So why is King Melchizedek vital to our story?
If you remember from Monday, Abram conquered a vast army with a mere 318 men. Men who were “trained” by Abram to pray, to worship to know and serve the one true God. My friends, Abram didn’t doubt that through his prayer, worship and the training of his sons and grandsons that God would show up. He knew God was in this kingdom battle.
How did he know this? This is where I think things begin to tie together. You see Abram came from Bethel. He traveled through this city and camped near it. Bethel when translated is House of God. Beth = house and El = God. (Side note Beth le hem. House of bread… interesting tidbit.)
Now remember is was at Bethel where Jacob saw the heavens open.
Read this: (NIV) 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. p 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Okay, now take this all in. Heaven comes to earth in this place. Bethel. Abram knew this. Jacob knew this. King Melchizedek who was without beginning nor end, a heavenly being, was King in this place.
Holy shivers….
Was this a period in time where literally the Kingdom of God and the physical earth were joined and in continual connection with one another.
In my humble thoughts, possibly yes.
Well then what happened? What changed?
Why don’t we see stairways and see God’s Kingdom conquer like the 318 men witnessed? Ahhhh, now that is a fascinating question to ponder and boy howdy do I have some answers.
Let me first, however, share with you what happened. Let’s read from Genesis 15:
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989
This was a scary vision. In the King James it reads horror. Do you know why? In this vision Abram saw that his children were going to turn away from God. They would lose their Holy Royalty to become slaves in every way. They became slaves to the Egyptians and they offered themselves to the ways of the world. They embraced the golden calf of which the Egyptians worshiped.
Abraham saw God’s Kingdom shut off from earth. Gone. God’s covenant with all people came through his covenant with Abraham. The ancient people of earth chose slavery and God left them for 400 years.
What bugs me is they “KNEW” God. They knew better and yet they gave themselves over to the world. Oh my friends, can I just say that I live here too at times. In fact, just this past weekend I became all worked up again with anxiety over money when my broken shower turned into a thousand dollar bill. Ouch and I have more to say about this in a later post. This is a continual battle for me. And it’s one I CHOOSE to surrender again to God because I want to live in His power and presence.
I refuse to return to the ways of the world (worry and anxiety over money) because I have access to God’s Kingdom come to earth through Jesus Christ. And once you have tasted that and know its power, you never want to leave.
So my question for you to ponder today: Do you believe God’s Kingdom is on earth today in 2012? Why?
I am SOOOOO looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this. See you in the comments my friends. And stay tuned because we will explore this question further in the weeks ahead. The answer has everything to do with your life.
Big, Victorious, Kingdom hugs, Lynn
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