Sunday Night, February 11, 2018 PM

Abram Rescues Lot and Defeats the Northern Kings

Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply and departed. He also took Lot, Abram's nephew, in his possessions and departed, for he was living in Sodom. Last we heard, he had pitched his tents as far as Sodom, but now he's living in Sodom and bad news.

Sodom and Gomorrah, Abimezzobim, and Zoar decided they're not going to pay tribute to Chedulemor anymore. Who is this guy? And this guy has a pretty good army. And he comes through and sweeps around in a kind of semi-circle, raiding and pillaging and plundering and defeating everybody in his path to pay for his, you know, army.

He's got to, you know, make sure that they earn their wages and they're coming back with a lot of spoil. Bad news for Lot. Then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the Oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, and these were allies with Abram.

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in this house, 318, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them. By night, he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them as far as Hova, which is north of Damascus.

He brought back all the goods and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions and also the women and the people. So Abram has a couple of allies with him, probably nomadic, just as he is. And he hears that Lot has been taken captive, so he fills this patriarchal duty to go get his nephew.

And so 318 men with Abram. I don't know how much the other guys had, but Abram apparently is the guy in charge. So we're going to chase these guys down. They travel swiftly with their smaller force. They attack at night and divide their forces in surprise, and they rout Chidolamor as part of the northern four kings and defeat them.

Melchizedek, King of Salem, and Priest of God Most High

And we'll see in the interaction in verses 17 through 24 that God gets all the glory for that victory. Abram's not about to take credit for it. Well, after his return from the defeat of Chidolamor and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shavuot, that is the king's valley.

And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

He, meaning Abram, gave him, meaning Melchizedek, a tenth of all. The king of Sodom said to Abram, Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours for fear that you would say I have made Abram rich.

I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me, Ener Eshkol and Mamre. Let them take their share. What a remarkable moment. What a remarkable moment.

There is something we have to keep in mind, that those believers living in the Old Testament that we read about, they knew more and believed more than what we have written down. How in the world does Abram know to go to Ereshalom, city of Salem, city of peace?

How does he know to go to Jerusalem? There at Jerusalem, he meets Melchizedek, a title, Melchizedek, king of righteousness. Here is a king of righteousness who reigns in the city of Salem, in Jerusalem, and he is priest of God Most High, El Elyon.

And El Elyon is mentioned again and again. He is God Most High. He is the God of Abram. He is the God of Melchizedek. He is the God who made all the world. He is the God who judged and flooded the world.

He is the God who has made these promises and he is going to keep them. Well, here comes Melchizedek, king of Salem. He brings out bread and wine as a priest. It's an amazing thing. Where is this coming from?

Where is this coming from? How do we find a guy living in Canaan and he's a priest of God? Where does this come? This comes out of the blue. Wow. Imagine that. Nobody knows what to do with Melchizedek.

There is much, I guess, speculation to some degree. Some of the Puritans thought this was Shem, son of Noah, who would, if you follow the timeline in the Bible, was still alive at the time of Abraham.

Melchizedek in Hebrews and Psalm 110

And maybe this is Shem. Who is serving as a priest of God most high. We don't know. We have no idea where he comes from. And his genealogy, as Hebrews points out, his genealogy and the identity of his father and mother are kept secret, kept silent.

We don't find out who they are. We don't know who he is, except that he's king of Salem. And we'll talk more about him next week because we want to trace Genesis 14, this passage about Melchizedek to Psalm 110 and trace that to Hebrews 7.

So we'll take the time to do that next week. But what we wanted to see here, I think, is that Abram is engaging in a real battle now. The first, there was the first battle where he defeated Chidolaramor.

But here's a real battle wherein he doesn't keep as spoil for himself all the goods of Sodom. He gives it back to the king of Sodom and says, no, no, you're not going to say I made Abram rich. We're not going to take glory away from God.

And there is this subtlety that Abram was aware of, and he's acting in all wisdom. You remember how mad Laban got about Jacob? These flocks are mine. These children are mine. And you took them and ran.

He's mad. He's going after him, isn't he? Laban's going after Jacob. Well, Abram knows if he takes all the spoils but leaves the king of Sodom the people, guess what the king is going to do with the people?

He's going to rouse them up and saying, Abram took all our stuff. Let's go get him. Abram knows better than that. He's not going to fall into that trap. And he says, no, no, you keep the money. And he gave a tenth to the Lord, giving it to the priest of God most high, so that God would take all honor and glory in the situation.

Choosing the King of Righteousness Over the King of Wickedness

So in some ways, there's two kings here. There's Melchizedek and then there's the king of Sodom. And Abraham's giving the yes to the king of righteousness and saying no to the king of wickedness. And you see this choice that's laid before Abram about what to do when he wins.

And that's a big question, right? That's a big responsibility. What happens when we win? What happens when we succeed? For Israel, that's going to be a big question as they go into the land. When they defeat Jericho, what are they going to do when they win?

Will they say yes to the Lord? Will they say yes to the covetousness, like Achan, and steal and keep for oneself? Time and time again, this question of will we say yes to God and no to sin? Again and again, that question is put before Israel, is put before us.

And we see Abram making the choice of faith. Well, any questions or thoughts other than untangling the entire mystery of Melchizedek? Before we close. Psalm 110, verse 4. But read the whole psalm. And then Hebrews 7, Melchizedek shows up at the end of chapter 6, but then really gets into it in chapter 7.

Well, let's close by singing the doxology.