ATSS PRESENTS: The Mysterious Melchizedek & His Successors
Loren Seibold & John McLarty | 31 August 2022
Melchizedek is one of the most mysterious figures in the Bible. He appears in person only once— in Genesis 14—but is referred to again in Psalm 110 and at length in Hebrews 7.
But who was Melchizedek? All we know from Genesis is that he is a priest, but one whose official credentials, if they existed at all, went unmentioned. Yet he has sufficient spiritual presence that Abram honors him as a representative of the One True God who had originally spoken to Abram, which resulted in his moving from his home in Ur to the land of Palestine. Who made Melchizedek a priest, and how did Abram recognize him?
In the New Testament Melchizedek takes a quantum leap from mysterious priest to a prophetic type of Jesus Christ himself—and interestingly, the reason is because he had no official organizational credentials!
Are there lessons to learn from Melchizedek’s “pastorate”—as simple and spare as its description is? John McLarty and Loren Seibold study what little the Scripture tells us about him, and ask: does this mystical character have lessons to teach us about ministry today?
Teachers:
John McLarty is retired from being senior pastor at Green Lake Church in Seattle. He is a host of Talking Rocks Tours. He is author of Damn My Son, available for $1 on the Amazon Kindle.
Loren Seibold is the Executive Editor of Adventist Today
