Identity is a word we hear often. Do we know what our identity is? Strip yourself of the accolades and adjectives. Describe who you are and what matters most. My highest “title” is a child of God or daughter of the King. One of my favorite things about being a daughter of the King is the description and constant reminders of who I am in the eyes of my Father. One of those areas of Scripture is the first letter written by the Apostle Peter. In it, he describes a Christ follower: a chosen generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. My favorite one, though, is the royal priesthood.

Beautiful Correlations

We are told in the book of Hebrews that Christ is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5). Also, in Matthew 5:17, Jesus tells His disciples that He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. In this sense, if Jesus is our High Priest and we are His royal priesthood, then we are also the spiritual fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood.

Melchizedek is known to mean King of Peace or King of Righteousness. The earthly predecessor was Aaron. The name Aaron means light bringer. The tribe of Levi to which Aaron belonged means joined to. Returning to the historical mention of the two orders of priesthood in Scripture, we discover a beautiful picture of redemption and worship.

Genesis 14:17-20 relates the first mention:

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.

Paralleled to Hebrews 7:1-6:

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

The Levitical priesthood in Abraham gave due honor to the order of Melchizedek. Here’s where the old and new covenants overlap. As Christians, we are partakers of the new covenant. We are joined to the body of Christ. We become the spiritual royal priesthood – the Levitical priesthoood fulfilled. The earthly High Priest, Aaron, was named light bearer. This parallels with how we are to live our lives as part of the fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood. However, there’s another side to this, but that remains unmentioned for part two. In the meantime, I leave you with this challenge. Live a life joined to (Levi) our King of Righteousness (Melchizedek).