Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I’m your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Well thank you for joining me on this episode. We’re going to go through Genesis chapter 14. And this chapter picks up right after last chapter where Abram and Lot separated because the land could not support both of them and their flocks and herds. And so they separated. Lot went to the Jordan Valley and Abram stayed in the land of Canaan.

So now that sets the backdrop for chapter 14 and there’s going to be war. And I don’t know about you but when you read through it it seems really confusing. So I’m gonna lay it out for you and hopefully this can kind of clear it up a little bit.

The chapter starts out introducing us to Chedorlaomer who is a king of Elam. He’s like a high king, he’s a king of kings and he’s allied with three other kings: the kings of Shinar, Ellasar and Goiim. And these are all Babylonian kings. And then we’re told that these four kings made war with five Canaanite kings. And these are the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, which is also Zoar.

Before we go any further, I want to apologize if I butcher any of these names, I’m sure I’ll butcher many of them. So I do apologize for that. I’m gonna do my best.

So anyway, Chedorlaomer and his Babylonian allies make war against these five Canaanite kings. Now, these Canaanite kings had been ruled over by Chedorlaomer for 12 years. And in the 13th year, these Canaanite kings rebelled against Chedorlaomer.

And in the 14th year, Chedorlaomer and his allies invaded six other people groups. They invaded the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, the Horites, the Amalekites, and the Amorites. And this is interesting because these people groups inhabit the land that Abram and Lot’s descendants will eventually inhabit. And these are going to be the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, and the Ishmaelites.

Okay, so Chedorlaomer and his allies invaded six Canaanite people groups. So they went to war against these people groups, they defeated them, and as they came back to the land of Babylon, these five Canaanite kings came out to join them in battle. And there they were defeated.

So far in the story, Chedorlaomer and his allies are undefeated. Chedorlaomer rules over these Canaanite kings for 12 years. In the 13th year, they rebel. But Chedorlaomer clearly still has control over them. In the 14th year, Chedorlaomer invades and defeats six other Canaanite people groups. And then these five Canaanite kings come out and rebel against Chedorlaomer and they are defeated.

And because Abram’s nephew Lot lived in Sodom at the time, he was kidnapped by Chedorlaomer’s armies. Somebody escaped and came and told Abram. And so Abram gathered 318 men and pursued Chedorlaomer all the way to Dan and defeated him and rescued his nephew Lot.

And on his way home, Abram met Melchizedek, who was the king and the priest of Salem. There he was blessed by Melchizedek. Abram gave him a tenth of everything and he returned the stolen possessions that he had recovered from Chedorlaomer and he returned all the people that he had rescued to the king of Sodom.

So that’s the recap of the war that’s in this chapter. Hopefully that made a little bit of sense. So I don’t want to go back through that again.

But let’s go to verse 12, where it took Lot who was dwelling in Sodom. That’s an interesting point that the author makes because the last time we saw Lot, he was still living in the tents outside the city. But now he had made his home in the wicked city of Sodom.

This reminds us of Psalm 1:1. It says: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Notice the progression of compromise in this verse in Psalm 1:1. There’s a progression there where the man walks in the council of the wicked, then he stands in the way of sinners, and then he sits in the seat of scoffers.

And this is what Lot was doing. First he saw in the last chapter that the land was good, then he moved and pitched his tents outside the city, and now he’s living inside the city of Sodom. And this compromise leads to him being taken captive into Babylon.

That should remind us of the nation of Israel, the progression of compromise is the same progression that Israel went through which led to them being taken captive into Babylon. And it’s something that we need to watch out for ourselves because we give in to compromise a little bit at a time. Seems fine. And then we find ourselves being taken captive by the world.

Now to contrast this in verse 13 it says: Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. This is the only time this description is used of Abram. And that word Hebrew means one from beyond or to pass over or to cross over.

In a sense, it’s saying that Abram is set apart from the surrounding peoples. This is in contrast to Lot, who was trying to make himself blend in with the people. Abram was set apart from the surrounding people, where Abram made it clear that he was different, that he was set apart. Lot tried to live as one of the Sodomites. Even though Sodom knew that Lot was a stranger, related to Abram, he tried to live as one of them.

So after Abram rescues Lot, brings him back, brings all the people back, brings all the possessions back, we’re told that two kings come out to meet Abram.

The first one is the king of Sodom. He comes out to meet Abram at the valley of Sheva, or the king’s valley, and he comes out to reclaim his people. He comes out to take something, and he comes out to make Abram rich.

The king of Salem comes out and what he does is he blesses Abram by God. So he comes out to give and he comes out to bless God.

So notice the contrast there between the two kings, the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. The king of Sodom came out to take something from Abram. The king of Salem came out to give something to Abram. He came out to bless. Okay, the king of Sodom came out to make Abram rich, probably to make him his ally, whereas the king of Salem came out to bless God.

So the name of this king of Salem is Melchizedek were introduced in verse 18 that name Melchizedek means the king of righteousness. As I mentioned we’re told that he’s the king of Salem which means peace. So he’s the king of righteousness and he’s the king of peace and we’re told that he is both king and priest.

It says in verse 18, Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine (He was the priest of God most high). So he was a priest of God and he was a king of Salem. And this is important because the kings of Israel, they were forbidden to do this. In fact, King Uzziah burned incense before the altar and was struck with leprosy for doing this. King Saul tried to offer sacrifices and he had his kingship stripped away from him. This is a bad, bad thing for the kings of Israel to do.

The reason that kings were not supposed to be priests and priests were not supposed to be kings is because it prevented kings from gaining too much power. It prevented kings from becoming like god-kings. It prevented kings from causing Israel to worship the king as god. A lot of different good reasons for why kings should not be priests in ancient Israel.

In effect, there’s only one king that was able to do both, and that was David. He was able to worship in the tabernacle. He wore priestly garments at one time. David was the only one who was able to do this, and he did it because he understood God’s heart in regards to the priesthood. He understood the purpose of the priesthood was to minister to God and minister to the people, to serve God and to serve the people. Most kings, if they were to do this, they would have ended up being too corrupted. And so these two offices were separated.

But Melchizedek here, he is able to be both king and priest. Obviously this is before the law of Moses, so he’s not under the law. And that makes a big difference, as we’ll find out later. That’s very important. It points to something, if you haven’t guessed already, or if you’ve never read the book of Hebrews.

But Abram tithed to him, which means he recognized Melchizedek’s authority. And in fact, Abram recognized that not only was he not the only one who worshiped God in Canaan, that is, who worshiped Yahweh, but he was not even the most important worshiper of God. So he tithed to Melchizedek.

And in verse 18, if you notice that Melchizedek brings out bread and wine, which is the same meal as the Lord’s Supper. If you haven’t noticed, this is all pointing us to Jesus. We’re gonna go through and list all the ways later on in our section where I discuss all the different ways that this does point to Jesus. But I’m sure you can start to notice the parallels by now. That Melchizedek brings out bread and wine to Abram, the chosen seed. It foreshadows that new covenant that Jesus is going to make many thousands of years later.

In verses 19 and 20, Melchizedek blessed both Abram and God. So again, as I mentioned, this shows what the duty of the priest is. A priest’s duty is to minister to both God and men. A priest is there to not just make sacrifices and collect as much wealth and whatever else you can get as you can. That’s not the purpose of a priest. The priest is there to minister to God and minister to people. Melchizedek is laying out here in this blessing the role of the Levitical priests and he’s laying out the role of the church as we are now a priesthood.

In verse 22 Abram said, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.”

He says this to the king of Sodom after the king of Sodom had tried to give Abram all the spoils from the battle against Chedorlaomer. The king of Sodom had told him, “Keep all the spoil for yourself, just give me the people that you had rescued and you can keep everything else.”

And Abram has said, “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.’”

So he makes this oath to God Most High. He made this oath while he was speaking with Melchizedek, who used the same title for God, God Most High. And remember, Abram was blessed by God from Melchizedek. Essentially, what’s going on here is Abram saying, “It’s God who made me wealthy. Everything I have I owe to God.”

It is God who made Abram wealthy and the king of Sodom wanted to be the one to make Abram wealthy. And Abram wisely refused to take anything. Because probably, the king of Sodom wanted to hold that over Abram’s head. I mean, when one nation can say to another nation, “We made you rich, now you owe us,” the king of Sodom could say to Abram, “You owe me because I was the one who made you wealthy.”

Instead, Abram is saying, “No, I owe God and God alone because he alone makes me rich.”

So how does all this point to Jesus?

First we see that Lot was rescued from sin by a kinsman redeemer who left safety to rescue him. And this rescuer, Abram, defeated a strong king of nations who enslaved Lot and plundered the enemy. This picture of Jesus is going to be seen much more in the book of Ruth, but this is the first time we see that picture of Jesus being the kinsman redeemer.

So just like Abram left the safety of his land where he lived, he was not being harassed by any other kings. He left safety to rescue his nephew Lot from sin. Just like Jesus left heaven, which is a safe place. He left the safety of heaven to come to earth to rescue his people from sin.

Just like Abram defeated the strong king of nations, Jesus defeated Satan or the serpent the strong king of nations. That serpent has enslaved people, has enslaved humanity, ever since the beginning, just like Lot was enslaved.

Abram plundered the enemy. He took everything that had been taken. He took all the people. He took all the possessions. Abram plundered the enemy, took everything that the enemy had taken and returned it just like Jesus plundered the enemy at the cross and took everything back that had been taken.

The only problem we see here in this chapter is that Lot returned to the sinful city of Sodom and then lost everything later on in God’s judgment against Sodom. And this is an important picture as well. When Jesus rescues us from sin, we do not want to return to that sin.

That doesn’t mean that we could lose salvation. I think there’s other verses in the section of scripture that talk about that, that we could potentially lose our salvation if we go too far down that path. But the Bible doesn’t present Lot as someone who goes too far down that path. It just presents him as somebody who gets caught up in compromise. And because Lot was caught up in compromise, he lost everything he owned. He lost most of his family in God’s judgment.

This is a picture of what can happen to us if we go back to sin, if we go back to compromise after God has rescued us. We’ll be saved when God judges the earth, but we’ll lose everything.

Now Melchizedek is also a picture of Jesus. He’s both high priest and king. In Psalm 110 verse 4 it says: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

So in that verse in Psalm 110, that is God the Father talking to God the Son. He’s saying, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

So the Father is saying to the Son, “You are going to be a king and a priest just like Melchizedek was. And you’ll be that king and the priest forever.”

Jesus is the High King. He’s the High Priest. He intercedes for us, which is the purpose of the priest. He rules us, which is the purpose of the king.

Melchizedek is a perfect picture of Jesus. We see how he points to Jesus and his names. Melchizedek means the King of Righteousness, King of Salem, or the King of Peace. So he’s the King of Righteousness and Peace, which is also what Jesus is. Jesus is the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace. Melchizedek has no beginning or end, which points to Jesus as having no beginning or end.

That’s not to say that Melchizedek is Jesus. There’s a lot of debate over that and I don’t know. My sense is that Melchizedek is not actually Jesus. He is just a picture of Jesus. He’s a type of Jesus. And when Hebrews says that Melchizedek had no beginning or end, it’s saying that in the story, the story does not give Melchizedek a beginning, the story does not give Melchizedek an end. He just pops up in the story in this one spot. He has no beginning or end.

But that’s supposed to point to Jesus who has no beginning or end because he is eternal, because he is divine, he is God.

Melchizedek blessed God and man just like Jesus, as I mentioned, blesses God and man.

And of course Melchizedek brought out bread and wine, which Jesus also used bread and wine as the last meal before he died with his disciples. He broke the bread and drank the cup of the wine, the bread symbolizing Jesus’ body, the wine symbolizing Jesus’ blood.

So here’s some questions for reflection.

First, what does the comparison between Lot and Abram’s living situations tell us about our level of compromise in our lives?

What changes when we live set apart for God?

What are the dangers of a king who is also a priest? I talked about that a little bit. But why can we trust Jesus as a king and a priest?

What can we learn about Jesus from the titles King of Righteousness and King of Peace?

What can we learn from Abram and Melchizedek about generosity among believers?

And finally, why did Abram refuse to attribute his wealth to worldly means? What are the dangers of ignoring God as the source of our blessing?

Thank you for listening to this episode on Genesis 14. Before I let you go, I just want to remind you if you would like the study guide for this episode and for all previous episodes and for all future episodes, go ahead and subscribe on the website, http://www.beyondthebasics.blog. It’s only $6 a month. Get every study guide that comes out as I publish these episodes. You can just go right to the website and download them directly from there. Very easy, very helpful.

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