Shabbat Bible Study for 15June2019

©2019 Mark Pitrone and Fulfilling Torah Ministries

Year 1 Sabbath 11

Genesis 14:1-24 – Isaiah 41:2-14; 1Kings 10:9 – Psalm 10 – Hebrews 7:1-19

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Highway_%28ancient%29

Get ready – this one is deep

Genesis 14:1-24 – See prefatory paragraph in Chumash, pg.68. In addition, it is thought that Avram was likely ALREADY richer than Bera, king of Sodom, anyway and that his offer held no allure to Avram. I would venture to guess that Avram’s 318 Talmidim were made comfortable economically by this venture, though. This battle sets the pattern for Avram’s seed; if they are fighting for Y’hovah’s righteousness and at his instruction, Y’hovah will be the one who wins the victory against seemingly (by physical sight) impossible odds and with no casualties to his forces. 

In v.1, the 4 KoE seem to symbolize the 4 world powers seen in the book of Daniel; Amraphel = Babylon, Arioch = Media/Persia, Chedorlaomer = Greece/Eastern Europe, and Tidal = Rome/ Western Europe. The names of the kings and of their kingdoms is very interesting to me, because I think it gives us some valuable insight into each one’s character and possibly his purpose in this venture. First is Amraphel, king of Shinar (Kasdim/Chaldea). Shinar is paleo-Babylon and Amraphel is likely Nimrod himself. He would be the eldest and most senior in authority of the kings, even though this battle was Chedorlaomer’s [v.5] and all the rest are just his [C’s] allies. I think it is probable that the list in v.1 shows seniority of power, while the one in vv.5&9 shows that Chedorlaomer asked the other kings to help him quell the rebellion and that he was in overall command of this operation. Amraphel is not a Hebrew word in itself, so there is no proper translation, but breaking it down to its syllables, it COULD mean ‘people healed (returned) to a god’. If that interpretation is correct and this was indeed Nimrod, after the dispersion of his kingdom by the confusion of languages, he might have megalomaniacally held that his kingdom becoming great again was a confirmation of his own deity, perhaps akin to

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called Elohim, or that is worshipped; so that he as Elohim sitteth in the temple of Elohim, shewing himself that he is Elohim. (II Thessalonians 2:4)

Rob Skiva (a popular speculator about things ‘Nephillim’) thinks that THE AntiMessiah will be a reincarnation of Nimrod, whom Rob and I both think was the first manifestation on this side of Noach’s Flood of the descendants of the Nephillim. I don’t know about ‘reincarnation’, but that the same Adversary that inspired Nimrod will also inspire THE Anti-Messiah I am certain. 

Arioch is the name of 2 Babylonians and the name has no Hebrew translation, either. The Hebrew word arakhah means traveler, wanderer. I have not really been able to discern any possible meaning for this king’s name. But what was likely the city of Ellasar has been found in Medo-Persia. 

Chedorlaomer seems to be Elam, son of Shem, son of Noach. Kador means to encirle or cordon, while laomer means ‘to or of the sheaf’ or sheaves. Chedorlaomer’s name speaks of what he was trying to restore – his control of the entire region. Remember that this is HIS battle and the other kings are his backup who will likely be compensated for their alliance with him.

Tidal looks to be the outsider of this group, being king of goyim, by which title I infer he was the leader of a large alliance of smaller sheikdoms. Tidal’s name, according to Strong’s definition means ‘fearfulness’, deriving from H1763, dchal, which is Aramaic and means ‘to slink’, i.e. to fear; or causatively to be formidable or make afraid. Dchal derives from the root H2119, zachal, which means crawl, implying fear. Tidal, being king of nations, may have been the king of the largest army and may have been along to intimidate the enemy by sheer force of numbers. 

In v.2, we see the 5 kingdoms who are the point of this expedition of Chedorlaomer’s, the cities of the plain where Lot decided he wanted to live in ch.13. Since Lot was Avram’s reason for entering the fray, and he lived in S’dom, Bera, king of S^edom is the one the narrative keys on.  What follows is an exercise in ‘dot connecting, and may be completely wrong, but here goes. Bera’s name is undefined by Strong’s, but the city name, S^edom H5467 means ‘to scorch, burnt (i.e. volcanic or bituminous) district’. This gives the impression of traditional ‘hell’, and the only speech from Bera is in keeping with haSatan’s [i.e., hell’s traditional ‘ruler’] desires – to ‘have the souls’ of the S^edomi[tes]. 

Birsha’s name derives from the root H7561, rashah, ‘to act illegally, to break the law arbitrarily’ with a bet prefix, so it means ‘in or with wickedness’. ^gAmorrah [H6017] means ‘ruined heap’ deriving from the root H6014 amar “properly, apparently, to collect; figuratively, to chastise (as if piling blows)”. So, Birsha of ^gAmorrah can mean ‘a king who with [or in] wickedness heaps up chastisement’. This is certainly the ultimate outcome of walking with or in the wickedness of S^edom. 

Shinav (H8134) of Admah (H126); Shinav means a father has turned or altered (perhaps ‘gone’ Sodomite?) and Admah is the same root as adamah, which means earth, so Admah means ‘earthy’. Running the 2 words together likely means ‘a father who has turned towards the earth’ rather than towards Y’hovah. 

Shemever of Tzevoiym; his name means ‘name of pinion’ [like a dove feather] or ‘illustrious’, so it can be seen as ‘a name that soars’. Tzevoiym is plural for tsavah, ‘to swell up’. It refers to prominence or splendor, perhaps flamboyance. Seems to be pride run amok. 

The king of Bela [H1106, from 1104], which is Tzoar [H6820], is not named, but it isn’t really necessary, since the name of his kingdom means ‘to swallow completely or enclose’. The reason that 2 place names are given is that the actual name of the city is Tzoar [means  ‘small’], but the king of ‘completely swallowing or enclosing’ [Bela] is Tzoar’s king. 

In all this, I think Y’hovah is showing us that all 9 of these kings were absolutely wicked, and I think Avram would have allowed them to just destroy each other had the 4 eastern kings not taken Lot captive, as we will see in v.14.  Q&C

Vv.3-12 – The ‘vale of Siddim’ was a wide, flat valley. Stone’s Tanakh adds the word ‘now’ before ‘the Sea of Salt’, so the whole valley that is now the Dead Sea was, before the destruction of the cities of the plain (ch.19) and according to the translators, the vale of Siddim. Chedorlaomer had all 5 cities under tribute 12 years before they decided to rebel in the 13^th year. I infer from the text that when these 5 kings rebelled against Chedorlaomer that OTHER vassals followed in the rebellion. As soon as the weather was good enough to travel from Elam in the 14th year, Chedorlaomer brought the other kings of the east (KoE, whom he’d recruited as soon as the 5 kings rebelled, IMO) as backup to kill those rebellious vassals, appoint NEW vassal kings and reinstate the tributes. If the 4 kings did like I would have, they made the trip as efficient in effort expended as possible and took the shortest routes that would achieve the desired ends. I also would save the toughest for last and pick up some ‘cannon fodder’ soldiers from the earlier encounters. Notice who [in my speculative opinion] they recruited; the Rephaim, the Emim, the Zuzim and the Khorites. These are all designations by the various nations to giants; the Hebrews called giants among them Rephaim [H7497, rapha, to heal, in the sense of invigorating; giant], the Moabites called them Emim, the Amorites called them Zuzim or Zamzumim, and the Hivites called them Khorim (Horites). I assume that these were in the minority, the Nephil genome being recessive, and were castigated and marginalized in their nations. So my inference is that Nimrod, who in this chapter is called Amraphel (see the root of Rephaim in his name?) and was the earliest post-flood manifestation of the DNA of the Nephillim in Torah, was along to defeat any giant who would fight the kings’ hosts and to help recruit giants in the western lands to join in the fight against the 5 kings. These giants would then be put forward in the battle lines as the champions of the 4 kings and challenge the forces of the 5 kings, like Goliath was against Sha’ul’s Ivrit armies. 

After they defeated the peoples and recruited what giants they could from among them, they moved on to the Amalekites and the Amorites, giants in their own right, which was possibly ANOTHER reason for recruiting the giants of the southern lands first. After that, the 4 kings and their hosts came toward the cities of the plain and those 5 kings went out against them to the try to get the kings and their giants to fight on terrain that the kings knew and were filled with slimepits (oil seeps? quicksand?) that might help defeat the 4 kings armies. But the kings of S^edom and ^gAmorrah were cowards and fled the battle, much of their armies falling into the pits they’d hoped would slow or deter the foreign kings, while the kings of Tzevoiym, Tzoar and Admah took to the hills. 

The 4 kings then took the spoils from the 5 cities. It was in Sedom that they stepped in a big stinky pile when they took Lot hostage to keep Avram away so they could make good their escape toward home. They did not know what they were doing. Avram, as I said before, was likely the richest man in the world and had 318 well trained talmidim. Avram had stayed out of the fight, I infer to let the heathen kill each other, until a survivor from Sedom came and told him that his nephew had been taken. Have you ever seen the movie Taken with Liam Neeson? I think that what he did to the guys who took his daughter was mild compared to what Avram did to Chedorlaomer, Amraphel and their band of ne’er-do-wells. He pursued them until they came to Chobah (hiding) where they quit fighting and just hid themselves from Avram’s host. Avram allowed the rest to slink away (Tidal’s name means ‘slink’), licking their wounds, but saving/delivering all the stuff and souls that the 4 kings had taken, including Lot and his stuff. 

Last week I started showing ‘the vexation of Lot’. He was a man of substance, perhaps 2^nd only to Avram in the world and their holdings were so great that they couldn’t live in and graze their cattle on the same land. So Avram told Lot to choose where he wanted to live and raise his living and that Avram would go the other way so there would be no strife between them. Lot’s vexation began with his physical eyes a) coveting the easy life of the wide, flat plain that would become the Dead Sea. Then he b) chose that life and then c) he ‘pitched his tent toward Sedom’, so that he was always looking that way. His gradual desensitizing happened over a period of time, but by 14.12 he d) lived exclusively in S^edom. Had he lived in his tent, he might NOT have been taken. But it was Y’hovah’s will that he be taken so he could give the 9 kings all a good thrashing. Remember that Kefa called Lot ‘just’, meaning righteous; he was a tzaddik. Avram was not just going to deliver his nephew, but his BROTHER (v.14) in Y’hovah. I infer also that Mamre, Eshcol and Aner were either among those 318 talmidim who accompanied Avram or in addition to them. If they were in addition, their pursuing force would have been a formidable number, so I think they were among the talmidim, not in addition; remember Gid’on the judge and how he was told to whittle down his forces to about 300 (Judg.7). 

As Avram was coming south from Chobah just this side of Damascus [v.5 – Damesek דמשק] and approached Yerushalayim, Bera came out to confront him, I infer to demand his stuff from him and fight for it if necessary (which would have been VERY foolhardy), but MelechTzadik came out to bless Avram [v.18] before the confrontation could be made. Now, MelechTzadik was Shem, Noach’s son, and he was the priest of El Elyon and NOBODY messed with him. When he saw Mel coming out to bless Avram, Bera kept his mouth shut. Shem was an intimidating presence, I think, and was known for the Ruach that was on him. Bera was not going to incur that kind of wrath. When Mel blessed Avram and then Avram blessed Mel with a tithe of the spoils [v.20], I think Bera went apoplectic, but held his peace until Mel was gone. I really see his speech to Avram as VERY sarcastic; a Mark paraphrase [v.21] being, “Why don’t you keep ALL my stuff and just give me my subjects back.” Of course, according to the rules of war, all the spoils belong to the victor, so Avram already owned it all – including the king’s subjects, by right of conquest. And if Bera couldn’t handle the 4 KoE, he had NO CHANCE of defeating Avram and his talmidim in battle, so he’d have been better off just keeping his mouth shut, his tail between his legs and made his way home. But remember that Avram was likely the richest man in the world, and adding the paltry spoils of this campaign to his holdings was probably the LAST thing on his mind. What I think ticked Avram off most was Bera’s assumption that Avram had any designs on his crap to begin with. So he told Bera in another Mark paraphrase [vv.22-24], “Shut your yap! NOTHING that I just won from the heathen kings is of any interest to me, and nothing that they took from you is rightfully yours ANY MORE! So HERE’S what’s going to happen. 1) You will shut up, 2) the men who accompanied me and are returning without a scratch (can you say the same for YOUR armies?) are going to take whatever they choose from these spoils and 3) you will have NOTHING to say about it!” And, if it were me, I’d have spanked the spoilt rotten man-child and sent him to bed without his supper.

With that kind of response, I probably would not have been blessed like Avram was, because the next thing to happen to Avram, into which we will delve next week (Y’hovah willing and the creek don’t rise) is that he gets another major blessing from Y’hovah.

1 After these things the word of Y’hovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. (B’reishith 15.1)

Avram refused to take the worldly goods of Bera as a reward, so Y’hovah gave Avram himself as his exceeding great reward. Q&C

Isaiah 41:2-14  – In v.1, Y’hovah is calling the whole house of Ya’acov together, Yehudah and Ephraim (the islands), to give righteous judgment. In vv.2-14 he lays out the case for chol Yisrael to trust the covenants he’s made with them beginning with Avraham, the righteous man from the east, whom he called to stand on his feet, to walk away from the seat of wickedness in Kasdim and then drew the KoE to Avraham for the purpose of tearing down their strength and their pride AFTER having them tear down the strength and pride of Avraham’s neighbors who would try to fill the ‘tyranny void’ that would be left. Y’hovah did all that we saw in our parsha today to provide an area of liberty, at least temporarily, where Israel would be free to worship Y’hovah and grow into a strong nation without having to worry about fighting to maintain their liberty. Avraham was the undisputed ‘big gun’ in the entire region with whom no one would pick a fight AND who was not interested in forcing his own hegemony over his neighbors. He would not force his will on anyone, like the KoE (Washington, D.C. Nazis?) or the local tyrants (State and local Nazis) did, but he would not take any crap from anyone, either; and I mean ANYONE, as the KoE and the 5 local tyrant kings learned. Yes, the founding of the united States of America is a latter day Shabath 11 of the Triennial Parashoth, and George Washington was the latter day Avraham. May it be that the united States of America is NOT sold into Egypt at about the same time in her history as Yisrael was.

Avraham wanted max liberty for everyone who would not try to force his own will on any other, especially on Avraham and his family. Avraham was the paleo-libertarian; live and let live while helping your neighbors to do the same when you are able AND they ask. Had the 4 kings NOT taken Lot, he would not have intervened. When he was finished with the KoE, who had already subdued the 5 local tyrants, he COULD have forced his will on everyone in the region, had he NOT been a righteous man. THIS was what these united States had been founded to be like. THIS is why haSatan had to work so hard to destroy the republic our founders created. It was truly created, as John Adams said, for a righteous and godly people and truly is inadequate for any other. And THAT is why the USA is in the shape it’s in today; our people are no longer righteous and godly. I will now kick the soapbox back under the table and get back to the scripture.

The ‘way that he had not gone with his feet’ [v.3] was likely the Kings’ Highway that the KoE were using to get home. Avraham had not used the King’s Highway on his trek into Yhwh’s land. In V.4, Y’hovah makes it plain that it was HE and not Avraham who had broken the hegemony of the Nazi KoE and the 5 local Nazis. Vv.5-14 is about Avraham’s seed in Yisrael, but could also be applied to these united States, for when the people of the world saw the freedom from tyranny that the Constitution gave Americans (because it had Torah at its base) they FLOCKED to these shores, gave up their past lives’ allegiances and became Americans. And I am without a doubt that when people heard of the freedom to achieve in the land in Avraham’s days they did the same. All most folks need is that freedom without some tyrant breathing down his neck, demanding his allegiance and his hard earned substance without protecting the liberty to gather that substance or earning the allegiance the tyrant demands. Y’hovah, through Avraham and the Toroth he spoke by Moshe to Yisrael, gave us the foundation of the American Republic. HaSatan, through envy and covetousness, gave us the American Socialist Tyranny. Only the humility and repentance of America’s true believers can possibly bring back the Republic. I am afraid that the so-called believers in America have no clue about the root of the problem; which is our lack of true faith and meekness; and they don’t really care to. 

In v.10 Y’hovah speaks of his right hand, which is, of course, Mashiyach. He strengthens us, helps us, and upholds us with his right hand. Then in v.13, he holds our right hand. If we are yoked to him, we are headed in the same direction he is heading, so if he is holding our right hand, it is in his left hand. The right hand signifies power and strength. The left hand signifies righteousness and justice. So our power and strength is in his righteousness that he has given us and we are unable to exercise our own power. Therefore, he must exercise his strength and power for us, as he did for Avraham in his campaign against the KoE. 

By the way, could THESE be the KoE Yochanan spoke of in Rev

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the KoE might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

Most commentators think this describes China/Russia/Japan. I wonder. In the 404 verses of Revelation there are 605 references to Tanakh. Why should we expect that the KoE there are any different than the ones revealed in Torah.

1Kings 10:9 – Once again, though this is addressed to Shlomo by the Queen of Sheba, it can be applied to these united States, ‘conceived in Liberty’. Shlomo was king over the most prosperous nation in history, Yisrael, before these united States because it was a bastion of liberty from Moshe until then. It was during Shlomo’s reign that creeping socialism began to make real headway and it took 300 or so years to destroy all Yisrael had achieved. I guess even the wickedness of socialism can get more efficient with practice, eh? 1789-2019. 230 years? Q&C

Psalm 10 – Read v.1, then this prefatory paragraph, then the rest of the psalm. There is really little to comment on. Y’hovah hides himself from the world in times of trouble because he does not stand in the way of men’s free will; he allows men to have exactly what they want. It is just too bad that the worldly man wants exactly that which is the worst thing for him. What David describes through about ¾ of this psalm is exactly what the worldling seems to want above all – unrestrained freedom to use and abuse to get that which he desires. We spoke a few minutes ago about liberty as the thing the American Constitution gave Americans, and that millions of immigrants left everything they knew and loved behind to come to America to work to achieve whatever our liberty allowed. But most of those immigrants knew that liberty and freedom, though related, are not one and the same. Absolute personal freedom is not what the founders of America gave us [though it IS what we’ve taken]. They gave us a strong, though strictly limited, federal government whose main purpose was to stay out of people’s way and allow them to make their own way in life while doing a very few needful things that would ultimately help those people achieve their desired end. It was not absolute freedom, because all that gives society is anarchy. What they espoused, those pesky founding fathers of the American experiment in SELF-government, was to give us, and themselves, as much liberty as they could. Liberty is self-restrained, self-governed freedom. That is what Y’hovah gave to Avraham’s seed. In our psalm today, David describes what happens to men who refuse to restrain their lusts. Read vv.2-18.

Vv.2-15 mainly talks about what wickedness men, usually those who are in positions of power, perpetrate on men of lesser position or on Am Y’hovah, people who serve Y’hovah. Let’s look at a few of the descriptive phrases about the wicked, shall we? “Doth persecute the poor” speaks in the remez [hint of the deep truth] of wicked religious leaders and the exiles of Yisrael, but also in the pashat of the wicked political leaders [Nazis] persecuting the weakest members of society. 

He “blesseth the covetous”, which also has a remez and a pashat application. Y’hovah ‘abhors’ anyone who gives his blessing to another’s covetousness for power or stuff. We see this kind of covetousness in the news every day, most recently in the “Russian collusion, et al” lies in which the American administration finds itself persecuted daily in the press. Recently [the last few years] there have been similarly botched cover-ups of scandals within evangelical Xianity and the Netzarim (Ralph Messer comes to mind literally trying to ‘cover-up’ the Pentecostal bishop by wrapping him in a Torah scroll; as did the former head of NRB Ted Haggard). We need to keep our heads on a swivel to avoid these kinds of scandals in our lives, for we are to

Abstain from all appearance of evil. (I Thessalonians 5:22)

Nothing is more damaging to the cause of Yeshua in the world’s eyes than sexual or financial scandal among leaders of his people, and ALL of those types of scandal have covetousness at their base. I truly believe that the 10^th commandment is the most difficult for the flesh to overcome and is the BASIS for every sin, including idolatry. I’ve shown in the past that covetousness was Rav Sha’ul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ (Lk.18.19-23, Acts.9.5, Rom.7.7), and not myopia or astigmatism. If a man as well versed in Torah as Sha’ul had so much trouble with lust, it can’t be any easier for those of us with less Torah knowledge or a more distant walk with Y’hovah. 

“His ways are always grievous” means that what he does grieves Y’hovah Avinu. It isn’t a good thing to grieve the Author of Life, especially if that’s ALL he sees from you. Now, I do not always please MarYah, but I also do not ALWAYS grieve him. The point of this psalm is seen in the last 3 verses, where the oppressed are always before Y’hovah and he grieves over the wicked man’s treatment of them. Y’hovah SHALL come to the oppressed person’s defense and SHALL adjudicate for him against the oppressor. Q&C 

Hebrews 7:1-19 – Melchizedek is our connection to Torah today, or rather the order of the priesthood he held. I think the MelechTzadik priesthood was the similar to if not the same as the priesthood before the Levites were appointed after the Golden Calf Debacle; basically the bachor, or the righteous firstborn, of the family was the priest. Now I have a very strange position on the Melchizedek priesthood that comes from connecting some strange and ambiguous dots. I believe that there will have been a total of 12 Melchizedek Priests by the time Yeshua actually inhabits the office on earth during his Millennial reign. I begin to put this together by once again (remember Lot’s vexing) looking to a statement from Kefa without the translator’s added words. There are 2 words added to 2Pe.2.5 that could cause a big change in the meaning of the KJV text; person and a; note the difference when they are removed

And spared not the old world, but saved Noach, the eighth [person, a] preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (II Peter 2:5)

Melchizedek, or Noach’s son Shem, was, then, the 9^th ‘preacher of righteousness’. Since Noach was the 10^th generation from the Creation, I have no idea who the other 7 preachers of righteousness were, though I assume that M’thushael was the 7^th. My inferences follow that Shem passed on the title of MelechTzadik to the 10^th ‘preacher of righteousness’, Ya’acov, when he spent 14 years in Jerusalem at the ‘school of the prophets’ that the sages say Shem and Eber ran in ‘Salem’ (cf.Gen.14.18 and the prefatory comments on Gen.28.10-22 in Chumash, pg.157). MelechTzadik means My king is righteous or perhaps I am King of Righteousness. What is certain is that he was the righteous son of Noach who carried on his mission and then passed it on to the next in line. I think the office of Righteous King went, like the Aharonic high priesthood, to the youngest eligible person who was fully trained in the office – Ya’acov, who had no children when he was in J’lem between the day he left Yitzhak and Rivkah and the day he arrived in Padan-Aram some 14 years later. If I am correct and Ya’acov was the 10^th MelechTzadik, then I also think that when he gave his blessing to his seed before he died, he SPLIT the offices of Melech to Yehudah and of Tzadik to Ephraim, and the 11^th MelechTzadik was held in tandem. There are sages who say that there will be 2 Mashiyach’s; one of Yoseph’s line who will be the Tzadik Mashiyach ben Yoseph, and one of Yehudah’s line who will be the Melech Mashiyach ben David. Yeshua was called son of both during his ministry years

Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (John 1:45)

And they said, Is not this Yeshua, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? (John 6:42)

Philip had been a talmid of Yochanan HaMatbeel (the Baptist) and probably knew of the sages’ thoughts about Mashiyach ben Yoseph. The townsfolk of Natzreth may also have known, but even if they meant Yoseph, MirYam’s husband, that may also have been in Avinu’s plan; to have him be both spiritually and legally a ‘son of Yoseph’. It would be like him. Now what about MirYam’s husband Yoseph?

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of Y’hovah appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Miryam thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of Ruach haKodesh. (Matthew 1:20) 

MirYam’s husband Yoseph was the bachor of David’s royal line at that time.

And when Yeshua departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. (Matthew 9:27)

22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? (Matt.12.22-23)

Yeshua did works that only Mashiyach ben David was supposed to manifest. Putting it all together, the 12^th MelechTzadik is (or shall be) Y’hovah Yeshua haMashiyach. 

MelechTzadik means King of Righteousness, according to Sha’ul’s [or whoever the author of Hebrews was] midrash in v.2. He is the King of Shalem in B’reishith and Ivrit as well as

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty Elohim, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Like Yeshua at his last supper before his death, Mel did a hamotzi lechem v’yayin; brought forth bread and wine. Q&C

When it says he was without father and mother, it simply means that MelchiZedek’s genealogy is not listed. But MelechTzadik is a title and an office, not a given name. When it says that he had neither beginning of days nor end of life, it simply means that the title and office of MelechTzadik goes on in perpetuity, not that the title/officeholders are eternal, with the exception of the last one, who is the bachor of the dead and who, being Y’hovah, resurrected his own dead flesh up to eternal life. 

All the Patriarchs of Yisrael are junior in authority to this MelechTzadik in that Avraham, the 1^st of the Patriarchs, paid tithes to him and received a blessing from him. The lesser never blesses the greater, but the greater the lesser. Avraham, then could bless his physical seed, but not his physical seed him. Shem was a direct ancestor of Avraham, and could and did bless him. He did not pass on the title/office to him, though, if my speculative idea is correct. That title he held until Ya’acov came to him about 140-150 years later. Avraham was qualified, as was Yitzhak, to hold the office/title of MelechTzadik, but there was no need to pass it on yet. 

Remember that Sha’ul’s purpose for writing this book is to try to convince a group of Netzari Levitical priests to NOT go back to service in the Temple, the most powerful point being made in 10.26-29

26 For if we sin wilfully [which offering bulls and goats for atonement would have been – Mark] after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins [which is why offering the animal to atone for sin would be a sin; a useless slaughter – Mark], 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moshe’s law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of Elohim, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Ruach of grace? [Is that not what offering an atonement of bulls and goats would be; holding the blood of Yeshua and the Ruach of Y’hovah in contempt? – Mark]

Sha’ul says that his original audience, the Leviim, paid tithes to Mel through Avraham, that the priests who were commanded to accept the tithes as servants of Y’hovah were of lesser authority than Mel. Sha’ul goes on to use this metaphor to base all the subsequent midrashic points through ch.10. 

In v.11, he shows the Levite believers in the gospel of Shalom through Yeshua’s blood that the Aharonic priesthood and the laws that governed it were now useless and superceded by a ‘deeper magic from before the dawn of Levitical time’. The change of the law seen in v.12 was not to abolish Torah, but to abolish the need for an atonement using bull and goat blood.

11 But Mashiyach being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Mashiyach, who through the eternal Ruach offered himself without spot to Elohim, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant [B’rith Chadasha], that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first [that is, the Levitical/Aharonic – Mark] covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Heb.9.11-15)

As the reversion to the earlier, MelchiTzadikan priesthood from the later, Aharonic priesthood; so is the reversion to the ‘deeper’ atonement of Yeshua since the foundation of the world from the ‘deep’ atonement of Aharon since the Golden Calf. Read again!

The MelechTzadik priest is not even a Levii, but a Yehudi. As David was declared a priest, not for a few years, but forever after the order of MelechTzadik [Ps.110.4]; so his son, Yeshua haMashiyach, who has risen from death unto life everlasting IS a priest forever after the order of MelechTzadik. The law of bull and goat blood atonements, that never made anything tamiym or it would not have had to be repeated every year, is what was disannulled by the once for all offering of the MelechTzadik, not the Sinai Covenant. It was Yeshua, our MelechTzadik, who gave the Sinai Covenant to Yisrael and received the Priests and the zachanim (elders) of Yisrael into his throneroom on Mount Sinai for the ‘wedding feast’, making the 70 zachanim of Yisrael the priests of their people. It was the failure of Aharon and those zachanim to act in the office of high priest and zachanim in the Golden Calf Debacle that made the Levitical priesthood necessary for a time. Rav Sha’ul shows this to be true. We will likely discuss this again when we get to the Golden Calf Debacle about this time next year. Q&C

End of Shabbat Bible Study