By W.R. Selvig

abbaunveiled@gmail.com

When most people think of priests in the Bible, they picture the tribe of Levi, the temple, and the long list of rules that governed Israel’s sacrificial system. Yet tucked into the storyline of Scripture is another priesthood altogether—one that predates the law, transcends it, and ultimately reshapes our understanding of how humanity connects with God. This is the priesthood of Melchizedek.

We first meet Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18–20: “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And 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.’ And he gave him a tithe of all.” This introduction is significant because it takes place centuries before the law, and Melchizedek represents El Elyon, the true Most High, ministering not with sacrifices of animals but with bread and wine.

Centuries later, David looked forward to a future priesthood patterned after this mysterious figure. Psalm 110:4 declares: “The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” This was not a Levitical priesthood tied to ritual and genealogy. It was an eternal order, anticipating a coming priest who would bring something far greater.

The New Testament letter to the Hebrews connects the dots. It asks, “If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law” (Hebrews 7:11–12). In other words, when Jesus took His place in Melchizedek’s order, the law was not updated or improved—it was set aside. A new and better priesthood had come.

Hebrews presses this point even further: “For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:18–19). The law could never make people whole. It bound Israel in ritual and regulation, but it could not open the way into true intimacy with the Father. Only the priesthood of Melchizedek, fulfilled in Jesus, could do that.

This changes everything. The priesthood of Melchizedek existed before the law, so it operates outside the law. It represents a covenantal reality not of fear and rule-keeping but of relationship and access. When Jesus became a priest forever in this order, He bypassed the legal system of Yahweh altogether. He restored direct communion with El Elyon, offering bread and wine—His own body and blood—as the means of reconciliation.

For believers today, this is more than theology. It means the path to God is not through religious obligation or ritual, but through the Son who has already opened the way. We are invited into that same priesthood—not to offer endless sacrifices, but to live as a royal priesthood, drawing near to the Father in freedom, grace, and communion.

The story of Melchizedek is not an odd footnote in Genesis. It is a foreshadowing of the gospel itself: a better priest, a better covenant, a better hope.

Christianity has taught that Yahweh is the Father who had to teach us a lesson through the law, and then He sent Jesus to fulfill the law (terrible as it was) and restore us to Himself. This is how Judeo Christianity has postured the Father. But this viewpoint was first of all, created by Jewish scribes who promoted Yahweh as the only God, and secondly compromises the character of the Father who Jesus came to reveal. Jesus said that no one had ever seen or heard the Father and that if you had seen Jesus, you had seen the Father. Jesus’s character represented the Father. The fruit Jesus showed in his life and ministry revealed the Father. This fruit doesn’t match up with the entity of Yahweh, and so reveals the truth of who the Father is not. Read more about this topic in the book, The Yahweh Deception, by WR Selvig. Available at AbbaUnveiled.com.

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