Genesis 13-14, The Believer Battling Brothers and Barbarians, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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Genesis 13-14 The Believer Battling Brothers and Barbarians

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Genesis chapters 13 and 14, be reading both chapters, hear the word of the Lord. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the
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Negev. Now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold and he journeyed on from the
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Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai to the place where he had made an altar at the first.
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There Abram called upon the name of the Lord 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 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. 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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Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand then
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I will take the right. If you take the right hand then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the
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Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar.
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That was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley and Lot journeyed east.
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Thus they separated from each other. 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. 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
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I will give to you and your offspring forever. 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 the 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
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Lord. In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Eriot king of Elessar, Kadalamar king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Bershi king of Gomorrah, Shinnab king of Adma, Shemaber king of Zoboim and the king of Bela that is
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Zoar. And all these joined forces in the valley of Sidom that is the salt sea. Twelve years they had served
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Kadalamar but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. In the fourteenth year Kadalamar and the kings who were with him came and defeated the
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Rathayim in Ashtaroth Qarnayim, the Zuzim in Ham, the
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Emim in Shavag Kiriathim 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 Mishpat that is Kadesh and defeated all the country of the
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Amalekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazan Tamor.
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Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma that is king of Zoboim and the king of Bela that is
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Zoar went out and they joined battle in the valley of Sidom with Kadalamar king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Ariat king of Elessar, four kings against five.
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Now the valley of Sidom was full of bitumen pits and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled some fell into them and the rest fled to 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
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Amorite brother of Ishkol and Aner. These were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, bore 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 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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Then he returned from the defeat of Kadalimer and the kings who were with him. The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavah, that is the king's valley.
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And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said,
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Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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And Abram gave a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
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But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say,
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I have made Abram rich. I will take nothing but the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me.
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Let Einar, Eshkol, and Mamre take their share. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word.
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Well, over the last couple of years, some Christian leaders have debated the value or the hazards of winsomeness.
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Should Christians strive to make themselves attractive to people in the world, to play up the themes from the
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Bible that are most appealing to outsiders and kind of whisper about what
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God says that is offensive to people in today's culture. And so the test of whether someone is a good
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Christian leader, some say, is if he is winsome to the world. They will take a third way, they call it kind of between conservative and liberal, a third way that they hope will be attractive and popular to outsiders.
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To the winsome, our every encounter with the world can be, if we learn the right techniques, we take the right approach, it can be positive, harmonious, happy, got a win -win.
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Don't be a culture warrior, they tell us, no matter how barbaric the culture becomes. Instead, be winsome.
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On the other hand, are those who think that offending the world is the sign of being right.
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The message of the cross is foolishness to the world and so they assume, these culture warriors assume, that they must have the right message if they are being called foolish, dumb, bigots.
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For them, being rejected and obnoxious is the test of whether someone is a faithful Christian. They aren't happy unless they're battling liberals or heretics or cults or anyone that they disagree with.
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They don't seem to want peace, but instead they relish the battling over something,
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Bible versions, styles of music, dressing too casually, politics or lack of politics.
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Their view of our relationship with the world is that of total incessant warfare.
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Perhaps the most radical example of that is Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.
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They are the church, you should put church in quotation marks in reference to them, which got infamous for protesting at the funerals, particularly during the
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Afghanistan and Iraq wars, protesting at the funerals of servicemen killed in action with the signs that say things like,
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God hates fags, purposely choosing the most offensive, kind of unwinsome terms they possibly could.
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They claim to have done 41 ,000 protests and spent $250 ,000, that's a quarter million dollars, a year on those protests.
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That's the way they think Christians should relate to the world. Another example is right here in North Carolina in Canton, the poorly named
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Amazing Grace Baptist Church held a book burning. Now, it's supposed to be an annual event. They first announced it's going to be out of an annual book burning on Halloween, but they apparently only did it for one year after they got a lot of negative publicity.
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Now, I don't personally, I don't like Halloween as a cultural event, but we as a church, we normally use it as an opportunity to reach out because it's a rare time when people will come to you and take anything you offer them, as long as there's some candy attached to it in some way.
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But they weren't doing that. They weren't doing anything like that. They were burning books and not just burning, you know, pornography or the writings of cults.
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They were burning Bibles, mostly, any Bible version other than the King James Version, and the writings of any
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Christian authors they disagree with. They released a statement, quote, we will also be burning
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Satan's popular books. Interesting how they think they know what Satan's popular books are, but burning
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Satan's popular books written by heretics like Billy Graham, John MacArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, and the list goes on.
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But just to prove they're really Baptist, now you want proof these people are really Baptist. Yes, they are definitely really
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Baptist. The statement ends, quote, during the book burning, barbecue chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides will be served.
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That's just hilarious. I would go for the food and try to rescue a John Piper book from the fire. That's what I would do. So there's the winsome, not willing to battle anybody, not even the barbarians.
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And then on the other side, there's these clumsy, offensive culture warriors battling even brothers.
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Here in Genesis Chapter 13 and 14, we see the believer, Abram, in the world, both winsome and at war.
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We see Abram encountering conflict, first seeking peace with a brother, and then when necessary, battling barbarians.
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The story is continuing, just flowing right out of Chapter 12. Abram has the promise.
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Remember, he's been given this promise from God. He believes it, this five -faceted promise that he will be blessed and that all the kinds of people on earth will be blessed by this, what we now call the
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Abrahamic Covenant. He's coming out of Egypt in verse 1. It specifies he and his wife, reminding us of that.
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Remember how he almost gave away his wife there, reminding us of how God protected him and her because of God's promise.
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He is now, in verse 2, very rich. He says very rich in livestock and silver and gold. Abram, incorporated, is doing very well.
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And it is, of course, because of God's blessing on him. And what makes Abram the father of the faithful is that he knows that and he thanks
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God for it. He comes back to Canaan, first it's set to the Negev, which is the desert in the south, and then back up to the previous altar in the center of what we now call
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Israel, a town called Bethel, which means house of God, but that's where he had a revelation that produced his religion.
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And again in verse 4, he calls on the name of the Lord. He worships, he seeks
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God, he goes to church, we might say. He didn't think he had this, well I have this, like some people today do,
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I have this inward, I have this private faith with the Lord, I can commune with the Lord by myself at home. He publicly worshiped.
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What I hope you're all doing right now, calling on the name of the Lord. With that squared away, having fulfilled all of God's requirements, having kind of paid
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God off, is that the way he looks at it? Now do things go perfectly well for him? Everyone in harmony?
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Just all peace and prosperity? Now you're more of that? More blessings? Some people think that all their sicknesses or their family problems or their financial troubles should be cleared up once they've done their duty with God.
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In fact, that's why they do their duty with God, it's why they're religious. That if they worship for them, religion for them, it's about buying
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God off so you can get the peace, physical peace, healing, financial peace, you know, prosperity, money, peace in the family.
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But here, Abram is doing what is right, calls on the name of the Lord, he's worshiping, he's believing the
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Lord's promise, and he comes back to the land, he goes to the altar he had built, and immediately after, in verse five, immediately trouble pops up.
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Now, from his own family, Abram's prosperity has spilled over to his nephew
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Lot. And now they had so much, the two of them together, there wasn't enough grazing land and not enough water for all their animals.
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They really prospered so much. And the result, in verse seven, was a conflict. There was strife, it says, there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
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You can just kind of imagine the shepherds getting into fistfights over who gets to the watering holes first.
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And their pagan neighbors, and it says the Canaanites, the Perizzites were in the land, so they're kind of watching this. Abram and Lot, can you get along any better than we do?
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Getting in fights is kind of what we do a lot. Are you going to do the same? Well, here Abram wanted to be tough, if he wanted to be tough,
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I should say, if he wanted to be uncompromising, unenforcing all his rights.
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You know, he's the head of the family. He's the one that God has promised this land. He could crack down on Lot. If he cared more for his own rights or his status as the head of the family, if that's his major priority, if that's what he cared for more than peace.
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But he doesn't do that. He says in verse 8, let there be no strife between you and me.
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Abram was a peacemaker. And he gives the reason. For, it's because, let there be no strife, let there be peace.
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For we are kinsmen. And that word kinsmen can literally mean brothers.
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Now, how would he respond to an offensive brother? Will he denounce Lot as Satan's servant or you're a heretic,
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Lot? Or protest with a sign? You think he would protest with a sign saying God hates Lot? No, he sought peace.
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And he elevated his brother. Because after all, literally his brother is his nephew. And likely what has happened, it doesn't say specifically, but likely what's happened is that Lot's father,
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Abram's brother, has died. And Abram took Lot to raise him and protect him.
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Now, of course, Lot's grown and he has his own things. But still, Abram could have just pulled rank. You know, who do you think?
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Lot, I raised you. Everything you have is because of me. He could have said something like that.
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But instead his solution in verse 9 is to give Lot the choice of which part of the land he wanted.
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And that's important too. Lot's given the choice. You know, Lot could, Abraham could say, I like this land over here because there's a lot of water and grass for the sheep.
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You could go elsewhere, Lot. You take care of yourself. No, he doesn't do that. He says, if you take the left hand, then
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I will go to the right. Or vice versa. It's up to you, Lot. You get first choice. Abram says, in effect, you choose.
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Go to the part you want and I'll go elsewhere. Abram let go of his rights and his rank.
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He compromised. Compromise is a dirty word with some people.
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One pastor once told me, I hate the word compromise. And so he ended up splitting his church when he insisted that not only did his church have to adopt the changes that he was proposing, but that everyone in the church had to vote with him, had to be unanimous, that if there was even one dissenting vote, even if he won the vote for the congregation, the one majority, if there was even one dissenting vote, he would leave and take all his followers elsewhere.
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And of course, that's what happened. You had to agree with him about everything to get along with him. I knew him personally.
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If you disagree with him about the rapture, he could not work with you. But here, when dealing with a brother,
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Abram compromised. And in so doing, he was like the seed, the seed of Abraham becomes a blessing to the nations, like the seed who would come from him and fulfill all these promises to him.
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Christ compromised. Now, he didn't compromise his holiness or his justice.
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He didn't compromise with sin, ever. But if compromise is giving up something you want for something greater, you want even more, then we know
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Christ compromised, don't we? He said in the garden, let this cup pass from me.
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That's what he wanted. But he wanted something else more, something greater, more than that.
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Not my will, but yours be done. He wanted the
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Father's will more than his own. So he compromised. He let go of what he wanted for the greater thing the
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Father wanted. And he did it because he wanted us, whom he called brothers and sisters, to be at peace with God.
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There are consequences for compromise. Those consequences depend on who you are compromising with and what you are compromising for.
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Abram was compromising material things, you know, the best land, with a brother, in order to have peace.
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He wasn't compromising with sin in order just to be liked, just to be popular, to be winsome, for people to say, but Abraham was a great guy.
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He simply saw no reason to battle with a brother over grazing land and watering holes. Compromise can be a genuinely good thing when you're giving up your personal rights or your property for peace with a brother.
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But it can be a bad thing when you compromise the Lord, when you compromise godly relationships, like Lot here, compromising his relationship with his uncle, his godly uncle, merely to gain things.
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You know, the good grazing land. I want the best land. I want the most water for my livestock so they grow.
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Or you compromise for the job, for the salary, for the location you want.
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Compromise the Lord, compromise the best environment for your children, just to get those kind of things, get more money.
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Compromise your principles by appearing to support, appearing to support, transgenderism by naming your pronouns.
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That's what that's about. Compromise the Lord by choosing to spend Sunday mornings making a few more dollars rather than in worship.
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Lot didn't give anything. Lot didn't compromise, did he? In verse 10, he lifted up his eyes and saw that the
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Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere. So he looks around, he sees the most lush parts of the land, and he only thought about himself.
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He took the best part of the land, what he thought was the best part, and it seemed as flourishing, it says, as the garden of the
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Lord. It was the Garden of Eden. It was like Egypt around the Nile, where they had just been. And he doesn't say, oh uncle, you've been so good to me.
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You raised me from when I was a child. You gave me so much stuff. You gave me my start. You take the best part.
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I'll settle wherever you don't go. He doesn't say that. He doesn't compromise his prosperity, but he does compromise his morality.
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In verse 13, tells us that the men of Sodom were wicked, very great sinners against the Lord. But that doesn't deter
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Lot from moving his family down there by them. He knows first he kind of gradually gets closer and closer to them.
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He gets drawn in to Sodom. First, he moves near Sodom here in chapter 13, verse 12.
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And then by chapter 14, verse 12, he's already in Sodom. So he compromised morally and spiritually.
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And you'll see the effects of that on his daughters later on. There are consequences for compromise.
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Abram compromised only materially, and the consequences of his compromise were very different. In verse 14, after Lot had been separated from him, the
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Lord speaks to Abram and tells him to take a look around. Remember, Lot looked around for himself and chose the best part.
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The Lord tells Abram to look around at the whole thing, best part, worst part, all of it.
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Look in all directions, including the real estate you just gave to Lot. That's all yours, the
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Lord says in verse 15. For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. Lot compromised spiritually in order to gain materially, ended up losing everything.
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Abram compromised materially in order to gain spiritually, ended up gaining everything.
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Even the that he gave away temporarily would eventually be his, part of the promise.
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Abram could compromise because he believed God's promise already given in chapter 12.
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This wasn't news. The Lord repeats it here in chapter 13. He believed that promise that all this land is his, and so he could let go of it for a while, temporarily, that he would have the land.
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He knew that, and so he could compromise. It's easier to compromise when you believe God's promise, when you believe that you will inherit the earth.
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Well, it's easier to give up a little bit of this old earth for now. A second part of the promise in verse 16,
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I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, the little grains of dust, individual grains, your offspring can be counted, if you could do that.
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Of course, you can't, and this comes to pass, not just because his offspring are the Jews and the Edomites and the
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Arabs, but that he had a single offspring who, like Abram, compromised material things, compromised even his own life, and through that gained millions and millions, probably eventually billions and billions of sons and daughters all around the world from all the families of the earth.
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Our salvation is the consequence of Jesus's compromise with death, resulting in a total victory for him and for us.
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Abram believed that promise, which is the gospel. Abram believed the gospel, and so was able to let go of the things of this world.
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So sure was the promise, the Lord tells Abram, take a victory lap around Canaan, verse 17.
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Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. Survey it.
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Go on a survey tour. Maybe military, it'd be called reconnaissance, something like that, right? Look around. This is your place, and this is his symbolic claim to the whole land, surveying what belonged to him, even the part that he gave up rather than battle with a brother.
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Our promise is a new earth, and if we believe we have that coming to us, a new earth, a new creation, glorified creation, we should be able to let go of the things of this old, unglorified earth.
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How do we as Christians live in a world dominated by Canaanites or their spiritual equivalent today, even those who are great sinners against the
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Lord? If possible, Paul says in Romans chapter 12, verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
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If you can compromise mere material things for peace without compromising spiritual things, then do so, especially when dealing with brothers.
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When we moved into our house, our former owner of that house sued our neighbor because the neighbor cut part of the hedges between our houses, because the hedge was on our side, which was then his side, and rather than just let the neighbor clip the hedges, he sued.
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Why would you do that? First of all, I can't understand that. You want to come, a neighbor or any of you, want to come to my house and do yard work?
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Feel free. You're welcome. Well, even if you want to come into the house and do housework, that's great. I'm not going to sue you, but whatever, they sued.
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And then when we moved to that house, the neighbor, she wanted to cut the hedge down and, okay, we'll let you cut the hedge down. And she wanted us to pay for half of it, which, no,
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I don't really care, but okay, we'll pay for half. Be a good neighbor. A few years ago, a local church here wanted our help, the church's help with an evangelistic, you know, power lifters.
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They lift big weights and they bend iron bars and that kind of thing here at the Caswell County Civic Center.
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And they would do things, like an altar call that we don't believe in, but we can compromise on that and help out for the sake of the gospel.
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So you may have to separate, like Abram and Lot do here, but as far as it depends on you, if it is possible, you know, give up some land if necessary.
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Let your neighbor clip your hedges. She really wants to do that. Give up some money. Have this mind in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.
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Give and give up. Now, chapter 13 shows us believers battling with brothers and willing to compromise material things for peace.
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But chapter 14 shows us something else. Believers battling barbarians.
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The first 12 verses of chapter 14 show us Christians are placed in the real world, where barbarians are.
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And in case we've read chapter 13, it concluded that every confrontation can be diffused. It can all be managed if you're just winsome enough.
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You're willing to compromise enough. You can avoid any fight. And this chapter, though chapter 14, tells us differently.
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If possible, Paul says, as far as it depends on you, live at peace.
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But sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes it doesn't depend on us.
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There's nothing that we can do to make peace. Let's just give up to sin, but you can't do that.
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We can't give up our commitment to the Lord. We can't give up what is right and just.
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We're not battling with brothers whom we can make peace by compromising material things.
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Sometimes we have to battle barbarians. And that's just a reality. That's this world.
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The Lord Jesus told us in John chapter 16, verse 33, in the world you will have tribulation.
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You'll have trouble, even if you do all you can do. And the world of the
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Canaanites and the barbarians will give us trouble. If we believe, if we think that Christ gives us the secret to winsomeness, we can always win friends and influence people, we can charm our way out of any conflict, we're mistaken.
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You know, that's not reality. Sometimes being a believer will make us battle barbarians.
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Now here the trouble comes from four kingdoms from Mesopotamia. Barbarians sweeping down to inflict their vengeance on the kingdoms around the
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Jordan River, which Abram just gave to his nephew Lot, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.
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For 12 years, the cities there served Catalimer, if that's how you say that, or Catalimer. It says in verse 14, meaning that they paid him a tax.
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When he says serve him, they paid him protection money. And they had stopped paying that tax. And so Catalimer and his allies came down to punish them like a mafia boss coming to punish people for not paying the protection money.
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Now what should a believer do when barbarians attack? Abram doesn't say something like, well,
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I'll pray for Lot, but I'm not of this world. And all that politics between Catalimer and his allies versus Bara and his allies, well, that's none of my business.
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If the Lord wants to free Lot, he'll do it himself. He didn't say anything like that. Lot, Abram found himself in verse 13 with news from a man who had escaped from them that an injustice had been done.
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He had the power to do something. So he took action. In the past,
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Christians took action against injustice. Instead of just ducking off to some monastery to pretend the world doesn't exist, they exerted themselves to stop gladiatorial gains.
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They took action against that. They defended the lives of vulnerable babies who in Roman Empire days were just, if you didn't want your baby, just left it out to die and fantasize.
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Christians took action against that. They stood up for the status of women by ending polygamy and divorces for trivial grounds.
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They persuaded and planned and were willing to fight and to die to end slavery.
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Why did slavery end? Because Christians took action. Today it could be abortion or euthanasia, the sentencing to death of innocent human beings, whether they're very young or they're very old or they're very sick, because they are inconvenient to other human beings and they just don't want to take care of them.
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Or it could be moral issues like homosexuality. A while ago a young man from Danville asked me over the internet, if this church, we accept homosexuals.
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And I said, well, if he's a Christian and wants to fight against those inclinations, we will help him. If he's a non -Christian, we'll share the gospel with him and we may or may not bring up homosexuality immediately.
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That's an issue when sharing the gospel. But we'll, if converted, expect repentance from that sin.
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But if he wants us to believe that he's a Christian and still live in that sin, well then, no, he has to repent.
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We can't compromise with that. We may give him some time, but we won't accept twisting of scripture to try to justify that sin.
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The battle against homosexuality is a battle we may have to fight, as distasteful as we may think fighting that is, because we may have to say things, even as kindly as we may try to say them, that make us sound in the ears of the people of the world like we're those
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Westboro people. As much as Westboro and their ilk may give us bad reputation, one thing they are right about, we will have to battle against spiritual barbarians in places that may be over doctrine, whether against the
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Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have to stand for truth and sometimes use strong words about their doctrine.
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Heresy, abomination, blasphemy. Yes, I know they'll accuse us of being the barbarians.
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The modern feeling is that no religious opinion, that no doctrine is worth battling about.
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You just kind of accept anything anyone believes. That's great. That's your idea. That's my idea. It's all the same. No, that's wrong. Or it could be the barbarity of hypocrisy, confessing to be a believer while living like a barbarian, like those disgusting
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Westboro hypocrites. That's who they are. There's a panel up in a white fence that I pass by almost every day between my house and this building, right on 86, where a young man named
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Richard Colby, Sergeant Richard Colby, panel with his picture on it, placed there.
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If you go by on 86, because he died in combat in Afghanistan several years ago.
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And I can't imagine the barbarity of people who would show up at the funeral for him.
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It disgraced that funeral by the kind of things that group of people did. Just disgusting.
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And what we should do, if there's people like that, they call themselves a
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Baptist church. We battle them. You are a hypocrite.
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You are the ones that will be facing God's hatred if you do not repent. We need to do battle against such people like that.
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You should battle against false brothers like them. The Lord Jesus and the apostles, Paul and John, show us that the gate is narrow that leads to life.
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That if we get the gospel wrong, we can be eternally condemned. That's when we got to battle over right doctrine sometimes.
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That if we have no love like those Westboro people, we're not of God. That if we don't confess
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Jesus correctly, we're not from God. Indeed, we are of the
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Antichrist. Abram didn't choose the battle that came his way. He just saw it and he knew he had to act.
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Martin Luther said, though we be active in the battle. Some people love to battle, but always battling over the most irrelevant things, not the real issues of our day.
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Though we be active in the battle, if we are not fighting where the battle is hottest, we're traitors to the cause.
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When we are battling with barbarians, we need to act like Abram. And so notice the three things he did. He teamed up, he fought, and third, he tithed.
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First, he teamed up. He made allies, even with the Canaanites. Verse 13 names three allies, Mamre, Eshcol, and Einar.
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Now these are irrelevant names to us, but they're for a reason, showing him how Abram won this battle.
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Notice this, the Catalimor, this Vedic army. They defeated other kings around here, kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and these other places, the
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Amalekites. And yet, how is Abram, just one man with his, I know he's rich and he's got a lot of servants, but how is he able to defeat them?
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Well, one way is that he made allies, three Amorite kings, who are the kind of people who later
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Israel would be told that you can't make any alliances with, but for now it's okay. He made alliances with them. Here though,
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Abram joins with them in the last verse. He even gives them their share of the loot. So it is right and wise for God's people to ally themselves as much as we can with anyone who will help us battle barbarians.
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For example, if you want to end abortion, which is baby killing, let's call it that, you need to ally with people, which includes voting for people, who are not necessarily brothers.
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May not be brothers at all. May not be believers at all. Maybe you have all kinds of moral and theological problems with them, but you vote for allies to help you battle barbarians in whatever particular cause.
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Abram didn't confine himself to only his 318 men from his household, verse 14 tells us about.
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He got allies. We sometimes need allies who have the same enemies that we have, co -belligerents, who will join us in fighting barbarians.
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This past week was the March for Life in Washington DC, and probably many of the people, probably most of the people there go
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March for Life and those against abortion. Most of those who participated in that are Roman Catholics. They're allies in that particular fight.
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It's wise to join with them for that cause.
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A second, he thought, that is he used strategy. He, in verse 15, he divided his small force.
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He only has 318 men divided in three ways, probably so they'd seem like more. He attacked at night, probably so that his small numbers could not be seen.
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He didn't just thrust his force, he got immediately, furiously into battle with no thought, like those
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Westboro people who aren't there Christians at all, don't perceive that their tactics are doing their cause more harm than good.
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Mindlessly just denouncing things, just kind of yelling how we need to abolish something, abolish evil.
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Well, that may make us feel good that we're against whatever evil, but it's not always the wisest way to do battle.
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I reminded some person that if you want to abolish abortion, you know, we'll have to win elections to do that.
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You realize that, don't you? And so it will be incremental likely, requiring some winsomeness, probably some temporary compromises.
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And she just said, no, how are you going to abolish it without winning elections? No, it's just unthinking.
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Abram used his mind. He thought. So too, use strategy.
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Think. Third, he tithed. That is, he gave a tenth to God. And that last section, verse 17 to the end of the chapter, the kings of Sodom and Salem come out to meet
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Abram. Both of them, both of them are, he approaches differently. Abram has rescued all of Sodom's people and their goods, but it is
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Melchizedek who brings him gifts, bread and wine, so he can refresh himself and his men.
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It's interesting, and he, Melchizedek, is an interesting, mysterious, and important character.
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Even though he's only mentioned these few verses here in Psalm 110, right? His name means King of Righteousness.
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That's his name. Melchizedek means king. Melech means king. Zedek means righteousness. His name is
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King of Righteousness. But he is the king of, his title, his job, he's the king of Salem, and Salem means peace.
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So, King of Righteousness is the king of peace. Now, some people think you can get peace without righteousness.
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Compromise enough with sin, you can have peace. Sometimes sin and evil is furthered by, if you, you must surrender to my evil, and then
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I will let you have peace. Of course, it doesn't work. To live in peace in Salem, you have to live under the rule of the
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King of Righteousness. Now, this Melchizedek was not only a king, but a priest. A priest represents people to God so that they can come to God.
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People cannot come to God by themselves as sinners unless their sin is dealt with, unless they have a mediator, an advocate.
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Melchizedek here demonstrates that there is a priesthood that is not descended from Aaron.
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In fact, it is greater than Aaron because Aaron's believing forefather here,
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Abram, honors him as a priest by giving him a tenth of everything.
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There is someone who represents us to God. That's what a priest does, represents us to God.
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He's a priest of God Most High. In Hebrew, El Elyon, the
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King of Peace and the Priest of God Most High, El Elyon blesses Abram in verses 19 and 20, giving glory to God Most High for the victory.
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Blessed be Abram by El Elyon, possessor, or it could be owner, or subjugator, or conqueror.
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Possessor of heaven and earth, he's subjugated, he's conquered it. El Elyon, yes, he's
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God Most High. And blessed be El Elyon, who has delivered your enemies,
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Abram, into your hand. In verse 22, Abram says El Elyon is the
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Lord, because some people get it this way, well, is this a different god? Is this some kind of pagan god that Abram is honoring?
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No. Verse 22, Abram identifies El Elyon as the Lord, the same God that he believes in.
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Abram recognizes Melchizedek as a true priest of his God by giving him a tenth.
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Now, giving a tenth was not required by the law. Abram didn't do this because it was a law that he had to keep.
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This was something done spontaneously and gratefully because of the victory that's been given to him by God, as should our giving now, because we're not under that law to give.
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But we give because El Elyon has delivered all our enemies into our hands.
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God Most High has delivered our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, even death itself into our hands.
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So we too should worshipfully give to God Most High.
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The final battle with barbarians comes from the other man who came out to meet
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Abram, the king of Sodom. The priest and king of peace,
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Melchizedek, offers blessings. The king of Sodom offers payment.
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He's saying to Abram, I'll make you rich. You can keep all our stuff. Imagine all the things, all the loot of a city.
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You can have it all. Just give me the people. But Abram has already chosen the blessing over the bribe.
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In verse 22, he says, I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, to El Elyon, possessor of heaven and earth.
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The same term for God as Melchizedek used. He made an oath to the
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Lord. He lifted up his hand to make an oath in verse 23 that he would not take a thread or a sandal strap.
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That is he would, he's saying he would not profit a cent. He would not make, he would not get an extra penny for saving that city.
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He will not be Sodom's mercenary. So the final battle with barbarians is whether they will buy us off with their things, the rich rewards that they offer.
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The world comes offering to make you rich or to give you whatever they can give you if you will compromise with them.
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Today they'll try to buy us off with money. If only we'll seek mammon first instead of the kingdom of God.
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Or barbarians will try to bribe us with respectability. They'll like us.
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They'll call us winsome. We'll be popular. If only we'll say their lifestyles are just another alternative.
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That their sin isn't really sin or that it's right to choose to eliminate the inconvenient if we want to or that all religious opinions are equal.
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If only we go along. They'll like us then. It's easier to give that up.
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It's easier to give up the rewards that the world offers. The more money, the more fun, the more ego puffing.
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It's easier to do that if we believe
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God's promises. If we believe the gospel.
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Abram believed and so he gave. He gave up the rewards of Sodom.
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He recognizes God's priest, which is the very thing we are called to do. Our priest, also a king, the king of righteousness and peace.
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A priest, not from the Sinai covenant, but a priest all the same of God most high. Unlike some today who assume that they can come to God on their own.
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God just forgives sin. He just winks at it. You don't need a priest. You don't need a sacrifice. You don't need anything done for you.
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No, we must recognize that we do need a priest. We need an advocate. We need a sacrifice for our sins. And we have one in Jesus, the priest in the order of Melchizedek.
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And because of him, we can now stand boldly before God most high in the midst of a world battling against us, assured that he has dealt with our sins, our sins that angered
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God, that alienated God, that made him an enemy of us. And yet he sought to win us to be at peace with himself.
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We have an advocate, the king of peace, and he will reign.
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So, trusting in his advocacy, the most high