It is my view that the Melchizedek that is referenced in various scriptures and stories is associated with the land of Numenor, and was in fact the first King of that land... Elros, the son of Earendel.
Elros re-established this Order as he was taught by Eonwe in the first years of his Kingdom. The official name of the Melchizedek Priesthood is "The Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God", but, as Mormons are aware, the name was changed to bear Melchizedek's name so that God's name was not used too frequently. Elros became the head of this order, ruling (quite literally) under his father Earendel who had been taken up from Earth with Aman (the point of Melchizedek ruling under his father being a point Alma emphasizes in the Book of Mormon).
Remarkably, I think Eonwe, also known by the name of Fionwe ("Son") as mentioned in another post, would have been the Son referenced to in the order's name... at least as far as these Numenoreans were concerned or had knowledge of.
Alma is careful to explain that the High Priests of this Order were ordained "in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption". Eonwe/Fionwe would have played this role as a High Priest in his work with Elros and the Dunedain, standing in for and representing Jesus as he worked for their redemption. It is to Eonwe that Elros and his people would have looked to in order to understand Jesus, and later, Elros that his descendents and his people would look to gain this same understanding.
And not just for some future redemption! Something magical happened to these people that does not seem to have been fully recorded or captured in Tolkien's recounting of the Numenorean tale. Rather than receiving instruction from Eonwe that had no redemptive power in the here and now, instead, as Alma also makes it clear, these people at the time of Elros-Melchizedek were "made pure, and entered into the rest of the Lord their God." Alma puts the number down as not just a few, but an "exceedingly great many" souls.
So, if (big if) the connection of Elros with Melchizedek is correct, and we also trust Alma's account of what is going on with the Order at this time, something is going on with Numenor that extends beyond the full accounting that we find in the Silmarillion and other writings. Meaning, Numenor, it seems, was set up as a means for the instruction and redemption of Men, or at least Beings now being born as Men upon this new island. If God's work and glory is to bring about the eternal life and immortality of Men, it seems that Numenor was meant to have a hand in this. Making its ultimate corruption and downfall at the hands of Sauron and of other evil forces all the more tragic.
What this also means, ultimately, is there must be a lot we do not know about Numenor, its purposes, and the events that transpired there, but they might very well be worth knowing because those purposes may be set up again as part of a restoration or restitution of all things that Joseph Smith taught of.
One last note: In Alma's tale of Melchizedek, and in other bible stories, we learn of a tithe that Abraham pays to Melchizedek. How might this fit in? Well, I believe that Abraham is the same Being that we would know from Tolkien's writings as Aule. He and his wife Yavanna - known also as the Queen of the Earth - were Powers associated with the materials that this Earth was fashioned from and plants and trees growing on it. The tithe that Abraham-Aule gave to Melchizedek-Elros may have simply been Numenor itself... the land and all of its wonders (a new Eden, in part!), these things being the 'possessions' from which he had to give.
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