For purposes of this Bible Study the combining of "Church and State", "Worship and Government," and the of the office of "Priest and King" are viewed as equivalents.
Unites States Constitution, Amendment 1. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof:*****"
One of great blights on human history occurs when Church and State are combined. Starting from before the reign of Nebucanazzer in Babylon and ranging through the Spanish Inquisition and including the persecution of the Huguenots in France, the Quakers and Pilgrims from England, Witch hunts in Salem, Political Correctness on College Campuses today, forbiddance of prayer and Bible reading in public schools in the U.S.A demonstrate that at any point in human history the combination of Church and State in some form or another will continue to re-occurring. A philosopher once said that the human race could tolerate the evil men do in the name of wickedness, but may God preserve us from the evil that men do in the name of righteousness. The framers of the Constitutions were very educated men and had learned from the lessons of history what happens to a people when Church and State are combined, and they wanted none of that here.
God knowing the wickedness that would ensue when Church and State were combined kept them apart in most of the Old Testament. However, there are three instances in the Bible where Church and State, (Worship and Government, Priest and King) were combined.
Let's look first at the Separation of Church and State.
In ancient Israel the office of the priests was assigned to the tribe of Levi.
Let us look at the passages that show this.
EXO 28:1 And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.
DEU 17:14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
DEU 17:15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
DEU 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
DEU 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
DEU 17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
DEU 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
DEU 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
DEU 18:1 The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance.
DEU 18:2 Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
DEU 18:3 And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.
DEU 18:4 The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
DEU 18:5 For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
DEU 18:6 And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;
DEU 18:7 Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.
DEU 18:8 They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
The office of King was assigned to the tribe of Judah.
GEN 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
And there you have it. The king was to run the government, and the priests were to run the temple(church). The priests had one other important function. In our own time it is called a STAFF function. They were to train the king out of the law. Duet 17:18-19 above.
Let us look at the three instances in the Bible where Church and State were combined and see what happens. We will look at the second occurrence first, because I believe that in our day it suits our perception best.
2CH 26:16 But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
2CH 26:17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men:
2CH 26:18 And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.
2CH 26:19 Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.
2CH 26:20 And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.
Notice, however, that the very year Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees a vision of the Great King whose train fills the temple. A King-Priest no less implying a future combining of Church and State.
ISA 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
The first instance of combining of Church and State occurs in Genesis.
GEN 14:17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
GEN 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
GEN 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
GEN 14:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Notice historically this King-Priest i.e. (State-Church) pre-dates the Aronic Levitical Priesthood.
The third instance of combining King and Priest (i.e. Church and State) occurs in Hebrews. Incidentally, Hebrews has always impressed me as a book inspired by God with the Hebrew intellectual scholar (saved and unsaved) in mind. It was originally written in Greek, but its arguments, syllogisms, and logic are right out of the Old Testament Hebrew. Its arguments form a New Testament completeness to unanswered Old Testament questions and vagueness. "In the Old is the New Contained, in the New is the Old explained" . . .Dr. Harold P. Morgan
HEB 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
HEB 7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
HEB 7:2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
HEB 7:3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
HEB 7:4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
HEB 7:5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
HEB 7:6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
HEB 7:7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
HEB 7:8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
HEB 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
HEB 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
HEB 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
HEB 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
HEB 7:13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
HEB 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
HEB 7:15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
HEB 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
HEB 7:17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
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PSA 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
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HEB 7:18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
HEB 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
HEB 7:20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
HEB 7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
HEB 7:22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
HEB 7:23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
HEB 7:24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
HEB 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
HEB 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
HEB 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
HEB 7:28 For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
What and argument! If the present day Jews would only look at this!!
Heb 7:2 Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, making Melchizedek the superior of the two.
Heb. 7:9 Aaron & Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek in Abraham, paying tithes to the superior priesthood in ancient times yet
Heb. 7:14-15 this answers the question of how The King from Judah can safely be a Priest also.
It avoids the horror of combining man's wickedness, and State religion.
And once again it is Christ, Christ Who is all in all, the summation of all aspirations, functions even to becoming the very Highest of all High Priests after the order of Melchizedek.
