Hebrews 6:19 to 7:3

Notes

It is not possible within the space of a Sabbath-school lesson to give a full description of the work of the priest in the sanctuary. Every day in the year the priests ministered in the holy place, or the first room of the sanctuary. Ex. 27:20, 21; 30:1, 7, 8; Heb. 9:6. The tenth day of the seventh month was the day of atonement, on which the high priest went alone into the most holy place, and sprinkled blood upon the mercy-seat, over the ark which contained the law of God. Ex. 16. By this act he cleansed the sanctuary from all the defilement of sin. This was a type of the day of Judgment. Our Lord ascended on high in the year A. D. 31. He said to his disciples, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." John 14:16. And, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." John 16:7. Within ten days after his ascension to his Father, his priesthood in the sanctuary in the heavens (Heb. 8:1, 2) begun, for on the day of Pentecost his prayer was answered, and the Comforter came. Acts 2. This was the beginning of his priesthood, and he was then of course officiating in the holy, or the first of the two holy places. It is not until the seventh trumpet sounds, which is near the close of this dispensation, that the temple in heaven is opened where the ark of the testament is seen. Rev. 11:14-19. This is the most holy, within the second veil. Now, as Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews in A. D. 64, but a little more than thirty years after the beginning of Christ's priesthood, the veil within which he then entered must have been the first.

Paul says of the name Melchizedek, that it is "by interpretation, king of righteousness." It is compounded of two Hebrew words, melek, king, and tzedek, righteousness. Most Hebrew proper names were thus significant. As Salem means peace, king of Salem is, also, king of peace. In both these names Melchizedek fitly represented the Son of God, who is truly the king of righteousness and the king of peace. It is on the throne of grace that he is our peace. Eph. 2:14; Zech. 6:12, 13.

Heb. 7:2, 3 contains some of the most significant and interesting of all the statements of this wonderful argument. All that is known of Melchizedek is contained in Gen. 14:18-20, and in these two verses in Hebrews 7.

The truth is, that if we could ascertain his genealogy, all the force of Paul's reasoning would be lost, and he would no longer serve as the type of the priesthood of Christ. For it is the evident intention of the record to give Melchizedek as the type of Christ, in whose priesthood no genealogy or succession can be reckoned. Christ has indeed a genealogy, but that serves solely to prove his heirship to the throne of David, and does not refer at all to his position as a high priest on the throne of his Father in Heaven. This will be seen with more and more clearness though all this chapter.

The original Greek says he was agenealogeetos, literally, without genealogy. Authorities to almost any extent may be quoted to show that the method of expression used in Heb. 7:3 was common among the Hebrews where no genealogical record was preserved.