Who Is Melchizedek? The Priest-King Who Blesses Abram (Genesis 14)

Abram is coming home from a battle he had no business winning.

Behind him are the freed captives and the plunder of five cities. Ahead of him, two kings come out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh. One is the king of Sodom, and everyone can guess what he wants. The other is a man Genesis has not named once before and will not name again. "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine" (Genesis 14:18). A priest of God Most High, come with a blessing for a tired soldier.

The first thing that happens after the victory is a blessing. "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:19), and he keeps going, "blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand" (Genesis 14:20). A stranger names the God Abram serves. The One who made everything there is. The One who just handed him the battle. Abram takes it in and answers with his hands. "Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything" (Genesis 14:20). A tenth of all he is carrying, given away before he has said a word, to the God he has just heard named.

Then the king of Sodom makes his offer, and it sounds generous. "Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself" (Genesis 14:21). By every custom of the day the spoil was Abram's to keep. He turns it down flat. "I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:22), he says, "that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich'" (Genesis 14:23).

They are almost Melchizedek's own words. God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. Abram heard God named an hour ago by a stranger, and now that name is on his own lips as an oath. He held onto what he heard, and it set what he did next. If the God he serves owns heaven and earth, a king of Sodom cannot make him rich. He would rather stay poor and let God do the providing.

That is what it looks like to know the God who speaks. A true word about who God is, taken in and held, changes what your hand reaches for. And this priest who steps out of nowhere with bread and wine, king of righteousness and king of peace, with no father or mother named in the record, points past himself. Generations later the Scriptures say of the coming King, "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Psalms 110:4). The bread, the wine, the blessing, a priest who was also a king. Abram met a small early picture of Jesus on the road home, long before anyone could have known it.

So do what Abram did. When someone reminds you who God is, and the reminder holds true to Scripture, write it down and keep it where you can find it again. Then let it set your next decision, the way Melchizedek's blessing set Abram's.

What has God shown you about who He is that you could stand on the next time an easier offer comes along?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive, on what the name Melchizedek means, the Hebrew behind 'Creator of heaven and earth', and why the book of Hebrews says this one roadside meeting outranks the whole priesthood that came after it. Read it here.