So we're going to be reading
in Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. And it came to pass in the days
of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Eleazar, Chederol
Laomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Nations, that these made
war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Bersha king of Gomorrah,
Shinab king of Adma, and Shemiber king of Zeboiim, and the king
of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together
in the Vale of Siddam, which is the Salt Sea. Twelve years
they served Chedder-la-Omer, and in the thirteenth year they
rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came
Ceder le Omar, and the kings that were with him, and smote
the Refaims in Ashtaroth, Carnaim in the Zuzims in Ham, and the
Emims in Shaveh Kiriathim, and the Horaites in their Mount Seir,
unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness. And they returned
and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the
country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites that dwelt
in Hazel-zon-Tamar. And there went out the king of
Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Adma, and the
king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, the same is Zor, and
they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddam. With Cheodor
Lomer, the king of Elam, and with Tidal, king of Nations,
and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Elazar, four
kings with five. And the vale of Shishidim was
full of slime pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and
fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they
took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals,
and went their way. And they took Lot, Abraham's
brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had escaped,
and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre
the Amorite, brother of Eshkol and brother of Anar, and these
were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his
brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born
in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided
himself against them, he and his servants by night, and smote
them and pursued them unto Hoba, which is on the left hand of
Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought
again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and
the people. 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. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the
Most High God. And he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thy hand. and he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto
Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And
Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand unto
the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet. and that
I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst
say, I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young
men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me,
Anar, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The meeting between Abraham and
Melchizedek has as its background a war or a battle fought for
power and for wealth and indeed we would have to say for the
greed of men. I don't imagine that there have
been too many wars that have been fought for very dignified
purposes and even those that might be said to be so invariably
end up as just an occasion of great loss and great sadness
and great expense and bitterness. Here four kings fought five kings
and overcame them In plundering the five cities of the plain,
we discovered that lot and all his wealth, his herds and his
families, those that had separated previously from Abraham and gone
into the plain to live, they were lost also. They were caught
up in the affair, although they were just sojourners in the land
and not anything to do with the decision making, not anything
to do with the purposes and the intent and the breach of trust
that had occurred to cause this war. Nevertheless, their very
presence in the land meant that they were caught up in the battle
and they paid the price for the decisions that Lot had made to
be there. He was taken captive and all
his property with him. Lot had been attracted by the
wealth of these cities and the wealth of the countryside, the
fertility of the land around about. But their wealth, the
very thing that had attracted Lot, also made them the target
for others. And I know that it is easy to
be wise in hindsight, but It is always good to remember that
Lot was in the wrong place for the wrong reason and now he had
paid the price. When Abraham learned of Lot's
capture, He gathered his own men of fighting age that had
been trained in his house. That's what that word means.
And he allied himself with several local leaders to pursue Lott's
captors. And they seemed to have pursued
them for many miles, perhaps taking some days to reach them. And when they reached them, they
reached them at a time of nightfall and Abraham took the opportunity
of darkness in order to fall upon his enemies and God provided
him with a victory. and it seems as if that God was
raising Abraham's status here. He was raising Abraham's standing
and reputation amongst these kings and amongst these peoples
that dwelt in the land of Canaan at that time. It seems that the
victory was Abraham's. The kings of that area had lost
their battle to Chedorlaomer and those that were allied to
Abraham saw now this man rising in status amongst them as the
leader of this force that then beat the four kings that had
been victorious and so God showed Abraham to be a conqueror of
conquerors and he gave him an established right to possession
and ownership of the land in which Abraham now dwelled. But I think that perhaps the
most interesting part of this whole episode that is recounted
for us in Genesis chapter 14 is the meeting with Melchizedek.
What an intriguing and interesting character Melchizedek is. It is a meeting that is full
of spiritual meaning and everything that we are told about this man
simply increases our intrigue and questions about who he was
and what he did. It seems as if God had not only
revealed himself to Abraham, whom we are considering as the
father of the faithful, but he had revealed himself to others
also. And it seems that this man Melchizedek
was also a worshipper of the true God, and the deities called
the King of Righteousness, a name which is given to God later in
the history of Israel. a name which the Hebrews appropriated
as a title of the God that they worshipped. And we also discover
that this man was a priest. Now I don't know whether we should
read into that that already there was another worshipping of God
taking place in addition to Abraham's raising up of altars. And so
you see that when we speak about Melchizedek, actually the questions
about him that are raised are more and more simply for the
information that we have been given. However, What we do know
is that this meeting is full of spiritual significance and
we learn that from Psalm 110 and then later in the book of
Hebrews, Hebrews 5, 6 and particularly Hebrews 7 and you can take a
wee note of that and read them if you like a little bit later.
and we can discover that the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek
was significant because of principally what we are told in Hebrews chapter
7. We're told there or we're reminded
there of the significance of the fact that Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, showing that Abraham honoured the priesthood
of Melchizedek, and that the priesthood then that came from
Abraham's loins through Levi, the Levitical priesthood that
we talk about in the Old Testament, recognized a greater priesthood,
the priesthood of Melchizedek, because Abraham honoured Melchizedek. That's the significance of the
point. we discover that Melchizedek blessed Abraham. So Abraham was
the recipient of blessings from this priesthood which was greater
than his. Melchizedek is a type of a priest
who lives forever. Or as we read in Psalm 90, from
everlasting to everlasting. And the only priesthood that
is everlasting is the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Levi
as yet unborn paid tithes in the person of Abraham and the
Lord Jesus Christ is the king and priest that personifies here
these titles that are given to Melchizedek. So there's much
that we can see here but let us just say this Some people
have actually thought that this could have been the Lord Jesus
Christ himself in a pre-incarnation appearance. And we find those
appearances, we're going to be reading about them in a little
while in the life of Abraham. And it's possible that that's
exactly what it is. But equally, we learn a little
bit later that Melchizedek is described as being like Christ. And if he's like Christ, then
he cannot be Christ. So again, it's an unanswered
question and we cannot say for definite. But here's a Bible
principle that I want us to learn and remember. It is a Bible principle
that these Old Testament histories have a deeper and a spiritual
meaning. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
told us in John chapter 5 verse 46 that Moses wrote of me. So not only Moses writing as
he did Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the
first five books of the Bible. but also Psalm 90, not only is
the writing there, but those that are written about speak
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The stories and the lessons that
we have in those books are speaking to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ, his
work, his salvation, his glory is all through the Bible. We
don't just read of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament,
we read about him in the Old Testament. And an example here
is Melchizedek. He is in all the Scriptures and
in all the Scriptures we should be on the lookout that we might
see the Lord Jesus Christ there and that we might learn more
of him and have faith in him for the knowledge that he gives
us of himself. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.