Do You Know the Mysteries of the Bible?
June 4th, 2009 by Andrew HyerI was in home group last night and we were discussing Hebrews 6 and 7 in reference to Christ being priest after the order of Melchizedek. Many fruitful truths were gathered from these verses. Truths such as the eternal priesthood of Christ, who allows into the Holy of Hollies. These truths bring joy to our hearts, cultivate praise on our lips, and encourage us onto good works. But then we began to discuss our opinions and theories about who Melchizedek was.
Some argued that Melchizedek was Jesus appearing in the Old Testament and some said that he was just a type of deity. Still another theory postulated that Melchizedek was Shem, the son of Moses. There wasn’t really any strife in this discussion but there were strong opinions that could have left with strife and in the end no fruit was born from this paticular discussion. In light of this, it is important to understand that there are mysteries in the Bible that will always be mysteries, at least on earth, and God has determined that they should stay that way.
I say this because in a Christian’s pursuit of truth it is easy for him or her to stray from what is important through worthless speculation and arguments. One such worthless argument, in my opinion, is the exact identity of who Melchizedek was. Whether or not one knows who Melchizadec was in no way influences what the author of Hebrews is communicating about him in reference to Christ. What we do no is that Melchizadec was greater than Abraham and so Christ is greater than all, that Melchizedek was a priest and so Christ is a priest who has atoned our sins and led us into the Holy of Hollies. These truths bear fruit in our lives and give glory to God.
Another mystery is the origin of evil. The Bible in no way communicates how evil came about exactly and therefore we should not assert that we know how it did. Likewise the Bible does not give details about who Melchizedek was. While it is good to hunger for wisdom and long to know the truth from the Scriptures, it is foolish to overly pursue mysteries such as these and worse, arrogant to claim that we know the answers to such mysteries. We must remember that the truth we pursue is pleasing to God if it bears fruit in our lives and pushes us on to love. As 1 Timothy 1:3-4 says,
“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”
If we are gong to pursue truth and seek to teach others then let us remember that our goal is not to puff ourselves up with truths that set us apart in some special way.Indeed our goal is to proclaim the historic and sound truths of Scripture that edify our brother’s soul and stirs our hearts with love for God and his people.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Dude! This was awesome. Thanks for writing it. I couldn’t agree more. I definitely have my opinions about those mysteries, but you are right. There are times that we have to humbly say, “I don’t know.” I was actually teaching on Revelation today and used the “I don’t know” phrase several times. Sometimes there is just not enough information in the Bible to make absolute claims. Anyway. Thanks again!