I knew a man many years ago, who believed
that (or at least wondered whether) Melchizedek was Noah’s son Shem. This
sounds a bit oddball at first, but if you make calculations from the
genealogical tables of Genesis 9, 10, and 11 (and assume there are no gaps),
you will find that Shem outlived Abraham by 35 years. Even if this is a wrong
understanding of the genealogies, it’s still true that Melchizedek was much
greater than Abraham.
The writer of Hebrews says “without father
or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life”, but
then he goes on to say “this man”. To be “this man”, we really expect him to
have a father and mother, so we may have to understand that they just weren’t
recorded. This has been the usual explanation.
On the other hand, maybe this was a
theophany, and he really had no father or mother. (Heb.6:20-7:17). For
Melchizedek to be “king of righteousness” (Heb.7:2) is almost too much to be
true of any mere human. It reminds me of Abraham and the three “men” he met at
Mamre (Gen.18:1-33) and Joshua and the “man” he met outside Jericho. (Joshua
5:13-15). In fact, Hebrews 7:8 says that Melchizedek “is declared to be
living”; and verse 16 compares the life of Christ to the life of Melchizedek:
“on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.” This seems to discount
the possibility of Melchizedek’s being a simple mortal. And if “without
beginning of days” also applies in actual fact to Melchizedek, he could only be
a theophany of Christ Himself.
The writer of Hebrews has drawn our hearts
and minds out in wonder, first at a very great man; then we realize it is Jesus
Himself and suddenly we worship! He has come to us out of eternity past, and He
has “the power of an indestructible life” to carry us into a wonderful eternity
to come.
