Posted on 06/28/2020 9:51:04 AM PDT by Hebrews 11:6
The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people…
…Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
4 Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!
… God said to him: “The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
‘You are a priest forever.’”
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Here is the Bing page "ABRAM RESCUES LOT AND TITHES TO MELCHIZIDEK” showing various painters' conceptions. Several are serious works worthy of interest, by unknown artists except as noted:
But it is not only oil-on-canvas that can so help us; I refer to the astonishing video series The Chosen, which strolls through the four Gospels at the most leisurely pace. The eight episodes of Season 1 are finished, and the second of a planned seven seasons is coming soon. I say "leisurely" because after an entire year Jesus still has only seven of the apostles (although He's preparing to call up Thomas from the minor leagues--but Thomas is skeptical, of course). Anticipating a canvas of fifty-plus hours instead of a movie's paltry two hours, The Chosen turns the characters (including Jesus!) into three-dimensional humans and brings the Gospels alive--you have never seen anything even remotely like it.
In the pre-flood world, men lived 500-900 years. By the time of Abraham, the time was down to 120-175 years. Yet, if we look at the timeline of everything, Shem could've been alive during the time of Abraham.
Also, his kingdom having "no beginning", ie, he was the last living pre-flood person in the world, so he would've been from a time few could understand.
Who's this one by? Simple yet majestic.
“The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Psalm 110:4.
Read Hebrews 7:1-17 which shows how Melchizedek was the pre-incarnate Christ whose eternal ministry is in Heaven as our high Priest.
Really cool stuff.
I always include every attribution I can find, but Bing is rather unhelpful in providing them, and this takes enough of my time already without adding fruitless source-searches. I like that one, too.
To me, Hebrews' text argues plainly against the pre-incarnation theory, speaking clearly in symbolic and referential terms. I think Melchizidek was his real name and true identity--but suit yourself.
You use Bing instead of Google? I’ve found Google to be much more useful than Bing.
I’m protesting Google’s hateful anti-conservatism campaign. Care to dissuade me?
Nope, I don’t blame you. I just wish the Christian Patriotic Right would take over these areas with even greater effectivity.
Often they’re so heavenly-minded....
Well, Jesus said the children of the world are wiser than the children of light.
Nevertheless, I believe when we “set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth” truly looking to Jesus, we are inspired to do a lot of very practical things.
You know, God had the heathen build cities in the promised land so God’s children didn’t have to. Maybe here, at some point God’s people can begin taking over that which the people of the world constructed like Google and Facebook.
Not a hill to die on. If it really was the incarnate Christ, then fine.
I agree wholeheartedly. I expect that is one of the myriads of mysteries we’ll receive answers to, eventually—assuming we’ll still care.
Thanks for pointing that out--yours is a wise and useful application of Scripture, upon which I had not previously focused. Keep 'em coming!
My mom likes to tell a story about an elder in her church who, when delivering a sermon about this biblical character, called him “Mel Kiss a Dick”. She cracks up telling that story, and says it was all she could do to keep from laughing out loud.
As a retired church elder, I resemble that story!
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