“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 has delivered your enemies into your hand. AND HE GAVE HIM TITHES OF ALL.” (Gen. 14:18-20)
“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: AND OF ALL THAT YOU SHALL GIVE ME I WILL SURELY GIVE THE TENTH UNTO YOU.” (Gen. 28:20-22)
Both Abram/Abraham and Jacob paid tithes BEFORE there was ever a Levite, a Jew, or an Israelite upon the face of this earth and LONG BEFORE the Mosaic law was ever given at Mt. Sinai.
Jacob vowed to “give the tenth” (Gen. 28:22) or to give the tithe BEFORE Levi was born (Gen. 29:34), and the Levitical priesthood sprang forth from the tribe of Levi HUNDREDS OF YEARS LATER.
Furthermore, Jacob vowed to “give the tenth” (Gen. 28:22) or to give the tithe BEFORE Judah was born (Gen. 29:35), and it is from the name Judah that we derive the word “Jew":
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Jew
Further still, Jacob vowed to “give the tenth” (Gen. 28:22) or to give the tithe BEFORE God changed his name to Israel (Gen. 32:28) and BEFORE his twelve sons became known as “the twelve tribes of Israel” (Gen. 49:28), so there was no such thing as an Israelite in existence at that time.
Additionally, a simple reading of scripture will clearly show that Abram/Abraham (Gen. 25:7) and Jacob (Gen. 49:33) both died HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE the Mosaic law was ever given (Exod. chapter 19 and beyond), so the tithe PRECEDED the Mosaic law as well.
This is reality, friends, and we’d be wise to embrace the same because the only other embraceable option is DELUSION.
2. Although the Levitical priesthood truly has been replaced by the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches that Christ still receives tithes as our high priest.
We’ve already seen that Abram/Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek who was “the priest of the most high God” (Genesis 14:18) LONG BEFORE there was ever a Levite, a Jew, an Israelite, or the Mosaic law upon the face of this earth. Now, we need to consider that the Melchizedekian priesthood not only PRECEDED the Levitical priesthood, but that God also swore that he would raise up another priest forever after the order of Melchizedek AFTER the Levitical priesthood had come into effect.
(Continued in my next post)