Wednesday Bible Study: Abraham Plank by Plank part VII

 

The 14th chapter of Genesis is one of my favorites, and I see now it has an overarching message for my journey through the life of Abraham.  It also is very historical, which means it will be easy for me to skip the point, but I want to do this in such a way that we wring all God means for us to know out of it.

We begin with a list of kings- and at least two of their kingdoms (Shinar, which is Mesopotamia, and Elam) tell us they are not from around here.  The KJV dictionary gives us further clues:  Amraphel is Babylonian, as is Arioch; Chedarlaomer, the apparent ringleader, is Persian.  Tidal, usually translated "king of nations" is named Canaanite; possibly he is the group's rep in the area.  They had a certain sway over the area Abram lived in, after their first win over the area 13 years before.  But now the local leaders- chief among them the kings of the cities of the plain, Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboiim, Admah, and Zoar- had rebelled, and they were working their way towards the rebels.  First, though, they had to get through the races of the giants, that we mentioned last week.  Verses 5-6 describe this, because

... the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 

Gen 14:6  And the Horites in their mount Seir....

that they smote in those verses WERE the giants.  You see, we learn in 2 Samuel 21 that the giants- specifically the brothers of Goliath- had extra fingers and toes, and thus may have been suffering some form of retardation.  Certainly every time we encounter them in the Bible, they are only good for intimidation and not for warfare.  Chedarlaomer and co.  did the Lord's work here in thinning them out into a remnant.  First lesson then, from this passage, is, sometimes your "giants" aren't as tough as you think.  I could have used that tattooed on my head this week!

After the "Big Alliance" finished off the sons of Amalek in v7, they went on to face the rebels of the "Little Alliance" in the Valley of Siddim, which would shortly be part of the Dead Sea.  The valley was full of tar pits, and the LA kings got confused; according to the book of Jubilees, the King of Gomorrah was killed, and he may have been their ringleader, because after that the Little Alliance was scattered. The BA took prisoners and booty, and headed the long journey home; part of the booty happened to be Lot.  Here's where we note a couple of things.  First, Abram was content to let the area's politics play out without him, until Lot.  Lot wasn't just someone else's business, it was the man he raised from a boy, and now it was personal.  That's our second lesson- we take politics too seriously, and let it divide families.  But Abram knew: it's not personal UNTIL it's personal.

Second, this was a time you didn't get along well unless you were in an alliance.  And Abram put together one, with kinsmen who had also come to Canaan from the Amorites- Mamre, Eschol, and Aner.  And if you want to do a little digging, you can see the difference between them and the Canaanites of the area.  The Canaanites had already become so debauched, they couldn't put up a good fight (Genesis makes a point in v9 that it was 4 kings whipping five), and thus lost to the Big Alliance.  However, look at the name meanings of Abram's allies:  Mamre is "vigorous", Eschol is "fruitful", and Aner is "youth-energy".  And thus, the more vigorous and energetic Amorite alliance of 318 men were about to chase down and whup the "Big Alliance".

Looking at last week's map, Abram and friends chased them down, caught them in Dan (north of the little blue dot that we call the Sea of Galilee) and destroyed them all the way to near Damascus at the very top of the map.  That's vigorous!  Lot was saved, all the booty was brought back- and back at home, the new ringleader, the King of Sodom, was waiting on them (having not had the vigor or courage, or both, to join them), and went up to meet them in the plain of Shaveh, near what is now Jerusalem.

But... first, Abram had an appointment with a man of legend, both here and later in the NT Book of Hebrews...

Gen 14:18  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 

Gen 14:19  And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 

Gen 14:20  And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. 

Who is this Melchizedek?  God leaves it purposefully blank, if you remember our time in Hebrews, and we are left to speculate- was this a visit from the pre-incarnate Christ?  Textual evidence leans against it, but it seems in the realm of possibilities.  What we do know, is that the tithe is established there;  and of all the booty, Abram gave it back to the cowardly lion, er, king of Sodom, except what was owed the others of the Amorite alliance.  Now, we are ready for that overarching message:

Now that Abram was done doing it his way (for now) and willing to do things God's way, God was ready to USE HIM.  He used him in what was a political battle, but not until it became personal.  He made good use of people around him to get the job done.  He was willing to lay down his pride, give the glory to God, and  thus received both victory and a blessing!  And when the job was done, he didn't magnify himself by ruling the Amorite Alliance, slapping down the king of Sodom, or even keeping for himself what he won- he gave it all back.  Far from the man who reaped from the Egyptian larder without conscience, he went back to just being the man he was- God's man.

This wasn't the great victory of Abram over the Big Alliance- this was the great victory of Abram over himself.  But lest you think it's all gonna be sunshine and lollipops from here, think on a lesson I had pointed out to me this week:

Saul was king, and had the greatest prophet of his time guiding him.  And he messed up.

David was king, and he was 'the man after God's own heart'.  And he messed up.

Solomon was king, and he had greater wisdom and riches than any who lived before him.  And he messed up.

We WILL mess up.  And so will Abram.