What if you heard, or thought you heard God say to leave
your family and your family's land and go to some unspecified destination He
would show you? Would it entice you if
you also heard, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you
and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those
who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.” How could that possibly be true? It is.
That is the truly amazing thing, all this happened. It isn't just some story out of an old book,
it is a true story, the Lord indeed made Abraham's name great and blessed
him. Out of Abraham came both the
Judeo/Christian line and the Islamic line and thousands of years later this man
from Ur is the father of innumerable people, either directly or indirectly
through faith in his seed. I always get
the picture of the Beverly Hillbillies in my mind when Abram and Sarai and
their nephew, along with their worldly possessions set out for this land they
have heard about, they don't leave anything behind, they don't expect to go
back.
"Sir, I perceive you are a prophet." That is what they're looking for, a prophet
like Moses. The Samaritans have only the
first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, they don't have all the rest
because they left the nation long before those other books were written. They believe that all that is a fiction
designed to lift up these apostates who are worshiping in the wrong place, to
justify what they have done. That is why
she raises the issue of where worship happens.
Jesus' response is clear as a bell in that regard, He doesn't soft pedal
it, "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews." You
have it wrong, you're not the true Israel, you don't know God and salvation
doesn't come from the Samaritans, it comes from the Jews. All she knows is Messiah is coming, hopefully
she at least has that part right and then Jesus says something He rarely says, “I
who speak to you am he.” Wow!
Melchizedek is one of the most intriguing figures in the
Bible. He is priest and king of Salem,
(to continue the Beverly Hillbillies theme, Jeru-Salem that is) and to him
Abraham pays tribute for some unknown reason.
He shows up for a few verses in Genesis 14, is said to be priest of God
Most High and then blesses Abraham in the name of the Most High God. After that, nothing, no information, no
explanation, nothing at all. The writer
here tells us he has no lineage, no father or mother, neither beginning of days
nor end of life. Was he a theophany, a
pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus? This
priestly line has only one successor, Jesus.
It predates the priestly order of Aaron and the Levites, so in Jewish
thought they have tithed to Melchizedek since Abraham paid tithes to him. It is a beautifully brilliant stroke to tie
in Jesus with this figure and his priesthood.
He is superior to all things, including the high priestly mediator.
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