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Jesus in the Old Testament is a sermon series on finding Jesus in the whole Bible. Melchizedek — Who is this mysterious character who is described as a priest of God Most High during the time of Abraham, and the king of righteousness and peace? Who is this one who offers gifts of bread and wine, a blessing, and an invitation to worship? Recorded on May 30, 2021, on Genesis 14:13-20, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript So all year, we’ve been focusing on the Person and Work of Jesus. And last week, we started our final sermon series under this annual theme called Jesus in the Old Testament. The three-in-one nature of God, this peculiar teaching that God is a perfect, loving community of Father, Son, and Spirit, became clearer by the time of the NT in the Bible, but even in the OT, we see certain images and characters who prefigure/foreshadow the person/work of Jesus. And that’s what this series is all about: finding Jesus in the OT. Well, last week we considered the mysterious character of the Angel of the Lord. If you missed that message, you can always go back on watch on YouTube or listen to the audio podcast. Today, we’re visiting another mysterious character in the OT named Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek is fascinating: an ancient priest who was known as the king of righteousness and the king of peace, who comes from Jerusalem to bless God’s people with bread and wine. Does that remind you of anyone else in the Bible? Does this sound familiar? If you have a Bible/app, please open it to Ge 14:13. Genesis 14:13-20, “13 A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. 17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” Ok! So we jumped right into the middle of something. What did the man escape from and why did Abram and his band of 300 Navy Seals go rampaging after them? Well, the first half of chapter 14 describes alliances of kings going to war against each other. And one group, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies, fight another group lead by the king, Kedorlaomer. The alliance is soundly defeated and scattered. Kedorlaomer seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, including their people and their food/possessions as their brave kings ran and hid. Lot, Abram’s relative, was caught up in all of that and was captured by Kedorlaomer. When Abram heard what had happened, he marshaled his troops, which, by the way, shows how wealthy and powerful he had become by this point in time, and pursued the armies who had captured Lot. They defeated the armies of the kings that for sure would’ve been far larger by a sneak attack at night, turned it into a route. Then they recovered all the goods and people and came back home. Epic. The movie 300 with Gerard Butler where a band of 300 men went up against a far larger army was fiction. This is history. Let’s pick up the story after the battle when Abram meets this mysterious character of King Melchizedek in v. 18. Genesis 14:18,