Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations
with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through
the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing
fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith
in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the
context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives.
All right, everyone. Welcome back. Podcast. Exactly. Podcasting. Yeah. We're going to
if Pastor Nick was here, we would play the game of how many times would he mispronounce
Melchizedek or how many different ways or how many different ways. I have a counter
going on the screen. Yeah. And there'd be and there'd be like he's come up some creative
pronunciations for some names in the Bible. When Pastor Sarah was on with us one time,
I think I made a counter of how many times she rolled her eyes at us. Yeah, I stopped
at like nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's one time where I think it was you and Pastor Nick
were preaching and then Pastor Nick said something horribly wrong. And you're like, wait, how
do you say that? He was like, no. I was like, can you say that again for me, please? And
he's like, no, movie. I don't remember what it was, but he just moved on. One of the one
of the things we were preaching one time on acts two. And I was reading the part where
it says, you know, the fire came down and I was resting on the people and they were
they were prophesying and like all those different things. And I got to the part where it says
where the nations were that they're all from. I was like, hey, Pastor Nick, can you take
over right there? And he's like, yeah, no, no, I'm going to skip over that. So it was
it's a it's a game I like to play with him. It's a fun one. OK, so this series, this little
mini series, and this is by the way, this mini series is going to cap off season two
is Kings and Kingdoms. Yes, Kings and Kingdoms. And specifically, we're dealing with the kings
that are not Israel's kings. Yes. Right. So the first week we're going to be talking about
this guy by the name of Melchizedek. Right. And we're going to talk about a number of
different kings all the way into into the New Testament, the kings during the time of
Jesus. Yeah. Right. But it's really important for us as Christians to see what's going on
in history, especially as as the people of God are in places where there are non God
influences. And specifically, how do they exist in in this context? You think about
people like Daniel existing in a foreign land. Right. And how does he live in the middle
of that? And the people of Israel when they're in Egypt and they have kings around them,
how do they exist in the middle of this? You know, and what are the what are these kings
and what is their influence in the middle of all of these different situations? Right.
You just rolled your eyes. So your eyes got so big. I'm tired. He got he got scared is
what happened. Tired, man. Yeah. I didn't sleep much. Tired. So the first figure that
we talked about that shows up, that is this random king that shows up in the Book of Genesis.
Right. And once again, we want to talk last week at the end of the Covenant series, we
talked about these small bands of king like kingdoms, right, three or four hundred people,
maybe a thousand people, two thousand people. Right. Not kingdoms. Twenty million people
like a tribe, more like a tribe. And there's not a lot said about him. No, no, there is
not a lot said about this guy. So if you are a Hebrew speaker and I'm saying Melchizedek
incorrectly, I apologize. But that's how I'm going to continue to say it. But he's a he's
actually a significant figure, though, even though he's barely mentioned, because he's
talked about in the New Testament in the Book of Hebrews. And it's going to be really important.
But first, we're going to talk about him in the Old Testament, where he shows up. So if
you look in Genesis, Chapter 14, he shows up in this story where a lot has been captured
with a bunch of other people by by a king. And he goes, Abram goes and he rescues him
and he brings him back. Right. It says in verse 18, says, Then Melchizedek, king of
Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high. And he blessed Abram
saying, Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and praise be
God most high, who delivered your enemies into their hand. Then Abraham gave him a tenth
of everything. Now, why is that story really interesting in a number of different facets?
I'm going to tell you one thing that I found that I found incredibly interesting about
this. If you just lift verse 18 through 20, and you take it completely out of the Book
of Genesis, you wouldn't even notice that it's missing. Let me let me show you this.
So I'm going to go verse 17. After Abram returned from defeating Kendal, Larimer. Yeah. Speaking
of you had nailed it. And the king's allied with in the kings of Sodom came out to meet
him in the Valley of Sheva. That is the King's Valley. The king of Sodom said to Abram, give
me the give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of
Sodom with raised hand, I have sworn an oath to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven
and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you. Okay. Did you even notice that there
was two verses missing? This could be missing and we wouldn't even know about it. So then
you ask, okay, well, why is this verse in here? And I think because God's like, hey,
I'm going to put something in here that's really important later. Right. I just found
that really interesting when you're in this is like you could literally cut this out of
the text and it wouldn't even seem like it's there. Like it doesn't even narratively quite
fit. Yeah. Is this these texts actually seem like an inconvenience to the story. Yeah.
It almost seems like the Bible's going out of its way to insert it, which then should
make you as a Hebrew as a Hebrew Bible reader go ding, ding, ding, ding. Something important
is happening right here. Right. Because when it seems like it's an accident, it's not.
Yeah. So one of the first things that's mentioned is where he's from. Yeah. Because the deck
is from Salem and listeners, can you, do you know what that's also identified as? Question
mark. Wait for it. It's often identified as Jerusalem. So you have essentially the king
of what was old school Jerusalem back in the day before Israel was there. Okay. And a priest
of God's most of God most high. This is really interesting because it's like, okay, how does
he know this? How does he know God? Yeah. Okay. So it's soup. Yeah. It's really weird because
God hasn't given them his name yet. Yeah. Right. Abram. He's like, I just follow God.
And it's a different word that's being used, but he says God most high. And by the way,
this is how they later refer to God in the old Testament. Right. So this guy had some
sort of a very least connection to God. Right. Right. And we don't, we don't know what that
is. Well, we know he's a high priest. Yeah. Right. We know he's a king and he's a high
priest, but he is a high king, priest and a king of God most high. Well, here's, here's
the problem. This is, this is one of the issues that I have sometimes with the way that we
read the Bible is we get definitive black and white statements and then God loves to
open up the box and be like, Hey, how's that working out for you? You know, little Dr.
Phil, how's that working out for you? So like one of the things this does do though is it
shows that God was having interactions with people outside of the given text. Right. Right.
Cause a lot of times we read the texts and like, these are the people that God had interactions
with up through the time of Jesus. And now it's open to everyone. It's like, well, no,
like we have this guy on his deck who has a connection to God through reading the text,
you could argue has a relationship with God. Right. But all we know about him is that he's
king of Salem. He's a priest and he blesses Abraham. Yeah. Let me read that blessing again.
It says, blessed be Abraham by God most high creator of heaven and earth and praise be
to God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abraham gave him a 10th
of everything. By the way, a lot of people based their tithing off of this passage. Yep.
Just throwing that out there. Right. Yeah. And there's also a foreshadowing of the Eucharist.
There's so much going on. Right. Cause they sit down for bread and wine. Yeah. He gives
the best bread and wine that he has. He offers that. And so which foreshadows lo and behold,
the last supper. Yeah. Which also ties back into jumping ahead a little bit to Hebrews
where Jesus is referred as the high priest in the line of milk is deck. Yes. We're going
to pause, pause on that only briefly because there's a broader context we want to bring
into into that. Um, he has mentioned somewhere else in the Bible. It's actually in some one
10 and verse four, but I'm just going to read the whole song cause it's not very long. Uh,
it's David by the right way, writing this song. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my
right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty
scepter from the Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies. Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle, a raid and holy splendor. Your young men will, will come to you like
dew from the mother's womb. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest
forever in the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush the Kings
on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing
the rulers of the whole earth. He will drink from a brook along the way and he will lift
his head high. Now, now if you hear the first, first, first of this thing, does it spike
any conversation Jesus has had with the Pharisees? The Lord says to my Lord, right? Because the
Pharisees in the, in the new Testament, we're going to be talking about a lot of these stories
next season, right? And we're going to come back to this again. Jesus quotes from a Psalm
talking about Melchizedek, who then the writer of Hebrews is later going to say that Jesus
is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek with Jesus quoting from Melchizedek back in
Genesis, right? Just loving this. Well, and tied a little bit further, Jesus is in the
line. He comes from the line of David, who in the song is a King in the order of Melchizedek.
Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of really interesting, basically I got some questions
when I get to heaven about who Melchizedek actually is, you know, and it's, it's a really
interesting thing. So then what ends up happening in the, in the new Testament is to Spencer's
point in Hebrews five through seven, they're going to be having this conversation about
how Jesus is the high priest in heaven the same way. And that he is the temple in heaven
and he has the sacrifice in heaven. Like he's all of these things in heaven, the same way
we have these systems on earth, right? That he has now taken this to the throne room of
God. And, but then to the Hebrews, because they're going to really struggle with, well,
how can you be a high priest if you're not from Aaron's lineage? And they're like, haven't
you read Genesis? There was a high priest before that. He's a high priest in the order
of Melchizedek. And then they're like, if you don't believe that, let's quote from Psalms
and talk about that. Right. And let's talk about how the fact that Jesus is quoting this
to them and saying that there is a greater priesthood than the priesthood of Aaron, which
by the way, would have been scandalous in his day. Right. Because the priesthood of
Aaron is a big deal. We went through Torah priesthood of Aaron is a very big deal, but
Jesus is not part of the priesthood of Aaron because the priesthood of Aaron wasn't perfect.
It was flawed. And yet there was a priesthood that was never flawed, probably because we
don't know enough about it. Right. In the line of Melchizedek and Jesus actually falls
in this line. Yeah. Now, whether or not that's supposed to be literally true, or it's a picture
for you to understand what the writer of Hebrews is trying to help them understand. It doesn't
matter. The picture is meant for you to understand a greater truth. Yeah. Sometimes we get stupefied
stuck into, is it literally true? And I was like, sometimes the writers are trying to
help us understand something we couldn't possibly comprehend. So it is the picture you're supposed
to have when understanding who Jesus is. Yep. Right. Yep. And, and so a lot of times what
you'd actually hear is you'd hear a phrase like in the name of Melchizedek, right? Which
actually translates to in the name of righteousness. Right. Isn't that cool? Yeah. And like, who
is the one who came to make us right with God? That would be Jesus. Yes. Very good.
Well, and if you think about it is by his, by his sacrifice, his redemptive work, we
actually become the Melchizedek of God, the righteousness of God. Right. It's very interesting.
Right. Yeah. And so we have this guy who's mentioned for three whopping verses in Genesis,
one in Psalm, and then a couple of times in Hebrews. And then you start to put all these
pieces together and you're like, who is this guy? Well, and I think, I honestly think that
a lot of, why the, by the way, if you, if you spend a lot of time in the Bible, just
reading the text is going to convince you that there's, there's a God because it's so
unbelievably layered and, and like feeding into itself and things going on like thousands
of years apart, that there's no way that a human hand could have put it together. Our
smartest AIs still can't pick it apart. Yeah. Right. That's by the way, that's two episodes
in where I've talked about AI. I know. Right. Going down a rabbit hole. Yeah. But it's interesting.
So Hebrews almost highlights Melchizedek and in the way that we understand him, he doesn't
have a genealogy, right? Which kind of infers that he doesn't have a beginning or he doesn't
have an end. Right. And rather than like somebody else would, it symbolizes kind of like this
eternal nature of Christ's priesthood. It's not passing son to son to son to son. Jesus
is going to be priest forever. Right. And it underscores like how Jesus is a priesthood
is just so much different than the Levitical priesthood. Right. I think one of the last
key things we've kind of danced around this a little bit is that Melchizedek is a priest
but he's also a king. Okay. And I really wanted you to hear that he's priest and king. And
of course that's going to be the perfect typecast of Jesus. Right. Because Jesus is prophet,
king, messiah and priest and temple and sacrifice. And you know, like he is more than just one
thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we do have some other context for Melchizedek for basically
sources outside of scripture. Correct. Okay. And now some of you are going to hear the
keyboards typing and being like, wait, you're going to use sources outside of scripture.
I'm just going to let you know your pastor does that every week. Yeah. Most pastors do.
Yeah. Like there are sources that do compliment scripture. So we're going to go through some
of these sources, some of these traditions, just so you can be like, okay, here's, here's
some of the things that people might've heard, might've known about him. So one of the things
that, and this is probably going to be helpful in understanding like what things we use and
how we use them is there's authoritative scripture, which is what the church used and has used
for thousands of years and has agreed that this is what God is teaching us to do. Right.
The people who were there and the people who wrote it in, in combination with the Holy
Spirit, there are still other things being written in that day. Think back when we did
little book, quick message, right? That people were familiar with, but they didn't canonize
because it's, it was just writings that occur in the day. It's, for example, if you read
a like a Francis Chan book today, nobody's going to say that Francis Chan is his writings
are doctrine, but what they will say is that they are commentary on different things going
on in scripture and they can be helpful for understanding the perspective of the American
church when he wrote it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So the first one is in the cum run, cum run,
cum run community, uh, who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yeah. Now let's just pause right
there. Some of you are like, okay, well those weren't discovered until what? 1930s or something
like that. Yeah. 1930s and 1940s. Yeah. Um, it's like, okay, but they were written way
before that and there were going to be groups of people who were familiar with those writings.
Yeah. And, uh, and the cum run scrolls, the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was a lot of older
versions of the Bible and by people think that's all there was, but there was a lot
of extra biblical literature there too, from all through, through a lot of different generations.
Yeah. So, uh, those scrolls in particular, they viewed Melchizedek as a significant figure.
Uh, some like interpret him as a messianic figure, linking him to end times and, and,
and a priestly order. Well, there is a specific scroll called the Melchizedek scroll. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's the one you're referring to. Yeah. Yeah. And so it reflects the community's
belief in a dual role of Melchizedek. Like, so that is, that is one, uh, outside source
example of this. Uh, a second one is early Christian writings, uh, in the, uh, the epistle
of Barabbas. Barnabas. Sorry, Barnabas. Not Barabbas. Barabbas would be a very interesting
epistle. I would love to read that one. Uh, in Barnabas. Okay. Uh, mentions Melchizedek
in a way that emphasizes priestly hood that foreshadows Jesus, right? Tying it into Hebrews
actually. So like this epistle right here could actually be something that Hebrews is
trying to indirectly quote from. Correct. Yeah. Well, and, uh, also in like Jewish tradition,
they have, uh, in some of the early texts, like some things you'll find in Talmud or
Mishnah or, um, the different writings, Melchizedek is, is associated with figures like Shem,
the, the son of Noah and suggesting like this ancient revered like status, right? Um, his
connection is not explicitly stated in the Bible, but it's been explored in a lot of
rabbinic literature where they say, well, Melchizedek was really like Shem, right? So
it was somebody from the line of Shem who, you know, acted righteously in the, in the
case of Noah, right? Yeah. Now, by the way, we're not saying you need to believe that
we're saying these are some things that literature has said, right? And so like this type of
stuff, like you can, you can be listening to this. Some of it might be true. Some of
it might not. What it is, is this is just giving context of what was known through literature.
Right. There's, there's, he keeps showing up in stuff that, uh, there, it suggests that
Melchizedek is an actual person. It wasn't just something added to the story. In fact,
um, he even shows up in Islamic text, which would not be surprising because once again,
you have Abram whose son is going to be, um, Ishmael, right? And Ishmael is going to be
the founding, uh, founding father kind of, of the Islam religion. Right. So it actually
takes place before the birth of Ishmael, which that would totally make sense then if Abram
is his father and he's raising him, like Ishmael would have been familiar with the story. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. It also shows up in Gnostic texts, right? Like, which is very interesting. Like
they reference Melchizedek, um, and viewing him as a divine being, like an incarnation
of a heavenly figure. Yeah. This is one of those examples where they kind of take his,
uh, his dual nature and they try to use it for their own purposes. That isn't actually
talking about, you know, cause a lot of the Gnostic issue is that they're trying to say
that Jesus was not, you know, fully man, fully God kind of like thing. And, uh, you have
this, this whole thing where they're taking Melchizedek and they kind of go just down
a different road with it. Well, for my understanding, they actually do tie it back to, uh, they
also tie it back to the Nephilim back in early Genesis, which we're not going to go down
on that. We someday we will someday, but not today, not today, but, uh, but you know, essentially
these beans that were larger than life, larger than human, more divine, more spiritually,
uh, impactful or quote unquote, so on and so forth. So, uh, so there's, there's mention
of Melchizedek in enough places for us to like, for, to where we should pause and be
like, huh, who is this guy? Yeah. Right. And you know, and scholars are kind of divided,
but one of the, one of the opinions that they have on him is that he kind of is the typecast
of this, of this priest king, right? In the ancient Near East, his dual title is both
king and priest, you know, uh, secular and sacred authority mixed together, reflecting
like this political religious systems of the time. Right. Yeah. Um, some, some people point
out to like Canaanite influence that, uh, he is representing like a local deity or a
priest that, that in, in like Canaanite, um, history, like you see a lot of these, these
types of roles showing up and is he a typecast of this type of role? Right. Um, now of course
you're going to have scholars all over the place, whether or not they are, um, scholars
is an interesting thing. You gotta be really careful when you say that they can be people
who are very antagonistic toward the text or very, um, uh, positive towards the text.
And so you always have to take what everybody says with a grain of salt. A lot of times
when you have scholars, they may or may not actually believe anything about the text.
And so they don't believe it to be authoritative. So it's going to have a completely different
perspective for them. Well, I have a guy I like to listen to who he, he is a little bit
more like that where he doesn't follow the text as an authoritative manner. But so some
of his views, but when you listen to him, it's like, Oh man, you know, you're Hebrew.
Yeah. Like, yeah, we, uh, we are very much at the love and context podcast. We are very
much of the opinion that you should, uh, as you mature, learn to be able to, um, chew
the meat and spit out the bones of everything that people have to say. And even people who
are wrong about a lot of things or have the wrong perspective doesn't mean you can still
learn a lot from them. And, uh, but with that being said, you need to be very grounded
in your understanding of scripture before you go and start hearing random thoughts.
Yeah. Um, I listed here in the notes and because there's no way that he and I would have known
these things, right? But some of the, some of the specific texts from, uh, the, the Cumberland
scrolls and so there's one called 11 Q 13, just rolls off the tongue, right? Right. And
so this is how I label everything. Yeah. 11 Q 13. Uh, this is called the milk is a dick
scroll and I'm just gonna read this here real quick. Uh, it's one of the most significant
references to make us like in the Dead Sea scrolls. It presents Melchizedek as a messianic
figure and a priestly leader. The text also associates him with the day of atonement and
suggests that he will play a central role in the eschological judgment, proclaiming
liberation for the righteous. The scroll emphasizes the idea of McKinsey deck as a priest in the
order of McKinsey deck parallel in the biblical portrayal of McKinsey deck in Genesis and
later interpretations in the book of Hebrews. So if this is the conversation about Melchizedek
in the time of the Hebrews, it totally makes sense. The writer of Hebrews is going to say,
Jesus is this messianic figure because remember the Jews are looking for a Messiah and they're
trying to explain to them over and over and over again, Hey, Jesus is the guy you're looking
for, right? About how Jesus is, uh, and how you're supposed to be understanding it. Right.
And that's by the way, that's when you read something like that, you're like, Oh, that's
definitely what they were doing the whole way through. Right. Uh, another one is 11 Q
Melchizedek. This is another designation for the Melchizedek scroll, 11 Q 13, and it contains
similar themes. So it's another scroll, but slightly different focusing on his role in
eschological framework, by the way, eschological is a really difficult word that simply means
end times, right? Um, text elaborates how Melchizedek will act as a mediator for God's
people during the end time. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you, by the way, should see a lot
of parallels with who Jesus actually stepped into this role. Uh, here's one it's by the
way, I'd love this system. I'm going to use it at home for Q 540. It's perfect. The songs
of the Sabbath sacrifice. This one doesn't directly mention Melchizedek, but it does
include hymns and prayers that refer to a priestly figure and themes of righteousness,
which a lot of scholars have interpreted as being connected to the priestly order associated
with Melchizedek. The emphasis on priesthood and worship in this context resonates with
the broader significance of the Mecca because of that girl. Okay. And there's two other
ones. I'm going to just say them here so you can read them. Uh, four Q five 34, which is
called the war scroll and four Q one 74, the treaties on the two spirits. Um, so all of
that being said, right now, kids, the deck is a very interesting figure, right? And I,
you completely understand why the, the writers in the new Testament and specifically the
writers of Hebrew uses the story of Melchizedek from the book of Genesis to, uh, build this
understanding of who is Jesus and how does he interact with your life? Yeah. Right. I
don't want to get into like too deep into like, was Melchizedek a real person? I think
that history and him showing up in so many references suggest yes. Yeah, same here. And
there's a lot of things that have derived from that relationship. So I would love to
know more about Melchizedek because there's just not enough. It's kind of like when Enoch,
it says Enoch walk with the Lord and then he was taken up into heaven. You're like,
hold on a second. I need more of the story. Right. And then he goes, the book of Enoch
and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a little too much for this story. That
doesn't quite explain that. Um, that Melchizedek is, uh, I think the, the bigger thing to your
point is that you were talking about, we see God working in other places besides just Israel,
right? Spoiler alert. He's always been doing that. Right. One of the things that, uh, they
keep finding in, in mission work, and this is going to make some of you a little uncomfortable
and that's okay. I'm okay with that. Um, they go to these, these, uh, remote places in the
middle of nowhere, right? Where people have never met, uh, Christians, they've not, they
don't have people coming in and, um, uh, there's a number of occasions that these people living
in these isolated places and they come to a guy and they said, oh yeah, we were expecting
you. And this is a specific story I'm going to tell. We were expecting you and they get
in and they get, they get somebody to start translating and they say, what do you mean
that you were expecting us? They said, oh, the great God told us you were coming. And
they're like, oh, okay, now we're dealing with mythology. They're like, they're like,
uh, oh, really? What is, and then like, oh, his name is Jesus. And he said that you would
tell us more about him. They're like, who was here before me? Who was here before me?
Right. Um, and, and, and they're, and they're like, they said, yeah, he came and he told,
he introduced himself, but he said that there were people coming who would tell us more
about him. And so like, Jesus is going to these random villages out in the middle of
nowhere. And then like the missionaries are coming in, they're like, yeah, let me open
my Bible and I'll tell you about Jesus. And like, they're all, they're all in because
they've already encountered God because God's at work places where we aren't. Yeah. It's
his world. He's at work in people's hearts all the times. Um, I love the stories that
come out of, uh, like Afghanistan and Israel and, uh, Palestine and these different places
where there are people, uh, specifically like people, Muslims and, and different people
in the, in the middle East, will they be on the middle of the desert? And Jesus shows
up in their tent or, uh, at their campfire and he starts talking with them and inviting
them. And he says, go here and find the Christians, right? And they'll tell you more. And, uh,
and like people didn't, don't necessarily believe these stories, but God is doing these
things and there's just so many of them and these people's lives are changed so dramatically.
They're like completely sold out, uh, jihad Muslim gonna live into this life. And then
they have a random campfire encounter with Jesus and they're going to find some Christians
because they said, Hey, I gotta leave everything to follow this guy who showed up at my campfire.
They're like, well, can you describe him? You know, always clothes and why, you know,
like all sorts of like, like stuff. And it's like these stories give me chills, man. Yeah.
Right. Um, I want to share one more story that I think is like really cool because we've
talked about how our job is to represent Jesus in the world and to, and to put him on display
so that everybody is invited into this relationship. Jackie Hill Perry in her book, gay girl, good
God. Um, she threw like sexual abuse in her childhood and some different things. Like
she found herself in, uh, same sex, uh, relationships and, and, uh, and, and living apart from,
from the church where she was like originally supposed to be like, like called into, and
she was in a relationship and she was living in this house and nobody had been talking
to her about God. And then one day she wakes up in the middle of the night and God says,
I choose you and you're going to be mine. Right. And, and there's more to it. Like,
please read her book. But she's like, there wasn't somebody didn't come and preach to
me. Somebody didn't come in and do these things. God called me and I had to go figure out where
he was. Right. And, uh, and then like, she, you know, she explains like she had, does
have to do things and work towards those things, but like in the middle of, in the middle of
what we would consider, you know, like completely away from God, God's like, no, no, I'm coming
in here and I'm taking you home. Well, my wife's story, like how she came to follow
Jesus as she was in her room one night and very still night. And she's like, well, God,
if you're real, make those trees dance. Gusto, when came in, blew the trees like back and
forth for about 30 seconds and then perfectly still after that. And she was like, okay.
Like, like God shows up in his ways. Like he shows up in these ways. We often dismiss
it as like, oh, it was this, this or that, whatever. But God does show up in these ways.
Yeah. And I think the other thing with milk is that because we learned that God works
in a lot of different ways with people. Now, please don't miss here what I'm saying because
I think somebody could easily take what I'm saying and say all roads lead to God. That's
not what I'm saying. No. Right. I'm saying that God works in a lot of different ways
to communicate his reality to people and invite them into relationship. Right. That Melchizedek
is priest of God most high before there's a priesthood. Right. So obviously God is doing
work before the mosaic covenant. Right. Before this covenant at Sinai. Yeah. And, and God
is by the way, while Israel is going through these thousands of years, he's still doing
things with people in the middle of those relate in the middle of those covenants. It's
not just Israel he's working with. There's people all over. In fact, that might be a
fun thing for us to go through is talk about all these people who are non Israelites that
God keeps interacting with and keeps sending back to the nations. Yeah. Like you think
about Nehman, right? By the way, that's a fun story in the story of Elisha, Elisha. This
really big to do guy named Nehman who has skin disease comes to Elisha and he says,
he says, yeah, I've heard that you might be able to kill me. And he says, doesn't even
go to see him. He just sends his servant to the door and says, yeah, go bathe in the Jordan
River, which by the way, the Jordan River is nasty. Yeah. Then, and essentially the
story is that naming gets healed after being humbled, but that he, he asked Elisha if he
can take the dirt from Israel to go back to his homeland so that when he is there, he
can still worship God because in his mind, God is linked to the dirt. And Elisha is like,
okay, sure. Go ahead and do that. Because like, like, does Elisha not know that God's
not in the dirt? Of course God knows Elisha is not in the dirt, but he's going to let
the guy take something that's going to connect him to God knows high. Right? Yeah. And, and
I think sometimes we get so, so focused on everything being right that we forget to just
connect people to God most high, let him fix the stuff in between. Well, if you think of
the narrow road, right? Yeah. We're like, cause the Bible talks about how there's the
wide path that leads to death, right? And the narrow road there's, but the thing that
at least I've heard someone say it this way. One time I was like, there's lots of paths
to the narrow road, but once you, but to get on the narrow road, you got to say yes to
Jesus. Yeah. Right. Like that's how you get on that narrow road is by saying yes to Jesus,
but God will meet you wherever you're at to get you to that road. Yeah. Right. And again,
like be, I want to be really clear. There's lots of roads that do not lead there. Right.
Right. We're not saying that all paths lead to God. Yeah. Eventually we will all be before
him and there will, and there, you might have a pleasant conversation with him. You might
not. Okay. We're hoping for pleasant. We're hoping for pleasant. That's what we're hoping
and praying for. Right. But, but there's lots of roads that lead to that narrow path. Yeah.
The best, the best thing about the, the Bible is that we get a, we got a chronological look
at God working with one people and like how, who is this God? How does he work with people?
What is his patience like? And the first, one of the first glimpses we get is in the
book of Genesis through this King. That's not even an Israelite. Right. It's going to
be fun. This was part one. Melchizedek. I am sure that you have questions. Please send.
So do we. But if you have some that you think we might be able to answer, send them to us
at love and context at gmail.com. Feel free to comment on our video. It's okay if you
disagree with us, try to be nice. Remember, we're trying to represent Jesus here. So be
nice. And if you're not going to be nice, we'll probably just delete your comment. So,
or we'll use it to fuel our algorithm. One of the two, one of the two until next time.
And that's a wrap for today's episode of love and context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging
conversation and gain valuable insights into the powerful message of love within the Bible.
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