While in seminary, I interned at Travis Avenue BC in student ministry. We took a mission trip to Colorado Springs to support a local church plant. We caravanned in several 15 passenger vans to a beautiful Christian Camp in the mountains. The first morning, we split up and each van went to a different neighborhood to do Backyard Bible Clubs. I took my vanload of kids to one particular house and it was a rough morning. The neighborhood kids were having a bad day (read “Bill was having a bad day from lack of sleep and general orneriness; the kids were just being kids in a new setting”). The TABC students did a great job of redirecting the youngsters and eventually the kids settled down and our students had things well in hand with the games, activities, and Bible Study they had planned. I decided the best thing I could do with an hour of time that morning was to go have some quiet time with God and get refocused. The neighborhood was just a few minutes from the Air Force Academy, so I wondered if the beautiful Cadet Chapel was open for a few minutes of solitude and personal Bible Study. When I arrived the Chapel was closed so I took a little hike up a nearby trail and found a bench, sat down, opened my Bible and began to read. I eventually was drawn to a passage in Hebrews that was hard for me to understand about an Old Testament king who was also a priest. These two don’t usually go together in Israel’s history. Kings come from the tribe of Judah and priests come from the tribe of Levi. So the writer explains in Heb. 7:1, "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.'" As I sat there reading God’s Word, some people came up the trail to where I was sitting. One was in uniform and the other was a family with a young man who was considering the Air Force Academy for college. The officer stopped, shook my hand and said, "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Melchisedek.” He asked me a few questions, handed me his card and continued his tour for this prospect. Bewildered, I dug into the passage more.
The writer of Hebrews wanted the early church of Jewish believers to understand that there was a new covenant that was much better than the first one that had depended on their good behavior and a sacrificial system to pay for their sins when they weren’t good. The writer reminded them, Jesus is completely sufficient to save us in spite of our inability to do everything right and have a good day. He is our King, also our eternal High Priest, who offered Himself as the “once and for all” sacrifice for our sins. The incomplete sacrifices of animals made over and over again by Levitical priests who must be replaced over and over again for sins committed over and over again would never be enough. The writer says, “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”(Hebrews 7:23–25) Wow! I have never forgotten how God met me in the wilderness by a chance meeting with a recruiter with a unique name on a hiking trail at the Air Force Academy while studying His Word.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
