Deliverance and Witness

Genesis 14 and the Coming Conflict of War

Well as we move forward in Genesis, we're beginning chapter 14 this morning. We are actually going to go from the beginning to the end. However, we won't cover everything within Genesis chapter 14. We're gonna save verses 18 through 20 for next week.

I Can imagine the disappointment everyone perhaps is dying to know who Melchizedek is. And I look forward to having the whole time to discuss his his place and his importance not only in Genesis But throughout the rest of Scripture, and so we'll do that next week and hopefully we'll set the stage to do that.

This morning and so this morning We're looking at chapter 14 and we're reminded of where we just were in chapter 13 of Genesis. Remember how in chapter 12 Abram had gone down to Egypt because of the famine and of course he lied about his wife and really threatened her and also threatened the promise of God that he would be the heir of the promised land and through him the promised seed would come the seed that would deliver the people of God and Of course God delivered Abram out of Egypt.

And as he came back, he came back with many possessions.

And.

So the conflict arose between the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abram and Abram sent Lot away and Lot went toward Sodom and pitched his tent in the valley of the Dead Sea. And then we remember that Abram in chapter 13 he He stayed on he called upon the name of the Lord.

He built an altar dwelt by the Terribles of Mamre Walking with the Lord and that's where we left him in chapter 13 as we said last week Abram was looking Walking worshiping. But meanwhile as we begin chapter 14 not far from him.

The First Biblical Account of War and the Rise of Suzerains and Vassals

The whole world is getting turned upside down. War is breaking out rumors of wars are flooding the land. And so we read in verse 1 it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar Ariok king of Elisar Keter lay Omer.

I loved hearing our brother pronounce that name. What a name. Keter lay Omer king of Elam and tittle king of nations.

That they made war.

With Barra king of Sodom Bersha king of Gomorrah Sheenab king of Adma Shem a bird king of Zeboim and the king of Bella that is Zohar all these joined together in the valley of Sidim. That is the Salt Sea.

Twelve years they served. Keter lay Omer in the thirteenth year. They rebelled so we have these four kings. Listed initially four kings the king of Shinar Elisar Elam and the king of nations. More likely we should understand that the king of Goyim.

Goyim is the Hebrew word for peoples or nations and so that's how the translators went with it. But most likely he's not the king of all peoples or the king of multiple nations. He's the king of a place called Goyim and that is a place that Joshua references later.

I think it's Joshua 24. And so we have these kings we do know things about them from history. John Currid points out that these are foreign rulers and they're coming from the east and from the northeast of the promised land of Canaan and the first king we read about Amraphel.

He rules the land of Shinar. We read about Shinar in Genesis 10 and this is the area of Sumer the Sumerians and their great Empire their great cities and so we know of this king Amraphel. We also know of the king of Elisar.

Perhaps this is related to the land of Assyria. It's very close to Lassur and Assyr and so this is most likely what becomes Assyria later in Scripture. We know of the man the king named the king of Arioch.

We know him of Arioch. We know him from Mari documents we know of Keterleomer who really is the chief king as we'll go on to see and Most likely he's an Elamite his name translates to slave of Lagomer which was an Elamite God.

And so he's this king this servant of this false God and he would have been right at the southeast corner of Assyria. So these are the four kings these foreign rulers from the east and northeast of Canaan.

Now in terms of the Genesis narrative. Remember, we're making our way through Genesis keeping the big picture in view in chapter 14. We have the first mention of war. This is the first time war is mentioned in Scripture.

That doesn't mean it's the first time war happened in Scripture. We can infer that wars happened between tribes and as kingdoms rose and as kingdoms fell that there was war. But this is the first description we have of war.

So there's been bloodshed. Going all the way back to Cain's murder of Abel. We have tyranny going all the way back to Lamech perhaps the height of tyranny and we see. Therefore the spread of sin the curse of sin continuing and part of that curse is this bloodshed this violence this devastation of war.

These four kings these foreign powers have gathered together to make war against five kings. We have Bera the king of Sodom Bersha the king of Gomorrah. Shinab the king of Adma Shema Ber the king of Zeboiim and then a man who's not named but he's called the king of Bella which is Zoar in Verse 3 all of these these five kings have joined together by the salt sea.

What is the Dead Sea? And in verse 4 we find out why they've joined together. These five kings have joined together and begun this sort of world war. Because for 12 years they served Keter Laomer and in the 13th year they rebelled.

Now the word served here means they were subject to him. They didn't serve him on friendly terms. They were subject to him what we have. In other words are these five kings as client Kings? They were clients under the patronage of this tyrant Keter Laomer.

Now there's some technical terms here that we should understand when you have a king that rules over client Kings you have what we call a suzerain a.

Suzerain.

Su Z er a I n a suzerain and their client the one that they have power over is called the vassal. And so you have suzerains and you have vassals. The suzerain has all the power all of the resources. And he can decide whether I'm gonna take over your land and make it my own or whether I'm just gonna make you subject to me and you're gonna have to pay me tribute and if I want to launch a campaign you have to give me troops and you Have to give me supplies and this is how it works.

This is what a suzerain does now. This is very important not just to understand Genesis 14, but to understand most of the covenants God makes throughout the Old Testament. Because when God makes a covenant he makes it as a suzerain.

There's a great a great work. It's very hard to find out of print by the late scholar Meredith Klein called the Treaty of the Great King. And he he draws all of this out now perhaps the idea of suzerains and vassals seems all too foreign to you and So to break it down.

I was reminded of a cartoon a kids movie. I saw not too long ago. In fact called a bug's life. Now if you've seen a bug's life You'll know that all of the little animated ants Have to gather all the food together and they bring it to this place on the rock so that the mighty grasshoppers can come down and and take this food and So to put it in the terms of the suzerain in the vassal the grasshoppers are these mighty suzerains these mighty rulers and the client Kings the vassals.

They're like the ants and they're gathering all their resources and they're they're really putting themselves in harm's way. And they're maybe not going to make it past the harvest. But they have to pay the tribute because it's better than warfare.

And so the ants gather all the food and the grasshoppers come and swoop it all up. A bug's life is a great Presentation of what's going on in Genesis 14? If the vassal was to become threatened or if Another power invaded the vassal kingdom then the suzerain the mighty army it would come it would defend its interests.

That's about it. As far as benefits go that's really the only benefit. It's pretty lopsided. It's pretty one-sided and so for that very reason it was such a raw deal that almost always throughout human history.

You had these vassals that became William Wallace's Bravehearts they wanted to overthrow the yoke overthrow the tribute. We're not gonna let them rule over our land and take our women and children and take the resources that we work for we're gonna Rebel we're gonna fight.

We find that not only here in Genesis 14. But all the way through human history all the way through every Empire the Roman Empire the empires of the Normans or the English or what have you and So verse 4 shows us this very rebellion.

They paid tribute for 12 years. They gave their sons and their daughters and their supplies and their harvests over for 12 years. They served these four kings. They paid tribute to Keter Laiomer. Specifically who must have been over even the other three kings.

But then the 13th year comes and on the 13th year the tribute doesn't make it to Keter Laiomer on The 13th year they rebelled and when you make that decision to not give tribute There's only one thing that's coming and that is war.

To not pay tribute is to say come invade and come attack me and let's try to settle this out.

And.

So the whole land in that 13th year is preparing and bracing for war. Because if Keter Laiomer shows weakness here, then he'll be weak in everyone's eyes. Everyone will rebel against him. Every subject power will rebel against him.

War is coming one way or another. So here's Abram. He's in the land of promise. He's just trying to raise his family Sarai and and now lots gone, but all the servants in his house.

Oh.

He's trying to walk with the Lord and and walk in the promise and he's calling upon the name of the Lord and meanwhile war is Boiling over all around him. We see for instance the same idea of this of This terror of this torment of this vassal relationship throughout Israel's history.

I'll give you an example in 2nd Kings 18 We read of the king Hezekiah Who overthrew the high places and broke down the idols and restored the worship of God. And Hezekiah in 2nd Kings 18 decides that he's gonna rebel against the king of Assyria.

We read in 2nd Kings 18 verse 7. The Lord was with him.

He prospered wherever he went.

He's doing pretty well. And what happens. William Wallace, this is what happens when you're a vassal, right? He rebelled against the king of Assyria. He would not serve him just like the band of the five kings rebelled against their suzerain.

Kader Leomer and. Just like these five kings as we'll see the rebellion did not go well. 2nd Kings 18 beginning in verse 13 in the 14th year of King Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying I've done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me. I will pay. So he'd already been paying tribute. The 14th year comes and he's attacked because he rebelled.

He stops paying tribute now. What happens now. The king of Assyria comes and he says I'll pay whatever you want now. Do you think it's gonna go back to just the way the tribute was? The king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver.

30 talents of gold. This is beginning to get severe. Look at Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord all the treasures of the king's house at That time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars.

Which Hezekiah had overlaid and he gave it all to the king of Assyria. You see. This is what happens when a vassal rebels against a suzerain. So we come back to Genesis 14. Same time frame in the 14th year that war comes.

I don't know what it is about that number 14. I wonder. We're all a vassal to someone right? Have you changed jobs around that 12 13 14 year mark? Maybe you understand something of human psychology there.

You know, we've done this long enough. It's time for a change. In the 14th year. The Kings come down they invade the vassal kingdoms. We have this list of names beginning in verse 5 and following. They attack the Ref.

I am in Ashtoreth Karni. I'm the zoo Zeman ham the M. I'm in Shavuot. Carry a theme the Horites in the mountain of seer as far as El Paran which is by the wilderness. They turned back and came to end mishpah.

That is Kadesh and attacked all the country of the Amalekites and also the Emirates who dwelt in Hazzaz on Tamar. Now I'm reading this list and your eyes are maybe spinning. This means nothing to us but if I were to go back and put United States as Place names and say they they went down through Tennessee and as far down as Alabama.

They they came back up toward Georgia and withstood them even at the Ozarks. All of a sudden you're perking up. Oh, I'm tracking that that's how an ancient mind would have understood this. These places are recognizable.

This warfare is spread out. You get a sense of just how chaotic this would have been and how widespread the battles were. So the the four kings come down the Jordan Valley. They go toward the desert. Then they turn back up along the Jordan Valley toward the Dead Sea.

The whole region is in uproar. They've done this sort of swoop maneuver to close in all of the rebellious forces and you have to picture What's happening as a result of this all of the villages along the way would have been completely torn apart.

Burnt to the ground it would have been a scene of devastation. Families fleeing to the hills or wherever they could hide. But where can you go that you won't be hunted down or at least pushed into combat to defend your life and the lives of your People.

Armies pouring in chaos pillaging raping cities under siege.

Starvation.

They used to hurl the Romans used to hurl diseased bodies into the cities. They sieged. They would try to starve you out and and kill you by disease and plague. This is ancient warfare. And then finally we come to verses 8 and 9 and there's this showdown this showdown of the four kings and their armies.

Against the five vassal kings and their armies for as we read for kings against five. For you Tolkien fans, this is the original battle of the five armies. And we have absolutely no description of the tactics.

No description of the maneuvers. We just have the outcome. Verse 10. The valley of sit-in was full of asphalt pits. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Some fell there the remainder fled to the mountains.

That was the outcome the vassal kings lose. They flee. Some of them are pursued into the tar pits. Maybe they jump into those bubbling pits rather than be run through with swords and spears. This was a total victory for the suzerains.

And as Americans we hate that because we always want the underdog to win. We want that 1980 US hockey team to win but No, the four kings won. It was a complete victory and as we know to the victor the spoils.

And so verses 11 and 12, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah all their provisions and went their way. But then the whole point of recounting these verses comes to a head in verse 12. They also took lot.

We would not have chapter 14's information if it weren't for verse 12. They took lot. Abram's brother's son the son of Haran who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and Departed perhaps perhaps lot moved into Sodom as the war and the rumors of war began to press near.

It was time to close up shop. It was time to go into the refuge of a city and so lot. Notice what the text says lot and all of his goods. Remember how his heart was drawn to all the provisions of Egypt and even when he had to choose a land.

He chose that which seems so promising of provision. Well here all those provisions he made his life about are carted away. They're no longer his they're now plunder. Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom he ended up in Sodom and now he's being taken away captive of war.

Lot is now on his way to become a slave to these bloodthirsty men. Maybe not even a slave. Maybe he'll be killed very often. Some of the captured men they were they were pushed into servitude. Others were just killed.

They would have these big festivals and parades and they would just maybe kill half the men. They would sacrifice them to their gods. That might be lots outcome. But then we come to verse 13 and we have this great picture of deliverance.

Abram the Hebrew, the Deliverer, and the First Guerrilla War

By the providential hand of God one escapes from the scene of carnage and comes and tells Abram the Hebrew. Now we have this word the Hebrew here and it's very bizarre. Abram the Hebrew. We already know Abram.

Why would you say Hebrew here? We've been tracking the story. Abram has been front and center all along. Why say Abram the Hebrew here? Well some argue most likely it's because this is a different account a separate account that Moses is using.

It's an outside source in other words. And I think that's a good case to make just like Luke when he wrote his gospel used many witnesses and many sources. Some of which were written down some of which were testimonies.

So the meaning of the word Hebrew here, it's outsider language. Abram Who is a Hebrew and he's bringing this into his account. The word Hebrew means to cross over. It might have the connotation of a migrant or a refugee the one who crosses over.

But also we remember Genesis 11 and how Abram's ancestor was ever most likely Hebrews coming out of that line of ever and We're introduced to him the one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew.

For he dwelt by the terrible trees of Mamre the Amorite brother of Eshgal brother of Anar and they were allies with Abram. So we find Abram just where we left him in chapter 13. Pressing on in the promise of God there by the terrible trees of Mamre and in fact, he's made a treaty with these three brothers.

These three brothers are Amorites and they live in this area and Abram has somehow negotiated with them. They're native to this land. And even though Abram knows this land has been given to me by God's promise.

He he negotiates with them makes a treaty with them, but there might be peace between them. Now these brothers are Amorites. Amorites could be sort of an umbrella term. Seemed like peoples that weren't specifically assigned to an ethnicity.

We're just called Amorites at this point in history. But of course we just read that some of the Amorites were taken up in the rebellion. It's interesting that moving forward God's law forbids the Israelites to make any treaties with the Amorites.

Here Abram makes a treaty with the Amorites. Moving forward God forbids this and the logic is they will turn your hearts away from me. You'll begin to worship and follow after their gods and their ways.

But here Abram's heart is pure and it's devoted to the Lord. And so he makes this treaty and he hears verse 14 that His nephew lot is taken captive. And so what does he do? He arms 318 of his servants who were born in his house.

And he goes in pursuit. I Always find that little detail striking.

I.

Remember one of the first times I actually read through Genesis that stood out to me because the whole time I was only picturing little old Abram. Little old Sarah his wife and then maybe lot and even lot leaves and they have maybe a few herdsmen.

Maybe I don't know half a dozen. How many herdsmen do you need? Well here just the men who are trained and able to fight number 318. That's just the men who are trained and able to fight. So Abram is dealing with a ton of people in his possession.

He has a massive amount of people enough to make a town. Abram has 318 men that he can gather and muster but none of these are born from him. They're simply born into his house. We'll see that in the next chapter chapter 15.

See now my heir is Eliezer the Damascene in other words. This is the closest thing I have to a son because I don't actually have a son. My wife is barren. These men had been gathered. Raised born into his house from her from Haran from Egypt.

It immobilizes them. This is like the ancient near eastern SWAT team. He comes together. He equips them. They put on their body armor. They load up and they're ready to load out this massive force. And even though it's massive from our point of view It's not as massive as the forces that literally beat five kingdoms in a battle by the Dead Sea.

And that's who they're going after. But they have the advantage of surprise. They have the advantage of guerrilla warfare. Not only is this the first instance of war. This is the first instance of guerrilla warfare.

And so verse 15 we read of this tactic. He divides his forces against them by night he and his servants attacked them. No details, but it was successful because he pursues them as far as the region of Damascus.

So he divides his forces by night which totally disorients the enemy. You have no idea how many people you're fighting against and since it's divided. It seems like you're totally in Surrounded and you just need to retreat and run away and that's what happens.

You can almost picture it if you were a Cinematographer and you were setting that scene you can picture these troops and the clinks of their spears and their swords. Glimmering in the moonlight as they tread so quietly up the valley of the Jordan toward the Dead Sea.

And then they see the smoke and the fire from afar. Here's the encampment. They can hear the rousing. There's all these goods all around there's feasting. The soldiers must have been drunk. They must have camped there feeling invincible.

We've defeated everything that was against us. Now. Look at all the plunder. We're going back home rich and so they let their guard down. Maybe many of the troops were in a drunken stupor. What a perfect time for an ambush sounds very familiar to American history.

Doesn't it the crossing of the Delaware and so Abram strikes? You can imagine lot there. Immediately prior maybe he was bound in ropes and there he is his wife bound in ropes. His daughters may be being dragged off to the tents of the soldiers his sons.

Maybe some of them killed. And he's there just weeping thinking. What will become of my life what will become of my family what will happen to my daughters? Must have been filled with horror not just about what had happened.

But what would happen from here on out? In the middle of the night when he's feeling at the lowest ebb he's being dragged out of everything he knew. The cavalry arrives. You could almost hear the trumpets begin to shout.

Here comes Abram and his troops. You can imagine Lot trying to hide and all the the fury. He has no idea who it is. That's come and what the fighting is about. Maybe it was a counter-attack. Maybe it was a second assault from these five kingdoms.

He has no idea. You can imagine what it would have been like when he recognized Abram. Abram the deliverer. Again, we have no details in the text. We don't read of that encounter. We don't even know what happened or or the maneuvers.

All we read is the result. Verse 16. He brought back all the goods and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods as well as the women and the people. And so it was a complete success. Even though they were Remarkably outnumbered by this ambush by the night Abram is able to deliver a lot and all of the people that had been taken captive by Keter Leomer.

Abram is the deliverer. Now keep in mind. When this is written by Moses, it's meant to instruct the Israelites. Even as we today receive further instruction from it. What would the Israelites be meant to understand from this record from this event?

They would have understood that no matter how small they are if they have the faith of Abram They will overcome the greatest odds against them to follow God and faith even against forces 10 20 30 times their might will have success and so we learn from that as Believers that we stand by faith in a fallen world.

It does not look like the strong man is bound. But scripture tells us the strong man is bound and we are to plunder his kingdom his fallen kingdom. Because the head of the serpent has been crushed decisively at Calvary.

And so this account is all about Abram's faith and the life of faith that equips us for battles. David says He equips my hands for war. The decisive moment Had not yet come in Abram's life. He was looking forward to the day John 8 56 Abraham saw my day Jesus said and he was glad.

We look back to the day of Jesus as believers and we understand that that was the decisive victory. And all that's left now is a mop-up operation. This was the great insight a few generations ago of Oscar Coleman who said there's a sense in which the victory has already been won and There's a not yet to it being fully realized.

The victory has been won the most decisive battle has been successful and yet here we are still in a fallen world. Still dealing with sins in our lives seeing brokenness in our homes and all around us and we say Was the battle won is God's salvation.

Sure it doesn't always look like it. And the way that Oscar Coleman approached it. He says you have to understand something about the way battles work. Military historians can look back and they can say this was the decisive battle.

The rest of the war was simply a mop-up. It was a foregone conclusion. And he is the example of D-Day June 6th 1944 the biggest land and sea and air assault ever conducted in human history when the Allies stormed the beachhead of Normandy to begin to take over the territory that was Domineered by Germany and this was the decisive encounter.

This was as it were the Battle of the five armies Rommel or when Rommel had built this seawall made it as impregnable as possible to overcome on June 6 1944. The Allied Nations held their breath as they sent wave after wave after wave of their brave sons to get slaughtered on the beachhead and hopefully gain a foothold.

And when that day was over when that operation operation overlord was successful. It was a foregone conclusion. Now it was just a matter of time. Germany could not recover from that kind of loss. Now all of the force of our economy and all the resources of the Allies was being pushed through that beachhead.

And it was an unstoppable force. It was impossible. It was just a matter of how long Germany could delay. But the delay was there the Battle of the Bulge. Toward the very end as the Russians and the Allies the British and the Americans pressed toward Berlin.

They were even putting young boys and old men into service giving them rifles and in grenades. That's how desperate they were. But it was a foregone conclusion. No one in their right mind thought. Anything less than the absolute victory of the Allied forces and that's what it is like with Jesus Christ.

The cross was the decisive victory. It's a foregone conclusion. The serpent has been crushed. But now there is this mop-up operation and it's just a matter of time and sometimes that that coiling writhing Wounded serpent seems to get the upper hand.

He seems to have this power of blindness over the people of Japan ever since the Boxer Rebellion. Or he he seems to be able to suppress the faith of the Christians in North Korea. Or he seems to be able to delude through a false gospel of health and wealth and prosperity people in the sub-saharan countries of Africa.

But it's a foregone conclusion. Christ reigns crisis victorious. He has overcome the world was the testimony of the earliest Christians. Even when Caesar was boasting and crushing and persecuting Christians.

They said Jesus is Lord. Caesar is not when they were being torn apart by beasts in the arenas. So, how can we talk about spiritual warfare? Without recognizing that the greatest battle has been won and all of our warfare is a mop-up operation.

It's a foregone conclusion. It's just bringing to our eyes. Bringing to the history of the world the truth and the reality of that decisive event at the cross. Abram in that sense is a foreshadowing of Christ the Deliverer.

Abram is almost a type of Christ being the deliverer of his people in bondage. Abram is the servant of the Lord walking in obedience to the Lord. Willing when he gathers his 318 men and leads them willing to lay down his own life for his people who are in bondage.

Abram becomes this type of Christ. Christ who is the seed of Abraham? Finds a people that are held in captivity and he's willing to lay down his own life to free them from their bondage. And so he defeats our adversary.

He lays down his own life upon the cross so that in him we might be more than conquerors. That's deliverance and that deliverance leads us to witness and. This is what really strikes me as we look at verse 17 and then 21 and following.

There's this interlude in verses 18 through 20 isn't there? It just comes out of nowhere. It doesn't even fit the narrative. Look at verse 17. The king of Sodom remember the defeated king of Sodom. The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shava.

That is the Kings Valley. After his return from the defeat of Kettle a Omer and the Kings who were with him. So verse 17 is setting us up. All right, the king of Sodom is going to meet Abram. We're expecting everything to follow now.

They're gonna interact and have this conversation all of a sudden verse 18 through 20 comes out of nowhere. Melchizedek cuts off the king of Sodom and there's this whole interaction between Abram and Melchizedek, which we're not gonna touch this morning.

We'll get there next week. But then we go where we thought we were gonna go in verse 17. Verse 21. Now the king of Sodom said to Abram. It's like where did verses 18 through 20 come from? Look at what the king of Sodom says.

Give me the people take the goods for yourself. This was a king who earlier had been running into the hills fleeing for his life. His soldiers all around him getting cut down hobbling into tar pits a Coward a defeated enemy and look at him now.

Give me the people. Take the goods for yourself. There's no entreaty here. There's no requests. There's no. Thank you. I've gotten offended for Waiting that extra 10 seconds to hold the door for someone and they walk through like the Prince of you know, Persia.

They don't say thank you. It's like oh, I wish I'd go back in time and not open the door. That's not very Christian this king. Literally was on his way to be taken captive. Maybe have his eyes gouged out.

Maybe be killed and probably the greatest ritual sacrifice that a successful army could give. He had his whole kingdom all of his people and all of his goods plundered now. He comes before everyone. He says Give me back the people you can keep the goods.

Who excuse me? Who are you? Abram of course is by right the possessor of both and. And reading the king of Sodom's request he's almost saying Okay, I know you deserve everything you can have the goods just give me the people back.

You know over time I can tax them enough. I'll rebuild my possession. Abram is loaded with all the goods of the plunder to the victor. The spoils. And yet in this very moment notice there's this time of trying this time of temptation.

We're gonna see this again and again. In the life of Abram in the life of his sons that in that moment when you have some great victory some great season of Fruit in the Lord usefulness for the Lord. I'm really walking with him.

I'm really sensing his presence in my life is his power. There are these things that used to hold me in bondage and he's just free me from them. And and oh, I just want to keep pressing on I I'm so grateful for his deliverance and his power.

And I'm so drawn close to him and it's at those very moments that you can expect temptation to rise its ugly head.

And we see that here.

Abram is being tried. Give me the people take all these goods for yourself. How tempting this offer must have been to Abram. It was his by right to the victor the spoils I Fought. I put my skin on the line if I won.

I get all. Winner takes all. He confirms that because he says these three brothers that fought with me. Give them their spoil give them their share divided among them. This is right. This is what's just to do.

This is what's accepted by by all and maybe Abram could have even reasoned a little bit further. You know, what this is poetic justice. Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom because he wanted more of the world more security more goods and I didn't.

I Stayed in the land that was still being scarred by famine. I Just dwelt where God had promised me fruition, even though I could not see it with my eyes. This is poetic justice. No wonder now lots possessions become mine.

This is how God's going to bless me. This is his reward for my obedience. But Abram doesn't think like that at all. Temptation becomes a gateway for witness. That is always true brothers and sisters that is always true.

Temptation is a gateway for witness whether that's a good witness or a bad witness. How you respond to trial and temptation in your life? Gives you the opportunity whether you like it or not to be a witness and you'll either be a witness for the Lord as you withstand and persevere or you'll be a witness against the Lord as You cave in and compromise.