22 January 2010
Psalm 31; Gen. 11:27-12:8; Heb. 7:1-17; John 4:16-26

The Lord promises to make Abram’s name great if he will obey the call. Three times in that promise He also uses the word bless. The word brings the connotation of fruitfulness, in order for us to be fruitful requires the blessing of God. The potential is there within us but the blessing of God activates that potential. Abram sees prosperity in riches in his life but spends 25 years waiting for the blessing of fruitfulness, the son of the promise. The passage also says that we are never too old to be called and used by God. The word of the Lord came to a 75 year old man and obedience to the call caused Abram to be the father of many nations. God began the work of building a people through a man and woman advanced in years because they were willing to say yes to Him.

This exchange with Jesus and the woman is remarkable on many levels. At the end of chapter 2 of John’s Gospel we are told that many in Jerusalem believed in Jesus but He wasn’t willing to entrust Himself to them. Here, He divulges the secret to a woman He has just established is a tramp. Apparently when Jesus saw her heart He saw something no one else saw. She attempts to deflect his word concerning her domestic situation by speaking about the issue of where to worship. Jesus says it doesn’t matter where but it does matter what, and affirms that the Jews have it right but that it isn’t just for them, it is for those who will worship in spirit and truth. Salvation is from the Jews but not simply for the Jews. Can you imagine her inner reaction to His declaration that He is Messiah?

Now that Melchizedek has been mentioned several times in the book of Hebrews, the writer gets to the issue of explaining what he means by comparing Jesus to this man. He appears from nowhere in Genesis 14 to offer gifts of bread and wine to Abraham after he has conquered armies to rescue Lot. To him Abraham gives a tithe (10%) of his spoils for no apparent reason. Here, Jesus is compared to this king/priest. The point of this continues to be that Jesus is superior to the old ways. The Hebrew way of thinking is that the ancestors of Abraham did obeisance to this man through Abraham. The ancestor is greater through his faithfulness than those who will come from him and he paid tithes to this Melchizedek, so the ancestors are inferior to him as well. Jesus, according to the writer, is a priest after the order of Melchizedek and therefore superior to the priests of the old covenant. It is a fascinating “get” by the Psalmist who first picked up on it in Psalm 110 and then also here by the writer. Abram was blessed by God and he paid tithes to Melchizedek so he must have recognized him as the representative of God even though at the time there was no priesthood, there was no people.

Blessed be the LORD,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.