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Last week we discussed how Abram doesn't have to fight in order to obtain the blessing of the Lord, but we did end it with the fact that Abram doesn't have to be a doormat and is to fight for what the Lord calls him to. Here in chapter 14, we see that call come. As one scholar put it, "Sometimes it requires more faith to take action than to remain passive" (Waltke, 237). Sometimes you need to commit to action, and fighting for the protection of his family calls Abram to arms. But as we will note here, Abram isn't saved by the sword but by the Lord and acts accordingly in his tithe to this mysterious Melchizedek. So let's dive into this passage looking at our two points today: Fight the Lord's battles when called, and Win or "lose," return to the Lord His due. The nature of our conflicts and the weapons we use today as Christians are different, but there is much that we can learn and take comfort in in this passage. Fight the Lord's battles when called Chapter 14 begins with trouble in the land. To boil it down, these kings led by Chedorlaomer, are warring against these other nations in order to get them to give the tribute they were supposed to. Now, what you should always do to every Bible passage is to ask, "Why is this here?" We could be satisfied that we are just setting up the conflict so we have a reason for Abram to go to war. That's fair enough, but one should also ask what this might have meant to the original audience. One scholar notices something in that vein. It turns out that the path that these invading kings are taking is the same road that Israel will be walking on its way in from Egypt! If God sustains Abram here, then they can take comfort that He fights for them, too (Matthews, 144). This is no slouch force either. They have come in an conquered a people who were remembered as the giants of the ancient word (Matthews, 143)! We see these armies advancing seemingly with nothing to stop them on and on and now Lot himself has been captured! It is worth pointing out, that had he not been settled in Sodom (Waltke notes the difference in the Hebrew between Abram's temporary dwelling and Lot's more permanent dwelling, 231), he would have had the protection of Abram in the first place (Belcher, 118). The disadvantage of sin begins almost immediately. One would think that this would have woken Lot up to what kind of risks he was taking, but then how many times do we have to suffer the same consequences of our sins before it sticks? Ok, so we seem to have this unstoppable force that is ravaging the land that has now taken Lot. Interestingly, Abram is so far removed from these problems, that the only way he even knows about it is someone escapes to tell him! Abram now has a choice, let Lot suffer the fate of his choices (ha! serves him right for his selfishness) or risk his own life to go and get him. Like a good king, Abram goes on a rescue mission. Is our God not the same way? While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. But how do we know that Abram is doing the right thing here? Well, we can see the way he is blessed by Melchizedek it was the right course of action, but how could we have known that put in his position? Should we just not pray and let God smite them? While each situation is different and requires wisdom, in general, trust in God does not mean the abandoning of reasonable actions of responsibility. God will work through those things, but we MUST remember that the victory is always the Lord's. As a personal example, when I was wrapping up my last year of seminary, I was searching for a church job. I applied to church after church with no offers or interviews that led to rejections. I was getting married in a few months after seminary, so I needed a job that would support more than just me! It was getting towards the last two months of time in seminary, so I applied for a job in a world I knew, Apple computers. Thanks to the generosity of friends in the company, I was granted the chance to be interviewed in a few weeks time. Right before the interview, I was approached by a church in a little town called Brewton, but motivated by the desire to provide for my future wife, I kept myself in the computer system at Apple in case it didn't work out. Curiously, in the midst of the Brewton interview, I was mysteriously removed from the computer system at Apple, and my interview canceled. Through this and just so many other circumstances that would take too long to outline here, God made it clear He wanted me in Brewton, and even my responsible actions motivated from a godly desire to provide couldn't keep me from it. For Abram, he has the forces, the allies, and a clear crisis to address, so off he goes. He goes out with his forces and is victorious! But notice how little time is actually spent here on this. In just a couple of verses Abram is done! Remember, when the narrative speeds up, Genesis isn't as interested in your focus. But when the story slows down, details lingered over, concepts repeated, Genesis wants to point out to you that this is the important bit. Win or "lose," return to the Lord His due. In verse 17, we find what is the actual climax of the story (Waltke, 255). Here Abram is meeting with two kings whose contrast could not be clearer in this passage. We've met the king of Sodom already in this story, but here we are introduced to a new character, the mysterious priest-king from Salem. There is no history for us to draw from here. Even the book of Hebrews (the only other place other than Psalm 110 where he is mentioned) doesn't have anything to add about where he came from or where he went. As near as we can tell, Salem is Jerusalem, and the name "Melchizedek" literally means "King of Righteousness." He is apparently a true priest of God and the king of Salem. This is unique in Biblical history because once we have the Mosaic covenant, the promise that God made to Moses and the people and the system set up with it, the role of King and Priest are separate. In fact, whenever the kings of Israel would try to mix those two roles, the Lord would punish (2 Chronicles 26). That being said, there was the prophesy in Psalm 110, which we sang this morning, that anticipates the joining of those two roles. Of course, this King-Priest anticipated in Psalm 110 is none other than Jesus Himself. Hebrews 7 lays out the argument that Jesus is this priest after the order of Melchizedek, the priest that was there before any other priest existed. This has led some to think that this figure in Genesis 14 is actually Jesus before the incarnation! As tempting as that is to think, this is not likely. Hebrews 7 says that Melchizedek was *like* the son of man, and if there would ever had been a place to assert that, it would have been Hebrews 7. That being said, Melchizedek is certainly a type of Christ, a shadowy figure that sounds the first few notes of what is to come. He is like Jesus, but Jesus will be far more than him. So what are they doing here? Well, this passage starts by contrasting the two kings from the very beginning. King of Sodom "comes out" whereas King of Salem "brings out" (a pun in Hebrew, Waltke, 233); the first words of Melchizedek "blessed" whereas the first words of Sodom are "give me" (Matthews, 146). Considering what we know about Sodom, this is a wicked king, and the king of Salem is literally named "king of righteousness." So who is Abram going to go with? Mr. Melchizedek speaks first, after laying out a banquet to feast (bread and wine being a figure of speech for this, Waltke, 233), with a blessing for....God! He launches into this beautiful doxology reiterating the fact that Abram is blessed by God the Creator. The word "Creator" here is also filled with meaning. According to one scholar, "Creator" has the sense of "source of life, buoyancy, and joy in the trials of the day, not just the source of origins...intimately involved in this present reality." (Waltke, 234-5). He is making it very clear who has actually laid the ground work for Abram's victory here. It wasn't because he had the best army, latest in sword technology, or military tactics. He was blessed of the Lord, and that is why he was successful. Then, Abram responds by giving Melchizedek a tenth, a tithe, of the plunder. Because he is a priest, Abram's giving to him is acknowledging that God has given him the victory and thus presents some of that spoil to Him. Now, King of Sodom comes up. Notice we don't even refer to him by name anymore. It got mentioned once at the start of the chapter, but Moses doesn't want you to forget who it is that Abram is about to be dealing with. This isn't just any old guy. This is the king of the place that has become a byword for evil not only in Moses' time but even until our own day. After a command to Abram (Sodom is hardly in a position to command anything of Abram), he makes an admittedly generous offer. He only wants his people back, but Abram can keep the rest of the stuff. Abram has a choice. Will he accept this offer? One commentator put it this way: "The king of Sodom, on the other hand, makes a handsome and businesslike offer; its sole disadvantage is perceptible, again, only to faith" (Kinder). What is that sole disadvantage? Abram zeros right in on it: "You'll say that Sodom made Abram rich." What Abram is afraid of is that Sodom will take credit for God's work. And it is a risk even today. My old seminary professor put it like this: "The people of God may win spiritual struggles, but in the limelight of their success they may give away all the glory to some pagan pretender who would be delighted to rob God of the credit for spiritual success. While believer must use all the resources God has given to them to fight their spiritual battles, they must also keep in mind the true source of their victory and their blessings so that they may discern the confusion from the world" (Ross, 302). Abram maintains his honor. He allows those that fought with him to take what they want, but as for him, God's blessings are quite enough, thank you. So would Abram had been wrong to accept this gift from Sodom? Yes. Receiving from a gift from Sodom isn't how God's blessing was going to come through. God doesn't need Sodom to give His people what they need. To use a modern example, Knollwood would not accept money from Planned Parenthood. God doesn't need that murderous organization to advance His purposes. For examples that are less clear cut, once again, there is some wisdom from Dr. Ross: How to discern a blessing from a burden: One, consider the person's nature and motives for giving the alleged blessing, second "can it be explained in no other way than from God—miraculous, spiritual, enduring? Abram was simply not willing to say that the best that Sodom had to offer was the blessing of God!" (Ross, 301). In other words, if an alleged blessing is only offered through evil means intended for evil ends, you can safely refuse it. I remember a seminary colleague of mine tell me a story of his father who was a pastor. A man approached him from his church wanting to change something about it that would be a turn from faithfulness to God. When the pastor rightly refused, the man threatened to leave the church and take his substantial tithe check with him. To the man's surprise, the pastor responded, "Take your money and perish with it." The church turned out just fine, even without that tithe check. Abram doesn't take up Sodom's offer. He won't take as much as a sandal strap from the guy! He is going to continue to trust the Lord of heaven and earth. So what do we take away from this passage? Obviously, we aren't taking up swords and slashing our neighbors! But we are taking up the Word of God and fighting for truth in our culture. The church isn't here to win elections. If we do, great. But that is not the sum total of our mission. "For the weapons, as 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete." That is our fight. We aren't here to destroy people but lofty opinions against God. Is it easier to do that in a free country? Yes. Is it therefore a good thing to vote faithfully to that end? Yes. Do we give the credit to that political leader for the blessing of being able to freely preach? No. This fight isn't physical for us anymore. We don't go out with swords anymore (2 Cor. 10:3-6). We use something far more powerful than that: the gospel. That is what we have. There is no other fix to our problems than that. Let's be wary of enemies who would seem to offer us something to good to be true. Let us not be dependent on those who would like to see the gospel fail. Don't place your hope in compromise because that seems to be the only way forward. Are there times in our fallen world where you have to make the least bad choice? Yes. It comes up every four years. But then we get right back to preaching the only hope that we have. No matter who our earthly rulers are, we still have our Priest-King who rules and reigns forever. He is the King who rules all things and the priest who redeems all things. Like Abram, He came to save us from our own sins. While Abram only risked his life, Christ gave up His. And now today the choice stands before you: Which King will you serve? Sodom will give to you in the immediate. The riches and "blessings" of the world are tangible. You can touch them. But they will fail. What good is it even if you were to gain the whole world but lose your soul. Don't do that. Instead be willing to "lose" in the world to win in Christ. That is why the second point has the word "lose" in quotes. In Christ there is no losing, not in the eternal sense. No you won't have as much money or stuff, but you will have Christ. And he who has Christ has everything, the Creator of heaven and earth.
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