War and Peace

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I'm going to invite you to take out your Bible and turn to Genesis chapter 13.
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Hold your place at verse 5.
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In 1965, a rock and roll group wrote a song.
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The song was entitled, Turn, Turn, Turn.
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Most of us, depending on how young you may be, are probably familiar with the lyrics.
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To everything, turn, turn, turn.
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There is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
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What some people don't realize is that song was not unique.
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The Byrds did not come up with those lyrics with any originality.
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They simply went to the third chapter of Ecclesiastes and took what was written by King Solomon.
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For it was King Solomon who said, For everything, there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
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My wife and I have been talking about that recently, about just what seasons of life we're in and what things may change in the future and how seasons change.
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You go from being a couple without children to being parents and then from parents to grandparents.
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Yesterday, we watched as Lee and Olivia Frazier were graduated and moving into another season of life.
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These are things that we watch all around us.
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Things change.
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If you look at Ecclesiastes 3, you'll notice he gives several things.
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A time to plant and a time to pluck, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
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The last verse of that little hymn there, that little song, he says, There's a time for war and a time for peace.
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And that came to my mind as I was preparing this week's sermon, that phrase, there's a time for war and a time for peace.
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Because this week, as we're going to see in the text, we are finding ourselves in the life of Abraham where we're going to see two aspects of his character.
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In the first section of reading, we're going to see Abram the peacemaker.
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But in almost immediately, we're going to see Abram the warrior.
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And it kind of reminded me, and those of you who know me well know I sort of, I keep, my brain sort of becomes, I get a lot of pop culture references stuck in my brain and as I was thinking about this, I thought about the movie, The Patriot, you know, the one about the Revolutionary War, and there was a scene in the movie where the pastor of the town decides to join the local militia.
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And it's my favorite scene of the film, of course, maybe because I'm a pastor, you know, the militia comes in looking for people to go to war, and the pastor comes out, he's still got his pastoral collar on, but he takes his pastoral wig off, you know, they wore the powdered wigs, he takes his wig off, puts his hat on, and he mounts the horse.
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And he says, a shepherd has to tend to the sheep, and sometimes that means fighting off the wolves.
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I just love that quote, love that phrase, and it shows the juxtaposition of life.
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There's a time for peace, and sometimes there's a time for war.
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And that's what we're going to see in the life of Abram today.
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Abram is the shepherd of his people, and when the time called for it, he was a peacemaker.
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But when the time called for him to be a warrior, he was also a warrior.
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And what we're going to see, hopefully, through all of this, is he did it all with the power of God, because right in the middle of these two stories is his promise from God.
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His promise that God is with him, and he becomes to us a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Because Jesus is the one who for us makes peace with God, but he is also the one who will vanquish his enemies.
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So with that, let us read.
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We have a lot to read today.
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So I do invite you to stand, but if you have trouble standing and want to remain seated, you may.
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But we're going to read from 13, 5, all the way to 14, 16.
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Just where we left off last week at verse 4, we start now at verse 5.
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And Lot who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together.
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For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
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At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
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So Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
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It's not the whole land before you.
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Separate yourself from me.
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If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.
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And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered, everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt and the land of Zoar.
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This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
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So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east, thus they separated from each other.
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Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
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Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
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The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
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I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
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Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.
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So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
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In the days of Amphrael, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elisar, Kidalomer, king of Elam, and Hidal, king of Goyim, these kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shanab, king of Adma, Shemeber, king of Zobaim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar.
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And all these joined forces in the valley of Sidon, that is the salt sea.
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Twelve years they had served Kidalomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
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In the fourteenth year, Kidalomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephahim in Asheroth-Qarnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, and Emim in Shav-Qiriathayim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El-Paran on the border of the wilderness.
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Then they turned back and came to En-Mishfat, that is Kadesh, and they defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-Tamar.
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Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zobaim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar, went out, and they joined battle in the valley of Sidon with Kidalomer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goyim, and Phrahel, king of Shinar, and Eriot, king of Elessar, four kings against five.
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Now the valley of Sidon was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled into the hill country.
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So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way.
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They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.
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Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eskel and Aner.
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These were allies of Abram, and when Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
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And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.
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Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsmen, Lot, with his possessions, and the women and the people.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I pray now that you would keep me to task today, keep me from wandering in my mind and in my words, and I pray, Lord, that you would keep me from error, for Lord, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me from cowardice.
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Lord, help me to preach with boldness.
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Fill me now with your spirit, and Lord, may your people hear your word.
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May I decrease, may Christ increase.
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May your Holy Spirit be the teacher, and Lord, for those who do not know Christ, may today be the day that they see him for who he is, wonderful Savior, the only one who can save.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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We have a lot to get through today.
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Now for those of you who are maybe a little new with us, or maybe this is your first time visiting with us, don't normally do this much.
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You know, it took us two years to get through Genesis 1 through 11, and so we usually take it in smaller pieces, but I couldn't help myself looking at the distinction in these stories and how they fit together.
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And I said, you know what, as long as it is, you know, you guys had breakfast, we can have a late lunch.
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We're going to look at it in three parts.
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We're going to look at it, the first part is going to be Abram's peacemaking.
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That takes us to verse 13 of chapter 13.
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We're going to then look at Abram's promise, which is the last portion of chapter 13.
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Then we're going to look at Abram's pursuit, that's his going after lot.
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But before we do that, let's just remind ourselves where we are.
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Abram was called by God to leave Mesopotamia, to go to Canaan.
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When he arrived in Canaan, he established altars of worship there.
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And shortly after that, there was a famine.
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So instead of staying there where God had called him, Abram departed to go to Egypt.
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While he was in Egypt, he engaged in a bit of deception, which put his wife into peril.
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That was our lesson last week.
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Wonderful Mother's Day lesson.
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God intervened.
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Abram was reunited with Sarai, his wife.
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And so they returned to Canaan, back to the altar that Abram had made.
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But while he was in Egypt, Abram was gifted a lot of property, a lot of livestock and animals by the Pharaoh, who had wanted to take who he thought was Abram's sister.
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He wanted to take Sarai into his home.
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And so he gifted Abram all of these things.
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And so now Abram went from being a rich man to a very rich man.
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He was already a man of great wealth.
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He already had an entourage.
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But now he is a man of even greater wealth.
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And as he is coming back into the land, and he's settling back into Canaan, Abram and his nephew Lot find themselves at odds.
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Apparently, both of them are prosperous.
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And with the limited resources available, they are brought into conflict.
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And that's where we begin at verse 5.
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It says, And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them, both dwelling together.
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For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
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At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
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You may not notice this, but that's telling a lot in a very small amount of space.
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Because what that's telling us is that not only was there Lot and Abram's people, but there was also the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
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The word Perizzite there is used throughout the Bible.
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It's not parasite.
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It's Perizzites.
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The Perizzite people.
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And the Perizzites, that simply means villagers.
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It means people who don't live near the city.
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They live out in the country.
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And therefore, if you had lots, or excuse me, if you have herds and animals that are using watering holes and using grazing fields, that would have been that type of people.
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And so, not only is Abram and Lot's people sort of competing over this area, so too are the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
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So there's limited resources and there's only enough for really a certain amount of people.
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So, and one might wonder, how in the world could they be so big that they're taking this much over? Keep in mind, just a few verses down the line, Abram's going to go to war.
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How many men does he get in a snap of a finger? 318 men.
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And we're going to see this in a few moments.
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Those men were trained for battle.
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This was the special forces of the Abram infantry unit.
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318 men were already trained for battle.
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Think about, there's already, how many people, we're talking, I mean, our church, only what, 70, 75, 80 people? You know, we're looking at a group, just Abram's group, of fighting men, that's several times larger than this church.
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And then, of course, you have Lots, which it doesn't give us any indication how big Lots were, but what we do learn is, as we read through, is they can't be in the same place because their herdsmen are arguing with one another.
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And again, Lot hasn't played a big important part up until this point.
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We don't know a whole lot about Lot except for his brother Haran, I'm sorry, his father was Haran, who died.
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That's Abram's brother.
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So Abram, it seems as if, has taken Lot almost as a son.
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You know, Abram's brother Haran died, here's his son Lot, Abram takes him and seems to be his caretaker, and later he'll call him his brother.
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You're my kinsman.
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The word in Hebrew there is actually brother.
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He says we're brothers, but they weren't physical brothers, but they were brothers in the sense of they were related.
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They were, you know, like if I were to walk up to one of you and say we're brothers in the Lord.
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Well, Abram saw Lot as family, and he mattered to him, and he loved him.
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We're gonna see how much he loved him through this narrative.
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Lot was special to Abram.
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And we see this beginning in verse 8.
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It says, Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
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That's the word there for brothers.
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Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me.
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If you take to the left hand, then I will go to the right, and if you take to the right hand, I will go to the left.
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Understand this, and maybe if you're taking notes, Abram is under no obligation to do this.
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He is the senior partner in this relationship.
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Not only is he the older uncle, but he's also the man that these people are following.
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He is the spiritual leader.
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This is Abram.
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Outside of Jesus Christ, arguably one of the most important men in all of human history.
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And he looks at his nephew, who he could, I mean, he could say, listen, you gotta get your guys in line.
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Straighten them up or ship out.
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But he doesn't do that.
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Abram really does something sort of amazing.
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He shows deference to someone who in a sense is not as important as him.
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He shows grace to someone whose position is lesser than him.
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He shows mercy to someone who really doesn't necessarily deserve it.
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Now you think about that from a New Testament context.
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What are we called to do? Bear with one another? Care about one another? Be willing to give up our rights for the rights of someone else? I mean, that's 1 Corinthians, right? Paul talks about that.
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Being willing to go the extra mile, do more for the person than even they ask.
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So Abram in that sense becomes an example to us of a faithful and magnanimous man.
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So Lot takes him up on it.
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Lot didn't have to take it either.
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Lot could have said, listen, you're the senior man.
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You are Abram, son of Terah, descendant of Shem.
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You are Abram who has heard from Yahweh, the mighty God.
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You choose.
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But Lot doesn't do that.
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It says instead in verse 10, and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt.
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Remember, Egypt was a place where it was always food.
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In the direction of Zohar, this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
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That's telling us that's coming.
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This is, by the way, chapter 13 is a big setup to chapter 19 because chapter 13 tells us about Lot setting his tent towards Sodom.
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Chapter 19, Sodom is going to go away in a grand display of God's power and destruction.
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So it already tells us here in verse 10, this was before the Lord did that.
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And before the Lord did that, it was a wonderful place.
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It was well watered.
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It was where everybody wanted to be.
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And of course, it was where Lot wanted to be.
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So Lot chose for himself the Jordan Valley and he journeyed east.
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Remember a few weeks ago, we talked about the geography of, or the theology of geography.
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Remember I said in that message that oftentimes when someone goes east, it's a symbol of them going the wrong direction.
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It's interesting that this is the direction Lot chooses for himself, to journey east.
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Thus they separated from each other.
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Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley.
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And the ESV says he moved his tent as far as Sodom.
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I like the King James.
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I think it says he pitched his tent towards Sodom.
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A lot of people have really stressed the idea that he had his eyes set on Sodom.
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And it kind of, you know, a lot of commentators that make a big deal about this, that it sort of gives us insight into Lot's character.
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But one thing we mustn't forget is what Peter tells us.
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Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2.7, Lot was a righteous man.
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So we can't automatically assume that Lot was a scoundrel because he took Abram up on his offer, but he maybe had a little bit of lack of wisdom.
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Perhaps he was a man who did look at this nice, lush area and say, well, that's where I want my people to be, without considering the fact that Sodom may have already been known for its evil.
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Maybe without considering the fact that this was a place that he really didn't want to be.
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In fact, I kind of asked myself that question as I was preparing the message.
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Did Lot know about Sodom before he went? We know he knows by chapter 19, right? Because when the angels come, what does he do? Get in the house! They crazy! I mean, that's not, that's Keith's standard version, but that's basically, get in the house.
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The people here are awful, right? He knows by then that the people are awful, but did he know at this time? The text is not clear, but I will tell you this.
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There are so many of us who are satisfied living among sinners if it benefits us economically.
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There are so many of us who are willing to live with one foot in the world as long as it gives us greener pastures.
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So if there's nothing else we could learn from this, it's the wisdom of knowing where we're putting ourselves and the danger of where we might be pitching our tent.
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Because it tells us in verse 13, now the men of Sodom were wicked.
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So even if Lot didn't know it, they were already wicked.
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Even if he didn't know how wicked they were, they're already there.
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But we turn our attention back to Abram.
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Abram, the peacemaker.
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He loves Lot.
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He shows grace to Lot, undeserved favor.
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He seeks to have no strife with his nephew.
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He seeks to live at peace with all men.
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Wouldn't it be great if that were us? Wouldn't it be great if we, like Abram, wanted so much to live at peace with our brethren that we said to them, whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever your desires, I will bend to you.
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And then not be angry about it.
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Abram doesn't hold a grudge against Lot.
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When Lot gets captured and run away, Abram doesn't say, see, I told you.
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He still loves him.
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Even after all this.
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People can't get along.
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We've got to separate.
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You go where you want to go.
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Do what you want to do and I'll give you deference.
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I'll give you the, you choose.
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He chose, Abram didn't get angry.
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He didn't hold a grudge.
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He wasn't upset.
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And for good reason.
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Abram knows something that Lot may not understand yet.
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Abram knows that he's a recipient of God's mercy and grace and promise.
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Abram knows no matter where he stands, he's going to be blessed by God.
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You go whichever way you want to go.
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I'm going to be wherever God wants me to be.
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And he trusts the Lord.
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We see this blessing in verse 14.
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We move from the issue between the issue of peacemaking to the issue of promise.
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We see this in verse 14.
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It says, the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look to the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
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This is such a beautiful picture because if you go back a few verses up, Lot lifted up his eyes.
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It says Lot lifted up his eyes and looked toward Sodom and that's the direction he went.
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God tells Abram, you lift up your eyes and look every direction.
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I've given it all to you.
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Where Lot may see the benefit of Sodom, I want you to see the blessing of God, Abram.
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Abram, this is all your land.
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There's a few times in Genesis where the phrase lift up your eyes comes up.
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We see it again in chapter 18 when the Lord comes and visits Abram and eats with him by the oaks of Mamre.
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It says he lifted up his eyes and saw the Lord coming.
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Later in Genesis 22, when Abram is on the mountain about to sacrifice Isaac, the angel stays his hand and says do not take the child's life and it says he lifted up his eyes and he saw the ram, the substitute for his son.
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So we see this phrase lifting up his eyes and this is God reminding him of his faithfulness.
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Here God is reminding him, I've already given you all of this.
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This is all your land.
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God wants him to see the promise and reaffirm the promise.
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And he tells him in verse 17 something very interesting.
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Look at verse 17 with me.
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He says, Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.
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So God sends Abram on a walkabout.
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That's an Australian term where they just go and walk.
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He sends Abram on a walkabout.
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Go and walk through the land.
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This may not seem very important to us, but from a historical perspective and specifically in this particular time in history, this in the ancient Near East, this was something that kings would do sort of on an inspection tour to see the land that they have conquered or to see the land that they possess.
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God sends him out to look.
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John Currid in his commentary says this.
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It says the action probably has greater significance than merely previewing the territory.
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Such walks are symbolic.
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Examples exist of monarchs who take a ceremonial walk or a ceremonial tour in territories to demonstrate their ownership and their authority over those areas.
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This was Abram's walk of possession.
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This is the land God has given to me.
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And he's taking a look at all that God has given to him.
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And after the walk is over, verse 18, it says Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the Oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
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Abram loves to build altars.
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Remember he built one when he first came into the land? He built one at the north end of the land, the south end of the land, and now he builds one here because the altar is the place where he makes his sacrifices.
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The altar is his place where he meets with God.
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The altar is the place where he calls upon the name of the Lord.
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And this is Abram's special and important thing that he must do.
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He must build an altar for God, and here he will reside.
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In fact, it will be here in a few chapters that God will come and eat with him.
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It says he eats with him by the Oaks of Mamre.
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This is the same place.
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So this becomes, as it were, like Abram's estate.
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This is where he's going to be.
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So we see Abram the peacemaker, showing unmerited favor to his nephew.
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We see Abram the promise receiver, worshiping God because of God's promises and blessings.
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But now the story changes, and we move into chapter 14, and I hope you don't mind that I'm taking a brisk pace with this, but I want to get to this narrative.
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I've thought about this narrative all week.
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This war story is so fascinating.
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And I know you heard me trying to make my way through these names, and I don't plan on doing it again.
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I've tried all week.
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You know, I listen to the Bible sometimes when I'm trying to figure out how to say some of these names.
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It don't come natural.
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You just got to listen and learn.
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And some of them are kind of tough.
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But I tell you what, this is actually the first recorded war that we have in the Bible.
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In fact, it may be the earliest recorded war in human history.
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Because this tells us not only who was involved, but what happened.
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It gives us the back story of this.
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It gives us the historical record of this.
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It begins in verse 1.
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It tells us about these kings.
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It says, in the days of Amphrael, king of Shinar.
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Now what is Shinar? Babel.
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Babylon.
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That's Shinar.
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Remember, that's in the valley of Shinar.
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So that's that.
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And it talks about the other kings, Ariok and Ketalam of Elam.
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Elam is Persia.
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Persia will become, of course, a world power later in history.
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So we see Babylon.
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We see Persia.
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And then, Tidal, the king of Goyim.
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Goyim was actually a Hebrew word which meant the nations.
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So we see these kings who are the powerful ones.
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And they had taken over.
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They had essentially made slaves out of five other kings.
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So you had the four powerful kings, Amphrael, Ariok, Ketalam, and Tidal.
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Ketalam is the one who is most important in this, even though his name doesn't come first.
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We'll see later.
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He's the one that actually takes charge in the war.
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And they made war with five kings.
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King Bera, Bersha, Shinab, Shimabar, and the king of Bela, which he's not named.
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But there are five kings.
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So we have four kings against five.
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And this war was a result of a 12-year relationship of servanthood.
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Ketalam had conquered these kingdoms.
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They had become vassal states under him.
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And in the 13th year, they chose to rebel against him.
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So in the 14th year, these four kings banded together to reestablish the authority of Ketalam.
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They basically are coming together with him to come down and let these five kingdoms know they are out of line.
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Verses 5 to 7 give us a glimpse of their military campaign.
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It says their first conquest was the Rephaim.
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Now the Rephaim actually is a reference to, later in the Bible, is a reference to those who are compared to the Anakim.
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The Anakim were giant men.
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Now by giant, does that mean they were giant? Well, we know at least one, Goliath, was a giant man.
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Were all the Anakim equally as giant? Well the thing is they were powerful.
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If they weren't all equally as tall, they were very powerful people.
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And what this is telling us, the very first people they overtook were the most powerful.
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They went into the Rephaim, boom, knocked them out.
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So you've got these four kings and their military campaign is making its way through the land and is going one after the other after the other, destroying kingdoms.
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And they're making their way toward those five rebellious vassal states.
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They tore through one group after another.
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And then we get to verse 8.
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Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar, went out and they joined battle in the valley of Sidim.
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Okay, this is the fight.
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Watch how long it takes.
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Watch how long it takes.
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Verse 9.
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And Cedalamer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goyim, Amphrael, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of Elessar, four kings against five.
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Now the valley of Sidim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, see how long it lasted? Not long at all.
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They went out for battle and immediately they retreated.
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It says they went out for battle.
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That's verse 8.
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It says who they were battling, verse 9.
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Four kings against five.
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Verse 10.
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Now there were bitumen pits, which were basically tar pits, and they were fleeing already.
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They went out to battle.
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Boom.
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Fight's over.
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We're already getting killed.
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We've got to run.
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So they run away.
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And as they run away, it says they fell into the bitumen pits or the tar pits.
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Some commentators say that actually it might not be that they fell in.
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It might be that they had prepared for themselves caves and caverns to escape into, because later we're actually going to see the king of Sodom will come back.
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Next week we're going to look at Melchizedek and we're going to see the king of Sodom is still there.
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So he's not dead, but maybe some of them did die.
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In fact, John Calvin's interpretation of this in his commentary is that they were committing suicide.
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They went out to battle, saw these huge armies, and said, uh-oh, and they ran and jumped into the pits and basically committed suicide.
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Just so you know, this is how Calvin says it.
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He says, I understand them to have exchanged one kind of death for another, as is common in a moment of desperation.
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He says, as if Moses had said, the swords of the enemy are so formidable, without hesitation, they threw themselves headlong into the pits.
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I'd rather jump into a pit of tar and die than to be killed at the sword of my enemy.
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That's Calvin's understanding.
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Is he right? I don't know.
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I think some of the other commentators may be reading something into the text, though, because when they talk about caverns, it certainly doesn't say anything about that.
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It does use the word fell in, as if they were going and they were trying to escape and it fell in.
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Understand this, this place in the world, there are tar and asphalt pits near the Dead Sea.
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This is a dangerous place, a dangerous terrain.
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Josephus didn't even call it the Dead Sea, he called it the Asphalt Sea, because of these pits.
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So, it's a dangerous place.
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So, at least for a moment, this rebellion has been squashed.
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And now, Ketolaomer, the head of this four-king movement, this military campaign, he now decides to claim victory and begin to take spoils of war.
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That's what we see in verse 12.
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It says, they also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way.
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Why would they mess with Lot? Well, Lot was a rich man.
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Remember, he had a lot of stuff.
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He had a lot of people, had a lot of possessions.
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So they go and they take Lot and they take him and all of his possessions as a spoil of war.
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Now, understand, I want you to note this.
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Verse 12.
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If you underline your Bible, I think verse 12 is significant enough to underline, because here's the point.
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If verse 12 didn't exist, the rest of that story wouldn't matter.
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How many wars happen that we never know anything about, that never get recorded, that we have no history of? Thousands of wars have happened that we have no history? Why does this war matter? Because they picked up the wrong victim, because they got the wrong spoil of war.
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They chose to take captive the one man whom Abram loved.
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The one man who he had committed his life, in a sense, to being his brethren.
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In fact, as I was, again, I mentioned earlier, I mentioned the movie, The Patriot.
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This kind of fits, you know, because here Abram goes from being peacemaking Abram to Mel Gibson.
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You know, now he's going to go get the kidnapped one.
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And the story gets wild.
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Because Abram is now, think about what I just got done telling you, I just told you a long story for a reason.
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Five kings have just been taken over by four kings.
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Those four kings, Kedalamer as the leader, has vanquished the Rephim, giant men, powerful men.
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He's vanquished city after city, and now he's vanquished so quickly that they ran onto the battlefield, saw the swords of their enemies, and decided to die in pits instead than to stay and fight.
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This is no small military campaign.
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This is a conquering military force.
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And Abram becomes Liam Neeson.
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He's ready to go get his family back.
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Look at verse 13.
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Apparently, somebody had escaped.
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It said, the one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew.
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First time, by the way, he's called the Hebrew.
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Remember, that's a reference to him being a descendant of Eber.
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And there's some argument as to why that particular statement is made here first.
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Don't want to get into that right now, but this is the first time it's mentioned.
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It says, then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eskel and Aner.
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These were allies of Abram.
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And when Abram heard that the kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house, 318, and he went in pursuit.
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He went in pursuit.
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And it gives us the space.
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As far as Dan, he went in pursuit over a long distance.
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318 of Abram's special forces.
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These are the Green Berets.
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These are the Abram's Navy SEALs.
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They are ready to do battle.
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And he tells us in verse 15, and he divided his forces against them by night.
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Doesn't tell us much about his campaign, but it does say it was a subversive.
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And again, special forces style.
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They went in at night.
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They divided and conquered.
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And they, notice verse 15, he and his servants and defeated them.
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What's the antecedent of them? The antecedent of them, if you go up, it's the kings.
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If you go back up, the enemy, that's, the antecedent is verse 11, the enemy.
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That's the antecedent of that word.
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So we look at this word and it says he defeated them.
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And he pursued them.
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See, this, these kings just had five kings on the run.
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Abram comes with 318 men and now his 318 men have got them on the run.
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Don't think for a minute it's because they had special training and they were special forces.
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God is with Abram.
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Those men may have seen millions on the horizon of God's angels following after.
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But for whatever reason, whatever they saw coming, it was enough to make them turn and run.
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The live stream has stopped.
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Do we still have no power? You know what I still have? My notes.
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And we shall continue.
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We shall continue.
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But I want you to think about something.
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This is a miraculous victory.
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This is a miraculous victory.
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There's no reason why 318 men should have beat those men.
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There's no reason why these 318 should have had victory other than God was with them.
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You say they were trained men.
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They weren't trained that good.
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They weren't the avengers.
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They were God's men doing what God wanted them to do and He was with them.
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And remember this too.
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This came to my mind as I was preparing the sermon.
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Moses is writing this to the Israelites.
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Moses is writing this to the Israelites.
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Okay? And he's writing to them in the wilderness.
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What's about to happen? God's calling them to go back and retake the land.
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What do they say? We're like grasshoppers.
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They're like giants.
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We're so small.
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They're so big.
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So Abraham reminds them.
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The first war in recorded history of our Scriptures.
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Abraham defeats a massive military campaign with 318 men by the power of God.
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Why are you so afraid when God is with you? We begin our reading today with Abram the peacemaker.
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We find ourselves now with Abram the warrior.
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Abram was a peacemaker when within his family there was strife and he needed to demonstrate grace and love and mercy and kindness.
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And he demonstrated all without measure.
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You do what you want to do.
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You take what you want to take.
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I'll take what's left.
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He gave without measure when it was needed to be a peacemaker.
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But when it was needed to be a warrior, when it was needed to be a warrior, Abram became the warrior, pursued his enemies, protected his families, and he overcame not one but four kings and their armies.
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So many applications can come to mind from this comparison.
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We often think that we are called to be passive.
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As Christians, we are called to be loving, but that doesn't mean that we're always called to not stand up and fight.
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We are called to stand up and we are called to be peacemakers, but sometimes we are called to be warriors.
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We are called to put on the armor of God and take up the sword of the Spirit and charge the gates of hell.
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We should know how to wield the sword of the Spirit.
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Like Abram's 318 trained men, we should be trained in the Word of God that we can stand and do battle.
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But the most important application, and this is where I want to draw to a close, the most important application is when we look at Abram and we understand that what we see here is a picture of Christ.
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Because Christ is the greatest of all peacemakers.
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He's called Prince of Peace.
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He comes to make peace between God and men.
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He is our peace, the Bible says.
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But the Lord is also a warrior.
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Exodus 15, verse 3.
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Yahweh is a warrior.
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The Lord is a warrior.
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The Lord is mighty in battle.
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Psalm 24, verse 8.
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Who is the King of glory? Yahweh, strong and mighty.
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Yahweh, mighty in battle.
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As Kent Hughes in his commentary says, As Abram was to Lot, so Christ is to us.
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Jesus did not sit idly by in heaven waiting for us to deserve to be redeemed.
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Neither was our redemption painless.
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Christ left the glory of heaven and came after us.
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Like Lot was pursued by Abram, we have been pursued by Christ who came and gave Himself for us, bringing death to death for us.
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We do not serve a weak God.
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We serve a God who raises and vanquishes kingdoms by His own power.
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And Abram points us to that God, the One who is our peace, makes peace for us, and the One who fights our battles and pursues us as Abram did Lot, rescues us from the clutches of sin and redeems us from the powers of hell.
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I am glad that I have Abram to look to as an example of faith, but I am ever more infinitely glad that I have Christ to look to in faith.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer, our Savior and our Friend, the One for whom for us made peace and will vanquish all enemies.
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We are reminded that one day He will split that eastern sky and He will come and He will lay to waste His enemies and He will save His people.
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Lord, what a picture it must have been when Lot lifted up his eyes and saw His Redeemer coming, when he saw Abram coming to save him from his enemies.
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Lord, we know that day is coming for us and Jesus is going to return for us.
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Lord, may we have our faith and hope set in Him and upon His return.
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We know that our Redeemer lives and it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.