And God made himself a city on earth.

Reflections on Salem and Melchizedek.

And he will come to harvest the fruit from the branches of the trees; he will come to bless with eternal life those who have brought him good fruit and to burn the wood of those who have not brought fruit.* 

The earth is a special place in the whole universe, like no other. Here and only here, God has personally appeared and guided us and brought order to our lives that had gone astray. We all know the life of Christ, the Son of God the Father, who died on the cross for humanity and thus marked a before and after in spirituality, but millennia ago there was a time when God himself was crowned King of Kings and High Priest on earth. Actually, He crowned Himself, and for very good reasons. 

This was shortly after the Great Flood. The earth had been cleansed of the evil that men had spread in their hearts and in their actions, and that had caused so much suffering. It was a new beginning, a clean start, a new chance.

God had blessed Noah and his family when the ark was already on dry land on Mount Ararat, at the eastern end of present-day Turkey. He had given them a fertile land and said to Noah: “I will not go far from here to settle on the earth for a time as Lord of lords, King of kings and High Priest. I will found a city that shall be called Salem (on the site of present-day Jerusalem, whose name, and this is known to few, means Je-this is, ru-the residence, sa-for, len - the great King) and I will call myself Melchizedek. God set out on foot to do what he said, and so it went on for many years in this first new phase of humanity, for whom God also promised Noah that he would make a new alliance with people, a alliance sealed by the famous rainbow that appeared after the flood. This covenant was a promise that there would never be a flood or anything like it again. We already know all this, but why did God personally remain on Earth and become a King and High Priest? Let us remember that nothing is random or superficial with God, for He is watching over us at all times.

And this care, like a father who loves his children above all else, led Him to remain on Earth as a visible figure with supreme authority (of course!). As king and priest, that is, in a kind of disguise, he could be here without causing the intimidation he would have caused if he had remained a divine figure, a god on a pedestal, hurling thunderbolts and laws at people. He had to be more subtle, that is, more human. God is love, but he is very practical and the measure of his actions is perfectly attuned to our spiritual well-being. But what exactly is this spiritual well-being? We know that life is not limited to working, sleeping, and eating until we die. God transforms our lives into something more and, above all, into something transcendent. This transcendence has no limits and comes from far, far away.

We must understand that from the (biblical) beginning of humankind, we are all involved in a plan for the salvation or redemption of our eternal life, not of the body, but of our soul and its spirit. The earth is the field or world that serves this purpose and was prepared by God before this universe came into being. We are fallen angels that God is slowly recovering back to heaven from which they fell. This recovery is the greatest act of love, patience and compassion ever accomplished in all of eternity! In other worlds, they know this and one can almost say that they envy us. God has been among us several times as a wise, loving and merciful God. When this compassion had to give way to drastic measures such as the great flood, his spirit was not pleased about it. Even the catastrophic flood was guided by twelve thousand angels at God's side. That is what infinite divine mercy is all about.

And there were times, such as the period after the great flood, when this compassion required special measures. God was deeply saddened by what had happened, and at the same time was fully aware that every beginning is fragile and requires the utmost care and protection. What better protection than his own and on the spot? Doesn't the gardener look after the seedlings in his orchard much more than a strong, mature tree that already has deep roots and a sturdy trunk in the ground and can withstand the onslaught of time (and the weather)?

That God remained on Earth in the form of a priest-king named Melchizedek (meaning “the face of my light”) made perfect sense, because as early as the time of Adam, God appointed Enoch, a descendant of Adam, as the high priest of God's first church on Earth. The high priest was the guardian of divine truth and the channel of God, a role that serves as a central pillar of the faith of the people, so that they do not stray from the good path of love for their neighbor and for God.

Noah was unable to exercise this office of moral and spiritual leadership, firstly because only he and his three sons with their three wives lived in this part of the world, the entire Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Noah had fulfilled a mission that had been entrusted to him by God: to build the ark and to transport the seed of life for a rapid repopulation of the Earth, which would take centuries and not millions of years of evolution. It had to be so, because the Earth was already ripe for humans and there was no question of destroying it to the ground or creating a new one. In fact, the Earth is the second planet with humans in our solar system. A third Earth was not necessary. But that's another story.

The great flood had wiped out all traces of life on half of the planet. In what is now China and Japan, as well as in southern Egypt, people still lived who would later form the great Egyptian civilization. The rest of the planet was still uninhabited, neither America nor Europe, a human race whose cradle was in Central Asia (and not in Africa) in the foothills of Tibet, where the Adamites lived, Adam and Eve and their descendants, our biblical ancestors, of whom only Noah and his family were spared later on. They were the seedlings of a new garden and God was its gardener.

Let us reflect on this for a moment and put ourselves in God's shoes: He had just allowed tens of millions of people to be drowned and crushed to death; an entire civilization that had no other option but complete annihilation to save their souls from their sins of the flesh on earth. Sin destroys the soul, and the soul is the most precious thing we have, something God will not let our weakness corrupt. The flood killed millions of people, but only their bodies; their souls were saved by divine mercy in a spiritual quarantine.

But the flood was over and a new dawn awaited humanity. God knows how weak we are and that we would not survive without strong guidance and love. Noah and his family had to settle down, thrive and multiply; they had enough to do and, to be honest, there was no one else in that part of the world. But for the future, a center and a wise leader who was as wise as God was needed.

So let's put ourselves in the shoes of God, our Heavenly Father, who knows us better than anyone and who knows better than anyone that a house, the house of humanity, needs a good foundation, and who could be a better foundation for our house than Himself? That is why God stood on the construction site for centuries, as King of Kings in a young world, watching over us.

He did, and of course everything went well until Abraham (the tenth generation after Noah), whom he blessed as the father of the church.

Melchizedek is a mythical king whom Scripture associates with Christ as God incarnate. You can learn more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchizedek 

All would be said, if it were not for the fact that God's utmost concern for our spiritual growth, for our maturing in true love, leads me to describe his love and wisdom for us, his children on earth, even more. It is a small act of deepest gratitude. Let us continue. 

The present is understood when the past is known.

God loves us and is fully devoted to us, which today we describe as 24/7. But most of the time, let's say 99% of the time, God does not come to earth because He does not want to judge us. His Presence alone is a judgement for our souls. But there is another way. His Holy Spirit reveals itself to us in many ways, through the Word, some timely and very rare signs, and of course through an army of angels watching over us. His appearance on earth itself is a resource that must not be abused, for we must build our faith and love for Him in absolute freedom. His presence in our lives is a test for our souls, because to convince us of his divinity, he inevitably resorts to miracles and great signs.

Such miracles, like those Christ performed during the three years of his revelation as the Messiah, are good because they convince, but they are bad because they restrict our spiritual freedom and impose faith on us instead of letting it grow freely from within. In this regard, we can quote Jesus, who, when Thomas complained that he could not be there when Jesus performed miracles, said: “They believe in me because they have seen me; blessed are those who believe in me without having seen me”. 

A faith based on the word and love of God, and born of an understanding of the truth, is a faith that does not limit our spiritual freedom. Having God on our side, whether as the legendary king or as the Christ, is both a blessing and a problem. Yet from time to time, in times of crisis, we need him on our side.

It was neither the first nor the last time that God appeared on Earth, but it was the longest, justified by the fact of the re-population of the world. God was among the Adamites for weeks during the last years of Adam's life, to found the first Church on Earth with Enoch, as we have already mentioned. He brought order to the hearts of the Adamites and saved the Cainites from Enoch's cities in the valleys from their wickedness by converting their king Lamech. Thus began a time of light and love on Earth, some 900 years after the creation of man and woman on Earth. This phase eventually led us to the Great Flood. Yeah, we are weak...

So staying as king and priest this time was not an exception, but a new way to make sure that in the tender beginnings of God's new covenant with humans, everything goes in the right direction, at least for a while. And so our Heavenly Father accompanies us and takes care of us in the best possible way at all times, during the journey we humans make on earth, which is a path of spiritual maturation like the grapes on the vine. 

One last question: will God appear on Earth again?

In response, I can predict or prophesy that he will not appear as a king or as a Messiah, because God, who is pure truth, does what he does once and when it is necessary. Every step God takes is perfectly suited to our needs and respects our spiritual freedom. Melchizedek fulfilled his role and Christ did much more by sacrificing himself for us on the cross. There is no reason to repeat them, because they were perfect deeds for the right moment. What will this perfect deed be for the next moment of crisis? I believe that we are no longer seedlings, but young or almost mature trees that will soon bear fruit. Unfortunately, many in God's great garden, the Earth, are dead, but those who are alive in love will bear fruit that is a firm and clear testimony of God's presence in their hearts. God will express himself through the love that people have for each other. That will be His divine presence, unless He has something special in mind for the future*. We can be like God and make our love perfect. I believe that this divine presence, radiating from our kind and gentle hearts, is all we need for the next steps on the path to eternal life. But as always, His Holy Will be done. Amen.



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