Chapter 14
This is the chapter of victory. This is the pay-off when people keep on rebounding. In this passage there are found four of the greatest victories in the spiritual life. In verses 13 & 14 there is the victory of mental attitude. In verses 15 &16 there is a victory in battle. In verses 17 through 23 there is victory over motivation. And one of the greatest victories in the spiritual life is found in verse 24, victory over self-righteousness. The first part of the chapter is background. It shows how God disciplines one believer and provides the basis of victory for another believer.
Verse 1 – “Shinar” is Babylon; “nations” is simply a reference to what we know later on in history as the kingdom of Galilee. There are four kings in this verse who have formed an alliance. The objective of this alliance was against five kings who lived in the beautiful valley that Lot chose, and the area surrounding.
Verse 3 – the conflict takes place in southern Palestine. It will involve the area that Lot chose with his eyes: “which is now the salt sea.” At the time that Moses wrote this it was the Salt Sea. We know it as the Dead Sea. But at the time the vale of Siddim was simply the southern end of the Jordan Valley.
Verse 4 – “Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer.” This is the group of nations or fortified cities in the valley. “ … and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.”
Verse 5 – It took Chedorlaomer a year to organise an army. The Rephaim were a group of giants. Og, king of Bashan is said to be descended from them. He is mentioned in Deuteronomy chapters 2 &3, Joshua 12:4; ch. 13. The Zuzims are another tribe of giants.
Notice that extensive conquest went on around the area where Abram was living, but they didn’t touch him. God protected Abram in every possible way. No troops from this great organization came anywhere near him. God protects His own.
Verse 10 – “And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; [that is, their armies] and they that remained fled to the mountain”—including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verse 11 refers to Chedorlaomer and his great army.
Verse 12 – “And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.” Lot chose by sight; Lot was full of self-gratification; Lot did not have his eyes on the Lord, he is a carnal believer; and now Lot is paying. He finds himself in chains, along with his entire family, headed for slavery or something worse. All around him is this great army of Chedorlaomer and all of his great wealth is gone, completely plundered and removed from him, and the situation is utterly hopeless.
This is where we begin the story of Abram again. Remember that this is one of the consequences of Lot’s human viewpoint and one of the results of his carnality. What appeared to be a good thing as far as he was concerned, a human viewpoint solution to his problem, turned out to be a very bad thing for him. Abram’s choice of faith protected him completely from the invasion of Chedorlaomer whose armies had come through the land but had completely bypassed Abram. This is a perfect case of Romans 8:28.
So we have the four great victories. They are not inconsequential in any way. Three of them are spiritual victories and one is a physical victory based upon spiritual life and good common sense.
Victory # 1, the victory over mental attitude. One of the greatest battlegrounds for every believer is their own frontal lobe. Inside of it there is a constant warfare: divine versus human viewpoint. Some of the greatest victories in the Christian life are won there and also some of the greatest failures. The principle is, what you think is what you really are. What goes on up in the mind is the area of conflict; it is the area of defeat or victory, failure or success.
Verse 13 – “And there came one that had escaped.” Again, all things work together for good, a few people escaped. Picture Lot, miserable, carnal, self-gratifying, selfish, egotistical, full of human viewpoint but saved, in chains, in slavery with nothing to anticipate anymore. Up in the hills above this Jordan Valley there lives a man of God. Perhaps he is ridiculed, but when the pressure is on and there are great catastrophes and difficulties where does the man in disaster turn? He turns to the one who has stability, who has this inner peace, who has great spiritual power.
Now we have a man who was running from the soldiers of Chedorlaomer. When he ran in his desperation and catastrophe he remembered Abram. So he ran until he found Abram.
“and he told Abram, the Hebrew” – the word Hebrew means “the one who crossed over the river.” He crossed the Euphrates River to get into the land. In a sense it is the title for a missionary.
“for
he dwelt in the plain of Mamre” – Mamre
means wealth or strength; “the Amorite” – one of the first converts of Abram –
“brother of Eschol,” another convert of Abram – “brother of Aner: and these
were confederate [or, allied] with Abram.” They had an understanding. Abram
doesn’t fellowship with unbelievers. These people are fellowshipping with him
and in an alliance, they are neighbours and are the first converts of this
great believer.
Lot and his entire family are
prisoners. Some might say, Oh how sad. But inside they think he’s getting
exactly what he deserves, he has it coming. One of the most marvellous
characteristics of the spiritual believer is the relaxed mental attitude toward
others—others who are obnoxious, who antagonise, who have been hostile, who
have been unfair and unkind, who have tried to hurt you. Yet, when they find
themselves in great catastrophe it is a wonderful and marvellous
characteristic, when no matter what they have done to you there is no gloating
on your part or rejoicing in their discomfort. This attitude is a by-product of
the filling of the Spirit as well as an understanding of doctrine. It becomes
also a by-product of occupation with Christ.
Verse 14 – a great victory for Abram. There is no gloating here. He is not happy about this situation and he looks at it from the divine viewpoint. He has a mental attitude love for Lot. “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.” He gave them their arms; they were already trained. Lot did not earn or deserve any help from Abram. Abram intends to rescue Lot, even though the odds against him are hopeless, and the principle behind this is grace. Abram thinks grace. He is going to put his own life on the line to deliver his worthless, carnal nephew. This is a great victory of mental attitude.
Verses 15 & 16, victory in battle.
Verse 15 – the only way a small military force can effectively cope with a very large force is to do so by a night attack. When Gideon attacked the Midianites he did it at night. “And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.” Hobah is up in Syria, out of the land.
So first of all we have a small number. But that makes no difference when the force is trained. They were born in Abram’s house, which means not only had he been providing for them, but in addition, they were undoubtedly all believers. Abram’s pursuit is indicative of his character. He pursued to Dan which is in the northern boundary of the land. In other words, Abram went to the limits for a fellow believer who didn’t deserve it. “He smote them” means the weapons were used effectively. Then the pursuit, he followed up his victory.
Verse 16 – Lot is restored. Abram was able to recover a huge amount of materialistic things, whatever would be counted as wealth. It was not just Lot’s tremendous wealth but he recovered all of those who had been taken prisoner in the battle.
There is a third victory. What was Abram’s motivation in attacking Chedorlaomer? Did he do it for money or did he do it on the principle of grace–he loved Lot who didn’t deserve anything? This is God the Holy Spirit recording for us something that happened 2000 years BC.
Verse 17 – the third victory, a fight between two kings. Notice that there is another place here called Salem, not far from where Abram is holding out. We know it today as Jerusalem. Down there is also a king who is a believer, and we don’t know how this king became a believer—Melchizedek. This battle involves two kings, Melchizedek versus the king of Sodom. When all of this tremendous wealth was recovered, then Melchizedek comes to Abram’s rescue. It is time for reinforcements. In God’s timing it is always perfect. Melchizedek came after the battle, after the victory was won, but there is a greater fight going on, a spiritual battle that still in the process of being decided. It is in the spiritual battle where Melchizedek is badly needed. He comes to help Abram win the spiritual victory after the military victory. Satan’s representative, the king of Sodom, came to rob Abram of the victory of grace and faith. If the king of Sodom can make it appear as though the motive of Abram was simply the desire for the spoils and wealth of battle then Satan can still win the victory by obscuring the grace principle and the grace motivation which Abram had.
The king of Sodom is going to suggest that Abram take the spoils and he would take the people. There is something behind this. The king of Sodom doesn’t want God to get any credit in this. He wants the grace of God to be obscured. He wants it to appear that Abram is doing this simply to get wealthy. Principle: Our greatest counterattacks from Satan come after great victories and we are most vulnerable to defeat after a victory. So here is the grace of God. At this point Abram is in over his head, and probably doesn’t know it. So he receives reinforcements from Melchizedek who arrives on the scene—the timing of God is perfect. Melchizedek came just as the king of Sodom came up with his suggestion.
“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.”
Verse 18 – God sends Abram reinforcements. The king of Salem[1] comes, not with an army but with bread and wine. Melchizedek is not a theophany.
a) Theophanies are never given formal names. This person has a name—Melchizedek, which means king of righteousness.
b) Theophanies or Christophanies are never mentioned with specific geographical localities, and in v. 18 we have “king of Salem.”
c) Theophanies always disclose God as the messenger, and that is not the case here.
d) Melchizedek is called a priest, and the Christophanies never declare Christ as a priest. Jesus Christ did not become a priest until after His incarnation.
e) Psalm 110:4 is conclusive. Christ is addressed in this manner: “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” If Jesus Christ had been Melchizedek Psalm 110:4 would say, “Thou art Melchizedek.”
“he the priest of the most high God” – he is a priest. He fights with spiritual weapons—bread and wine. This is not simply food, they have spiritual significance.
The spiritual significance of both is to get Abram with his eyes on the Lord at a critical attack. This critical attack is coming from the king of Sodom, and just as he comes Abram is fortified with the principle of occupation with Christ. The bread speaks of the humanity of Christ and therefore emphasises the principle of incarnation in salvation. The wine speaks of the blood of Christ which reminds us that the death of Christ was unique.
There were three factors in the spiritual strengthening of Abraham. The first factor is the bread, the second the wine, and the third is the blessing. Melchizedek blessed Abram. He gave Abram bread and Abram took it, indicating he was a believer. He gave Abram wine which he drank, indicating he was a believer and had personally trusted in the Lord. And then he received from Melchizedek a blessing because Melchizedek was a priest of the most High God and therefore it was a part of his functions to bless Abram.
Verse 19 – “And he [Melchizedek] blessed him [Abram], and said, Blessed Abram by [or, from] the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.” Is Abram going to be blessed by taking all that money and property from the battle? No. He is going to be blessed from God who owns everything—“possessor of heaven and earth.” God owns everything, and God can give Abram much or God can give Abram little, and it makes no difference because all blessing is from God. Whether has much or little Abram will be blessed, and it will be on the basis of grace. He is going to be blessed because of the nature of God. The point is: Abram, don’t get your eyes on that pile of wealth. Don’t get your eyes on things, after all, the Lord owns everything. The difference here is taking it from God and taking it from the king of Sodom. If he takes it from the king of Sodom the whole point of his military victory is ruined because everyone will say Abram took small group of men and defeated Chedorlaomer because he wanted all of that wealth.
Verse 20 – the blessing. Notice what Abram did. He remunerated for spiritual counsel. He paid ten per cent of what was there to the man who provided the information. He gave a tenth from off the top of the pile. There is a principle here: Spiritual counsel requires remuneration, just like any kind of a service.
Verses 21-23, the victory.
“I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord.” In other words, ‘I have saluted the Lord.’ This is idiomatic for occupation.
“the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth” – he got the point, even though it was a short sermon. Abraham is saying, ‘I have saluted God; I will not salute you.’ He has taken blessing from God; he will never take blessing from the king of Sodom. In other words, Abram isn’t going to touch any of that wealth. He takes his blessing from God but not from Satan’s man. Melchizedek got to Abram first, and through the ministry of Melchizedek he saluted the most high God. And having given his allegiance, as it were, to the most high God [saluted Him] he will not salute the king of Sodom. He will take nothing from the king of Sodom. Saluting means allegiance, recognition of authority.
Verse 23 – “That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.”
Verse 24 – the victory over smug complacency, self-righteousness. Abram brought some allies along. They were new believers and had not achieved the maturity of Abram. Their standards are not the same. They have made tremendous sacrifices without understanding all that was involved. It wasn’t their fight in the first place and therefore this verse starts with the word save, which is simply the Hebrew word for except. He is going to provide rations for those who went along, Aner, Eshchol and Mamre—“let them take their portion.” They deserve money for their time. Abram is very thoughtful for these new converts. He would not make an issue out of that which was false to new believers.