Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1768
“First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace.” Hebrews 7:2.
WE will not enlarge upon the story of Melchisedec, nor discuss the question as to who he was. It is near enough for us to believe that he was one who worshipped God after the primitive fashion, a believer in God such as Job was in the land of Uz, one of the world’s gray fathers who had kept faithful to the Most High God. He combined in his own person the kingship and the priesthood—a conjunction by no means unusual in the first ages. Of this man we know very little and it is partly because we know so little of him that he is all the better type of our Lord, of whom we may enquire, “Who shall declare His generation?”
The very mystery which hangs about Melchisedec serves to set forth the mystery of the Person of our Divine Lord. “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, he abides a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.” Melchisedec seems to have been, first by name, and then by place of office, doubly designated a king. First, his name is Melchisedec, which signifies by interpretation, “King of righteousness.” His personal name is “King of righteousness.” As a matter of fact, he was also the monarch of some town called Salem. It is not at all likely to have been Jerusalem, although that may have been the case. The interpretation of his official name is “King of peace.”
A teaching was intended by the Holy Spirit in the names—so the Apostle instructs us in the passage before us. I believe in the verbal Inspiration of Scripture and, therefore, I can see how there can be instruction for us even in the proper names of persons and of places. Those who reject verbal Inspiration must, in effect, condemn the great Apostle of the Gentiles, whose teaching is so frequently based upon a Word of God. He makes more of words and names than any of us would have thought of doing and he was guided therein by the Spirit of the Lord and, therefore, he was right. For my part, I am far more afraid of making too little of the Word than of seeing too much in it. This man is, first, named “Mel-chiz-edek”—“King of righteousness” by interpretation—and herein he is like our Divine Lord, whose name and Character can only come to us by interpretation.
What He is and who He is and all His Character, no angel’s tongue could tell. No human language can ever describe to the full what Jesus is. He is King, but that is a poor word for such royalty as His. He reigns, but that word, “reigns,” is but a slender description of that supreme empire which He continually exercises. He is said to be King of Righteousness, but that is, by interpretation—by the toning down of His Character to our comprehension. Scripture might have called Him King of Holiness, for He is “glorious in holiness.” His Character, better known to spirits before the Throne of God than to us, is not to be comprehended in that one word, “righteousness.” It is but an interpretation and most things lose by translation, and so the perfect Character of the Son of God, as it stands before the Eternal Mind, cannot be fully expressed in human language.
In fact, when our faculties are enlarged and our spirits raised to the highest platform, they can never reach the eternity of our Lord’s Sonship and the Glory of His Kingdom—the equity of His Character and the loveliness of His mind, both as God and Man, must still be far beyond us! But this much is translated to us into our own tongue—that He is a King, and that He is a righteous King—yes, the very King of Righteousness—the Sovereign of the realm of equity, the
Supreme Lord of everything that is good and holy. That, you see, is wrapped up in His name and Nature. Jesus is Righteousness and every righteous thing gathers beneath the right scepter of His Kingdom.
But the second word, Salem, which, brought down to our tongues signifies, “peace,” is in reference to a place rather than a person. You see, our Lord Jesus is essentially Righteousness—that is interwoven with His name and Person—but He gives, bestows, deposits and pours forth peace in a place which He has chosen. And upon a people whom He has ordained and whom He has brought near unto Himself—so that His Kingdom of peace links Him with His redeemed, to whom He has given the peace of God.
“First, King of righteousness.” How early that “first” was, I cannot tell you. “In the beginning was the Word,” but when that beginning was, who knows?—for is He not, indeed, without beginning? First and firstborn, from everlasting You are God, O mighty Son of Jehovah! First, King of Righteousness, and then afterwards, when men fell, when rebellion, strife and war had sprung up—then He came to heal the mischief and become, “King of Peace.” He comes Himself as the Divine Ambassador, our Peacemaker and Peace. He comes here into this place even into the midst of His Salem, into the midst of His people, and gives us, now, as He has long given, the vision of peace—opening up before the eyes of faith the completeness, the sureness and the delight of perfect peace in Himself.