Eternal and unconditional promises

“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him 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. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.”

This passage is expounded in Hebrews 7: 1-10 where we see that Melchizedek is the first member of a priesthood, which is not descended from Aaron or Levi. This priesthood is very important because Christ belongs to this priestly order and He is a legitimate priest to the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. This priesthood is special because members of this priesthood don’t have to offer sacrifices for their own sins and they are free to act on behalf of sinners.

There is a fulfilment of God’s promise here as well. The Lord told Abraham that he would be blessed and, here, this priest of the Most High God blessed Abraham. However, this blessing was just the first of many blessings that came to Abraham. It is important to remember that God made an eternal and unconditional promise to Abraham, a covenant of blessing. God made a conditional and temporal covenant to Abraham’s descendants for possession of the Land but this second promise doesn’t undo the first. God also made an unconditional and eternal promise to David concerning an eternal kingship ( 1 Chron 17: 11, 12) but later He made a conditional and temporal promise to Solomon concerning the kingship of Israel (later Judah, the remnant of Israel, see 1 Kings 9: 5). It is important for us to remember that eternal and unconditional promises will never be undone by, later, temporal and conditional promises. The greatest of all the eternal and conditional promises that God had made is found in John 3: 16.

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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)