Main idea: Place your trust and worship in God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth.
0:14
Good morning, faith, Bible Church, please open your Bibles to Genesis 14. Our passage for today, we're continuing our study, our series through the book of Genesis, and looking at the patriarch Abram, all the things that God did, the promise that he made, and how he keeps and fulfills that promise. Today we're going to be looking at warfare, war taking place in Genesis 14. Please stand with me as we read. We're going to read verses eight through 24 so I can skip some of the hard to pronounce names. There's plenty in the other verses. Trust me. So Genesis 14, eight through 24 then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of zeboim and the king of Bela, that is zoar, went out and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim with Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, title king of goyim, amraphel, king of Shinar and Aria, king of elas are four kings against five. Now, the valley of Sid was full of bitumen pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took lot the son of Abraham's brother who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions, and went their way. Then what would escape came and told Abram, the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite brother of eshkel and Anor these were allies of Abraham. When Abraham heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan and he divided his forces against them. By night, he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to Hobart, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman lot with his possessions and the women and the people. After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Sheva, 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 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. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself. But Abraham 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's 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 Einar Eshkol and Mamre take their share. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray, Lord, we confess that we are not our own Lord. We belong to you. You are the most high. You are the possessor of heaven and earth and we. Thank you so much for the privilege it is to be able to come week in and week out, and to be able to worship you at our worship services, Lord, thank you for the time that we've been able to be led and and singing and worshiping that way and worshiping by our gifts. And now, Lord, as we come to look to your word, this is worship as well. Lord, I pray that the way that I present this would be an act of worship to you. I pray for those sitting in the chairs that the way that they listen and seek to apply your word to their hearts would be an act of worship as well. Lord, you are powerful. Your word is sufficient, and you have much to say to us about ourselves and about you and your Word this morning, we thank you for local churches in Spokane who are faithfully proclaiming your word and shepherding people in a way that glorifies You, Lord. We lift up Christ our hope, bible church this morning, we thank you for them and their ministry. We pray for for John Smith as he preaches through Matthew this morning, for the other pastors, Brent and Zach and the elders there that you would just use their ministry. We pray that the people. There would be attentive and receptive to your word, and that they would go forth and make an impact in their communities and their spirits of influence, Lord, we thank You for the privilege of gathering together, and we pray that you would be with us now in Jesus name amen, please go ahead and have a seat.
5:22
The lust of Dominion has in all ages been too prevalent among men. The lust of Dominion has in all ages been too prevalent among men. Dominion lust is a thing, a desire for power, control, prominence, over people. Those words that I repeated twice were written by John Calvin, and they certainly ring true today, hundreds of years after his death. Like I said, Dominion lust is a thing, and it manifests itself in different ways from situation to situation. It could look like a nation deciding we want more territories. We want to take over that country and have that become our land. It could look like a person who just doesn't know how to stop talking and listen because they want the attention they want the spotlight on themselves. It could look like a sibling doing whatever he or she can to get the last cookie or the biggest cookie. It can manifest itself in ugly ways. Horrible conflicts can result when there's disagreement over who should have the Dominion. For instance, if I just came up to one of you after the service and said, Hey, from now on, you're gonna do what I say. You would look at me crazy, like I was crazy, and you'd probably laugh and you should, and you would hopefully disagree with me like, No, I don't think I'm going to I'm gonna have to take that up with God. The Dominion problem is one that goes back to the beginning. It's not a current problem. It goes all the way back to Genesis. God certainly desired for humanity to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the creatures of the earth. He certainly wanted that. But humanity has taken it too far. They took it from having dominion over the earth under God's rule to having autonomy from God and having dominion and prominence over other people. And we've seen that already in Genesis, from from Cain to to Lamech to the Nephilim, and Genesis six to lot last week, who preferred and chose the the better land, what appeared to be the better land anyway. And we're going to see that today as we look at some of the first Kings mentioned in the Bible. Humanity trusts in itself too much, and it worships the things that it can get from the world and from other people. But in Genesis 12, God made some promises to Abraham. He promised Abram that he would make a great nation from him, he promised that he would make Abraham's name great so that he would become a blessing to others. We're going to see that today him blessing others. He promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who dishonor him, and he would provide worldwide blessing. And you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And Abraham responded in faith. He left his home country and went where God showed him to go. He quickly had a crisis of faith when he went to Egypt. But in chapter 13, we see him becoming more faithful and more admirable in his character. In chapter 13, one of the most admirable things that we see him do is that tensions arise between the his herdsmen and the herdsmen of his younger nephew Lot. And rather than saying, you know what you're, my nephew, I've been taking care of you. You you go and need to go out on your own, he deferred to him and said, You know what you you take first pick. You take the land that you want, and Lot chose what seemed to him to be the better land, which we'll find out it was not. And as Abraham went his way and went west and tried to settle and find a place, God promised him that he would give his numerous descendants all the land that Abraham could see as he looked around today, we're going to see Abraham continue to continuing to live by faith, and we're going to see a stark contrast between his worshipful trust and those who just want more and more, those who have that Dominion lust. The big idea that I want to drive into your heads today is place your trust in worship and God Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth. Place your trust in him. He's the most high he possesses heaven and earth. And we're going to look at two stages of the Bible's first war story that will show you that God is powerful in trust. Worthy and worthy of honor and worship. Abram responds in faith again, knowing that he can trust those promises that God made and live worshipfully before him, and you too can trust Him and live worshipfully before him. He owns it all, and he's worthy of our respect. But like I said, we're going to look at two stages. The first one is war and rescue, and the second, worship and reward. Stage number one, war and rescue. There were four kings from the east. Better said, there was a chief king who had three allies who supported him, his underlings, but they were from the east, and that Chief King's name was Chedorlaomer, Keder not cheddar. Think Chaldeans, Christmas, Gilchrist, not Chaldeans. Not Christmas, not Gilchrist. I hope that helps right after I said that first service, I mispronounced the name, so I didn't say cheddar, though, but he was the chief of Elam. Elam was to the east, modern day Ian. It would become the center of the Persian Empire, and he was accompanied by fellow kings, amraphel, Arioch and title and these kings are not like the kings that we might imagine. They were more like warlords or chieftains over these smaller city state governments think more like gang warfare, territorial warfare, fighting to take over and protect their their neighborhoods, their towns and cities. But these four kings made war with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and three other kings who were kings of sister cities who lived nearby. Think of Spokane, Spokane Valley and then Mead, Colbert, Airway Heights. Think of it that way. Maybe they're all in the same area, the Sodom and Gomorrah area, and this war that they made was due to a reason. If you look at verse four, read that with me. It says, 12 years they the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah had served keterla Omer, but in the 13th year, they rebelled, these these kings living in this valley of Sodom and Gomorrah and the sister cities had been subjugated by Chedorlaomer and his allies. They were forced to serve Him, to pay tribute and taxes. And it says that they rebelled after 12 years of that, they had had enough, perhaps cater, sent an emissary or someone to collect taxes, and they said, you know, we're just not going to do that anymore. And so we don't know what we're to think of this for sure, but we do know the Dominion mandate in Genesis 128 said to have authority over the creatures of the earth. But never, if you read that, do you see God saying, Have dominion over one another, subjugate one another, because you're so powerful and great and privileged. But here we see that taking place. We see the king of Elam oppressing these kings, all these people that have been mentioned, came off of the same Ark. They all had common ancestors, and they should have been bound to assist one another, to do common good and mutual good for one another, and to call on the name of the Lord together. But instead we see one group subjugating the others, the other group rebelling. We see conflict. These five kings of the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah were not innocent victims. We don't get a lot of detail about what we did, but back in chapter 13, verse 13, we saw that the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. And so if the men are that way, what does that say about the kings and the leadership that they're giving and what they're doing or not doing about it? God laid out and outlined his desires for kings, for future kings, for Israel in Deuteronomy, 17, his desire was that the king would be someone who knew the law of the Lord and followed it and led his people in a way that they would follow it as well. The king would have a heart of service toward his people, not one of subjugation, and he would lead in righteousness. And these kings, as we'll see a little bit today, and as we get further into Genesis, we're very wicked. Both groups of Kings didn't meet God's standards whatsoever. So a year after this rebellion, when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah say, Enough, we're not paying tribute anymore, Chedorlaomer and his allies embark on a conquering came. Pain
15:01
Sodom and Gomorrah sat on a on a plane next to the Dead Sea to the southeast and south of it and to the east of Sodom and Gomorrah runs mountainous and hilly territory. There's a highway that runs through there, and Chedorlaomer and his allies came conquering down that way to the east of them, if you look at your notes, you'll see a map that we included that might help you to be able to see where they went. I found it helpful. I like maps, but it helps you see what they were doing and what they were trying to do. But they don't come to Sodom and Gomorrah right away. They start conquering other people groups. They they conquer the Rephaim and the the zoo and the Ian as they're coming down from the area of Damascus, through those through that mountainous area. And then they come to say here, which came to be known as Edom. And they continued conquering and going south all the way down to El peran, conquering the whole right people. And then they turned Northwest. The the four kings and their armies came to Kadesh, or in mishpat, the audience that Moses was writing to would certainly be familiar with Kadesh. Kadesh was the location where they grumbled and complained after going and after sending the 12 spies to go and spy out the land before they were to enter the promised land. And the people rebelled and said, It's too dangerous. It's too dangerous. We can't go there. And there they were cursed to wander for 40 years. They would certainly know that place, and this story that's being told would be significant to that audience that Moses was writing to as they were preparing to go back into that land. But Chedorlaomer defeated the Amalekites when he got to Kadesh, all these people groups were defeated. Defeated implies physical striking and violence. They subdued them by force and physical force. And the text doesn't say anything about why these kings of the East were using violence on these people, but I think that most likely he was just trying to to scare and terrify the rebellious kings who had stopped serving Him. If you look at the map, you see that they were making their way all around the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah, everywhere they looked the east, to the northeast, to the south and to the west, they had conquered the people around them. It gives you a sense of the foreboding that they must have felt as this conquering army was closing in on them, a message was being sent. This is what happens when you rebel against King Keter Leo mer. You see what happens. The battle seemed inevitable, as that army was now situated directly across the valley from Sodom and Gomorrah and so in verse eight, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, with the three allies, went out and they joined battle in the valley of siddham. To join battle means that they drew up a battle formation, some kind of a plan. It says there were four kings against five. We don't want to misinterpret that these were four kings of super powerful city states taking on these insignificant five kings. It's not like the game of basketball. I like basketball. It's five on five. When I was in high school, I was actually in a game where everybody fouled out. It was four on five for about a minute, and then another guy got a foul and it was three on five. It was a disadvantage, we lost. I hit a shot to tie the game. I mean, I'm proud of that. But anyway, it's not that kind of a disadvantage. There's there's not that disadvantage you're going to see, in fact, that the Four Kings had the upper hand, for sure. We can see that as we as we look at how the battle unfolds that these kings of Sodom and Gomorrah probably weren't the best planners or military scouts. They were close to home. They had the home field advantage in this valley of siddham. And verse 10 says that this valley was filled with bitumen pits, or tar pits. And you guys know tar it's a sticky liquid that hardens into asphalt, but tar pits actually can resemble water and swamps and ponds of water, and so they could have been mistaken for that, and then people got stuck in them. But you would think that this being their own territory, they would have known about that and come up with some kind of battle plan that involved them getting around those, or even using those to their advantage against the enemy. But when we get to the actual battle, we see that their plan was a complete failure. If you look at the second half of verse 10, if you have the ESV, it's after the first comma there it says in. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. The battle seems to be so one sided that the first thing that Moses says about them is that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. There doesn't even seem to be much of a fight. They flee, and as they do so, they do it in the most embarrassing fashion, falling into their own tar pits. Maybe they were just desperate to escape. Maybe they were panicked. We don't really know, but we know that it wasn't going well for these kings, and as the kings and warriors from Sodom and Gomorrah were either stuck in the pits or fleeing to the mountains and hills, Chedorlaomer and his allies went on a pillaging and kidnapping spree. They went into the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and took all their possessions and provisions, their equipment, their supplies and their food. But in verse 12, we see that they crossed the line. They stopped taking only possessions, and they took people too, and this would be their ultimate undoing. Verse 12 says they also took lot, the son of Abraham's brother, lot, I think, was most likely unarmed back home, wasn't participating in the battle, mainly because all of his possessions were taken to But as these kings and fighters of Sodom and Gomorrah are either fleeing or stuck in the tar pits, the kings of the east come in and pillage, conquer and kidnap, and they take lot in everything that he owns, and they went their way Chedorlaomer and his allies had gotten what they came for, and they were ready to journey back in triumph. But once their rating went from possessions to people, they they took on a problem that they didn't anticipate. That problem is this, I will bless those who bless you and Him who dishonors you, I will curse the son of Abraham's brother couldn't be protected by these weak kings of Sodom. But now for the rest of the story. In verse 13, one who had escaped came and told Abraham the Hebrew what had happened. Verses 12 and three or 13 are the first time that we get any mention of Abraham. But he enters the scene, and as he enters, so did the promises that God had made to him. This escapee from the battle journeyed all the way northwest to Mamre to tell Abraham what had happened to Lot. Abraham had been dwelling as a sojourner there among Amorite people, but they were his allies. And this is the first time that the word Hebrew gets used to describe a person in the Bible. Anytime that it's used, is described someone who is residing as a foreigner in a foreign place. And that was always the case with Abram, wherever he went after he left Ur of the Chaldeans, he wandered as a stranger and a sojourner, as a Hebrew. He was not at home. He met a guy named Mamre who owns some beautiful oak trees, and he allowed Abram to settle there. And this was no small piece of land as we'll we'll discuss in a minute. We'll discuss that in a minute. But Mamre had two brothers, aaner and eskel, who were allied with Abraham. Abraham wasn't just a tolerated guest. He was an ally. He was a partner in the community. He had a voice. He was important to these people there. These were people who bless Abram. God allowed them to be a blessing to him and him to them, and he settled among them. But when Abram hears that lot is kidnapped, he takes immediate action, and he leads forth his trained men, 318 of them, any of you footing a food bill for 318 people at home. That's a lot of people, and that had to be a lot of tents and a big piece of land that Ma was allowing him to use. But these 318 men had been born and raised in his house. One commentator says that these guys were more than just mercenaries or hired guns. They were, were people who had been raised in Abraham's household in the ways of Abraham by Abraham himself. They saw His character, His his faith, his his humility and his courage most of the time,
24:37
and they were willing to follow him into danger, to run through walls for him. I'm a big March Madness fan. College basketball is my jam. I like it. There's a coach that I just I admire him. I'm not a big fan of of the team until the tournament comes around, but his name is Tom Izzo, and he's been doing it for a really long time, and his. Players just play with a lot of grit, lot of intensity they fight. And you can see when you watch him interact with the players, and the players interact with him, that he really loves his guys, and his guys love him. And that's what I picture with Abram. This isn't just him paying people like, be my fighters, be my security. Like, there's a there's a great relationship there, and he's raised them in his household, and they're willing to go into danger. And this situation was certainly dangerous. We don't know the numbers that Chedorlaomer and his allies had, but it was probably more than 318 and whatever people that MA and his brothers could bring along, we'd seen the damage that they've done, how they conquered five kings, and as the the kings of the east made their way out of the territory they They probably went right through their neck of the woods leading a caravan of captives and piles of possessions. Abraham's men were most likely seriously outnumbered and overpowered, and they knew there was danger, but nevertheless, Abram mustered them up and they went with him, and they went as far as Dan. I think that Dan is on your map. It's a city to the far north that would have had a different name at the time of the story Laish, the name was changed to Dan. Dan would become one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and this city would be part of their allotted territory. Once Abram got to Dan, he divided up his men, and he set them against the enemy at night, and he went with one of those groups, and verse 15 says they not only defeated them, but they pursued them. They chased them out of the region, all the way to tehoba, north of Damascus. But most importantly, verse 16 shows that Abraham succeeded, and his chief objective retrieving lot, bringing him out of captivity, but he also rescued all the other people. They'd kidnapped other people as well and all the possessions. This was certainly a miraculous act of divine intervention. God blessing Abram and cursing those who Dishonored him by taking his nephew, we see the Lord's favor to Abram into lot, just by lots association with Abram. Lot was blessed to have an uncle who would go to war for him, and blessed that his uncle was blessed by God. We see how the Lord's blessing and how Abraham acted contrasts heavily with the way that the other kings acted. The kings in the first 10 verses were all about dominion and autonomy and having their way and getting more having more. But here we see Abraham, who's just focused on rescuing people. We see that blessing contrasted with the kings of the valley and how things went for them, Abram reacted quickly and decisively, and he strategized shrewdly with God's guidance, God's hand in the situation. The kings of Sodom had over a year to prepare for an invasion after this rebellion, to train people to to know and scout out the land, to watch out for tar pits. They probably had more men than Abram did, but they were defeated quickly and decisively. So what does this war story, this ancient war story, have to do with you and me? None of you are hopefully being pursued by people who want you to pay tribute to them. Hopefully, I don't think that that's the case for any of us, but maybe you are being controlled by your own selfish ambition and your desire for other things and for people to meet your needs and just wanting more and more. Do you think that people should serve you and meet your wishes and wants? Do you go on the war path when that doesn't happen or implode? Teenagers, I've got some teenagers in the room. Imagine it's Monday morning, and you are trying to get ready for school, and someone has the audacity to be in the bathroom before you what a horrible situation. Even worse, there's two bathrooms, and they're both being occupied. Do you make it known how those people and their present there is interfering with what you're trying to do. Little Kids, let's say your parents are allowing you to listen to music on the Alexa or the bluetooth speaker, and you're there with your brother and sister, and you're getting to take turns picking songs. You want it to be your turn, but it. Is just your turn, and now it's your siblings turn. They get a pick. They're going to pick a song that you don't like very much. Do you defer to them and let them have the opportunity, or do you complain and try to get another turn and make negative comments say bad things about the song that they pick? There's 1000s of ways where our agenda and what we want for ourselves can clash with the other people, even in our homes all around us, we have to ask ourselves, in what ways are we wanting control and dominion? Where is that Dominion lust taking over? None of you are having to pursue a conquering army to rescue someone, but maybe you find yourself being overwhelmed with the odds and the numbers, the load the culture college students you go to class each week and each day, and you hear your professors criticizing, mocking the faith that you believe in, and the the people that you love, and it hurts and it's discouraging, and every professor seems to say the same thing, and your classmates all seem to agree, and you feel overpowered and outnumbered like no one's going to agree. Everyone's just going to like, hate me if I say something. Do you remember that God promised to bring blessing to the world through Abraham, and that he's doing that now, and he continues to do that, and that if you are His child, you are experiencing that blessing. You are blessed now, and hopefully that encourages you to face your classes with courage and to go in and speak the truth in love to people who desperately need to hear it, to people who are held captive by the world system. Maybe God has a rescue mission in mind for you in your class or your workplace. Despite what we see and what the odds seem to be, God is always working to bring about his will, and Abram didn't let the what ifs of what could go wrong in chasing this conquering army interfere with doing the right thing. He went he trusted, and he acted on that trust. But next we're going to look at how he worshiped God after this battle, after the victory that he experienced. And that leads us to stage number two of the narrative, worship and reward. It's not just the victory that matters. It's what you do with it. I have to be honest, if I conquered the Eastern kings like Abram did and succeeded, and bring back all these captives, it'd be hard for me not to be a little proud of myself honestly, be walking around singing all I do is win hands go up, you know, or maybe even just a desire to come back and tell the people, the Kings, those failures and disgraces of kings, like, yeah, let me. Let me be the guy now. Let me be the one that protects you and watches over you. But we don't see that. We don't see that at all. From Abraham as he returns from the successful rescue and makes his way through a valley near ancient Jerusalem, the king of Sodom, who apparently knows that Abram had succeeded and was coming back. He knew that Abram was coming. He goes out to meet him. This valley is called the Valley of Sheva, the king's Valley, near ancient Jerusalem. But as he goes to to speak to Abraham, whatever he had to say, would would have to wait, because there was someone else, someone more prominent, coming out to meet Abraham as well. Look at verse 18 with me and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high now, Melchizedek is a mysterious figure in the Bible, but let's see what this verse, just at face value, says about him. It says he was the king of Salem, the the ancient name for Jerusalem, according to Jewish tradition, in the king's Valley, that valley of Shava
34:20
is is is nearby, and he's not only a king, but he was a priest. A priest King, priest of God. Most high a priest is one who represents God to the people and the people to God. It's one who goes between as a mediator or an intercessor. And It's unknown how he got his priesthood here, there's no origin story. He just comes from Salem and meets him out in the field. Very mysterious, but it says that he was priest of God Most High, a new name for God in Genesis, el eon, the God. Who is higher? Who's upper? He transcends. He's above every other created thing. He's the most high. El eon, it says that he came with bread and wine. It doesn't say what he did with those they're probably just luxurious items to give to Abraham and the returning soldiers. It probably reminds you of the Lord's Supper and some of the items that Israel would use and their worship that they offered to God, but there's no further description about what he does with those things. So it was probably just luxurious items that he brought for the returning soldiers. But his name literally means, my king is righteousness in the city that he represented. Salem is is peace. What a contrast that is to the nine kings that we saw in the first 10 verses, fighting, seeking dominion. What a reminder that that is in the midst of of evil and strife, that God has people who are upright and sincere, who who fear Him and serve Him, as Melchizedek was doing, people who seemingly come out of nowhere, people called on the name of the Lord before Abram. And that seems to be the case with this Melchizedek. Now there's debate about Melchizedek, whether he is a man or a theophany. If you don't know what a theophany is, a theophany is a physical appearing of Christ before he incarnated in the the Old Testament. Those are probably the two most common debated views. There's others. I'm not going to get into all those, but my answer is that he was a man who was a type of Christ. And I wanted to find type for you as well. A type is a picture of someone or something that comes later, foreshadowing, in a sense, and Scripture makes it clear that Jesus was the fulfillment of many types. He was the fulfillment of the temple, the fulfillment of the Passover lamb and the fulfillment of King David. And here, Melchizedek foreshadows a king, priestly order that would come, that had already come, that would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, King David, in Psalm 110 verse four anticipated this, as he prophesied about the coming Messiah, he says in Psalm 110 verse four, the Lord is sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Whoever this coming King would be this Messiah, he would also be a priest, a priest King, and that's what God wanted in his kings. If you want to read more about Melchizedek, I would commend Hebrews five and seven to you. They it has a lot to say in there, but the fact that there's no origin story and no end of life story from Melchizedek illustrates that his priesthood was one that was meant to endure and go on, and it was ultimately fulfilled and carried on eternally through Jesus, the eternal priest king. But Hebrews says that he was a great man. The historian Josephus attributes Melchizedek as being the founder of the city of Jerusalem. But let's hear what Melchizedek says and what Abraham hears from him, and what the king of Sodom hears from him. We don't know for sure what the king of Sodom was going to say. It might have been like man Abraham. Way to go. You're a beast on the battlefield. Way to go. Hey, amazing, amazing way to go. We don't really know. When Melchizedek shows up with the bread and wine, a king and a priest, it's like nothing he's ever seen. He's like, You know what? I'll wait you go ahead and go first, and Melchizedek gives a priestly and worshipful blessing representing God to the people? Look in verse 19, he says, Blessed be Abram by God, Most High possessor of heaven and earth. He doesn't say, Blessed be Abram for his military prowess, and how amazing that he conquered this mighty army and brought back captives and supplies. It's not like that at all. It's not like, Look at this guy. It's like, look at God. Blessed be this man by God, the possessor of heaven and earth. He is the one who's done it. It all belongs to him. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and that's why everything belongs to him. Some possess things temporarily because they buy it, acquire it or steal it, but God possesses everything rightfully because he created it. And that includes you, and that includes me. We are not our own. We belong to a faithful Creator. Be the possessor of heaven and earth. We shouldn't be looking for people to serve us. We should be serving Him. We should be pointing others to serve Him as well. In verse 20, Melchizedek switches the blessing to God, Most High. Read that with me and God. And he says, and Blessed be God, Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand again, and no talk of like Abraham. That was awesome, that whole divide and conquer by night. That was a brilliant strategy. Way to go. He's like no, Blessed be God who's given the enemy into your hand. He gift wrapped them for you. He handed them over and surrendered them. It was God's doing. It was God's doing. The rightful response to the success and the victory was to worship God by attributing it to him, by giving him the glory. So often, a lot of us like to hear the good things that people think about us. We like to hear that, or what we do. Well, I'm not saying that you can't ever compliment someone, or you can't receive a compliment. We long for that a lot of times, but God, the Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth, should be the one who gets the glory, not us. For you Star Wars nerds or fans, I'm, I'm, I'm a nerd. Sin comes in, pride comes in and it deactivates our deflector shield, our glory defect, deflector shield. We'd rather have those compliments and blessings stick to us rather than having them bounce off of us and go back to God. But that's not the way it should be. He's the one who's worthy of all glory and honor, and Melchizedek properly represents God to the people and says you're you're not as big of a deal as you think. It's actually about God who possesses everything. He helps Abram and the king of Sodom see that worship is the rightful response to victory, but Abraham's attitude toward reward is also appropriate. Here look at the second half of verse 20 after Melchizedek gets done talking, says, and Abraham gave him a 10th of April of everything. This is the first tithing that we see in the Bible. A 10th is it means a tithe. A tithe means 10% and Abram is starting a pattern and a precedent that was followed by his grandson Jacob in Genesis 28 when he vows to give a 10th of what he has to God. Abraham had just heard that everything belongs to God. He's the one who possesses it. He's the one who creates it and sustains it. It's all his. Blessed be him. And Abraham, in response, gives a 10th of his possessions to Melchizedek, who is representing God to the people. It's easy to become greedy and stingy with money. And that could be if you're someone who struggles with with giving to God, tithing and giving offerings. It can be easy to just not trust and think, you know, this is mine. I worked hard for this. Or we think about the what ifs, am I going to have enough for this down the road if I give money to God? But God, the possessor of heaven and earth, is the one who gives every single one of us the ability to go out and earn and all those things are rightfully his, and we should thank him by giving back to him. So Abram sets a good precedent and model here that we can follow. And so that's my question for you. How are you honoring God with what he gives you with, with the resources? It's fascinating to me that this is the first thing that Abraham does after returning from victory, as he gives a 10th to the Lord. We don't see him
44:02
being stingy with it. We don't see him worrying about, well, what if the conquering army comes back and takes everything? Well, I have enough. He gives. He is in awe of who God is, and wants to give accordingly. Now, a 10th is a good principle for us, for those of us who give, but it's not an absolute for some people to give 10% might be a hardship, but I would, I would say just personally, this is me personally, that you should strive to build to that point. If it's a hardship for some people, 10% might be chump change. I don't know if you know what that means, just, just not a lot of money, insignificant, okay, we need to give to God with what he gives. Second Corinthians, 97 is a great principle and verse, it says each one must give as he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Abraham was. Moved by what God had done for him and who Melchizedek said that God was and he wanted to give. So I'd encourage you, if you're not doing that, it's a blessing to be able to trust God and to honor him with what he gives us. So I'd encourage you to do that. Well, after this exchange with Melchizedek, the king of Sodom finally speaks and says what he was going to say to Abram. Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself. I just, I think of a shady guy, so I had to give him a shady voice. Don't really know what's going on there. It's interesting. I think that he's seeing the Abram come back and like, wow, this guy, when he conquered that mighty army, and he has this Ely on deity on his side, I think I want to buy this guy and have him on my side. I want to align myself with him. He says, let me just have my people back, but but take all the possessions. Abraham's responses is powerful. He says, I have lifted my hand to the Lord God, Most High possessor of heaven and earth, that I would take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me. Let Anner, eshcol and Mamre take their share. Abram had given some thought to this before he was tempted by the king of Sodom. With all these possessions and this offer for further riches, he says, I have lifted my hand to the Lord. I have vowed to the Lord that I'm not going to let some wicked, sinful King be the one who can take any credit for my success whatsoever. I'm not going to let him do that. This was premeditated on his behalf. It's not a knee jerk reaction. He had made that vow, and he's proactive about it. One commentator says, by his oath, the patriarch affirms his faith in the Lord who will bless him. He will not be indebted in any way to the foreign king for his success, lest he boast that he made Abram rich. Abram knew what we too would be wise to know that it's foolish to trust in riches, and even more foolish to to get rich off of wickedness. First, Timothy 617 Paul is given instructions to Timothy, who was in charge of the churches of of Ephesus, and he told Timothy to caution people about the dangers of riches. First, Timothy 617, says, As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, arrogant because they have a lot, nor to set their hopes on the certainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Abraham's heart was not set on riches. He was not hoping in riches. He was not looking to what a wicked king could give him. He's trusting in God. He's enjoying what God has already given him, and trusting that he'll continue to provide Abram next shows concern for the men who are with him. He wanted them to be fed and taken care of, including mammary and his brothers. He had the opportunity to get more. Had the opportunity to have his supplies replenished after giving that 10th but instead he he gives to God and refuses the King of sodoms possessions. He was trusting in God's promises to him, his reward was his relationship with the most high the object of his worship. So have you placed your hope and trust in God, Most High the possessor of heaven and earth? Abraham lived peacefully among the Amorite allies, leading a loyal group of men, appearing to live in faithfulness, and he only got engaged in the conflict when there was a good cause. There was no selfish motive, desire for Dominion or gain simply to rescue his nephew and other people. Abram had to have been trusting in God powerfully to be able to go after such a vicious military to try to rescue his nephew, we've seen the stark contrast between the kings in the first part of chapter 14 in Melchizedek, the priest king who seems to come out of nowhere when the others represent war and rebellion, he represents righteousness and peace. When others are trying to flaunt their power, he gives credit to God. All the glory to Him. He reminds everyone present and us today, as we read it, that it's God who possesses all things, not us, not any other man or woman. Melchizedek was. The first priest king who would lead his people in righteousness and represent God to the people and the people to God. But Jesus came to be the fulfillment of what Melchizedek typified or foreshadowed. Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life, a sinless life, and He died for those who just want their own autonomy and dominion, those who seek after getting more and more from the world. He died, and he died willingly as a pleasing sacrifice to God. He was so holy and perfect that he resurrected, and he ascended to heaven, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for sinners. Today, you can repent of Your Dominion, seeking Your Dominion, lust, and confess that God is the Most High, the possessor of all things. And you can trust in Him, and you can find forgiveness and hope in Him, and you can live your life and trust and worship and experience blessing. Do you seek reward when you do something good, like I've worked really hard. I've had a hard week. I deserve this. People better not get in the way of this. I'm going to have this at all costs. Do you seek praise from people. Are you able to deflect when you get that and allow the glory be given to God, where the most that you could say of yourself is that I'm a man or woman blessed by God to Him be the glory? Do you let your accomplishments and victories feel a desire for even more of that? Or do you thank God with those things and give back to Him and seek to bless people with those things? Trust in worship of God is a powerful antidote to Dominion lust. When we have the right view of God and see his greatness, that it's he who's enthroned, that he who is higher and above all else, and that all things belong to Him. It gives us a different perspective of how we're to live, and we see Abraham seeking to live that out. We see the glory of God through the words that Melchizedek spoke. May we trust in Him and live our lives and trust and worship toward him. Let's pray, Lord, you are above all. You're glorious. You are enthroned, and we're so thankful for what you reveal to us about yourself and your word, we want to worship and trust you Lord. We confess that we often seek control, Dominion, praise from other people, Lord, and we're thankful for this story and the example of those who trusted in you and sought to worship you, to direct the the glory and and honor to You. Lord, may we do that with our lives? May you help us in the areas where we seek control too much, where we seek glory in things that the world and other people can offer us. Lord, help us to see you as our great reward. Help us to be thankful for what you've given us and to honor you out of what you've given us, Lord, we're so thankful and praise you in Jesus name, amen.
Josh serves as Resident College Pastor for Faith's college ministry, Doxa. He and his wife, Pam, have three children.
View Resources by Josh Gilchrist
