While studying to write this post, I was mostly focusing on the question whether Melchizedek was a type of Jesus or Jesus in the flesh (a christophany).

In the middle of reading one of my commentaries on the book of Hebrews, I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me.  I was missing the point.

Whether or not Melchizedek was Jesus in the flesh is a question that many have answered or tried to answer.  But we have failed to come to a unanimous answer.  As much confidence as I might have in my own mind and my abilities, I am also confident that if I came to a conclusion, I would not be able to convince all, if any, of those who disagreed.

So, if you do want to study and come to your own conclusion regarding exactly who Melchizedek was, I encourage you to study it for yourself.  But I'm not going to focus on that today.

Melchizedek has more to show us than that.

First of all, I want you to see what the Bible has to say about Melchizedek. 

The first instance that Melchizedek is mentioned in Genesis 14, where Melchizedek and Abraham meet.  The meeting is very abrupt and described by only a few short sentences.  He is never mentioned before or after in the life of Abraham. 

"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of the God Most High.  He blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.'  He gave him a tenth of all."

Genesis 14:18-20 (NASB).

David mentions Melchizedek in Psalm 110.

"The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'"  Psalm 110:4 (NASB).

The third place is the book of Hebrews.  He is mentioned in more than one place in Hebrews, but we're going to focus on chapter 7.  The chapter is 28 verses long, so I'm going to send you to Bible Gateway to read this one.  Click here to go to the chapter, but don't forget to come back when you're done reading.

I assume everyone has read chapter 7 and then came right back here.  Now we can start talking about why Melchizedek is important.

Abram had just rescued his nephew Lot and many others who had been taken, essentially as prisoners of war.  They were now celebrating the victory.  In the midst of this celebration, Melchizedek just shows up.  There aren't any questions as to who he is or where he came from, so we might be able to assume that Abram and the others were already familiar with him, but we don't know that for certain.  Melchizedek brings bread and wine and then blesses Abram.  After Abram receives this blessing, he gives Melchizedek a tenth, or a tithe, of all he had.

After this, Melchizedek seems to just fade into the background, and nothing more is said of him until the verse in Psalms.  The verse says, as we already read, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."  What does this mean? 

The writer of the book of Hebrews explains that to us, so we'll jump on over there. 

The priesthood of the Levites was imperfect and temporary, waiting for a great fulfillment.  "The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing" Hebrews 7:23 (NASB).  Jesus came as a priest in the order of Melchizedek, fulfilling the picture painted by his life.  With Jesus, there is no succession.  Instead, He is " a priest forever."   Jesus' priesthood is validated by the shadow of a greater priesthood represented by Melchizedek. 

"Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.  Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.  For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.  For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever" Hebrews 7:24-28 (NASB).

I know it's not one of the easiest concepts to understand.  I would love to hear what you think of Melchizedek or if you have any questions about this mysterious man from the Old Testament.  I can't promise to be able to answer them, but I'll do my best.

I've turned to Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology on www.biblestudytools.com for a good definition of a theophany.  

A theophany is a "manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses.  In its most restrictive sense, it is a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament period often, but not always, in human form."

So far in this series on Jesus in the Old Testament, we have been talking about prophecies of Jesus.  Now we're going to look at types of Jesus.  Types are pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament.  Michael Vlach, in an article called "Interpreting Types," explains the differences between prophecies and types.    "Prophecies verbally predict what will happen in the future.  Types are things that nonverbally prefigure some greater New Testament reality.  You can spot an Old Testament prophecy from reading the Old Testament alone, but the New Testament must indicate either explicitly or implicitly whether some Old Testament person, object, ceremony, or institution functioned as a type." 

The Old Testament is full of these kinds of pictures, whether they are pictures of Jesus or of various spiritual ideas.  I'm going to briefly look at two of my favorite types of Jesus.

Though the prophecies about Jesus' birth and death tend to get the most attention, there are also prophecies about Jesus' life.  Today we'll look at five of them.

One of the things that was prophesied was Jesus' lineage. 

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Isaiah 11:1 (NASB).

Jesse was the father of King David, of the tribe of Judah.  Because Jesus was to be King (though not the kind the Jews were expecting), it was necessary for Jesus to be from this royal line.

Another scripture prophesies the location of His birth.

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.  His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."  Micah 5:2 (NASB).

Bethlehem is a small town near Jerusalem, in the land belonging  to the tribe of Judah.  Israel consisted of twelve tribes, named for and descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.  Once the Israelites arrived at the promised land, the land was divided by tribe.   King David was from Bethlehem.

"Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons." 1 Samuel 17:12 (NASB).

Jesus' family was living in Nazareth before Jesus was born, but not long before Jesus was born, the family traveled to Bethlehem.

"Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.  This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And everyone was on hi way to register for the census, each to his own city.  Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.  While they were there, the days were complete for her to give birth.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."  Luke 2:1-7 (NASB).

I've left the most controversial one for last. 

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."  Isaiah 7:14 (NASB).

There is quite a bit of debate on the word "virgin" in this scripture.  Some would say that the Hebrew word "almah" simply meant an unmarried young woman.  It was, of course, expected that an unmarried young woman would be a virgin.  And Mary was described as such.

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:  when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.  And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.  But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 1:18-20 (NASB).

This is a lengthy debate that I choose not to discuss in detail here, but if you do find that you have any questions, please feel free to ask me, or you can look at a couple sites on the issue I found during my research. 

This page describes the issue without delving very much into Hebrew and Greek.

http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/almah-virgin-maiden-isaiah.htm

If you are more interested in the original languages and various word choices, you can check out this page.

http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/9_1/almah

For clarity, please note that prophecy and prophecies are nouns and prophesy and prophesies are verbs.

I love the Old Testament.  Many people don't understand it or just dismiss it, claiming that it isn't important, but I disagree.  There are many reasons why I find the Old Testament important, but the biggest one is that it prophesies of the coming of Jesus.

Jesus tells us in multiple places that He fulfilled the prophecies listed in the Old Testament. 

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill."  Matthew 5:17 (NASB)

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me."  John 5:39 (NASB)

"'Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?' Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."  Luke 24:26-27 (NASB)

"Now He said to them, 'These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'  Luke 24:44 (NASB)

What is the purpose of prophecy?  I believe that there are two main reasons for prophecy.  The first one is to instill hope into the hearers. 

One of my favorite prophecies of hope is Isaiah 9:6.  I find it difficult to temper my joy and hope when I read this verse.

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6 (NASB)

If you've not heard Handel's Messiah, "For Unto Us a Child is Born" you should definitely press play on this video below.  It may not be your cup of tea, but it is one of my favorite songs from The Messiah.  It's long and repetitive, so I don't mind if you don't listen to it in full, but I do hope that you enjoy it enough to listen to the whole thing.  Just don't forget to keep reading below the video!

The second purpose for prophecy is to validate the Messiah.  The Old Testament prophesies the circumstances of Jesus' birth, His lineage, His life, and His death.  The following verses  are a few examples of validating prophecies.

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."  Isaiah 7:14 (NASB)

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.  His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."  Micah 5:2 (NASB)

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord."  Isaiah 11:1-2 (NASB)

"Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.  Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy."  Isaiah 35:5-6a (NASB)

"His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth."  Isaiah 53:9 (NASB)

"For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay."  Psalm 16:10 (NASB)

What I have listed so far is a sampling of the prophecies about Jesus.  If you want to see more, follow this link to a chart that lists more (but not all) of the prophecies of Jesus.  Just as a warning, I have not examined this chart in full, so please forgive me if the author of the chart has made any errors.  (Make sure you come back and finish here, though!)

So just how many prophecies did Jesus fulfill?  People tend to have different counts on just how many He fulfilled.  In my research, I've seen 100, 315, 365, and 400.  One reason for the different numbers is that one passage of prophecy may be counted as multiple prophecies in some listings.

You might wonder if it is possible that it is just coincidence that Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies.  I find it very hard to believe that it could have been an accident.  The probability has been figured, and the enormous chance that Jesus would have fulfilled all these prophecies purely by accident is laughable.

"Scientist Peter Stoner estimated that the probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies was one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion!"

That's only 48.  Even at 48, it's hard to imagine that this could be achieved on accident.  When you add another 52, or another 352 prophecies, I can't even begin to think that it could all be by accident.  And many of those prophecies could not have been orchestrated, such as where Jesus was born, where He grew up (both Egypt and Nazareth are included in prophecy), and specific details of His crucifixion (His side was pierced, but no bones were broken).

Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at Jesus in the Old Testament, starting with a little more information about prophecy in general, and then we're going to look at some of the prophecies about Jesus' birth, His life, and His death.  Following that, we will look at some "types" of Jesus and christophanies included in the Old Testament.  Finally, we will tackle a mysterious character in the Old Testament and how he relates to Jesus.

If you have any questions so far, feel free to comment below, and I will try to answer them the best that I can, either with a comment or a post, depending on which is more appropriate and effective.

I hope you come back to see what I have to say on those topics.  If you haven't yet subscribed to my blog, you can click here or click on "Subscribe Here" at the top of the page.