Kingdom Come

“And God said, Let us make [hu]man / Adam in our image, after our likeness: and let [them] / humanity have dominion / rule” (Genesis 1:26)

This is the definition of Melchizedek – a king representing the image and likeness of God as his priest.

The Hebrew word “עָשָׂה” translated here “make” is a primitive root with the widest application going far beyond the first step of molding a body out of clay and breathing into this shell self-propelling life, including as just some of its translations pertinent to this application- accomplish, advance, appoint, become, bring forth, commit, labour, maintain, bring (come) to pass.

This depth of meaning of “make” is apparent in the process by which dominion was transferred to a human only after that man developed the knowledge, understanding and wisdom to perform the required tasks. We can apply the effect of epigenetics – a form of inheritance of ancestral behaviors – to the process by which the last Adam was “made perfect” throughout his paternal Order of Melchizedek, after the first Adam became sinful.

• And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

  ² And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

1.  

“God saw that the wickedness of man was great…

• • And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created… [that would void the covenant to give dominion to mankind!]
  • But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD…with thee / Noah will I establish my covenant…the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth [that mankind would have dominion!]” (Genesis 6:5-18, 9:16)

From Genesis 17:

“When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said…I will make my covenant between me and thee.”

This covenant can only be the only one so far detailed in the previous record – Genesis chapters 1-16. 

my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

⁵ Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

⁶ And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

⁸ And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

⁹ And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

¹⁰ This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

¹² And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

¹³ He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴ And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

¹⁵ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

¹⁶ And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

¹⁸ And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

¹⁹ And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

²² And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

²³ And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

²⁴ And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶ In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

²⁷ And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him…thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” (Genesis 17:1-5)

The easiest way to explain Abraham’s designation as “Father / Spiritual Authority” is to compare his role to a contemporary counterpart.

“Pope”  (Latin: papa, from Greek: πάππας, romanized: páppas, lit. ‘father’), AKA “Holy” Father, is

1. head priest of the worldwide Catholic Church,
2. and also head of state or sovereign of the Holy See.

In Hebrew, that is Melchizedek / King and Priest all in one person.

The word “see” comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning ‘seat’, which refers to the throne (cathedra) used in the Catholic Church to refer specifically to The Apostolic See, the throne of the Bishop of Rome, whom that Church sees as the successor of Saint Peter at the cathedral of the Holy See, the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in the city of Rome.

The Holy See / Throne. like the State of Israel proclaimed in 1948, is a politically sovereign entity recognized by international law. Housed within Vatican City, a geographical enclave separate from the city of Rome. As a political state, it brings its power to bear within international organizations and by means of its diplomatic relations and political accords with other much larger countries.

The Holy See is administered by the Roman Curia / Court, which is the central government of the Catholic Church.^[8][9] The Roman Curia includes various dicasteries, comparable to ministries and executive departments, with the Cardinal Secretary of State as its chief administrator. Papal elections are carried out by part of the College of Cardinals.

Although the Holy See is sometimes metonymically referred to as the “Vatican“, the Vatican City State was distinctively established with the Lateran Treaty of 1929, between the Holy See and Italy, to ensure the temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence of the papacy.^[10] As such, papal nuncios, who are papal diplomats to states and international organizations, are recognized as representing the Holy See and not the Vatican City State, as prescribed in the Canon law of the Catholic Church. The Holy See is thus viewed as the central government of the Catholic Church.^[9] The Catholic Church, in turn, is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world.^[11]

the Catholic Church is truly one of the most diverse institutions on the face of the Earth…there are twenty-four particular Churches. These twenty-four sui iuris (autonomous or self-governing) Churches are all in communion with one another, are all within the Catholic Church and all recognize the primacy of the pope…are all referred to as Eastern Churches and have their own traditions and forms of liturgy, yet retain the same basic liturgical structures and theology.

I had some personal experience of this in three different churches I attended.

• I was married in Beirut in the predominantly Palestinian Eastern Rite Melkite (as in Melchi-zedek) Church, founded in Antioch, Syria in the first wave of Gentile evangelism by Messianic Jews. This denomination has faithfully maintained the the Jewish synagoge service taught to the Gentiles by their Jewish evangelists. The earliest liturgy defined as Christian, written after 300, are still Jewish in form and content. One of them begins with the “Ḳedushshah” and continues with “purity of heart,” which was and is still the main point.
• This is the same liturgy spoken in Aramaic by the Lebanese-based Western Rite Maronite Church serving the extensive Lebanese diaspora in Virginia where I attended services with my husband and children. 
• This is the same original liturgy spoken in Hebrew I memorized while a member of a Messianic Jewish Synagogue after my divorce due to deep religious conflicts.

The father of “many” nations does not fit with typical Christianity that, at most, acknowledges “Jewish roots” of Christianity while equating Jews with Hebrews despite the biblical distinction between the two groups.

The broader interfaith view of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the Abrahamic faiths. still leave out much of the world, as well as the “melchi” / king / political role essential to the biblical Melchizedek to which Abram was promoted, and which the Catholic Pope/Father frankly holds in addition to his spiritual authority.

As refugees flee oppressive Canaanite culture and warfare and migrate in search of living space, finding salvation in Eber’s world-wide evangelistic meetings, they develop into new nations characterized by ecological differences while some maintain the essentials of Shem’s monotheism. 

One of the first examples of this process is a hybrid giant nations.  Who knew they could be saved?

“…Abram the Hebrew…dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite [a giant nation], brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.” (Genesis 14:13-24)

These men had to have had enough faith in Abram’s God and Abram’s leadership to follow him into what was otherwise a suicide mission in the War of Four Kings Against Five and the God of Abraham inscribes their names on a war memorial: Mamre is forever identified as the gracious seller of the first plot of promised land, Eshcol is forever identified with the luscious first fruits of the promised land.

As you read the following account, fit the correct interpretation into certain words and phrases:

1. “Abi Melech” means “My father / authority is Melech [zadok]”, i.e. he defines himself as a Hebrew. See previous post for details on “Shem, the father of all the children of Eber.”
2. He refers to YHVH as “God”, not as “my” or “your” God but the one and only monotheistic God of Shem.
3. He followed the baseline Melchizedekian law of righteous, “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 25:17)

“And Abraham journeyed from [Chaldea through Padan-Aram [into the land of Canaan and]…sojourned…in Gerar [where]…Abi-melech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah [into his harem.] But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD / YHVH, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? …in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this…Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him…what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?…What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake…

Abi-melech spake unto Abraham, saying, [au contraire! I recognize that my] God is with thee in all that thou doest: Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear.” (Genesis 20:21:22-27)

Hundreds of years later Abraham’s vow to treat Abimelech’s people as allies was honored by the Israelites. The land of Gerar is not among Israelite conquests listed in Joshua 15. Located in what came to be Philistine territory, but not named as one of the Philistine cities, Gerar would be rescued from the Philistines by first the Philistine Samson, then Saul, and finally King David. 

“do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.” (Leviticus 25:18)

Other examples of the nations within the Hebrew Commonwealth include Abraham’s children the Ishmaelites / Arabs, the Midianites, the nation of Sheba whose rulers acknowledge an all-powerful Creator who is therefore, unequivocally, “the Boss”, identify with his standards of right behavior which are “production” NOT “destruction” and trust whatever revelation has been received that This Eternal One has a vested interest in humanity as his Creation and will empower his people to overcome destructive forces in this life and after.

“For there is no respect of persons with God. 

• For as many as have sinned without law [AKA the Torah, the Bible] shall also perish without law:
• and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified)…Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” (Romans 1-2)

Do you remember the deliberate cruelties done to you and your children, or the blessings? God does. 

1. “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek…
2. And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” (I Samuel 16:1-6)

There are also the Egyptians who took in Abram’s and Jacob’s households during famines, the Philistines who took in Isaac’s household, 

Surprised? Some individuals in Israel’s worst enemy nations are members of the Hebrew Commonwealth.

“In that day shall there be

• an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt,
•  a highway [indicating commerce] out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
• shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 

Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance…every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD / YHVH / Creator.” (Zechariah 14:16)