Have you ever thought about how to send a message through time?

It seems simple enough. Simple, but not easy.

First of all, there is a vast difference between having to say something and having something to say.

Most of the things we read, watch, or listen to will not make it past the test of time. They are too small, limited, and time-bound. They may entertain or amuse you for the moment, but that is all. Your message will need to convey big ideas, concepts, or principles to make it past the test of time.

About your time on earth: who is going to retransmit your message after you are gone? Will it have touched so many people that they make it a point to make sure your message survives time? In a hundred years, will it survive? A thousand?

How good are you at seeing the future? If you want your message to travel through time, it would be kind of handy to know what plot twists are ahead, wouldn’t it?

Is one lifetime enough? What if the story unfolds history and how men and women of every age respond to the message?

One way to send a message through time is to have the message written through time.

How can you coordinate between writers living in different times, languages, and cultures? If it is a unified story, something has to keep that unity of purpose.

These are just some of the considerations you’d need to think about before your message could travel through time.

Dare To Compare

The Bible

• Composed of 66 books
• Written by about 40 different authors
• Written over 1500 years
• Written in three languages
• Written in different geographical locations
• Written in different time periods
• Wide variety of authors – Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, etc.
• There is a remarkable agreement on big ideas. One God, creation by God, man created in God’s image, Messiah is coming and has come, God saving man from sin, judgment day, etc.

Great Books Of The Western World - Encylopedia Britannica

• Collection of 60 books
• Centered around 102 great ideas
• Written over about 2700 years
• Written in different geographical locations
• Written in different time periods
• Wide variety of authors – Homer, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Livy, Tacitus, Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Shakespeare, Pascal, Isaac Newton, David Hume, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Thoreau, Freud, Vladimir Lenin, Einstein, Bertrand Russell to name a few
• Wide divergence of opinions about God, creation, nature of man, salvation, etc.

Let’s compare and contrast these two different messages through time, starting with the Great Books Of The Western World.

The original editors had three criteria for including a book in the series drawn from Western Civilization: the book must have been relevant to contemporary matters, and not only important in its historical context; it must be rewarding to re-read repeatedly with respect to liberal education; and it must be a part of “the great conversation about the great ideas,” relevant to at least 25 of the 102 “Great Ideas”… 1

Why did these books travel through time? They talk about some of the most incredible ideas man has ever thought. They changed and shaped the world. The conversation about great ideas is relevant even today and serves as a starting place for even more incredible ideas.

One big difference is it does not claim to be inspired or the message of God. It is a compilation of some of the most brilliant men and their ideas that are worth considering.

Another striking difference is the disagreements between the authors of some of the big ideas: God’s existence, man’s nature, free will, morality, knowledge, etc.

The Bible - God’s Conversation Of His Ideas With Man

Whatever else one may think of the Bible, it is undoubtedly one of the great literature pieces from antiquity. It has been the starting place for much of the world’s finest music, art, stories, and morals.

It starts with the most important idea: God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). It quickly moves to man’s creation in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and the reason for marriage and family (Genesis 2:23-25).

Genesis three contains one of the greatest stories of free will and knowing between good and evil. It also includes the first Messianic prophecy (Genesis 3:15).

A one-sentence synopsis of the Bible is: The Old Testament says that Messiah is coming; the gospels say that Messiah came and his name is Jesus Christ; the rest of the New Testament says that Messiah is coming again.

Much has been written about the Bible’s inspiration (2 Timothy 3:14-17) and the Bible’s prophecies (Acts 3:17-26). In future posts, I plan on writing more about them. But for this post, I want to focus on one little-known message through time that is incredible.

MISSION INCREDIBLE: How God Sent A Timeless Message Through Time

In Genesis 14:18-20 we read:

18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.

In the middle of God’s ongoing conversation with Abram (Abraham), we have these three verses that appear in the narrative.

Several questions come to mind.

Who is this Melchizedek king of Salem?

Who were his parents? Nothing is recorded about his birth or lineage in a book that does that a lot.

How did he become the priest of God Most High? Who made him priest?

Why did Abraham pay him a tithe?

How could this possibly have anything to do with Jesus in the future?

Why would Moses write this down?

Melchizedek appears in the Genesis narrative already being a priest and king. We don’t read of his beginning or end in the record. That stands out in a book filled with genealogies and beginnings and endings.

Abraham died about 250 years before Moses, who wrote this incident down, was born. It was Moses who delivered the covenant and established the Levitical priesthood (Exodus 20; 29:9). Only men from the tribe of Levi and direct descendants of Aaron could be priests.

Fast forward about 500 years, and we read in Psalms 110:1, 4:

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”… The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Psalms 110 is one of the great Messianic prophecies in the Bible. God let David in on the conversation between God and David’s Lord.

David was a king but could never be a priest under the Mosaic covenant since he was the wrong tribe and family. God wasn’t talking about David; he spoke with David about what he was going to do with David’s Lord.

It was this prophecy that stumped the Pharisees of Jesus' day.

41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’? 45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. (Matthew 22:41-46)

Psalms 110:4 tells us about an oath that God swore to David’s Lord. He was going to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Right in the middle of the old covenant with the Levitical priesthood still in place, God let David know that there’s going to be a timeless priest like Melchizedek.

Fast forward about 1,000 years, and an entire chapter of the New Testament reveals why God had woven Melchizedek into the narrative 1750 years before.

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, 2 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,” 3 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. (Hebrews 7:1-3)

14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest 16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 7:14-17)

Jesus isn’t a priest because he’s Aaron’s descendent nor because of some law. He arose as a priest because of the unchangeable oath of God and the power of an endless life. That is a timeless message.

God let three different humans (Moses, David, and the author of Hebrews) separated by 1,750 years in on his big idea about Jesus. He planted the idea of a timeless priesthood of Jesus before the Mosaic priesthood was established and revealed to David the oath during the Levitical priesthood. Incredible.

That is how God sent his timeless message through time.

Do You Believe The Bible Is Incredible?

God wants to let you in on the conversation he’s been having with humans since the beginning of time.

God sent a message through time about Jesus because he has incredible things in store for those who love and obey Jesus.

Maybe the Bible has been sitting on your shelf, unopened, unread.

Have you been cheating yourself on God’s great conversation about Jesus because you won’t read it for yourself?

Which meaning of incredible do you believe the Bible is?

Amazing, astonishing, awe-inspiring or, not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable?

The choice and decision are yours.

Kevin Huddleston