We'll be in Genesis 14 this morning.
We will continue in Genesis. Well, next week we'll deviate
from Genesis and then then two weeks after that we'll have two
more messages in Genesis and then we will take a break from
Genesis for the summer. So kind of doing a basics of the
faith kind of kind of series is what we'll be doing for the
summer. So we tend to have a very
specific image of who Abram is. Sunday school songs like Father
Abraham imprinting to our minds, images of an old grandpa beard
down to his chest and and barely able to walk around.
Right. Like if I say Abraham, that's
probably who you picture right now here Abram is 75 or or 80
years old. So he has a few years on him,
but he's got a lot of years and life left in him.
This passage is a dramatic pivot in the life of Abram.
It moves from the quiet, pastoral scenes of the previous
chapter up with with his life up in Haran, into a geopolitical
conflict that that actually highlights Abram's transition
from being a peaceful nomad to a warrior priest who acts with
both tactical precision and spiritual conviction.
I remember a few years back when I first realized what was
happening here in this chapter, I was stunned and I thought what
he did what I can't believe he did that this chapter is so cool
and I think it should be turned into like an epic movie.
I I think it would be make an excellent movie.
Now, there's a lot that'll happen this morning before the
focus of our chapter. And I will I will tell you all
that we won't read all those verses.
But if you're able, would you stand as we read from our
primary passage this morning? So we're in Genesis 14 and we
will pick up at verse 17 is where we will read through the
end of the chapter. After his return from the defeat
of Ketter Lemaire and the kings who were with him, the king of
Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shave.
That is the King's valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,
and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham by God Most
High, Possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most
High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.
And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but
take the goods for yourself. 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 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. Let Aner, Eshkol and Mamre take
their share. You may be seated.
This is what we'll call the War of the Kings.
This chapter opens with a a ton of names and locations which I
would venture to say most of us would have no idea about.
Say for a few like Shinar, Sodom and Gomorrah perhaps even Zoar.
The short of it is this there were 4 kings from Babylon and
and what are now Iran and Turkey and one of one of these 4 kings
Ketter Lemaire had he had vassals in Canaan.
These cities were were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zebowheim and
Bella or Zoar. Ketter Lemaire was was from
beyond Mesopotamia. I thought I had is there not a
map? OK there we go.
OK it helps because like when I read this stuff just goes over
my head. It helps me understand when I
put a picture to it. So then I can see obviously we
have the Jordan River Valley, Canaan, the little purple
section, and these kings came from these other brown regions
that you see. So, so they're from these other
regions. Ketter Lemaire is all the way
from, from the east, the Elamite Kingdom, and he has these
vassal, these vassal city states all the way over in Canaan,
which is a long ways away, probably closer to a close to
1000 miles. So these, these kingdoms, they,
they banded together and, and it was expected that each of these
city states would, would pay tribute to these kingdoms.
Well, for 12 years they had served King Kedra Lemaire, but
in the 13th year, they decided to cast off the restraints of
oppression and and they rebelled against him.
No, we're not going to pay you tributes.
Obviously, King Kedra Lemaire didn't take too well to this.
So in the 14th year he got he got these friends together, he
got these kings from Shinar, El Assar and Goem to join him in
subduing the people of Canaan. Now we don't know exactly why
they decided to join the king since the text doesn't tell us,
but it may have been just about making sure the people in Canaan
didn't get too big for the for their britches didn't start to
think too much of themselves. So these 4 kings went on a
rampage all throughout the land of Canaan.
Now here you can see them entering from from the northeast
here on the map. They conquered numerous cities
east of the Jordan River Valley all the way down towards the
Dead Sea and further South, then back up north towards the city
that would become Jerusalem. These kings were terrorizing the
people of the land. The people of the Jordan River
Valley had had had enough and they and they wanted to put a
stop to these kings. What were what were the
Canaanites thinking? Those were four large kingdoms
who had all allied together to invade the region.
And these were just small city states, nothing like the larger
empires that had that had borne down on them.
The cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboeman, Bella, Zoar,
all assembled in the valley near the near the salt Sea, the Dead
Sea, because they decided they were going to take on this
massive army and show them who's boss.
To be honest, it looks like foolishness and well, things
didn't go according to plan. Well for these, for these 5
kings, that is, they were getting routed.
And as they were getting routed, they began to run away.
And as they ran away, the text tells us that some of them fell
in bitumen pits or, or tar pits, which I'm sure most of us
haven't seen. But when I was in a young boy,
when I was a young boy, I got to go to the La Brea tar pits.
We were living in the LA area at the time and we went to the La
Brea Tar pits on a school field trip.
It was quite intriguing and I specifically remember the Saber
toothed tiger replicas that they had there.
As a little boy, I thought they were the coolest thing.
Tigers are cool anyways. And then you have the Saber
toothed tiger that was even more cool.
Now, a tar pit is a spot where crude oil has seeped up to the
Earth's surface. Some of its lighter components
evaporate away in, and what's left is a thick, sticky asphalt.
These are natural death traps and can sometimes actually be
covered in water. An unsuspecting animal, like a
mammoth would approach what it thought was a drinking hole and
it would get stuck. And as they get stuck they begin
to flail about trying to trying to free themselves and in the
process they catch the attention of of a predator like the Saber
toothed tiger. Not one to pass on an easy meal,
the tiger jumps on the mammoth that is stuck in the tar pit.
What happens? They both get stuck and they
remain there forever. They don't sink, they actually
end up dying by starvation is what actually happens because
they just are stuck there. The Dead Sea region had tar
pits. My understanding is that there
are still a bit of tar in the region, and that the Dead Sea is
continually seeping these these asphalt clumps up to the
surface. It sounds like apparently when
the men of Sodom and Gomorrah fled from the foreign armies,
some of them got stuck in these tar pits, presumably losing
their lives, while while others they they literally headed for
the hills just trying to get out of there.
And when this happened, Sodom and Gomorrah were left
completely unprotected. And when the and since they were
unprotected, the invading armies took everything from these
cities. All their possessions were gone.
They also took Lot Abrams nephew and in all his possessions with
them and, and they departed towards the north.
You see, they'd come down the east side of the of Canaan on
the east side of the Dead Sea and then headed back north.
And they, after they had met these armies where it says Sodom
and Gomorrah there at the top of the Dead Sea, after they had
defeated the armies there, they headed back north to go home.
So they had taken lots and and all he had everybody with him.
They had taken them all. So that's the background to the
excitement of the second-half of our text.
So next we see Abram's encounter with with kings.
Fortunately, one of the men had escaped.
He escaped and and he went and and he told Abram that that his
nephew had been taken. Abram at the time was living
near the oak trees where Mamre had taken up residence.
Mamray and his brothers were were allies of Abram and you can
see Mamray there on the West side of the Dead Sea near
Hebron. They were allies of of Abrams
and and when Abram found out Lot had been taken, he gathered his
troops to go out to rescue Lots. There were 318 trained men in
Abrams army. That means Abrams entire
household likely would have numbered well over 1000 when you
consider that there were 318 trained men ready to do battle.
Abram had continually been blessed even in spite of Lot
having chosen the better land. As Abrams force went marching
out they they headed north in in hot pursuit of the marauders.
They got all the way to Dan, which is just north of the Sea
of Galilee. Dan was well over 100 miles from
from Abram's home near the oaks of Mamrie, but his men had moved
fast and they were able to catch up to these large forces in Dan.
When Abram got there, he he split up his army into smaller
militias and then using guerrilla warfare, attacked the
armies of Ketter Lemare at night.
And side note, this wasn't just Abram sending the trained men
into into battle into this attack.
No, Abram and his servants actually were part of the
attacking militias. They were involved in the
attack. That's a different picture of
Abram, I think than than most of us normally have.
Right. I don't, I don't think when we
picture Abram, we think of a general type person going into
battle, but that's who he is. Ketter Lemaire's armies quickly
tried to flee from Abrams forces.
Abram could have had his militia pull back.
OK. We we, we, we scared them.
We sent them on their way. No, that's not that's not Abrams
plan here. No, we're going to continue
chasing them another 50 miles all the way to Hoba.
So they wanted to make sure that they were not going to come
back. Abram show these enemies the
door and made sure that they they wouldn't be tempted to
return back to Canaan. He'd gone all out to guarantee
the safety of his kin. He returned back to Dan and he
brought back lots, all his possessions and all the people
who had been taken hostage. This is an absolutely fantastic
story. It definitely paints Abram in a
different light, right? He's not the frail old man that
that we might picture. He's a fierce warrior and
protector of his family. This is all background for this
moment, this this section of the text that has inspired many,
many questions over the years. The next king Abram interacts
with is the king of Saddam, and we see him in verses 17 and 21
through 24. As we consider this king, it's
important to remind ourselves that the kings in this region
weren't like the other kings who had invaded Canaan.
These kings were more like governors or mayors or generals
or something more like that. Their rule is usually confined
to the city level, and verse 17 picks up with Abram and everyone
returning and gathering in the valley of Shave, the King's
Valley. And this valley is later called
the Kidron Valley, and it lies just east of what is now the
Jerusalem Temple Mount. And this valley serves as a
divider between the city and the Mounts of Olives, Abram and the
entire entourage of armed forces as well as the rescued hostages.
This is hundreds of people were there in the King's valley in
Bera. The king of Saddam went out to
meet Abram. Presumably the king king of
Saddam wanted to thank Abram for for helping in in rescue Lot and
the others as well as thanking him for sending the enemy
scampering away. If we skip down to verse 21, we
see what he said to Abraham. He says give me the person's but
take the goods for yourself. The king was simply saying you
can keep everything all, all the goods and possessions for
yourself, but give me back the people that you rescued.
Abraham's response is a bit surprising because it was
customary to receive some sort of payment for your services
when working to protect and and help people.
For example, in First Samuel 25, David asked Nabal for
compensation because David's men had protected Nabal's flocks
when they were out in the wilderness.
They had protected Nabal's shepherds.
Now, Nabal didn't respond appropriately.
If you want to hear all about that, check out the message that
I delivered exactly 1 year ago for Mother's Day.
Fortunately, Nabal had a wonderful wife who saved his
life, but compensation would have been expected in these
circumstances. Abram's response wasn't
expected. Verses 22 through 24 but Abram
said to the king of Sodom, I've 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 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.
Let Anaire, Eshkol and Mamre take their share.
Abram had previously sworn an oath that that he wouldn't take
any compensation. This was signaled by by the
raising of his hand to Yahweh. It may well have gone something
like this. God, if if you do this, if you
will give me victory in this task, then I I won't accept
payment for it. Not even a string or a sample.
The the smallest, most minuscule payment fathomable.
I won't take anything now. Abram's oath was an expression
of trust in Yahweh's blessing. Abram's oath was an expression
of trust in Yahweh's blessing. Abram was fully on track here in
this episode. He had complete trust in Yahweh
and he acted out of that conviction.
To turn down the payments he was rightfully due was a
demonstration that he was trusting Yahweh.
Abram wasn't trusting in riches. That's not what he was after.
Trust in riches, after all, only leads to folly and foolishness.
Proverbs 11/4 tells us riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.
Abram's trust was in Yahweh, and he wasn't about to let the the
king of Sodom take any credit for contributing to his own
personal wealth. Abram's riches were from one
source only, and that was God. The next king we meet here in
the valley is the king of Salem. The Salem is just uphill from
the King's valley and is the city that would one day be
called Jerusalem. These kings and Abram were all
gathered right there between Salem and the Mount of Olives.
So it's to be expected that the king of Salem would make an
appearance reading at verse 18. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,
and he blessed him and said, 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.
And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.
This king, he has a name. His name is Melchizedek.
Melchizedek means king of righteousness.
Plus, he's the king of Salem, which means peace.
This means Melchizedek is both king of righteousness and king
of peace. He's both king of righteousness
and king of peace. Now, being the king of
righteousness means that Melchizedek was looking to
establish right living and justice.
Presiding as king over a place called peace was something
cutting edge in their tumultuous culture in times.
Consider the fact that violence and war were the law of the land
in their era, not peace. So it's quite a surprise that
Abram encountered a priest of God Most High in this part of
the world, in Canaan, a place filled with evil people.
When when Melchizedek came down to meet Abram, he brought bread
and wine. He brought bread and wine.
Now sure, of course these items existed beforehand, but here the
bread and wine are brought together for the very first time
in Scripture. In the ancient Near East, it was
common for allies to bring food to the leader of an army as an
offering of peace, declaring peace between the the two
entities, the two parties. Now our vision is is filtered
through the cross and and our New Testament understanding.
So when we read about the bread and wine, our minds immediately
go to the Lord's Supper, the communion, right the offering of
Jesus body, his body, the bread, his his blood, the wine is what
brings us peace. Hebrews 922 tells us that
without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of
sin, no peace between God and man.
The bread and wine service symbols of Jesus body broken and
and his blood spilled to bring US peace.
They foreshadow Melchizedek bringing out the the bread and
wine foreshadows Passover and what Jesus would do.
So peace was being established between Melchizedek and Abram.
Then Melchizedek blessed Abram, then Melchizedek blessed Abram.
In verse 19 we we read his words of blessing.
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. Now if we're not careful, we
might miss a couple things in relation to this blessing.
Just gloss over it. First, not to state the obvious,
but Melchizedek blessed Abram. This is significant for a
reason, because blessing, you see is conferred by a superior.
This is the pattern we see in the Old Testament.
A blessing is given by someone who is in a position of
spiritual authority over another person.
A person of lower spiritual authority doesn't bless someone
of higher spiritual authority. So here Abram is demonstrated to
be of lower spiritual authority than Melchizedek, for example,
making this personal. In our lives each day, day,
year, each year on the first day of school, we would sit down as
a family and I would proclaim or read the the ironic blessing
over my children as they would head off to school.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine
upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace. I would proclaim that over them.
I'll tell you it was very difficult to do as a father
proclaiming a blessing over your children.
Often it just, I'd be barely be able to get the words out
because it's just such a moving moment.
But, and I'm doing that as the spiritual authority, the
spiritual head of my home. So it is someone from a higher
position of spiritual authority who blesses someone else.
So that is exactly what happened here.
Now stop and consider the fact that Abram will become one of
the most significant figures in all of history, one of the most
significant figures in all of history, and yet here he is
receiving a blessing from this mysterious king.
Melchizedek confers this blessing on Abram, essentially
stepping in as mediator between God and Abram.
And Jesus is the one who who mediates between God and
humanity and confers the ultimate eternal blessing.
First Timothy 25 says, for there is one God and there is one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
So Melchizedek had stepped into the role of spiritual head and
mediator between God and Abram. Now second second thing to take
note of here is that Melchizedek has a strong and well developed
understanding of who God is. He referred to him as God most
High, possessor of heaven and earth.
The words being used here are El El Yan which is Upper High God.
This is emphatic in the Hebrew. Yahweh is the upper, most high,
highest God there is, and he's the possessor of heaven and
earth. The one who holds earth and
heaven in his hands is the same one who delivered Abraham's
enemies into his hands, and Yahweh is the one who controls
all of it. Melchizedek is a special king, a
king of righteousness and peace, bestowing blessing on Abram and
and familiar with Yahweh. Then Melchizedek goes quiet.
Just as quickly as he'd uttered this blessing, suddenly he's
gone. His words are gone, that is.
And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.
So Abram responded to Melchizedek by offering a tithe.
A tithe is, strictly speaking, a tithe is 10%.
Abram gave this priest a tithe. You might be thinking, hold up,
what do you mean he offered a tithe?
We're still 500 years from from the law being written and and
the tithe being implemented. So how how is it that he's
offering a tithe? Well, let's consider 2 primary
reasons for making such an offering to God.
The first reason we offer gifts to God is because of who He is.
He's worthy of the gifts we offer to Him.
God is the Creator. He's the He's the life giver,
the one who sustains and holds it all together.
God the Father sent God the Son into the world to make things
right and provide a way for us to have a relationship with Him.
He's worthy of everything we could possibly give back to Him.
And here Abram offered gifts to this priest, God's
representative on earth, because God possesses all things and was
the one who delivered victory against the foreign invading
armies. Abram offered this tithe to
someone who was worthy of it. It wasn't demanded of him.
Melchizedek doesn't ask him for a tithe, but Abram offers it
because he's worthy. The second reason to offer a
tithe they're offering is out of gratefulness.
We give offerings out of gratefulness to God.
When Paul writes about the cheerful giver in Second
Corinthians 97, there's there's an undergirding of gratefulness
in the entire passage. Giving by compulsion because you
have to isn't a demonstration of gratitude.
Cheerful giving, though, is done out of recognition of the grace
and goodness God has poured into our lives.
Now talk more about giving later this summer.
I won't tell you which Sunday, so you can't be intentionally
gone for it. Giving is important to to our
Christian walk and discipleship, so it's important that we do
teach on it from time to time. Otherwise you will sell them
here about money from this pulpit.
Abram was grateful God had worked this miracle and allowed
his army to have success over the forces of these much larger
empires. So he offered this gift.
So the burning question, who is Melchizedek?
Is he just a priest king blessing Abram and receiving a
tithe on behalf of Yahweh? Or is this what we call a
Christophany, a pre Incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old
Testament? There's been much debate over
the years and it's difficult to say for sure.
I will tell you I lean towards this being a Christophany
because there are some things not only here in this passage
but also in Hebrews. There are things said about
Mechizadek that would be difficult to explain if it's was
related to someone who was just a normal human priest.
When we read Hebrews, we find he has no genealogy.
He doesn't have a beginning or end.
He was made like the Son of God and he continues as a priest
forever. All these things could be said
of Jesus Christ. He is the priest King who has
secured the blessing of God's promise for us.
He is provided for our peace, offering his body as the
sacrifice. We will have problems in the
world for sure, but we can hold fast to the promise of Jesus
Christ, our sure and steady anchor.
Jesus is the one worthy of our offerings and worship.
Jesus is the one who I believe appeared there in that moment,
blessed Abram and received that gift of worship back from Abram.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
Father God, we we come to you and we, we just thank you for
this opportunity to look into your word and, and consider this
special priest, Melchizedek, the King of righteousness, the the
King of peace. And we affirm our faith in Jesus
Christ, the, the King of righteousness, the King of
peace, the one who by his sacrifice, by his shedding of
blood on the cross has made peace for us.
When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we have peace with you
God. So we thank you, we thank you
God for providing that. And so we respond by offering
our lives of gifts of worship, not just our resources, as as
Abram did in this particular moment, offering his resources.
We do that, yes, but we offer more than just the financial
resources that you have given to us.
We offer our lives to you in worship because you are worthy.
It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.