. And this is in the situation where Israel has finally come up against their first opposition, the Amalekites. And as they were fighting the Amalekites, now having left Egypt and they're on their way down to Sinai, you all remember the story, as long as Moses held his arms up, the battle went for Israel. And as soon as they got tired and came down, the battle went against Israel. So who came to his aid? Okay, you remember that Aaron and Hur held his arms up until they won the battle, and when it was over, they declared that God was their Jehovah Nissi, He was their banner, and I guess today we could say He was their flag. He was the very one that gave them the emotional uplift. He was the one that just kept them pressing on. Then as you come on up a little further in the Scripture now, you come to the term Jehovah Shalom, which in the Hebrew is peace, oh, I'm sorry, yeah, Shalom, which is peace. And that is given to Gideon in Judges chapter 6. And again, Israel has now come to a point of decline. They've gone after false gods, and the Midianites from the east are just giving Israel fits, overrunning their crops, taking their children captive and what have you. And so Israel begins to cry to Jehovah for some kind of a remedy. And you know the story, how he raised up Gideon, and then he told Gideon the only way that they could achieve peace was to turn back to Jehovah and defeat the Midianites with his help, and then indeed they could have Shalom, or they could have peace. Now we'll go to the next one, and that will be in Psalms 23, and the word is Reha, Hebrew now, Reha, and it stands for shepherd. And you should already know the verse, the Lord is my shepherd, but in the Hebrew it's Jehovah Reha, I am your shepherd, Psalms 23, verse 1. Again, it's an intrinsic need for the nation of Israel, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, now I'm going to almost run out of room, but we come to two more, Jehovah Sidcanu, D in there, Sidcanu, you'll find this one now, as he is their righteousness, they had none without him, but he would one day be all the righteousness that Israel would need as he would set up his kingdom, and again I want you to read it on your own, Jeremiah 23. And you'll see these as you read the particular chapter and get the setting. And then the final one of the seven is that he would be Jehovah Shammah, H -H-M-M-A, I think it is, and there it is referenced to when he sets up his kingdom, he will be present, and you'll find that one now in Ezekiel 48. Now, of course, God does everything in sevens, doesn't he? Seven distinct needs of Israel, all fulfilled by a seven-fold operation of Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rapha, and so on and so forth. Now, here's where I think it gets interesting. You move into the New Testament, and in the book of John, the Gospel of John, there again are seven instances of Jesus using the I AM. Now, remember, Jehovah stands for the I AM. I AM your provider, I AM your healing, I AM your banner, and so on and so forth. Now, Jesus uses the same I AM seven times, seven times in the Gospel of John. Now, I'm not going to tell you where they are, but I'll give you a little hint. I AM the way, the truth, and the life. Now, I'll call that one I AM. I AM the bread of life. I AM the true vine. I AM the resurrection, and so on and so forth. Pick them out, and you'll see that again, seven times, even as he fulfills the need in Israel, Jesus speaks of fulfilling those same types of seven things. And then eight, of course, is in Scripture what always speaks of the finality after the seven of completion. And you'll find the eighth one now in the book of Revelation, chapter 22, the last chapter in your book, and just a few verses from the end, you have the final I AM. Who knows what it is? I AM Alpha and Omega, the bright and morning star. Now, when do you see the morning star? At the dawn of a new day. And so back in Revelation now, just before the end of the book, it's the dawning of the eternal day, because 22 and 21 are dealing, of course, with eternal things. And so you follow this all the way through, from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament. Jesus picks it up in the New, and then it finally ends at the dawn of eternity, the bright and morning star. Now let's come back once more to Exodus chapter 3, and what I'm trying to do is to build the basis for explaining my ridiculous illustration at the beginning of the program. Exodus chapter 3, and here, of course, we have Moses at the burning bush, and you all know the story, forwards and backwards. So I'm going to take you right on down to verse 13 of Exodus 3. Exodus 3, verse 13, and here Moses, of course, is up on Mount Sinai, or at the burning bush at Mount Sinai. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say unto me, What is his name? And, of course, Moses could anticipate that, because in Egypt every god had a name, and they'd just been recently out of Egypt, you know. So Moses was so true, so correct. Yes, they're going to ask me, Who is this God you're talking about? What's his name? Now, verse 14, And God said unto Moses, What? I am. The I am again. See, the Jehovah, I am that I am. Go tell the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. Now if you'll turn all the way again to John's Gospel, we'll look at this verse. In John's Gospel, chapter 8, John's Gospel, chapter 8, and you can drop all the way down to verse 52. And of course the Jews have been trying to get Jesus in a corner, and they're trying to somehow trick him, and they're trying to prove that he was an imposter and a blasphemer and that he was not who he said he was. So now you come down to verse 52, And then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, the prophets, they're dead. And thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? And Jesus answered, I, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth me. Whom you say, he is your God. Yet you, now remember, he's talking to the religious leaders of Israel. And yet he says, you have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and keep his saying, and now watch it, the next verse, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad. And then the Jews caught that full force. They realized that he was claiming to be the very God of Abraham, the I am, and it infuriated them. All right, then verse 57, So the Jews said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and thou hast seen Abraham. And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, what? I am. Now, who's he claiming? He's Jehovah. He's the same I am that has been existent from time immemorial. All right, now, let's go back quickly, because I want to make my point on my ridiculous illustration before we have to stop tonight. Go back again to Genesis 14, where now we have yet another term of deity, only now instead of Lord God, or instead of Elohim, it's the Most High. You haven't seen this before. But this Melchizedek is the priest of the Most High, and he's the king of Salem. Now, remember, Israel is not on the scene yet. She's been promised in the Abrahamic Covenant, but there is no Israel. So who are the people dwelling in the area of Salem? Well, they'd be non-Jews or Gentile. So this term, Most High God, is always associated in Scripture with the Gentile as over against Israel. Now, let me make a point. Turn with me now to Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 8, Deuteronomy 32, verse 8. And this is in the Song of Moses. Moses is writing it. Moses is just exuberating in it. And then when you come down to verse 7, Moses writes, Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show thee. Ask thy elders, and they will tell thee. Now, verse 8. When the, what? Most High divided to the nations, plural, not Israel, but to the Gentile nations their inheritance. When he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. What I'm trying to point out now, the term Most High is applying to who? The non-Jew, the Gentile world. One more quick reference. Our time is flying. Go with me now all the way up to the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel. It's the last of the four major prophets. And Daniel, of course, is a book of prophecy concerning the Gentile nations. And so, you can almost anticipate what I'm going to tell you. The constant reference to God in Daniel is the Most High. The Most High. Now, let me just give you a couple examples. Chapter 4, Daniel chapter 4, where we're still dealing with old King Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel is speaking in verse 17 of Daniel 4. And Daniel says, this matter is by the decree of the watchers, and so on and so forth, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. Not Jehovah, but the Most High. Come down to verse 24. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the, what? Most High. Now, if you'll have to come over to chapter 5. Drop down to verse 18. O thou King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, a kingdom. Gentiles. And so, what I want you to understand now, that as Jehovah is intrinsically, now come back to Genesis quickly, as Jehovah is intrinsically and primarily the term or the name of God with regard to Israel and redemption, yet this term, Most High, which in the Hebrew, I'll slip this in here, in the Hebrew is El Elyon. And we're not going to have time to explain that anymore in this half hour. Our time is gone. So, those of you watching on television, try to pick up with us right away next week, and we will explain our absurd illustration. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. 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