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, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.”
Hebrews 7:1,2[1]
Some people like to keep things separate. When food is put on their plate, they like everything to be itself. They don’t want their peas touching the mashed potatoes. They don’t want baked bean juice on their hotdog roll.
For them, life would be perfect if they always ate using those plates that have compartments made right into them. Or they ate on the trays used in prisons and the military. There’s a place for everything and everything has its place.
But none of that was going to take place in the house I grew up in. We joyfully mixed our meat, gravy, mashed potatoes, and peas into this mountain of delight to be shoveled into our face with a large spoon. We mixed together three different kinds of sodas and topped it off with a splash of prune juice. Not only did the sodas help the prune juice go down, but to help the prune juice “do its job” inside of us.
The same is true for me when it comes to fashion. To this day, I’m still convinced that red and pink go together. There are lots of times that we’re getting ready to go out and I get “that look” from Mary Ann. She’s looked at the combination that I’ve selected. In my defense, it looks good to me. It looks kinda cool. But to the rest of the world, she assures me that people will either stare or get violently ill.
Yes, there are some combinations that are unusual. And while there are plenty of these in the Bible, perhaps there’s none that compares with the one that Melchisedec, Mr. M., brings. Together, he’s two very different kind of people all rolled into one.
King of righteousness. He’s not only righteous in who he is, but in all he does. He speaks and rules with righteousness. His decisions and rulings bring about rightness in his people and throughout his kingdom. What he does and says is approved by God, the eternally righteous God.
King of peace. Because of who he is and everything he does, he brings peace to everyone and his kingdom. He takes the things that tear people apart and reunites them. He brings people back together. All the broken parts of life are put back together just the way that God made them to be.
As we look at these two parts of his being king, it’s not a happy accident that righteousness comes before peace. This just didn’t get written down in this order. The writer didn’t flip a coin to figure out if righteousness or peace came first.
No. Righteousness always, always, always comes before peace. You’ll never land on the island of peace without first getting into the boat of righteousness. You’ll never arrive at your peaceful destination without driving on the road of righteousness. You’ll never eat at the table of peace without righteousness being your chief ingredient.
What was true for Abraham and Israel is also true for us. Before we’ll ever experience the peace of God that just blows away everyone and everything else[2], we have to take care of this righteousness question. Or, should I say our righteousness question. We don’t need to be looking way out there and be concerned about the righteousness of the rest of the world. We need to look in the mirror at our righteousness in front of our holy God.
The London Times once asked its readers what was wrong with the world. Well-known Christian author and speaker G.K. Chesterton responded with about the best answer ever.
“Dear Sirs, I am.
Yours sincerely, G.K. Chesterton”
GK was right back then and he’s still right today. We’re what’s wrong. You and I are at the heart of all the problems here on planet Earth. It’s not our enemies or people who don’t agree with what we say and believe. We’re the problem because we still haven’t solved our righteousness problem.
Abraham needed Mr. M. to be his king of righteousness. Only after that could Abraham live under Mr. M’s reign of peace. Peace with God. Peace with others. Peace within himself.
Jesus was and is our king of righteousness. Period. There is no other. No one else was made to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God[3]. He’s the only one who can take the “un” off the front of our unrighteousness, changing us once and for all through his righteousness. You and me made righteous and at peace with God. Now, that’s a really unlikely combo.
Noodling Questions
Describe the most unusual combo in your life.
Why are peace and righteousness hard to think about together?
How has Jesus brought both peace and righteousness into your life?
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references are from the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[2] Philippians 4:7
[3] 2 Corinthians 5:21
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