Melchizedek and Tithes and the Resurrection

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God is the only true King and Priest

Melchizedek is a Hebrew name.  Melchisedec is his Greek name.

This man suddenly appears from nowhere but has great importance.

Genesis Chapter 14 makes the first mention of kings on earth.

Kings are strong men elevating themselves to become dictators who dominate and oppress others. Kings are just dictators who wear a crown but they are driven by the lust for power and money.

They want the power to take your money.

That started the spirit of the “inequality of income” which persists to this day as a major curse.

Babylon ended with judgement written by God's Hand on the wall, "Weighed in the balances and found wanting".

Greed enables a self-seeking few to become very rich and live in self-obsessed luxury at the expense of the majority. Unfortunately, giving money to a greedy person is just like putting wood on a fire. It makes the flames burn more intensely. Greediness is like human stupidity in that both have no limits.

Kings were able to raise an army and enforce their political might over weaker people. The king’s politics were run on the principle that “might is right”. We saw that in 2022 with Putin’s vicious and murderous attack on Ukraine, just because he wanted to rule Ukraine (the biggest country in Europe). Putin already rules Russia which is the biggest country on earth. But that is not big enough for him.

God never introduced kings, with their domineering lust to rule others, as His way of governing people.

Because they have an army, kings feel it is their right to start a battle and conquer somebody.

II SAMUEL 11:1   And it came to pass, after the year was expired,

at the time when kings go forth to battle, …

Power over others is a drug that inspires kings to attack other kings in order to enlarge their empires. That was the basis of war.

War does not decide who is right. Sadly, war only decides who is left (alive).

Chedorlaomer was the most powerful king. With a few allied kings, he had destroyed the other kings.

Then Abram, who later became Abraham, killed Chedorlaomer who was a cruel and ambitious politician. That, from a human perspective, made Abram the main king.

The new king of Sodom was anxious to be on good terms with this powerful Abram. The previous king of Sodom, who was the father of the new king of Sodom, had fled and fell when he had been killed by Chedorlaomer.

GENESIS 14:10   And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there;

The curse of kingship is that the son succeeds the father.

The position of the king depends on birth, not merit.

Despite his incompetence, the son insists on taking over as king when his father dies. That was not God’s idea.

God wanted to guide the people by means of a prophet. When the Jews became a nation, Joshua would follow Moses. Elisha would follow Elijah.

God’s Word was not meant to be a “father and son” business to keep the money in the family like so many of today’s pastors.

God cannot trust His saints

GENESIS 14:17   And the king of Sodom went out to meet him [Abram] after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.

Just as Abram, a righteous man, was about to be recognized as the greatest king of that day, God intervened.

God did not want a righteous man as the political ruler of the earth. God wanted no human rulership.

Put any man in charge and he will make mistakes.

JOB 15:15   Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints;

yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

When you have fully obeyed God you have still managed to do more wrong things than right things.

So, even though we do some good we still manage to create even more of a mess.

More loss than gain means God gets no profit out of our human efforts. That is why He never wants human rulership. That is why God never wants a one-man leader in charge of a church.

LUKE 17:10   So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

(Abram was God’s great man for that age. Yet, in trying to interpret God’s Will that he should have a son, he committed adultery with an Egyptian woman Hagar and produced Ishmael. From him came the Arabs who are the mortal enemies of the Jews as they adopted the Muslim faith. From the Muslims we see the fanatical hatred and viciousness of HAMAS in Gaza. Fallen humanity knows no limits.

So much for great men serving God according to their understanding of Scripture. It does more harm than good. We have to learn to wait on God).

Thus, at the moment of Abram’s greatest human triumph when he destroyed the great king Chedorlaomer, Melchizadek reminded him that it was God Who enabled him to win the battle and God alone Who could give him the blessing of rest after the victory.

The timing was significant.

The blessing of rest only came after the victory had been won.

Abram had won a magnificent victory in battle. He was entitled to call himself the great king. But that was not God’s Will.

Instead, God picked up a handful of dust and created a human Body for Himself. God indwelt this new Man and called Himself Melchizedek.

Then God, as Melchizadek, stood in front of Abram who was the destroyer of kings. But God appeared as Melchizadek Who was the king of Peace (Salem).

Peace is greater than war.

In other words, God’s ways are the opposite of our ways. God was saying, "Only I am the proper King. I am the only One Who can bring peace".

Bread and wine speak of the Last Supper

GENESIS 14:18   And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Melchizedek was a King and a Priest.

Only God can handle the power of being King (telling you what to do) and being a Priest (telling you what to believe). No other man must have that kind of power over both your deeds and your beliefs.

Kings impose taxes on people. They have the power to take your money.

Melchizadek never acted like that. He did not ask for money. Instead of taking from Abram, God preferred to give Abram the blessing of rest from his enemies so that he could live in peace.

Melchizedek was not a kinsman as He had never been born of a woman.

Instead of asking for material goods as a kingly tax, Melchizedek gave bread and wine which were, prophetically, the symbols of the most important future supper ever eaten. That was the Last Supper between Jesus and His disciples. It was eaten during the night that began the 14^th day on which the Passover lamb had to be slain the next afternoon.

The bread was broken to symbolize the death of Christ as He destroyed the power of sin.

Abram had defeated human enemies. But sin and death are the real enemies of man. Christ alone could achieve a victory over them. His death paid the price for sin. Wine can be red and has a spirit of life in it. This represented the Life in the blood of Jesus that was shed in death.  Life left His body and then rose again in His glorified Body in the resurrection.

That made Jesus the only religious leader Who had ever died and rose again.

His struggle against sin and Death is the core of Christianity.

You must lose something for your light to shine

Christ would overcome, not by killing others as Abram had done, but by dying and shedding His blood to redeem others.

Dying to self is more effective than killing others in our struggle against sin.

Einstein discovered that when an object gives out light energy then it loses mass.

We have to lose something in order to shine our light.

Christ had to kick off His glory and die a shameful sinner’s death by taking on our sins so that He could pay the price for our sins and thus we could be forgiven. By losing His glory and His Life, Christ confirmed Himself as the Light of this world.

So, instead of emphasizing His position as King and claiming His taxes, Melchizedek ignored the physical side of kingship and focused on the spiritual symbols of the priesthood. The bread and wine were an obvious prophetic reference to the Last Supper with Jesus and His disciples.

These prophetic symbols of bread and wine were pointing to the death of Christ. Christ would be the High Priest of the order of Melchizedek as He alone could guide the church through the seven church ages. These were the vital issues that would come to pass in the future.

The lesson here is obvious. If we focus on the spiritual side which is represented by the Priesthood then our attention will be on Christ and what He achieved. Not on our own so-called great victories.

The Priesthood is to give us peace and God’s blessing which is rest because Christ carries our burdens. And He guides us through the changing circumstances of our allotted seventh church age.

The blessing of God is rest from sin

GENESIS 2:3   And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

God did not bless the seventh day because it was the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day because He rested on that day.

So, God’s blessing involves our rest.

In the Old Testament, that rest was from their own physical works. But in the New Testament God gives us rest from our works of sin.

He does this by filling us with His Holy Spirit so that He can control our lives and reveal the mysteries of His Word to us. Thus God stops our physical sins and removes our unbelief as we gain a better understanding of Scripture.

ISAIAH 11:10   And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Jesse is the father of David. Jesus is the Son of David.

An ensign is a banner lifted up. This was Jesus suspended on the cross.

Our rest is based on the fact that He paid for our sins.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the 120 believers and they spoke in other foreign tongues that they did not understand but that the bystanders from foreign countries could understand.

ISAIAH 28:11   For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

This Holy Ghost baptism was the rest from sin and unbelief that God had promised.

ISAIAH 28:12   To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

Jesus had said that we would only find our rest from sin in Him because He alone had paid the price for sin and thus He alone could pardon sin.

MATTHEW 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Sin has severe consequences that we have to labour under.

Guilt, fear, and depression are grievous burdens. Only in Christ do we find forgiveness and inner strength.

His Bible truth shows us a better way of living our life.

Returning back to Melchizedek.

GENESIS 14:19     And he [Melchizedek] blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Instead of asking Abram for something (Abram was wealthy with all the loot from the battle), God preferred to bless Abram.

But Abram did not need material wealth. He already had more than enough.

But Abram did need rest from his enemies. He needed a rest from war and strife.

Melchizedek, as God, never asked Abram for anything physical. Why not?

Because God is the “possessor of Heaven and earth”. He already owns everything so He needs nothing from us.

Abram was blessed by God. God’s blessing enabled Abram to find rest so that he never had to fight another battle.

The blessing of rest was far more important than any physical or material blessing.

That was the blessing that God wanted to reward us with.

God wins the battle for us

GENESIS 14:20     And blessed be the most high

God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.

And he gave him tithes of all.

This was a vital lesson.

Abram had not won the battle although everyone thought that he had.

God had won the battle for him.

The real battle is between God and Satan that is fought unseen in the spiritual dimension. What happens down here on earth visibly is just the shadow of that struggle.

About the only contributions that we can make to that spiritual battle are the spiritual resources of faith that is built on God’s Word, the King James Bible, and prayer. Prayer and Bible study that builds up our Scriptural faith are two of the most powerful weapons that we have.

Knowing the truth of Scripture will stop us from being fooled by the Devil and thus we avoid being part of the foolish virgins. The fooled church that is saved. Saved by accepting Jesus as Saviour but then fooled into believing unscriptural church doctrines. Putting church ideas above Scripture is the fatal modern-day church disease.

Faith and prayer take the focus off our physical needs and puts the focus on God’s kingdom.

God’s greatest desire at the end time is for His Bride to return to the beliefs and lifestyle of the first church age. Brother Branham was sent to reveal the end-time mysteries so that we could understand what the first church age believed.

Being in the presence of God made him want to give

GENESIS 14:20  And he [Abram] gave him tithes of all.

Abram was never asked to give tithes.

When Abram realized that he stood in the presence of God Who had given him the victory in his battles, then Abram of his own free will handed God one-tenth of his wealth.

People who do not pay tithes have never stood in the presence of God.

Abram realized that God had done everything for him and an overwhelming sense of gratitude made him return something back to God.

If someone has given much to you then it is a basic human instinct to want to give something back to that person.

Abram was made from the dust. Farmers, who work with the soil, have discovered a law of nature. If you want the soil to give you a good harvest then you must first put something back into the soil in the form of nutrients like fertilizer. You cannot just take the harvest out of the ground.

Thus Abram, who wanted to be part of the resurrection harvest, knew that he had to give back to God and not just take from God.

Abram recognized that Jesus could not just pull His saints out of the ground in the resurrection harvest.

Jesus first had to be buried for almost three days and three full nights in a cave under the ground.

Only then would He rise and after His resurrection would He bring up Abram and the Old Testament saints.

Wanting to be in the resurrection, Abram happily paid tithes back to God.

First give, then take.

But Abram's tithes had deeper implications.

The king of Sodom offered Abram all the goods. Abram refused. He wanted nothing for himself, only a portion for three men.

GENESIS 14:24   Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Abram of his own free will paid tithes and then God gave him and his seed (the Jews) the Promised Land of Israel.

The tribe of Levi became the priests who collected the tithes.

GENESIS 15:18   In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Notice that the covenant was with Abram's seed.

His natural seed were the Jews.

His spiritual seed was Christ.

Rule: You cannot get a harvest of seed before you first plant some seed into the ground.

The natural seed (Old Testament Jews) could not be harvested in the first resurrection until his spiritual seed (Jesus) had first been buried in the ground.

MATTHEW 27:51   And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

:52   And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

:53   And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

The Jews later sinned and were driven from the Promised Land in AD 70 and AD 135 by the pagan Romans.

More than 1800 years later the Jews won back their Promised Land in a stunning military victory called the Six-Day War in 1967. The Jews finally had their portion of God’s earth back. The man who was President of Israel and was thus able to receive back the newly conquered territory was Levi Eshcol.

Abram paid tithes and God gave back to modern-day Eshcol his portion. Four thousand years later with exquisite name accuracy. God is never in a rush.

Obviously, it pays to pay tithes.

Abram’s ultimate bonus was when he was part of the Old Testament resurrection, just after Jesus was resurrected.

On the Day of Ascension, Abraham was part of the Old Testament harvest when he was pulled off the earth and ascended up to Heaven.

The harvest is when the seed is pulled off the plant.

The Prayer of the Lord needs the name of the Father

Look at the Lord’s famous prayer.

It hardly has anything to do with our human needs and wishes.

MATTHEW 6:9   After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

The centre of the prayer is God the Father. He dwells in Heaven and thus prayer makes us take our eyes off our earthly needs and focus on God’s Heavenly plan.

When the outlook gets bad then we have to focus on the uplook.

God the Father has a holy name. This is essential to get the real value from prayer.

But the churches do not know the name of God the Father.

The Trinity breaks God up into 3 People. God the Father. God the Son. And God the Holy Ghost.

But this is Greek philosophy. The idea of "one God in 3 Persons", is an unscriptural statement.

Look what problems this creates.

“God the Son” is unscriptural and so is “God the Holy Ghost”. Trinitarians cannot explain this.

“God the Father” is found in the New Testament but never in the Old Testament. Again, Trinitarians have no explanation for this.

What is the name of God the Father?

Trinitarians start guessing: El, Elah, Elohim. These three words mean “God”.

But God is not the name of God.

Then they try “I AM”.  But that is not a name, that is a statement of eternal self-existence.

The most popular Old Testament name is Jehovah. But Jehovah means Lord. Lord is not a name.

So, the name of God was a secret in the Old Testament.

Manoah was Samson’s father and he saw the Angel of the Lord . But he said he had seen God.

He asked God what His name was, but got no answer.

JUDGES 13:18   And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

JUDGES 13:22   And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

The name of the Father was secret in the Old Testament.

Whatever variation you choose for the name of the Father, you will have to explain why that name of the Father is never mentioned in the New Testament.

Thus, Trinitarians cannot fulfill the first line of the Lord’s prayer.

They do not have a name for the Father in the New Testament.

They do not have a name for the Trinity God because you cannot find one name for three People.

In the Old Testament God was a Spirit above the Jews. They knew Him as the Father.

Emmanuel means God with us.

Jesus, as a Man on earth, was not God. God is not flesh and blood. God is a Spirit.

But the fulness of the Godhead dwelled bodily in Him.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

You are everything that is in you.

The supernatural Spirit of God that dwelled within Him is what made Jesus God.

The first stage of redemption was to have God dwelling in a single Man, Jesus.

Thus the human aspects of God’s Spirit could fully develop as the "Son of God".

After His death and resurrection in a bloodless, glorified human Body (because His blood was shed at Calvary) Jesus ascended to Heaven as the Son of God. But in Him dwelled the Spirit of God.

The Son is human, the Father is supernatural. Both human and supernatural are manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

JOHN 14:16   And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Another Comforter means the Holy Spirit coming back in another form.

The Holy Spirit was in Jesus and thus dwelled with the disciples.

Then the Holy Spirit would return and divide up with a portion of the Holy Spirit being in each disciple.

JOHN 14:17   Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Remember, the Holy Spirit now combines both the human and the supernatural character of God.

Thus, the Holy Spirit comes into you to make you the kind of person that God wants you to be.

As a result, your old human nature has to die.

So, the Holy Spirit was above the Jews as the Father.

The Holy Spirit was with the Jews as the Son, because all of God dwelled bodily in Jesus.

Then the Holy Spirit stayed in Christ on the mercy seat but was also able to come down to earth and dwell in the church.

While Christ was on the mercy seat, Saul who later became Paul still saw His Spirit on the road to Damascus.

Rather like a television picture.

There is one speaker in the studio, but his image can be projected everywhere where there is a television that can receive the TV waves.

A television set can receive the image of the man in the studio, as his image is projected to wherever there is a TV receiver.

This is symbolic of Christ.

Jesus is on the mercy seat in Heaven but he can project a portion of His Holy Spirit into the hearts of repentant sinners wherever they are.

I JOHN 5:7   For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

The Word is the Man Jesus Who has a human nature. The Father is the supernatural Spirit of God that indwells the physical Body of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the combination of human and supernatural that comes down from Jesus to divide up and fill the individuals who make up His church.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost speak of God above the Jews, God with the Jews, and God in the church.

I TIMOTHY 3:16   And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,

"Manifest" means "showed Himself".

God first showed Himself in Jesus as the Son.

God then showed Himself in His church as the Holy Ghost.

One God. One supernatural Spirit that was manifest in One Man (Jesus) as our example, then in us (all the members of the church).

The Father has no name in the New Testament because the Jehovah of the Old Testament became the Jesus of the New Testament.

When a woman marries and takes on the new name of her husband, she never uses her old maiden name again.

When God came down to dwell in a Man, God took on the human name of Jesus. This was a new name for God. So God never went back to using all the Old Testament words that people supposed were His name.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one Person. These three are one.

I John 5:7   For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one

The Bible does not say three-in-one. The three ARE one.

Thus, the name of the Father is Jesus.

The name of the Holy Ghost is Jesus.

The Holy Ghost is God the Father.

The man who places the seed of life in a woman's womb is the father of the child.

The Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary and is thus the Father of her virgin-born Son Jesus.

MATTHEW 1:20    But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:

for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

The first line of the prayer is most important. Make sure you pray in the name of the Father.

The name of the Father is Jesus.

JOHN 14:14   If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

COLOSSIANS 3:17   And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,

do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

The Father is the supernatural Spirit of God that dwelled bodily in Jesus (Colossians 2:9).

The Son is the human Spirit that developed during the Life of the Man Jesus as well as His Body of flesh.

So, Jesus as a Man is not God. Thus we never say "God the Son".

It is the Spirit of God in Jesus that makes Him God.

NUMBERS 23:19   God is not a man

The Holy Spirit is the combination of both the human nature of Jesus and the supernatural nature of the indwelling God.

Because the Holy Spirit is partly human, that is what makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and make us the image of God. Christ in you the hope of glory.

COLOSSIANS 1:27   To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles;

which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

The Holy Spirit is the combination of the human nature of Jesus and the supernatural nature of the Father.

Thus we never say "God the Holy Ghost" because God dwells in a human but the supernatural God is not the human nature of the Holy Spirit.

The Will of God must come first in our lives

MATTHEW 6:10   Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This is where our focus should be.

Doing God’s Will as revealed in His Bible mysteries.

Knowing the age that we are living in and realizing that we have to be restored back to the beliefs of the first church age.

Otherwise, we are merely part of the saved foolish virgins who are heading for the horror of great Tribulation.

The inspiration of the Bible came from Heaven. We must see that God’s Heavenly plan is fulfilled in our human lives so that we do not believe anything different from the early church.

The early church never believed that the seven Thunders had uttered. You better not believe that either.

The early church never believed that they knew the new name of Jesus. You better not believe that you know the new name of Jesus while you are still in your sinful body.

Our only interest on earth should be to change our lives and beliefs so that we can achieve the fulfillment of God’s Heavenly Plan.

We must not be too wrapped up in our own ambitions and interests.

MATTHEW 6:11   Give us this day our daily bread.

In this famous prayer, the only place for our personal needs is our “daily bread”.

In other words, only the most simple and basic of our food requirements.

But bread has a deeper meaning which is perhaps the main idea that is being expressed.

Bread speaks of doctrine. We must ask for today’s doctrines. What is God revealing for today? That will tell us how to be restored back to the first church.

This is the only line where we can ask for something for ourselves. That easily makes us materialistic.

So, the next line says that we had better be ready to lose. Losing is the best cure for materialism.

MATTHEW 6:12   And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

If anyone owes you anything do not demand it from them.

Do not lend, rather give.

If you give then you keep the person as a friend.

If you lend then they most likely will not pay you back. You will dislike them for that. That way you lose both the money and the friend.

We want to be forgiven so we must extend that right to others. They would also like to be forgiven.

Being forgiven and forgiving others are closely linked.

God forgives me of my sins as a token of His love. My inability to forgive a debtor is a token of my lack of love.

I must be prepared to lose.

Objects that give out light energy actually lose mass in order to create light energy.

Thus it seems that only when we lose something does our light shine.

People notice that. In a greedy and materialistic and selfish world, someone who gives and is prepared to lose stands out.

MATTHEW 6:13   And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

We humans easily stray into temptation and are overwhelmed. We must pray that God closes these doors and opportunities that lead to temptation. If God leaves a door open then we will foolishly go through. We are not to be trusted as far as guiding our own lives is concerned. Our interests and selfish wants do not line up with God’s Will.

We need God’s protection from our selfish lusts and desires.

I CORINTHIANS 10:13   There hath no temptation taken hold of you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful; He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which ye are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Our main goal should be God's Kingdom.

MATTHEW 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

God’s kingdom seeks to restore us back to the beliefs of the first-age apostolic church.

If we put God’s Kingdom first and forget our own selfish needs, then God will provide for our own needs. His way.

God blessed Abram unexpectedly. Abram was not aware that Melchizedek would meet him and bless him.

Abram served God by going to rescue Lot. Abram put God’s Will first.

MATTHEW 6:13   For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Kingdom belongs to God, not to us. We must serve Him His way, not our way.

The power to return to the early church will come from God. God wants all the glory. He will not share His glory with any man. That should be the focus of our prayers. God must come first.