Two Encounters Genesis 14:17-24

Eureka Baptist Church iconEureka Baptist Church

2 views

0 comments

00:03
I'm going to begin the sermon today by just saying that Randy came up to me and mentioned he has a prayer request that he can't be specific about.
00:11
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray for that, because the Lord, of course, knows exactly what it is. And so I'm going to bring that before him, and then
00:18
I'll begin the sermon, okay? Father, you are an all -knowing
00:25
God. You know everything, and you know precisely what everyone deals with and what needs they have.
00:32
And even the Scripture says, Lord, you know what we need even before we ask. And in the case,
00:38
Lord, here, as Randy mentioned, a need in the family that they have. And I pray,
00:43
Lord, you know the precise person, you know the specific circumstance. And we give that over to you,
00:49
Lord, that you would answer it according to your will and for the benefit of this person and according to your will.
00:57
And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. In the summer of 1999, my father was deployed to Kuwait because he was in the army.
01:13
And he was supposed to be there for nine months. And for those of you who don't know where Kuwait is, it's right next to Iraq.
01:20
And this was the time when Saddam Hussein was running the country of Iraq, and Kuwait is just southeast of it.
01:27
And so there was need for American presence to be there. And so he was there for five months or so.
01:36
And then we heard the news when he called us that he was going to come home early.
01:42
As you might imagine, it was difficult for our family that he was away this long. At that time, my sister was 17, my brother was 14, and I was 12.
01:51
And so we heard the news that he was going to be home for Christmas. And so we were thrilled to hear that.
01:59
And it was appropriate that not only my mom was going to greet my dad at the airport, but my sister, my brother, and myself were also going to be the ones who were going to see him as he came home.
02:12
And what happened is he flew in at a small airport in Bloomington. And we saw his plane land, and then we saw him walk in, and it was the first time we had seen him in six months.
02:22
And so it was a joyous occasion for the family, and I think if my dad were to tell you that we greeted him with the appropriateness, with the honor that he was due.
02:34
And that's why we met him, because what he did, we loved him, he was our father, but he was worthy of honor.
02:40
And not only us were there, but there were other people who were there as well to welcome him. And in our sermon today, what we're going to see is that Abram returns from a military conquest.
02:52
What we saw last week is that they defeated the powerful kings of the north. And he defeated them way north of his home.
03:01
And as he travels south, he is met by two different kings.
03:08
And one king meets him appropriately, while the other king meets him without the proper greeting.
03:17
And so what we're going to see today is there's one way to show honor to someone, and then there's another way not to show honor.
03:25
One king shows the way that we should show honor, and one king shows the way we should not. So our sermon today is titled,
03:33
Two Encounters. And I always encourage you to follow along in a Bible. It's on page 12 of the
03:40
Red Bibles, or if you have your own Bible, please follow along. Our sermon text is Genesis 14, 17 through 24.
03:49
And our big idea, our proposition, and what this sermon is calling you to do is, in Abram's journey home, take note of the character of two kings for your spiritual benefit.
04:04
Take note of the character of two kings for your spiritual benefit. And we're going to see three examples.
04:10
The first example is that he is confronted by an ungodly king unworthy of emulation.
04:18
And you'll see that in the outline in your notes. The first example that we should take note of is that he is confronted by an ungodly king unworthy of emulation.
04:29
Last week we saw that Lot was captured in the first section of chapter 14 by the conquering kings of the north.
04:37
These kings defeated everyone in their path, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.
04:43
And this reminds us of the reason the author details an ancient battle fought between kings in this region.
04:49
The whole point of describing this was not just to randomly throw in a war from that time, but to show that Abram's nephew
04:58
Lot was captured and needed to be rescued. He was captured by the kings of the north, and Abram was the one who was going to rescue him.
05:08
Lot stayed back in Sodom, and the kings of the north made the mistake of taking
05:14
Lot and his people with them. And by taking Lot, this sealed the fate of the kings of the north.
05:22
And this is so because by taking Lot, they crossed the path of God's blessed man,
05:27
Abram. And we know from Genesis 12 -3, Genesis 12 -3 tells us those who honor
05:35
Abram will be honored. Those who dishonor Abram will be cursed.
05:40
So these kings of the north dishonored Abram by taking his nephew Lot. And they met their demise as a result.
05:50
And on Abram's journey home from battle, he is stopped by two kings. The king of Sodom and the king of Salem.
06:00
And we're going to read this in verses 17 and 18. So after his return from the defeat of Kedarlamer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the
06:11
Valley of Sheva. That is, the king's valley. So what we saw at the end of the narrative last week is that Abram defeats the kings far to the north.
06:22
Probably several hundred miles north of his home. And what he does is he heads to the south, back to where he's from.
06:31
And what we remember is that Abram lived in a place called Hebron, or the Oaks of Mamre. And so as he comes to this place, which is just south of Jerusalem, he is approached by these two kings.
06:46
The king of Sodom and the king of Salem. Those two words sound kind of similar, but the king of Sodom and the king of Salem.
06:54
And they stop him in the Valley of Sheva, which was known as the king's valley. This would have been east of Jerusalem, where Jerusalem came to be established.
07:06
And he has a very interesting encounter with these two men. And the question we need to ask is, why are these two kings approaching him on his way home?
07:17
This is kind of like a victory greeting. As he comes back victorious from war, and now he's being greeted.
07:26
It's obvious why the king of Sodom would come out to meet him. Remember, the king of Sodom was defeated by these same kings.
07:34
The Keterlammer and the kings of the north. Abram accomplished what the king of Sodom was unable to do.
07:40
He defeated these powerful kings as the Lord enabled him and his forces to do.
07:46
And the king of Sodom is grateful that Abram defeated those kings that they despised so much.
07:53
But what we will see in a bit is the poor response that he gives Abram, making this king's actions not worthy of emulation.
08:04
In verse 16, the last verse of our sermon last week, it said that Abram brought back all the possessions that the kings of the north had taken from Sodom.
08:15
And the king is grateful that the possessions of his city were retrieved, and now they're brought back to him.
08:23
And what we are going to do here is follow Abram's interaction with both kings. And in order to do that,
08:29
I'm going to momentarily skip verses 18 through 20. Which is his encounter with the king of Salem.
08:36
And go down to verses 21 through 24 to look at his encounter with the king of Sodom. So what we're going to do here is look at the bad news first.
08:47
I've always been a bad news first kind of person. Do you want the good news or the bad news? I want the bad news first because then you have the good news left.
08:54
It's always a good thing. So let's first look at this encounter in verses 21 through 24.
09:01
And we'll begin with verse 21. And what we're going to see is how the ungodly king interacts with Abram, as opposed to the king of Salem.
09:11
So in verse 24, And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
09:21
So the king of Sodom tries to cut a deal with Abram. He tells him,
09:27
Let me take the people from Sodom who were taken captive by the kings of the north. And that would have been
09:33
Lot and his people and others probably too. But then he says,
09:39
Take all the goods for yourself. So this would have included food and other possessions.
09:45
So the deal he's trying to cut is, Give me the people, you take the stuff. And as the king of Sodom tries to cut this deal with Abram, Abram does not go along with it.
09:56
And we will see why. In verses 22 through 24, But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the
10:04
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
10:14
I have made Abram rich. I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me.
10:21
Let Aner, Eschol, and Mamre take their share. So Abram will not take anything from the king of Sodom.
10:30
He emphasizes this by saying, He would not take the smallest thing by not taking a thread or a sandal or strap or anything that is yours.
10:39
All those things he mentioned are small things. He said, I'm not taking anything from you. Now why does he say this?
10:46
He says in verse 22 that he made a promise to the Lord, or a vow to the
10:52
Lord that he would not take anything. And Abram inserts the phrase that the
10:57
Lord is the possessor of heaven and earth to show that the Lord owns everything in the universe.
11:07
And the Lord is going to take care of him. Abram makes this promise that he would not take anything because in verse 23 he says that if he took anything, he would be concerned about the king saying,
11:18
I have made Abram rich. Abram does not want to be indebted to anyone.
11:27
If this king gives him the goods, the king is going to say, you know what? Abram has this wealth because I've given it to him.
11:36
So he's setting him up. And Abram does not want to be indebted to anyone. And one thing we have seen over the last month or so is that the
11:43
Lord has made Abram rich. He has taken care of him. The Lord, for his good purposes, has actually blessed
11:51
Abram with wealth. He doesn't need any help. And the
11:57
Lord has also made all these great promises to Abram. Remember, he promised that he would have a nation, he would have offspring, he would have land.
12:05
And Abram realizes that he does not need anything from anyone else. He just needs it from the
12:12
Lord because the Lord provides for him. And the Lord has already provided for him abundantly. He does not need to be unnecessarily in debt to another when the
12:21
Lord has taken care of him. Now, in our country and in our world, an invention came out a few decades ago known as credit cards.
12:33
And credit cards can be used for good, but oftentimes we know, maybe from experience and maybe just from seeing other people, that they are used for the wrong reasons.
12:42
Because they're not used for needs, they're used for wants. You have enough, you're provided for, but then you say, you know what,
12:50
I want this. And so what you do is you put yourself in debt by using a credit card.
12:57
And sometimes you can get yourself in trouble by doing that. And we know this from experience, and personally
13:02
I know this just from recently being out of school, is that it's not a joyful experience to be indebted to anyone.
13:10
And we know how expensive college is these days, right? You're going to be paying that off for a long time, unless someone helps you out.
13:18
Abram does not want to be indebted to anybody. He's already been provided for by the
13:24
Lord. And Abram explains that all he has taken is the food that they brought back from the kings of the north.
13:32
And obviously on their journey home, they would have needed to eat, and so they took some of that food. But he's saying, that's all we're going to take.
13:40
He also says, Aner, Eskel, and Mamre, these are the Amorites who fought along with him, these were his allies, he said, give them their share too.
13:49
But I'm not taking anything. So we see, Abram does not want to be indebted to anybody.
13:57
But what we need to highlight here, and the focus of this point, is that we see the character of the king of Sodom.
14:05
The text shows us that his character is lacking. First things first, in verse 21, there is no mention of him greeting
14:13
Abram. He cuts right to the point. What he wants.
14:19
A thank you would have been nice, wouldn't it? It is because of Abram's efforts, that the king is able to take his people back to Sodom.
14:28
And he shows his lack of thankfulness by greeting him the wrong way. Secondly, you will notice in verse 21 that he says, give me.
14:37
That's usually not a very good opening response, right? When I was reading this, it made me think of my daughter sometimes.
14:44
She just says, this is her symbol for food, she's like, give me, give me. And we're like, say please.
14:50
That's the appropriate way to ask. But this king says, give me. And instead of offering a gift to Abram, that's what he says.
15:01
And this is where we will see the huge contrast between the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. He wants his portion of what was gathered from the kings of the north, and he gives
15:11
Abram nothing in return. Imagine yourself having a fire in your house.
15:21
And someone runs into your house and rescues you and your family, and they get you out of the house.
15:28
Imagine Jeremy being the one who does this, he's a firefighter. And they get outside, and not only is the firefighter able to rescue you, but they're also able to gather a few of your possessions along the way, before the house burns down.
15:45
Now what would be the appropriate response to give the firefighter? Give me?
15:51
Of course not. You would say to them, thank you, thank you, thank you.
15:59
And you might even send them a card or offer them a gift in some way.
16:04
You don't say, you know what, you don't just say, all right, give me the stuff that you gathered out of the house, so then you move on with your day.
16:11
So you can see, that's what the king of Sodom did. And that was not, of course, an appropriate response.
16:21
But the king of Sodom here tries to cut a deal with the goal of getting his portion, when in reality he did not deserve anything, the people or the goods.
16:32
The king of Sodom demonstrates to us how not to respond when someone does something to help you.
16:39
What's interesting is that the king of Sodom fits the bill of the people from Sodom.
16:44
Remember what the Bible said of them in Genesis 13? It said these were wicked, great sinners. And so the people were much like their king, and the king was much like the people.
16:55
And what we'll see in the next point is how to honor one who deserves to be honored, and how generosity is pleasing to the
17:04
Lord. So this is the first example that you must take note of. He is confronted by an ungodly king, unworthy of emulation.
17:14
And what I'll say here, I meant to say this at the beginning, and I'll say this right now. There's three points to this sermon, so that's point one.
17:19
The third point is going to be next week. And that's where we're going to focus on the identity of who is
17:26
Melchizedek. Because this is a very significant person in the Bible, and we need to take a whole Sunday to concentrate on this man,
17:33
Melchizedek, and why he's important. But anyway, so this is the first point.
17:38
Now this is the second point. The second example that you must take note of is that a godly king welcomes
17:44
Abram, worthy of emulation. So this second king is worthy of emulation.
17:51
What we will see in this point is the generosity demonstrated by the other king, the king of Salem known as Melchizedek.
18:02
Now you may have come here today wondering who is the identity of this man, because I left that cliffhanger at the end of the sermon last week.
18:10
Who is Melchizedek? He's kind of a mystery man in the Bible, and there have been many theories drawn up about his identity.
18:18
Is he Jesus? Is he an angel? If not these, what is his relationship to Jesus?
18:25
We are going to get to that in our third point, as I just mentioned, next week. But what we're going to focus on here is the contrast between his holy behavior with the sinful behavior that we just saw from the king of Salem.
18:40
And then I will show you the application of godly behavior we should follow. So let's begin with a surface -level understanding of this man that tells us of his holy character.
18:52
Verse 18 describes this other king who meets Abram as the king of Salem, and according to Jewish tradition,
19:00
Salem is the old name for Jerusalem. So eventually over time, Jerusalem replaces the name of Salem.
19:07
And actually if you look at the word Jerusalem, what's the last part of that word? It's Salem. So you can see why that tradition is there.
19:16
And the word Salem means peace. This priest from Salem is named
19:22
Melchizedek. And in order to understand a little bit about this man, we need to break down his name.
19:28
So we saw that Salem means peace. The first part of his name, Mel, means king.
19:36
So if you break down the meaning of his name, it's king of peace. Melchizedek.
19:44
And he is the first mention of a priest in the Bible. If you read the
19:50
Old Testament, you're going to see a lot about priests. He is the first one who is mentioned as a priest in Scripture.
19:58
The Levitical priesthood, which is the well -known priesthood in the Old Testament, would come about 500 years after this, in the time of Moses.
20:09
But this man precedes this centuries before, and he is a priest from God.
20:16
I guess that's fascinating. There's a priest before the Mosaic priesthood? Well, he's a priest.
20:23
I don't think there is a priesthood, but I think he's an isolated priest that was just serving on behalf of God.
20:30
In later Israel, priests would have been the chief ones to deliver a blessing. And that's what
20:36
Melchizedek would do here. But the first thing he does is greet
20:41
Abram the proper way, in contrast to the king of Sodom. Remember, the king of Sodom spoke abrasively by saying, give me the persons, but take the spoil for yourself.
20:55
This man Abram just brought all the residents from Sodom and all their possessions, and that's how the king of Sodom greeted him.
21:04
He was probably alarmed by how he was greeted. But the king of Salem, Melchizedek, is much different.
21:12
Instead of saying, give me, the king of Salem brings out bread and wine to Abram and the others.
21:18
This is what we'll see in verses 18 and the beginning of 19. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
21:26
He was priest of God most high, and he blessed him and said,
21:31
Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.
21:38
So this meal that Melchizedek brings to Abram and his men would have been welcomed.
21:45
They were on this long journey home from defeating the kings of the north, and Melchizedek, out of his kindness, brings a meal out to them as he greets them.
21:58
What the king of Salem is doing is honoring those who deserve to be honored. They just defeated the bad guys.
22:06
And the king of Salem, who heard about their heroics, shows his gratefulness by providing this meal.
22:14
Melchizedek reflects godly character here. He sets us an example that we should follow. He shows honor to those who deserve honor.
22:24
There is objective godly character that should show in the people of God. Where you look at any person who calls themselves a
22:32
Christian, and you say, this person knows God because of the way that they live, because of the way that they treat me.
22:43
That was lacking. That was absent in the king of Sodom. But the king of Salem has that because he knows
22:50
God. We should reflect this too as followers of Jesus Christ.
22:58
And specifically what the king of Salem does here is he shows his gratitude by honoring. The verse
23:03
I read in the call to worship was Romans 12 .10. It says, Do we do that here at Eureka?
23:13
Do we outdo one another in showing honor? We should. Romans 13 .7 says,
23:23
This is something Christians should specifically do for those who deserve it. As Melchizedek does here by showing honor to Abram who deserved to receive honor.
23:36
Do you show honor to your mayor? The military who defends your freedoms? The police?
23:43
How about those who disagree with you but do it in a respectful manner? Do you show honor to fellow
23:49
Christians? Especially to those whose faith you admire? One thing
23:55
I've enjoyed being here, I've been here about a year, is hearing the people at this church talk about Elvin and Susan.
24:04
It's been a pleasure just to hear the words of honor that come out as people talk about them.
24:10
And you know what? They're worthy of honor because of their long legacy of faithfulness at this church.
24:17
And so we should show honor to them. It pleases the Lord to do such a thing. And when you thank those who do something honorable or live lives that are honorable, the
24:30
Lord is pleased with that. Godly people show honor to those whom honor is due.
24:37
That's a characteristic. I mentioned there's a godly character that every believer has. And that's one way that is demonstrated.
24:44
And this is what Melchizedek does to Abram. He shows him honor by bringing him the gift of a meal and by blessing him with the words,
24:51
Blessed be Abram by God most high. He's declaring something that Abram already has.
25:00
He knows that Abram is blessed and he's saying, You are blessed by God. And he vocalizes this.
25:07
This is a benediction, by the way. I do that sometimes at the end of the service. A benediction is not a prayer.
25:15
It's words of blessing that you speak on behalf of the Lord. And those words that you're speaking are already true of that person.
25:25
And today we're going to close the service with a benediction. And so I look forward to doing that. But Melchizedek here is showing honor to Abram by bringing him this meal and by giving him this benediction.
25:39
And he also shows honor to the one who is most worthy of honor. And that is
25:45
God. Verse 20, And blessed be
25:51
God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
25:58
The king of Salem recognizes who was behind the military victory. If God was not behind Abram and his men, they would have lost.
26:08
But they won. God was the one who enabled this small force to overtake
26:14
Kedarlamer and the kings of the north. Remember, these kings defeated everybody in their path. And then
26:20
Abram gathers up this relatively small army and they defeat them because God was with them.
26:28
And when we honor people, we should always honor God as we honor them. It is his work in these people that makes one deserving of honor.
26:38
Well, from time to time, occasions come where we should honor people. We should always be honoring the
26:45
Lord. Every second of every day is an appropriate time to honor the Lord. Revelation 4 .11
26:51
says, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
27:01
That's people singing in heaven to the Lord. In verse 20,
27:07
Melchizedek sets this example for us. He realizes who was behind this military victory over the kings of the north, and he gives the
27:16
Lord the honor that he is due. So he doesn't just stop by giving honor to Abram.
27:22
He also gives honor to the Lord. And so we should practice both of those. Honor to people who deserve honor, and always honor to the
27:31
Lord. So this godly character that we see in Melchizedek, the king of Salem, we should emulate.
27:38
And as we see godly character demonstrated by this king, Abram also returns the favor.
27:45
He also demonstrates godly character here. If you look at the end of verse 20, it says that Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
27:58
Now this is interesting. Remember the king said, give me, and he gave him the people, but he kept the possessions, and now
28:08
Abram is the one who is giving. Abram is the one who is showing generosity here.
28:16
Now do you wonder where tithing comes from? It comes from the Old Testament, and this is the first mention of a tithe.
28:23
I say that word during the offering sometimes. A tithe means ten percent. And the
28:30
Israelites in the Old Testament were commanded by God to give ten percent of everything they had to the
28:36
Lord. Now this sermon is not about tithing, but I'll talk a little bit about that here in a second.
28:45
In this verse, Abram blesses Melchizedek by giving him ten percent of everything he had. So everything he gathered from the kings of the north, that military victory that they just had, he's giving ten percent of this to Melchizedek.
29:00
Abram shows generosity. He did not need to do this, but gladly he did.
29:07
So the king of Salem gave to Abram, and Abram gives in return.
29:15
You know what Acts 20 .35 says? This is a quotation from Jesus. It's the only quotation, by the way, from Jesus outside of the four
29:23
Gospels. It's in Acts 20 .35, and what Jesus said is that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
29:32
And if you've been generous in your giving in the past, you know what that's like. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
29:40
And that word blessed means happy. You are more happy when you give than when you receive.
29:47
And this is something we need to model at Eureka. We should be generous with one another.
29:52
If someone has a need, we should give. And if you want to show your gratefulness to someone, give him or her a gift.
30:02
And most of all, we should be generous to the Lord. And as I mentioned, this is not a sermon on giving and what that looks like, but I should mention it here, and I will.
30:13
As one of God's people, God expects you to give to the advance of the Gospel. So to give to the advancement of the
30:23
Gospel. The Lord has put this church here to minister to the people in this community, and our church would not be able to do ministry in this community without your giving.
30:33
And so we appreciate your generosity, and so does the
30:38
Lord. It says the Lord loves a cheerful giver. So when you give, you are giving to the
30:44
Lord and His work in this area. And we use those resources for the advancement of the
30:50
Gospel. So we're not a business, we're a church, and we function to serve others, to build up the body of Christ, to build up the
31:02
Gospel in this community. And so, yeah, that's what we need to know when we give.
31:07
That's what you're giving toward. So in Abram's return from battle, we have seen two kings that came out to meet him, the king of Sodom and the king of Salem.
31:18
One demonstrated ungodly behavior, and the other showed godliness. And Abram, too, shows godliness in his generosity.
31:27
And so our big idea, our proposition today, is that in Abram's journey home, we are to take note of the character of two kings for your spiritual benefit.
31:40
And the first king we saw, the first example, is that he is confronted by an ungodly king, unworthy of emulation.
31:47
And the second example we just saw is that a godly king welcomes
31:53
Abram worthy of emulation. So this wraps up our sermon for today, the first two points.
32:03
And so we need to model the king of Salem and his generosity. And so next week, what we're going to do is we're going to look at Melchizedek.
32:11
We already saw him introduced today. And he's mentioned in two other places in the
32:17
Bible. He's mentioned in Psalm 110, verse 4. It says, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
32:25
And then he's also mentioned in Hebrews, a New Testament book, Hebrews chapters 5 through 7.
32:31
The author of Hebrews talks extensively about this man. And so we're going to look a lot at Hebrews next week to figure out who he is and why he's important in the pages of Scripture and why he's important for us to understand.
32:45
So let's pray. Father in Heaven, as we close here, everything in the
32:54
Bible, Lord, is meant to teach us. Everything in the Bible is meant to be lived out.
33:01
Romans 12 .2 says that the Word of God is supposed to transform us.
33:08
And the way that that is done is by the renewing of our mind. We take these truths in, we understand them, and then the
33:16
Holy Spirit uses them to change us. And so I pray that that would happen to each one here at Eureka.
33:23
That we would be people who are full of the Holy Spirit. That we are people who have Bible running through our veins.
33:30
That we would live this out. And so Lord, we pray for this, this morning.