Who was Melchizedek? And what does that have to do with tithes?
First of all, Paul is a brilliant teacher. In Hebrews he is explaining to Jewish brethren in the early Church that they need to pay their tithes to the Church's ministry, who are now here in Christ's stead, rather than continuing to pay their tithes to the Levitical priesthood.
He does so by coming in through the back door, by going back to the beginning of a subject which is often helpful.
He jumps into the middle of the story of Abraham returning victorious from saving Lot from a violent regional conflict. Along the way, Abraham met with Melchizedek, and gave him a tithe of the spoils of war.
Now, since Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, in a sense, Levi (the patriarch of the tribe of Levi from which the Levitical priesthood was drawn) paid tithes to Melchizedek as well since his genes were in Abraham.
He then goes on to explain that because the priesthood changed, there was a necessary change in the Levitical tithing law; not that it was done away with, but that it changed.
Paul also references a scripture from Psalm 110:4 explaining that Jesus Christ is a priest of the same order as Melchizedek.
Hebrews 7:3 notes that Melchizedek had no father, no mother, was without geneology, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, and was made like the Son of God, remaining a priest continually.
The only person in scripture that fits that bill would be Jesus Christ.
So, keeping in mind what is written in John 1:1 which explains that Jesus Christ, the Word was with God in the beginning, we can deduce that before He was born Jesus, the Being called the Word also interacted with His people as Melchizedek in Abraham's time.
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