Jesus’ qualification as our great high priest did not come through Aaron’s bloodline but through a forerunner named centuries earlier: Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, whose name means “king of righteousness” and whose title means “king of peace.” When Abraham returned from defeating the kings and gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils, he was recognizing a priesthood greater than his own descendants would ever hold, greater even than the Levitical priesthood not yet born, since Levi, so to speak, paid tithes through his ancestor Abraham.
That superior, indestructible priesthood, sworn by God’s own oath in Psalm 110, made the Aaronic priesthood and its repeated sacrifices obsolete, replacing them with a priest who holds his office permanently and always lives to intercede for his people. What was true of Melchizedek’s order in shadow is fulfilled in Christ, who is both King and Priest in one person, breaking the Aaronic pattern that had kept those offices separate. Because of that priesthood, believers themselves are now called a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own possession, called out of darkness into his marvelous light.