“1 At this time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim 2 went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (the Salt Sea). 4 For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim 6 and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran near the desert. 7 Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.
8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim 9 against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. 11 The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
13 One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.
17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath 23 that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ 24 I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share.””
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, I co-led a mission trip to New York City. I wanted to help. The most important national event of my young life had just occurred and I was going to ground zero with the gospel. I wanted to bring hope and maybe even bring change to the city as naïve as that sounds.
Not surprisingly, I walked away overwhelmed not only by the devastation but by the glory of the city. New York was so wealthy and powerful that it left me feeling not only humbled but humiliated. You can’t help but feel dwarfed when you look up at buildings that stand a quarter mile high. You can’t help but feel poor when you realize that all the money you brought along to help couldn’t rent an apartment in Manhattan for a week. You can’t help but feel ineffective when you stand at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and wonder whether your message for Sunday will have any impact compared with what NBC puts out.
I felt embarrassed. I wanted to bring hope in the power of God, but I walked away intimidated by the power of the world. My flame of faith seemed pretty faint next to the city lights.
How powerful is faith really? That’s the question I had to face after that mission trip. Was faith strong enough for my Christian college but not strong enough for New York? Is it strong enough for Inwood but not strong enough for New York? If it’s not powerful enough for New York, is it real? How powerful is faith?
Well that depends on what it’s in. If your faith is in nothing more than what you hope is true, then it isn’t strong enough for New York City. It isn’t strong enough for Inwood for that matter. If your faith is little more than optimism, the world will have its way with you in New York and in Inwood. If your faith is in yourself, the world will overpower you in New York and in Inwood.
I felt overwhelmed in New York because I was thinking about what I could do for good compared with what New York could do, good and bad. I was comparing myself and my capabilities with a city with private wealth estimated at $3 trillion. No wonder I felt humiliated. What impact could I make? I’m not stronger than the world. I couldn’t force my will on it. I couldn’t make happen what I set out to make happen on that mission trip.
So how powerful is faith? Well that depends on what it’s in. Faith in the promises of God is much stronger than a city with a private wealth estimated of $3 trillion. The promises of God are the most powerful force you can imagine. If God said it, it will happen. Skyscrapers can’t change that. The broadcast impact of NBC can’t change that.
God will get what God wants and God tells us what He wants in His promises. The world is quite powerful, but the promises of God are unstoppable. Trust them. That’s the claim of this sermon: the world is quite powerful, but the promises of God are unstoppable. Trust them.
We will see this in two points. First: the wider world and the promises to Abram. Second: blessed be Abram. We see the wider world and the promises to Abram in verses 1-16. Verses 17-24 are the focus of our second point: blessed be Abram.
First: the wider world and the promises to Abram. Genesis 14 is quite different from anything around it. The first half reads as if it could have been lifted from any archeological tablet from that day. It is filled with powerful people we never meet before or after. It seems to have nothing to do with God or the people of God. What is this doing in the story of Abram?
This is the fight for control of the Promised Land and the surrounding region. The battles and travels in this chapter take place from the Dead Sea in the south to what became known as Dan in the north. “It is important,” writes Genesis scholar John Walton, “to follow the itinerary of the kings of the east to see that they established their dominion over the whole land both east and west of Jordan. The land currently belongs to them.”
Abram didn’t leave Ur for an undiscovered country. He left Ur for a country that was already full of people, and there were already powers jockeying for domination over the whole region.
We see two coalitions of kings in verses 1-11 and two major battles between them. These were not minor players in the history of that day. The list starts with the king of Shinar-- Shinar being an earlier term for Babylon. The list includes Kedorlaomer who, as we will see, was a force with whom to be reckoned.
The coalition of four kings defeated the coalition of five near the Valley of Siddim. As a result, the five paid annual tribute to the four for twelve years until they chose to rebel rather than continue paying. That’s what’s happening in verses 1-4. Verses 5-11 tell the story of how the four kings defeated power after power before fighting the five kings again. They defeated the Rephaites, the Zuzites, the Emites, the Horites, the Amalekites, and the Amorites. Now you don’t need to know much about those people groups to recognize the author’s point: the four kings and their leader Kedorlaomer were unstoppable.
That takes us to verse 8 in which the five kings, “marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim against Kedorlaomer.” They battled again for control of the area and they battled in the same place as before. The battle went the same way as before with the four kings led by Kedorlaomer soundly defeating the five kings. The defeat was so bad that as they ran, some of the troops of these five fell into petroleum pits. Oil is, of course, not new to the Middle East. Kedorlaomer and his allies plundered at least two of the cities of the five kings taking women, men, children, and anything of value. Again, the message is clear: the four kings and their leader Kedorlaomer were unstoppable.
In many ways the battles listed to this point function in the same way as the first scene of the movie Avengers: Infinity War. That movie begins with the villain Thanos holding Thor by the head. The Hulk surprises Thanos and seems to overpower him for a moment, but soon it becomes clear that he is no match. Thanos defeats the two mightiest Avengers in the first scene of the movie. The director’s message is clear: Thanos is unstoppable. The battles to this point are clear: Kedorlaomer and his allies are unstoppable.
That’s very bad news for Abram because, as verse 12 puts it, “They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.” To Kedorlaomer and his allies, Lot was just one new slave among many, but he was, at one time and perhaps still was, the apparent heir of Abram. In other words, enslaving Lot would certainly qualify as an act of aggression against Abram and God had promised that anyone who cursed Abram would be cursed by God. Abram had seen this promise in action. The question of this chapter is, “would Abram pit this promise against the power of the world?’
When we first see Abram in this passage, we are told that he was a Hebrew; verse 13, “One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew.” The author of Genesis is making clear that Abram was an outsider. To the people of Canaan, he was an oddity with no family to avenge his death. He was uniquely vulnerable.
Abram had formed an alliance, but this alliance paled in comparison with the alliance of the four kings. Abram had an alliance with some of his neighbors who were all brothers: Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner. Abram lived near one their properties. You are meant to compare this alliance of four with that of the four kings led by Kedorlaomer, and you aren’t meant to be impressed with Abram’s alliance.
A closer look at the relative power of these alliances is in order. The four kings led by Kedorlaomer were kings of cities. We are dealing with a collection of independent city states at this point in the history of the Ancient Near East. Power had not been consolidated into anything like nations or empires. That helps put verse 14 in context, “When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” Abram wasn’t planning on attacking the armies of empires with 318 trained men. He was planning on attacking the troops of four cities with 318 trained men. These 318 were simply those who were trained fighters. He likely had many more men than that, which is what made last week’s quarrel between the herdsmen such a headache. He also had the men of Aner, Eshcol and Mamre.
Abram was still, however, the head of an alliance of four men three of whom were brothers, and he was planning to attack four kings who had in the past year defeated the Rephaites, the Zuzites, the Emites, the Horites, the Amalekites, the Amorites, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela. Please don’t downplay Abram’s strength, but please don’t downplay the strength of Kedorlaomer and his allies. To this point, they have been unstoppable.
Abram didn’t set out to fight Kedorlaomer and his allies because he was armed with a sufficient force though. He set out to fight because he was armed with promises. God had promised him that whoever harmed him would be cursed by God. Abram had seen His force at work with Pharaoh. He had seen that the promises were reliable in famine and in wealth. Abram was learning to put genuine weight on the promises of God. Now he was going to try the promises out on Kedorlaomer.
Abram wasn’t foolhardy. He wasn’t foolish. He numbered his troops. He practiced stealth maneuvers in this attack against the kings, but he didn’t take on the power of the world because he thought he had enough strength. He took on the power of the world because God had promised, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
If those promises were real, they could be trusted to overpower Kedorlaomer, and if they couldn’t overpower Kedorlaomer what was the point of trusting them anyway? Abram put it all on the line. Verses 15-16 show the result, “[Abram] routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.”
When the power of the world bumps up against the promises of God, the world falls down. Kedorlaomer and his allies fell down. Abram’s faith overcame the world because his faith was in the promises of God. Nothing is stronger than the promises of God, which is why a human can do no better than to trust the promises of God. Jesus knew that, “I tell you,” he said, “until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
This is why Jesus was willing to die. He wasn’t willing to submit to the wrath of the world because it was a nice thing to do. He was willing to go head to head with the world for the sake of the world because he knew the promises were stronger than the world. Jesus of Nazareth thought the promise of Isaiah 52:11 was stronger than the power of the entire Sanhedrin, Rome, and death combined. “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
That’s faith. Faith is placed in the promises of God. You live by faith by living by the promises of God just as Abram did. That’s why he is the father of our faith.
That’s why he is the father of the blessed. We see that in our second point: blessed be Abram. After Abram’s victory, two kings came out to meet him. They are a study in contrasts. The first was Melchizedek who was the king of Salem, which was most likely what Jerusalem was called at that point in history. The second king who came out to meet Abram was the king of Sodom.
Melchizedek, the king of Salem, blessed Abram. He brought bread and wine as, “a royal banquet for the returning conqueror,” in the words of Gordon Wenham. He literally blessed Abram; verse 19, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Melchizedek clearly understood that God was at work in this victory and in the life of Abram. He saw that the power at work in Abram was greater than the power at work in the world. That’s not surprising because he was not only king of Salem, but he was also a priest of God Most High. This title, “God Most High,” was one that was used by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We don’t know how Melchizedek knew about the Lord or how much he knew about the Lord. Scholars are all over the map on that one, but what’s clear is that Abram took Melchizedek seriously as a priest of the God of promises. That’s why he “gave him a tenth of everything,” as verse 20 says. Abram was tithing. He knew that all that he had just earned in battle came from God and so he gave this tenth back to God. He was acknowledging that he lived not by bread alone but by every promise that comes from the mouth of God. That’s what tithing was about. That’s what it is about.
Interestingly, Abram tithed before there was a command to tithe. He did so because the commandments of God don’t merely come from outside. In born again hearts, they also come from inside. As John Sailhamer explains, “it appears that the author intends to show that Abram is living a life in harmony with God’s will even though he lived long before the revelation at Sinai. Abram is one who pictures God’s law as written on his heart. He obeys the law, even though the law has not yet been given.”
Abram’s faith in the promises of God went hand in hand with having the law written on his heart. That is always the way it goes. If you trust the promises, you have the law written on your heart and if you have the law on your heart, you trust the promises. Or to put it in specifically New Testament categories: if you are born again, you have faith in Jesus and if you have faith in Jesus, you are born again; they are inseparable.
Inspect yourself. Do you have the law written on your heart? Here’s one way to tell: people who have the law written on their heart consider themselves to be changeable and the word of God to be unchangeable. They want to be changed to obey.
Inspect yourself. Do you trust the promises? People who think the commands are certain enough to be obeyed, think the promises are certain enough to be trusted. They subscribe to Jesus’ way of a life, “man does not live by bread alone but every promise that comes from the mouth of God”?
Abram gave a tithe to Melchizedek because Melchizedek was a priest of God. Melchizedek was also a king. Genesis makes very clear that Melchizedek is both priest and king because this was and is the ideal for God’s people. They want religious life and civil life to dovetail together. They want everything from worship to welding to childrearing to art to be from God, through God, and to God.
This is what part of the rule of Christ is about. This is why Melchizedek shows up again in a prophecy about Christ in Psalm 110. This is part of the reason the book of Hebrews spends a whole chapter showing that Jesus is greater than Melchizedek. Christ would be a priest-king like Melchizedek. Jesus is a far better mediator of all that is human and all that is God because he is fully both. His kingdom is described as seeing God face to face in one moment and enjoying the best that earth has to offer in the next moment. There is no longer any separation between the sacred and the ordinary and that is what God’s people have always desired. I hope that’s what you desire.
The king of Salem came out to bless Abram. The king of Sodom came out too, but he didn’t come to bless Abram. The king of Sodom showed none of the courtesy that you would expect in the Ancient Near East, let alone that which was due the man who just possibly saved his life. The king of Sodom comes across as remarkably selfish and rude. He mentions what he wants from Abram before he mentions what he is willing to give Abram even though Abram already has it, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”
Abram responded to this rudeness the same way he has responded throughout this chapter. He trusted the promises; verse 22, ‘But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.”’
Abram didn’t need anything that he had taken from Kedorlaomer and his allies. Nothing the world could give could make Abram any richer. He wasn’t going to grow rich by warfare. He wasn’t going to take the land by years of warfare. He had the promises of God. The promises of God had proven stronger than Kedorlaomer and his allies, and Abram was learning to trust them.
You see the promises in action in the aftermath of these two cities. The king of Salem blessed Abram. The king of Sodom was rude and demanding. Well, “God will bless those who bless Abram and He will curse those who curse Abram.” We will see the destruction of Sodom in a few weeks, and as for Salem, it becomes the city of God.
As the king of Salem and the king of Sodom stepped out to meet Abram in the Valley of Shaveh, whether they knew it or not, nothing mattered more than how they treated Abram. The message of Genesis is clear: you better be careful how treat Abram. The power of God stands behind him. When a man dealt with Abram, he was dealing with the promises of God.
You better be careful how you treat Jesus. The power of God is Jesus. When a man deals with Jesus, he is dealing with the promises of God. If you bless him, you will be blessed by God. If you curse him, you will be cursed by God. He is the promised child of Abram through whom the whole world will be blessed or cursed.
If you decide to oppose Jesus, please recognize that you have chosen the same path as Kedorlaomer and his allies. You, like them, might not even know that you have offended God, but if you oppose Jesus, you certainly have and your strength, like theirs, will prove insufficient because you are fighting God.
Now you don’t know how you would have treated Abram if you met him in the Ancient Near East. You don’t know if you would have recognized that God was with him as Melchizedek did. You don’t know if you would have thought only about yourself and treated him shabbily as the king of Sodom did. There is no way to know whether you would have seen the hand of God at work in real time in that situation.
You can know whether or not you see the hand of God at work right now. You don’t decipher that by how you respond to Abram. You decipher that by how you respond to Jesus. People with eyes to see, see that God is at work in Jesus. They see that the power at work in Jesus is greater than the power at work in the world. They see that the promises of God are at work in Jesus just as Melchizedek saw that the promises of God were at work in Abram. The promises at work in both men were and are more powerful than the world.
Abram trusted the promises at work in him. He trusted they were sufficient to defeat Kedorlaomer and his allies. There are promises of God at work in Jesus. They are sufficient to defeat the devil. They are sufficient to defeat your own flesh. They are sufficient to defeat the world. They are the only sufficient force. That’s why God tells you to have faith like Abram. That’s why God tells you to have faith in the promises. Amen.