Tithes Explained: Melchesidec*

Roger Cooper

First Fruits • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Transcript

Invocation

The Lord is in His Holy Temple.

Let all the Earth keep silent before him.

I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the House of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand within Thy gates Oh Jerusalem.

Song- Let it Rain (Paul Morton)

Open the flood gates of Heaven Let it rain, let it rain

Opening

To everyone in their respective places. To our Deacon, Elders, and other leaders. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope everyone is doing well and it is my honest prayer that each of you has been safe and enjoyed your week. I want to thank everyone for joining our Virtual Sunday Morning Service this morning as we seek to break forth the bread of life. Amen.

To my beautiful wife, I want to say I love you and I thank God for you each and every day. Truly, God has been good to us. Let us get directly and quickly into the Word of God. Amen.

So last week, we were in Genesis 2 as we kick started our 5 week series on tithing which I really hope will be a revelatory and blessed experience for each and every one of you. We talked about God’s provision and the responsibility that each of us has to steward what God has given us. But, most importantly, we talked about the need for each of us to recognize what God is asking from each of us out of the provision he gives us.

This is where the concept of tithing relates to the garden and the tree, although the tree is not itself an example of a tithe. That said, we will actually be looking at the tithe today and we will be going back to the concept in theological study of the Law of First Mention.

Prayer

Give Scripture: Genesis 14:17-20

Read Scripture: Genesis 14:17-20

Genesis 14:17–20 KJV 1900

17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Introduction

Amen. Their is so much revelation in this text that I thought about stretching this into two weeks and doing this series in seven weeks. But I will try to close out Genesis and Melchesidec right here, but we will see what the Lord is going to do on today. Amen.

Now we talked about on last week the Law of First Mention. As a recap for those who may have forgotten, or possibly were not with us last week, the Law of First Mention is based on the principle of doing in-depth theological study where you trace a word, concept, or idea from the point of its first mention through the Bible to establish its origin and basis. The basic premise behind this theological study process is that if you find the point of origin for a word, concept, or idea then you can obtain a foundational understanding of how something in the Bible works.

The Law of first mention has given rise to many theological phenomenon and revelations some of which are common place today. One very prominent example of that is to look at Biblical numerology which traces the first appearance of a number in the bible through its last appearance to detect a theme around that particular number.

Seven, for example, meaning completion or spiritual perfection

The creation story is broken into seven spans of time

Abraham is blessed in seven ways at the Word of God

Most of the book of Revelation is broken into seven

And so, the Law of First Mention helps us to uncover new theological concepts. Now last week, I skipped ahead a bit to get across the understanding of what tithing is in the general sense. However, today we will be looking at the first use of the word Tithe in all of scripture both from a canonical perspective and a chronological perspective.

Canonically, the book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible

However, canonically, the Book of Job is the oldest and first book written

Based on dating and scholarly studies conducted, it has been determined that Job likely lived in the time before or around Abraham but after the Great Flood.

This means that his story was written before Moses wrote the events of the Garden, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph.

Taking these facts into account, we can say conclusively that the first mention of tithes in all of the Bible is in this passage, Genesis 14:20 either canonically or chronologically.

With this in mind, we can take a look at our text...

Genesis 14:17-20

Here in Genesis 14:17-20 we find Abraham, or Abram as he is called in this portion of the text, having just left a conquest done in the name of his nephew who had been kidnapped. In your time, I encourage you to read the entirety of Genesis 14, to get a better understanding of what exactly happens with the names given. I will give a cliff notes version to aid in understanding.

Two sets of Kings exist in this passage of scripture

The 4 Eastern Kings led by King Cherdolamer who are the aggressors.

Then you have the 5 Western Kings who are, in effect, led by the Kings of Sodom & Gomorrah.

According to scripture, Cherdolamer had inflicted tribute on the 5 Kings for 12 years.

After 12 years of oppression they grew tired and revolted in the 13th year

1 year after that, the 4 Eastern Kings went to war but they did not immediately assault the revolutionaries.

They instead went on a terror throughout the region and waged war against 6 countries located throughout the region and conquered them all.

Only then did they go to war against the 5 Western Kings, all of which who failed dramatically.

In the end, the 4 Eastern Kings were able to plunder Sodom and take goods with them while the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were trapped in a tar pit outside the city of Sodom.

However, in addition to taking the goods from Sodom and Gomorrah, they kidnapped Lot and many of his possessions.

In response, Abram fathers together a few of his own house to help him go after the 4 Eastern Kings who had kidnapped his nephew.

This brings us up to our passage of scripture for the morning.

In our passage of scripture, Abraham and his 318 men have successfully gone after the 4 Eastern Kings in pursuit of his nephew, Lot.

He is able to defeat all four Kingdoms in battle.

He takes all of their spoil/ or goods.

He finds and takes back his nephew.

He also takes back the goods of his nephew that were taken from the city.

So Abraham is on his was to Sodom, to take his nephew back home and to report on the results of the battle as the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were the de facto leaders of the 5 Eastern Kings who had been attacked and defeated by the 4 Eastern Kings led by Chedorlaomer.

Keeping in mind, he was not after these kings because they attacked his land.

He was not after them because he just wanted their money.

He was not after them for political or social reasons.

He was only after them because they had taken something of value TO HIM.

How many times have we sat back and watched as someone laid waste to our family or things we care about because we are scared to act?

How many times will you allow your enemy to take possession of what God has given you to watch over in the interest of peace?

What are you willing to do for something that holds value in your life?

Abram went to war over his nephew.

Abram went against 5 kingdoms over his nephew.

So Abram is on his way back to Sodom to meet the King so he can return his nephew to his city of residence, but also so he can return to the King that which belongs to him.

And smack dab in the middle of the text, we see Melchezidek who is identified as the King of Salem pop up in the text preparing to serve Abraham a snack of bread and wine while he is on the way to Sodom.

Salem is a word that means peace…

It is also the name of a city in the bible, which is Jeru-SALEM.

Jerusalem meaning CITY of peace, rather than simply peace.

In fact, throughout the Bible their are examples of different people (especially outside Kings and Kingdoms) referring to Jerusalem as simply Salem.

So this Melchezidek is the King of Salem, or Jerusalem, effectively making him King of the non-existent Kingdom of Judah at this point.

But he is also the Priest of the Most High God.

Now, when we were doing our 2 Chronicles Bible Study, we talked about the difference between a typology and a theophany.

A Typology is the systematic studying of two or more things to find and understand the correlation.

So we can look at the Tabernacle of the OT and see it is a typology of the Christ in the NT

We can look at Moses & Elijah of the OT and see the typology of the two prophets in the NT

We can look at the marriage of Adam & Eve and see the typology of the Church and Christ in the NT

A Theophany is an encounter with God wherein God is revealed to you but does so indirectly.

Think Moses and the backside of God’s glory.

Jacob and the Angel of the Lord

Nebuchadnezzar and the Son of Man

Keeping these facts in mind, we can look at the scripture and clearly see that Melchezidek is a typology of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the role that he occupies.

If you give me a few minutes, I will prove it to you.

Revelation 22:13 KJV 1900

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Here, the words of Jesus Christ to John the Revelator are I am the first and the last, meaning he was there before everything and will be there long after everything.

This scripture is two-fold because it echoes the meaning of John 1 where this same John makes the declarative statement..

John 1:1–3 KJV 1900

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This passage bringing reference to the role that Christ plays in the creation when it is said come let US make man in OUR IMAGE.

John, through his understanding of the Word of God and by extension Christ Jesus reaches the revelation that Jesus is the Word and was there in the beginning.

However this 22nd chapter in the book of Revelation also points to another fact that many of us should be aware of that Jesus did not just come to save but he also came to establish a Kingdom and be crowned with Heavenly glory that he might rule Earthly places.

Put simply, and we have talked about this as well in our study of 2nd Chronicles, but Jesus Christ is the last King of God’s chosen people as he rules now from Heaven but his Kingdom shall descend from Heaven and he shall one day rule this Earth from the city of New Jerusalem or the New City of Peace as King over all the Earth at the defeat of the Anti-Christ… I am simplifying but that is the gist of the book of Revelation.

With that knowledge in tact, we can then say conclusively that he is the last King… which when combined with this scripture also tells us that he is the first.

This takes us to Hebrews 5:5-6 “So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

This passage of scripture makes us privvy to a conversation between God the Father and God the Son…

Hebrews 5:5–6 The Message

Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you!” In another place God declares, “You’re a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.”

This passage tells us that Christ was setup by God the Father to be the forever High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, meaning he inherited the priesthood from Melchezidek who never passed his priestly responsibility into the lineage of Aaron.

Once again this points us to Revelation 22 which tells us that Jesus is the first and the last.

With this understanding we can conclude that, if he is the final and forever High Priest, he was also the first.

This loops us back to our scripture as we draw to our close…

Conclusion

In the scripture, Genesis 14, Abram has an encounter with Melchezidek, which scripture goes on to tell us is actually an old testament theophany of the Lord Jesus Christ as he passes through the volumes of the book making preparation for his people who shall in turn make preparation for his coming.

In this encounter, the King of Salem blesses both Abram and the Most High God for their contribution to the Kingdom.

Abram for being used and God for giving the victory.

After the blessing is given the scripture tells us that Abram gives Melchezidek a tithe.

Abram gives the King of Salem a tithe.

He gives the High Priest of the Most High God a tithe.

He gives Jesus Christ, the first and last King.

He gives Jesus Christ, the first and last priest…. A tithe.

Why?

He is not threatened into giving tribute.

The law does not command that he give a tithe.

Their is no impending curse if he did not give the tithe.

Frankly, their is not guarantee or right of blessing because of the tithe giving… so why?

He gives out of honor.

He gives out of respect.

He gives out of relationship.

He gives out of submission.

This passage of scripture, if it does nothing else it takes away the idea that the tithe is only commanded in the law… which it is.

This passage of scripture, furthermore, lets us know that the attitude and posture of the tithe is at least just as importance as the obedience in tithing itself.

I liken our attitude to tithing to our relationships…

You caring for your husband or wife is bigger than what your vows require… its bigger than what the law requires…. and it is certainly bigger than what you feel like all the time.

It requires you being willing to sacrifice and do something because of genuine care and not forced obligation.

I do not care how mad I may be at my wife… she is still my wife and I will care for and provide for her no matter what.

Much the same with tithing… if you are doing it but in the wrong attitude… just keep your money.

Abram did not wait on a law or anything because he knew what he felt in his spirit.

Now this gets me to a tough question we have to ask ourselves…

If your church is not tithing…

Or if you as a person do not tithe…

How is your relationship with God.

Abram had a 5 minute encounter with God and gave 10% of 5 Kingdom’s worth of spoil to sow into the Kingdom of God/ or Melchezidek.

You have been attending Church for 15 years… and we still have not seen a tithe out of your household.

As a Church we have to ask ourselves are we serving and inviting God such that people will have an encounter where they can form the relationship that leads to tithing.

As a people, we have to ask ourselves have we sought after or do we have the kind of relationship with God where we feel the urge or desire to tithe.

Matthew 6:21 KJV 1900

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

As a collective church and as individual people… we have to ask where is our treasure and then we will see the wisdom of where our heart is…

Notes… work this in next time possibly

Your tithe is about someone else. How do we know because Abram gave his tithe out of the spoil and then gave the rest to the King of Sodom.

It was never about Abram taking possession of the money but he did it because he wanted to save somebody so he did the work to save them and then made his Kingdom contribution by giving of his finances.

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