Meeting Melchizedek: Becoming a Person of Faith

Your life can be part of a bigger life story

For Abigail Adams, life was far more than the running of a farm on the outskirts of Boston. Her husband, John Adams, increasingly spent more time away from home than at home as the New World colonies broke from Great Britain and established their own nation.

Yet, instead of being resentful at his absence, Abigail encouraged his involvement with the formation of the new government. Although she would have no clue what the fledging United States would become, she sensed that she and her husband stood at the cusp of something great and Divine Providence had gifted her husband and called him for such a time as this.

(I highly recommend David McCullough’s biography on John Adams.)

John Adams recognized the greatness of what he was doing too. I found this quote from Adams on the Internet:

“I am…under all obligations of interest and ambition, as well as honor, gratitude and duty, to exert the utmost of abilities in this important cause.” 

https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/john-adams/excerpt

Abraham’s Meeting of Melchizedek

The biblical patriarch, Abraham, seems to have had that kind of defining moment when he met the king of Salem, Melchizedek. Abraham woke up that morning with the goal of rescuing his nephew, Lot, who had been taken hostage by warring tribes who lived on the Jordon plain. He didn’t expect what happened next. After Abraham’s trained men routed the aggressors, Abraham met with the king of Sodom and together, they encountered the mysterious figure of Melchizedek, king of Salem.

Hebrews 7 gives us more explanation about Melchizedek. Like Jesus, he was a priest but not from the traditional Levitical line. He had no genealogical record which makes readers wonder if he was a  kind of eternal figure, a prototype of Christ.

What did Abraham know about Melchizedek?

Abraham knew that Melchizedek was a priest or representative of “the Most High God” and that he was important enough of a person to give blessings. Only greater people gave blessings to lesser people. Yet the blessing Melchizedek gave to Abraham indicated that Melchizedek knew Abraham was special and chosen by God for historical greatness..

(Check out the story of Abraham and Melchizedek in Genesis 14.)

Abraham may not have known all that we know about Melchizedek—and we don’t know all of it either—but I wonder. I wonder if Abraham sensed there was something greater going on than his ordinary life. Something that would stretch beyond the boundaries of his life span.

If either Abraham or John and Abigail Adams knew the extent of the historical events that stood before them–the monumental seismic shift that would occur and their role in it–how would they have felt? They probably had tingles running down their spines as it was.

Evidently both Abraham and John and Abigail Adams sensed the bigness of the event unfolding before them, because they both stepped forward into the bigger picture. Abraham gave a tenth of what he had. John Adams gave his life in public service. And Abigail did the work of a husband and several farmhands, doing without her husband so he could be involved in this great work of forming a new nation.

But . . .

They are them and you are you and I am me. They were special. And you and me? We’re just plain folk, right?

Oh no, no. We have a place in God’s Kingdom work as much as Abraham did. In fact, God has revealed His plans to us that the ancients in the Old Testament longed to see. From God’s Word, we know much more about God’s plan: His desire for everyone to know Him and to find salvation through Jesus. We get a full reveal at God’s plan to bring those who find faith in Christ to His eternal Kingdom and His intention to judge the earth at the end of time.

Until then, He invites us to join this bigger work that stretches beyond our everyday activities. He welcomes us to give our time, energy, finances, and even ourselves to build His kingdom on earth. By giving to His Kingdom instead paying for our own physical pleasure, we express our faith that He is bigger and better than anything upon this earth and His worldview is worth the promotion.

You don’t know where to begin? Ask Him. Ask, “Lord, show me how to live my life in a way that spreads the knowledge of You everywhere and leaves an influence that will last beyond the end of my earthly life.”

When you invest your life in God’s larger than life plan for the nations, you’ll see life better than you’ve ever seen it before.