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Hebrew from which we have the English "first-ripe". It will be seen therefore that if we
keep to Scriptural usage we shall not think of our Lord as having gone to heaven as a
kind of Forerunner going on before us to clear the way, but as the first-ripened fruit, a
pledge to the Father of the harvest that was to follow, a harvest of the many sons that He
was leading through suffering to glory. The passage in Heb. 12: 1-3 which speaks of
Christ as the Captain and Perfecter of faith, the race to be run, the endurance ending in
exaltation and glory, will come before the mind as we think of Christ as the Forerunner;
and the Apostle uses the word dromos "course", in the parallel passage of II Tim. 4: 7.
In Heb. 7: we find a further explanation given of the Melchisedec priesthood. We
are taken back to Gen. 14: where Abraham is met by this priest after his victory over
the armies of the kings. It was here that Abraham renounced all rights and dues as a
result of his triumph, taking neither thread nor shoe latchet, lest the king of Sodom
should say "I have made Abram rich". There he also learned something more of the
all-sufficiency of the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. The
Melchisedec priesthood blesses the overcomer. That is an important truth to be
remembered here.
The greatness of this priesthood is further emphasized by an elaboration of a number
of details that occur in the passage in Genesis. The name has a meaning. Melchisedec
means King of Righteousness, and King of Salem means King of Peace. The fact that
no genealogy is given in Scripture is taken to typify the risen and unending priesthood of
the Son of God. The greatness of this priesthood is still further shown by the fact that
even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchisedec, and the blessing of
Abraham by Melchisedec shewed that "without all contradiction the less is blessed of the
better". The perfection of which the epistle speaks is not connected with the Levitical
priesthood (7: 11), and the essential difference between the Aaronic order and that of
Melchisedec is found in the fact that this priesthood is not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but after the power of an endless life (7: 16). The introduction of the
Levitical order of priesthood moreover was not accompanied by an oath, but in the case
of Christ:
"The Lord SWARE and will not repent . . . . . by so much was Jesus made a surety of
a better testament (covenant)" (7: 21, 22).
The subject is summed up in 8: 1, 2 in these words:
"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High
Priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a
minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not
man."
The verse, so often repeated in this section, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedec", is taken from Psa. 110:, which speaks of Christ sitting at the right hand
of the Lord until His foes be made a footstool, and also of His people presenting
themselves as free-will offerings in the day of His power, which day seems closely linked
with the day of His wrath (Psa. 110: 5) when He shall strike through kings. The first
mention of Melchisedec is connected with the slaughter of the kings near Sodom, the last