Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Genesis 14, verses 18 through 20,

and Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

He was priest of God Most High.

And he blessed him and said,

Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

Now, there's a lot of mystery around Melchizedek, King of Salem, who is mentioned here, and we really don't know a lot about

from other places in the Old Testament, and then we hear about him in the New Testament in the

book of Hebrews. And there's a lot of mystery about who he is and what role he has, but this one picture is clear here in Genesis

Chapter 14 and is unique. What we have is a picture of a king who is also a priest. So a priest

king. It's the first picture of the combination of those two titles in the Bible, a priest and king. And basically,

we learn from the New Testament that part of the point of Melchizedek appearing here is to

show us this picture and foreshadow for us the coming of Christ as the priest king.

We know that in Jesus, we see both of these titles.

He is the king overall who rules and reigns as sovereign, and he's the great high priest who makes it possible for us to have

access to God, both of these titles in Jesus. So Genesis chapter 14 causes us, yes,

probably to have some questions about Melchizedek, at the same time, it causes us to worship

Jesus as the ultimate priest king, king priests.

So we pray, God, we know that we're able to pray right now because Jesus is our great high priest.

Jesus has died on the cross for our sins, has become the substitute sacrifice for us,

and it is by his sacrifice that we are able to come to you right now.

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