Week 1 Genesis
A couple of days ago I read the short bio of Enoch.
Today I read the short bio of Melchizedek.
Enoch is four verses, Melchizedek three.
Halfway through Genesis fourteen Melchizedek suddenly materializes and meets Abraham as he headed home.
Melchizedek wasn’t a phantom. He was the king of Salem. I checked a word book to see if Salem had even been mentioned before chapter fourteen. It hadn’t. I looked at my bible map and it showed the city of Salem about 25 kilometres west of the north-end of the Dead Sea. In brackets below Salem it said Jerusalem. I wasn’t sure if that was some cartographic guessing. Maybe, maybe not. Either way Melchizedek is still a middle-eastern man of mystery.
In my word book I see his name is only mentioned twice in the OT. Genesis says that: he was priest of God Most High. This is the first time the word priest appears in the bible. I guess there were probably all kinds of religious agents doing what they did. I don’t know how many were acting for God Most High the Creator of heaven and earth but that’s whose camp Melchizedek was in.
Melchizedek ghosts in and just as fast ghosts out of Genesis. And even though I think the bible sometimes goes on too long in some stories his isn’t one of them.
Note: quotes from Genesis 14:18, 19 (NIV). Melchizedek is mentioned eight other times in the NT – all in book of Hebrews.