Abraham chosen to carry the word of God in history, after he was called
Through Abraham's descendants God makes his revelation flow into history.
Descendants that were a tribe that transformed into a nation, that invaded history with the revelation that there is only one God, creator of all things, in Abraham Israel was born, a people that carried the purposeful written and historical revelation.
The text one day after facing kings and helping his nephew Lot, and having won this international war and being on the winning side, upon returning with the spoils of his adversaries, a strange figure appeared:
A man here called Melchizedek – king of Salem king of peace king of Jerusalem;
And it says that this Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God, and Abraham was also called by the most high God in history, what does this mean:
- It means that even though Abraham was called by the Most High God and chosen to carry God's revelation into history, God did not confine his revelation only to Abraham, much less only to history.
It does not say that it was Abraham who went from the Most High God to Melchizedek, it does not say that without Abraham the Most High God was incapable of revealing himself to whomever and however he wanted, therefore what is said here implicitly is that as long as Abraham carried the purposeful revelation of God, he would not reveal himself only through Abraham, and he continued to be free to reveal himself to whomever he wanted, he revealed himself to Melchizedek and he became a priest of the Most High God.
- More than that, when Abraham looks he identifies a superiority in him, he comes – Melchizedek bringing bread and wine – which had been sacramented in the New Testament without comparison.
And when Abraham sees this man giving his tithe, Abraham bows down to be blessed by this man – who in the history of Israel nothing is known about him, only that he has God.
- This text is taken from the Old Testament and reinterpreted in Hebrew, with even greater riches of revelation.
The Psalmist already said that it would be through this Melchizedek that the Messiah would be a priest.
Levitical priesthood was a priesthood of religious boredom
And what does this have to do with us, perhaps your question is:
I see two paths:
- It is the path of Abraham, which I call the path of God's historical revelation.
- Abraham has a name, place, wife, children, nephews - he has a location, he has a place, he has a history - he has the revelation and all his historicity of God's revelation, he has the book, genealogy
- In Melchizedek we have the path of God's Eternal revelation.
- In Abraham we have a beginning, middle and end to the story of each patriarch – In Melchizedek there is no beginning, middle or end
- In Abraham we trace an entire lineage, with names – in Melchizedek there is no name of anyone, this is only subject to the design and sovereignty of God in revealing himself to whomever he wants and however he wants and we desire.
- In Melchizedek, the information is clear, he has no genealogy, no father and no mother – he simply appears – he carries the sovereignty of God into history – he speaks of this unpredictability of God, he speaks of the total freedom of God to manifest himself and appear wherever he wants and to whomever he wants – this is the freedom that God has to be God.
- If God had confined himself to reveal himself only in Abraham – God would be confined to history and we would all be lost – God would be completely limited by the instruments of a historical and religious nature.
- The great conflict between the priests and the prophets was precisely this:
- The priests of the descendants of Levi wanted God to manifest himself only through them, that outside of them and their rites it was not possible for God to reveal himself to anyone.
- The prophets, however, ran parallel outside the curve, insubordinate outside of priestly legalism. They said: No! God is God to manifest himself through you, for you or even against you!
- So these two ways in which God manifests himself to humanity are set forth here.
- In Melchizedek, this eternal revelation that simply appears without asking permission, and that brings a superior path
- And you look at me and say: Okay, but so what? What does that have to do with me here? What are the implications?
The implications if you want to think are countless, if you want me to help you think I can try…
- The first implication is that in Abraham we find the faith that is seen, that is why we have a book that tells the whole story of a people that God manifested himself to in history, the faith that we read about, that has a territory that has customs, in Israel there is no party without dancing.
- In Abraham we have faith that becomes faith – and every time we have faith that becomes religion, even if you don't want to, you will always fall on the path of religion, nothing against it.
- That is why monotheism began with Abraham, which became Judaism, which transformed into Christianity, and then Islam emerged.
- However, in Melquisedeque the implications are different, in Melquisedeque I cannot touch anything, I have to stay with the extremely concrete abstract.
- In Abraham, faith always takes on community dimensions.