Melchizedek was a personage, a king-priest, so great in dignity that Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoils at an epoch when God had just crowned himself with singular honor. From this is deduced the undeniable inference, according to a style of teaching which no pious or intelligent Israelite would question, that not Levi only but his priestly sons, the house of Aaron, entitled to tithe their brethren by the law, paid tithes in the person of Abraham to Melchizedek-to one who derived no succession and was absolutely void of genealogical link with the tribe, the priestly family or the lineal chief of them all.
There stood the fact in the foundation book of holy Scripture and of that law to which even the incredulous party of Sadducees clung tenaciously. It was no question of a new revelation or of a doubtful reading or of an interpretation that could be challenged. In the plainest terms God had revealed a fact, the bearing of which may never have dawned on any until the Holy Spirit now applied it to Christ so unexpectedly.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham with all publicity, and in the most special manner he blessed Abraham on the part of God Most High and blessed God Most High on the part of Abraham. But beyond controversy, all gainsaying apart, "the less is blessed by the better."
So in Luke 2 Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary but ventured not to bless the Babe, even when in another sense he blessed and gave thanks to God. In that Babe his eyes had seen God's salvation, as in like spirit, though with beautifully suited difference of act, the magi from the east fell down and worshipped not the mother but the young Child, and, opening their treasures, offered unto Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matt. 2). Well had it been for men and women of the West had they pondered the lesson, instead of lapsing into idolatry. [19]