#DailyDevotion Jesus Is Our High Priest Like Melchizedek

Psalm 110 ³Your people willingly offer themselves when You call up Your army. From the womb of the dawn like dew, Your youth will come to You in beautiful, holy garments.

Jesus, who is the Messiah, calls up His army and His people willingly offer themselves up. We offer ourselves up willingly because the Spirit has renewed and freed our wills and conformed them to the will of Father. To oppose the will of the Father and reject Jesus as our King is to be enslaved to sin and the will of the devil. But when Jesus calls us up, we appear before Him in His righteousness, which is the beautiful, holy garments.

⁴The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a Priest forever like Melchizedek.”

Melchizedek was the king of Salem. We know Abraham offered up to Him a tenth of the plunder when he and the other kings rescued their people from the other kings which plundered them. Salem would later become Jerusalem. Some scholars have posited the king of Salem, aka Jerusalem, had a priesthood that passed down to whoever was king of the city. David, when he conquered the city, also took over the priesthood of Melchizedek, much like the Roman emperor was high priest of the Roman empire.

Hebrews comments on Jesus fulfilling this word, 5:⁵So Christ didn’t take the glory of being a high priest, but it was given to Him by Him Who said: You are My Son, today I have begotten You. ⁶And so He said in another place: “You are like Melchizedek, a priest forever.” Again he says, “⁸Although Jesus is the Son, He learned from what He suffered what it means to obey. ⁹And when He was finished, He became One Who gives everlasting salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰proclaimed by God a high priest like Melchizedek.” Jesus has become our high priest, not in the Levitical priesthood, who offered up the blood of bulls and goats, but according to the order of Melchizedek, He offers Himself up for us on the altar of the cross.



Hebrews further comments in chapter 7, “¹¹Levi’s descendants were the priests; on this basis the people got the Law. Now, if the priests who descended from Levi could have given us something perfect, why did another priest still need to come who is like Melchizedek and said to be different from Aaron?” Then he reasons, “¹⁵That point is much clearer still when we see a different priest coming like Melchizedek, ¹⁶not appointed according to a Law that says he must be someone’s descendant but by the power of a life that can’t be destroyed. ¹⁷We are assured: “You are like Melchizedek a priest forever.” ¹⁸The earlier rule is canceled because it is weak and can’t help us.” Then he concludes, “²³0nce many were made priests because death didn’t let them continue as priests. ²⁴But because Jesus lives forever, He will always be the Priest. ²⁵And so He can forever save those who come to God by Him, because He always lives to pray for them.” So Jesus has been made our high priest with an oath from the Father. As our great high priest, He has offered up the perfect sacrifice, Himself. He is able to save us, unlike the Levitical priesthood which was a shadow of things to come. Jesus is the concrete reality.

⁵At your right the Lord will smash kings when He’s angry. ⁶He will pass judgment on the nations and fill valleys with dead bodies; He will smash the rulers over the wide earth. ⁷Along the way, He will drink from a brook; therefore He will hold His head high.

Here I will just refer you to the book of Revelation, especially the 19^th chapter. Jesus is coming again to judge the world and execute justice. It will be a great day for His disciples but for all the nations who rejected His rule, they shall receive His vengeance upon them.

Heavenly Father, grant that we may always look to Jesus as our high priest through whom we have access to Your throne-room of grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.