Worship God! Revelation 19-21

May the mumbling commence!

We stand at the cusp of a new year.  What will be new in our Christian walk as we seek to enter the New Year – 2012?  The end of the book of Revelation has much to say about ways to improve our Christian walk.  Over the past few days, I have been mumbling about one important improvement – rightful or righteous worship.  I would have you read one more instance (that is repeated in the last few chapters of Revelation so it is important).

Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “Those are the true words of God.”

At this I fell at his feet to worship him.  But he said to me, “Do not do it!  I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.  Worship God!  For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (19:9-10)

Here is a goal for the New Year: Worship God alone.  Even the angel that spoke with John the Seer would not accept worship.  Worship belongs to God alone.  If anyone tells you any differently, they seek to deceive you.  Let us seek the truth and faithfulness of Jesus in our lives.  It is this truth that is spoken about in these passages from chapter nineteen of Revelation below:

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True.  With justice he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.  He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.  He is dressed in a robe dripped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. (Verses 11-15)

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army.  But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf.  With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.  The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Verses 19-21)

The sharp sword represents the Word of God, the Truth.  The Truth reveals the deceptions of the devil for what they are – lies and delusions.  These lies reek like sulfur (the smell of rotten eggs)!  And the lies burn the deceived like an everlasting fire.  The Truth brings down the house of cards built on the lies and the deceived destroy one another.  

Please note this: no weapon of humanity is needed – only the weapon of the Lord – the Truth.  As Christians, our job is patient endurance in just and true worship of God.  We are but witnesses to God’s victory over Satan and sin and death.  

And, O the hope we have to look forward to in God’s city:

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.  The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.  On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.  And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servant will serve him.  They will see him face to face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  (21:22-22:4)

Amen, come, Lord Jesus!  

Enough mumbling for now…  

Happy New Year and Peace Out     

Wisdom; Revelation 15-18

May the mumbling commence!

As I read Revelation, I cannot help but wonder and even speculate about the many images and plagues that are written about by John the Seer.  In Revelation Chapter seventeen, there is a sentence that needs to be repeatedly meditated upon – “This calls for wisdom.” (Verse 9a)

Indeed, being able to decipher the code of Revelation is difficult and calls for wisdom above any of human flesh.  Let’s think about the layers of code.  One: we need to remember that this letter was written to a people who were being persecuted.  It takes some persecution to begin to understand Revelation, and persecution for the sake of Jesus is something that US Christians know little or nothing about.

Two: because this letter was written to a persecuted people, the letter had to be written in code that only the writer and the intended audience could understand.  In those days, there was no secure postal service that made sure only the intended recipients received the letter.  AND the letter would take months to deliver with great risk involved.  The letter had to be written in code so that if it fell into the wrong hands little of it would be understandable.  Even if we find ourselves persecuted for the sake of Jesus’ name, we still need to exercise care in our interpretation.  There is no certain way we can crack the code that was established between the author and the audience.

Three: the words of these revelations have their source in God.  Even John the Seer himself would not have fully understood the revelation from God.  Granted, some of the revelation is decoded in the Scripture, but it is decoded into the code that existed between the author and the audience…

So, yes, we can speculate about who the images in Revelation represented in John’s day.  We can speculate what the various plagues represented in John’s day.  But we can never know with certainty one way or the other.  Speculation can make entertaining books of fiction, but speculation is all that we will have.

And we can further speculate when we perceive persecution for the name of Christ in our own lives.  We can wonder about current events and current leaders.  How might they fit into the images of Revelation?  To speculate in this way would gain us nothing.  Such speculation would only distract us from the message we need to hear.

That message is this: God is in control.  We need to have patient endurance in our faith in Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Jesus did not quake with fear at the foot of the cross.  He knew that his heavenly Father was in control.  So, Jesus gave the greatest act of worship to God – obedient submission to the will of God. 

Let us say along with Jesus, “Here I am, O God.  Do with me as you will, because I know that your will is pleasing and perfect for me.”  This submission is my perfect worship of the one and only God, who created all things.

I seek the Lord for wisdom in my day and age so that I may glorify God and His Christ with the way I live my life…

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Revelation Worship Part Two; Revelation 14

May the mumbling commence!

Did you read yesterday’s mumbling and are still not convinced that rightful worship is not a main theme in the book of Revelation?  Then read another passage from Revelation chapter fourteen:

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation, tribe, language and people.  He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him the glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.  Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

A second angel followed and said, “Fallen, Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” 

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives the mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.  He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever.  There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.”  This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” (Verses 6-13)

Who or what do you worship?  Who do you love?  Your attitudes and thoughts and words and actions will bear out who you worship and love.  Worship of God takes only one correct form – that of humble obedience.  If we worship anyone or anything else or if we try to worship our Lord Jesus in any other way, we have stepped away from giving God the glory.

The choices to worship things other than God are many and manifold.  To take the easier path is to worship something other than God.  How can we think that worship is not an essential theme to Revelation when we read these things?  Rightful worship is key to actively receiving the promises that God extends to all humanity – indeed to all creation.

Yes, we have a choice.  Choose to worship God righteously or choose to worship God in a way that is unacceptable in His sight or worship something other than God – a lie, a deception.  If there is any “code” to crack in Revelation, rightful worship of the Lord Jesus is it.  We do NOT have a hidden timetable or a calendar of events for some End Time in the future.

No, our call as saints of the Lord is patient endurance that remains faithful to the call of Jesus even when the call of Jesus makes zero sense to the human mind.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out  

Revelation Worship; Revelation 7-8

May the mumbling commence!

The book of Revelation is a letter to churches in an area and time where great persecution was happening.  Some scholars would have you believe that Revelation deals primarily with the end times, but the primary purpose of the letter was to encourage and convict the churches to continue in their faith despite the overwhelming opposition.  So, were the end times a secondary purpose of the letter?  Perhaps.  But I do not believe it was even the greatest secondary purpose.  

There is a greater secondary purpose that dovetails even more strongly with the primary purpose of the letter.  To continue in the faith, the churches must continue to worship the Christ, the Lamb.  Yes, the book of Revelation is a book of worship.  Don’t believe me?  Read the majority of Revelation chapter seven below:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice:

            “Salvation belongs to our God, 

                   who sits on the throne, 

                   and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.  They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying:

            “Amen!  Praise and glory 

                    and wisdom and thanks 

                    and honor and power and strength

            be to our God forever and ever.  Amen!”

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in the white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore.

            they are before the throne of God 

                   and serve him day and night in his temple;

            and he who sits on the throne 

                   will spread his tent over them.

            Never again will they hunger; 

                   never again will they thirst.

            The sun will not beat down upon them, 

                    nor any scorching heat.

            For the Lamb at the center of the throne 

                        will be their shepherd;

                        he will lead them to springs of living water.

            And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

When [the Lamb] opened the seventh seal, there was a great silence in heaven for about half an hour.  (Verses 9 through Chapter Eight Verse one.)

A great multitude that no one can count worships before the Lord in these verses.  The great multitude includes the 144,000 from the Jewish people, those from every corner of the world who has come to worship the Lord Jesus, the angels who have not fallen with Satan, the elders, and the four living beasts.  The angels and the elders and the four living beasts show us the proper position for worship.  They fall down on their faces.  The great multitude shows us another position for proper worship.  They have persevered in their faith in the Lamb even in the midst of persecution.

And those who faithfully worship the Lord Jesus receive the promises of serving the Lord God and receiving the protection of God’s tent – which includes no more hungering or thirsting or heat stroke or tears.  And, yes, the Lamb will shepherd us.  Ironic, isn’t it?  The Lamb will shepherd us.  The Lamb will lead us to the living waters of the Lord.  And we will drink our fill.  

God does not operate as humanity does.  God is far above humanity.  We can rely fully on God without fear.  This reliance and service and hope is the main ingredient in faithful worship – of falling down on our faces before the throne of God.  No longer do we see ourselves as the center of the universe.  God is at the center of all things.  

And silence reigns for half an hour as we ponder these things in our hearts.  When was the last time you remember having a complete silence for half an hour?  In these days, that length of silence is significant.  And, in the context of worship outside of the Friends Church, silence for half an hour is unheard of and would make most worshippers uncomfortable.  We have time schedules to keep.  Why would we waste such time?  A better question:  Who or what do you really worship? 

Enough mumbling for now…  

Peace Out

Lukewarm? Revelation 3

May the mumbling commence!

Many people who read the book of Revelation forget that it was originally a letter to a group of churches.  The letter was intended to both convict the churches to action and to comfort them in a time of great trial during the reign of Domitian.  Chapters two and three of Revelation are written to and addressed to specific churches of that time.  Most of the churches are convicted in the ways they fall short in following Christ Jesus, although some of the churches are only encouraged for their faith in Christ.  All of the churches are given a reason to hope.  The Lord has not given up hope for any of them.

As I read these letters this morning, I couldn’t help being drawn to the letter to the church in Laodicea because I believe that it reflects many of the church bodies here in the United States.  Read it below:

            To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  You say “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.”  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (3:14-22)

I believe that we can learn a lot from how the Lord is described to each church.  The specific description is a reminder of who God is for each individual church.  In the case of Laodicea (and I would argue for a vast majority of churches in the United States), God is described as the Amen.  

Amen is originally Hebrew and means truly and also means so be it.  Our God and His will for all of us is true.  How well have we accepted His will for us?  How often have we said, “So be it,” to His will, meant it, and followed through by our attitudes and thoughts and words and actions?  

God is also described as the faithful and true witness.  Do we in our actions and words and thoughts and attitudes relate to others as faithful and true witness to the power of our living Lord?  This is the God that Laodicea needed to be reminded of.  God is the only One that we can depend upon.

Laodicea (and many churches in the US today) is neither hot nor cold.  In no way does the church send a message to the world around them that could be seen as true.  We may proclaim God’s wonders with our lips, but our actions show that we are dependent upon something else.  We are rich.  We do not need a thing.  We are well within our comfort zones, and we would like to stay there – thank you very much.  As the classic rock song “Signs” states to God, “Thank you Lord for caring about me, I’m alive and doing fine.”

But the Lord sees us differently.  We are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.  We need to learn to extend ourselves and depend upon the Lord’s grace.  Depending on the grace of the Lord alone will give us the only currency that can buy the gold of heaven and the white clothes of righteousness and the salve so that we might see ourselves and others with the eyes of Jesus.

Yes, God is rebuking us and disciplining us because He loves us.  Repent, answer the door, and be in full fellowship with the Lord.  Then we will be worthy to sit down in the Lord’s presence forever and ever.  Let us listen to the words that the Lord speaks to us.  Let’s also listen to the words that the Lord speaks to other churches.  These words are warnings and encouragements for growth in our walk with Jesus.  Let none of these words fall by the wayside in our lives.

Enough mumbling for now…  

Peace Out

Love, Love, Love; 1 Jn. 4, 2 Jn., 3 Jn., Rev. 1...

May the mumbling commence!

There’s an old song that children like to sing.  It goes something like this: “Love, love, love – that’s what it’s all about.  God loves us; we love each other – mother, father, sister, brother.  Everybody sing and shout, cause that’s what it’s all about.  It’s about love, love, love.”  And the little children shall lead us into all truth.  The author of the John letters knew this truth about love, and so did the author of Revelation.  Read some passages from these letters below:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.  And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.  And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 4-6)

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.  They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.  It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.  We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth. (3 John 5-8)

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:4b-6)

Love one another!  Those three words come up four times in these brief passages.  They must be important.  In the gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples, “This is my command: Love each other (John 15:17).”  Again, in the gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (13:35).”  When Jesus talked about the greatest commandment, he spoke, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'   The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29b-31)"

Yes, love comes from God, because God is love.  Our love of one another is only a response to God first loving us.  When we love one another, God’s love is made complete in us; and those around us will recognize us as students of Christ.  Let us walk our lives in love – doing for brothers and sisters in Christ who we do not know and showing hospitality to unveil truth.

And love is about being there in the present moment.  Our God is living and is first and foremost the God who is.  God has so loved us that He sent His one and only Son to free us from sin and equip us to minister as priests in service of God.

Yeah – Love, love, love – that is what it is all about.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

What Gift to Bring? Hebrews 13 & 1 John 3

May the mumbling commence!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!  To the one who has no beginning or end, we celebrate the glorious miracle of your coming to earth in human form.  You came to live among us, and through your Holy Spirit you live with us still.  You came with great vulnerability and great power. 

You showed us how great vulnerability and great power can dwell together in the same person.  You were not corrupted by great power.  You remained obedient until the end of your human life.  And you live on forever at the side of your Father in heaven – and thanks to you, He is our Father as well.  Yes, we are the children of God!

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

What a great Christmas present to me!  The reading for today comes from Hebrews and 1 John – two of my favorite books of the Bible.  I love Hebrews because it bridges the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament with clarity.  I love 1 John because it is a great letter of encouragement to all believers – reminding us all of the promise upon which we put our hope and which we live our lives anew in the presence of God. 

1 John was also the book of the Bible that began my love affair with the Scriptures – reading them over and over again.  How great is the love of God!  That statement makes me think of the hymn The Love of God by F. M. Lehman.  Read the last verse of this hymn:

            Could we with ink the ocean fill

                   and were the skies of parchment made;

            were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,

                   and everyone a scribe by trade;

            to write the love of God above

                   would drain the oceans dry;

            nor could the scroll contain the whole,           

                   though stretched from sky to sky.

God loves us and calls us His children because that is what we are!  Like Father, like sons and daughters!  When God appears, we will resemble him like children resemble their earthly parents.  To resemble God is to know what love is.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  (1 John 3:16-18)

To love is to show those around us with our actions of mercy and grace and truth.  So, what present should we bring to our Lord Jesus this morning?  How do we please him with our gift to him?

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.  And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews 13:15-16)

We confess your name, O Jesus, in the congregation and in the world this morning – now and forevermore.  We strive to benefit those around us by sharing of our resources of food, money, power, influence, knowledge, and wisdom.  Confessing the name of Jesus and doing good and sharing with others is how we will please Jesus this day. 

I leave you now with the beautiful benediction that comes in the last chapter of Hebrews:

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,  equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (13:20-21)

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Looking Back and Forward; Hebrews 11-12

May the mumbling commence!

We are looking back and looking forward.  We are looking faithfully through the windshield of the car called faith to see and anticipate what is ahead – the Second Coming.  We are looking as faithfully through the rearview mirror of the car called faith to remember and be encouraged by the path of others that has led us to this place.

We hope that we will live to see Christ come back to earth, though this hope may not be fulfilled.  For this reason, we must continue to pass the torch of faith to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – as far as we can reach.  Someday you and I will join that great cloud of witnesses described in Hebrews chapter eleven.  Read the culmination of chapter eleven and the beginning of chapter twelve:

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.  Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.  God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (11:32-12:3)

Together, we stand in a Christian family where the continuum of time has no hold.  Through the grace of God, chronology looses all meaning.  Instead, through the eternal and divine moment, that has no beginning or end, we stand with both those that have come before us and those who will come long after we have left this world for the next.

The author of Hebrews began this roll call of faith with Abel and ended up running out of time and parchment space to continue with the early judges of Israel.  The author summed up the rest of the forefathers and foremothers of faith with the passage above.  Each of these people received either victory or infamy among their peers. 

Each of these people looked forward to the promise of God, but they never received it.  God’s plan cannot be contained within any one grouping of generations.  Each generation is dear in the eyes of God.  God’s plan is that each successive generation will make the previous generations perfect.

What a great cloud of witnesses!  Even as we look into the fog of our futures, we can be encouraged by this cloud of witnesses.  You and I have the advantage of those in the cloud who came before Jesus.  We know the author and perfecter of our faith.  We know the perfectly faithful and obedient way to live our lives.

So, we speak: “Be gone!” Go away all those things that hinder or entangle or snares us from running a faithful race.  As we run the marathon of our faith lives, let’s keep our eyes on the finish line – becoming more and more like Jesus.  Never lose heart over the trials of our lives, because Jesus faced much worse upon the cross.

Be ready to pass the baton of faith to the next generations so that we may be made perfect.  Yes, you and I need to be perfected by the generations that succeed us.  The seemingly endless cycle of Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter will end in magnificent glory one day soon.  But it is anybody’s guess when…

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out   

King of Righteousness and Peace; Hebrews 7

May the mumbling commence!

Now, here’s a story about kings and high priests.  In this story, we have Abraham and Melchizedek and Jesus.  Yes, Jesus us my Savior.  In a couple of days, we will celebrate his birth and tenting with us.  Even so, Melchizedek fascinates me.  Sometimes, I wonder if Melchizedek is an example of a theophany (that’s seminary-ease for an appearance of God – and apparently I had to introduce theophany to my Word program because it did not know it).  My wonder is magnified by the author of Hebrews.  Read a little over half of chapter seven of Hebrews:

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace."  Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. 

Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!  Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people – that is, their brothers – even though their brothers are descended from Abraham.  This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.  And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater.  In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.  One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor. 

If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come – one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?  For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.  He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar.  For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.  And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. (Verses 1-16)

Melchizedek, in Hebrew, means literally king of righteousness – Melchi(king)-zedek(righteousness).  Who else can the king of righteousness be but the King (no I am not talking about Elvis or Michael Jackson)?  Who else but the Lord?  And Melchizedek was called the king of Salem, and Salem, in Hebrew, means peace (it is a form of the Hebrew word Shalom that you may have heard about.  Yes, righteousness and peace cannot be separated.  You cannot have one without the other.

Abraham, our forefather in the faith, gave Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder from when he rescued Lot.  Melchizedek blessed Abraham.  The author of Hebrews points out that the greater blesses the lesser.  Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.  The author of Hebrews also points out that Melchizedek had no father or mother or genealogy.  Melchizedek was like the Son of God – a priest and a king forever, without a beginning or an ending.

Could Melchizedek be an appearance of God on earth, a precursor to Jesus?  Could Melchizedek and Jesus be one and the same person?  Neither Jesus nor Melchizedek was a part of the Law that created the priesthood from Levi and his descendant Aaron.  This priesthood of Jesus and Melchizedek is a new priesthood that marks something other than the Law.  Melchizedek was before and Jesus (in his earthly form) was after.  The former Law from the Hebrew Bible is made obsolete by the new priesthood of Jesus and Melchizedek.  The Law is now obsolete because it has been perfectly fulfilled by the perfect sacrifice of obedience in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

It is this great High Priest that we celebrate and wait for in this Christmas season.  Let us accept this perfect sacrifice that was made for our salvation.  In response, let’s make room for Jesus to enter our lives anew so that we can live our lives more closely to the perfect obedience that Jesus modeled for us.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out