Love Your Enemies - It will Worry them to Death
Love Your Enemies – It will Worry Them to Death
Genesis 14:1-24
This passage shows Abram risking all he had to rescue Lot. The lessons that we can see from this story are maybe best shown to us by looking at the negatives, the things that we should not do when we are tempted to seek revenge. Revenge is very tempting to all of us from time to time. But it is something we have to avoid at all costs.
We have to be careful to not rebel against authority. Sometimes we have to declare our freedom, but we have to be careful about the timing. The cities mentioned in this passage were ruled by four kings from the East, and they were subject to taxation from them. Finally they had enough and stopped paying these taxes. As the battles began over the nonpayment of taxes, Lot was taken prisoner.
Of course none of us really likes paying taxes. The motto in my office is “render unto the IRS what is due the IRS, and not a penny more.” I think that one of the things that upsets us the most as American’s about our tax dollars is that we feel that they are not being spent properly. Think about why our nation was formed. One of the biggest reasons for our revolt against England was the taxes that they were forcing on our forefathers, in spite of them not having any type of vote or voice in the taxing. You have to know that these cities resented paying their taxes to these foreign kings and they rebelled. Unfortunately for them, though, they overestimated their strength. They weren’t able to defend themselves properly, and the taxers came to discipline the taxed.
Reformers who rebel have to be very careful and think the matter all the way through. Is the issue big enough to put your position, your city, your state, your nation at risk? Is it worth putting the lives of innocent people at stake?
In this case, it wasn’t the proper time for a revolt. War came with all the horrible results that accompany armed conflict. War is a terrible thing. One of the horrible results of the fall of man in Eden is that the human race has wasted so much of its talents, resources and energy seeking to keep one another under control. The only way that war will ever be done away with, and according to my Bible it will never be done, is for every person in every nation on every continent to have Jesus Christ in their hearts in a personal way. We need to work toward changing the people around us to where maybe at least here in Southern Illinois we can get along with each other.
How did Abram react when he found out Lot had been taken captive? He could have set back and said that he got what he deserved for the life he was living. He didn’t do that, though.
What he did do shows us a lot about his personality and his relationship with God. He armed his trained servants and pursued the ones that had taken Lot captive. Not only did he free Lot, he freed all the people that had been taken captive with him, along with all the goods that the enemy armies had taken from the cities. That shows us a very godly attitude, a willingness to do not what was convenient or easy or vengeful, but what was right.
Abram didn’t do this to get revenge, he did it because it was right. Revenge is something that will eat you alive, if you will let it. Chaucer one wrote, “Vengeance is not cured by another vengeance, nor a wrong by another wrong; but each increases the other.”
One of the most important things we have to remember is to be grateful. After the battle Abram showed his spirit to us very clearly. Two kings met him and he was very gracious to both of them. Kink Melchizedek represented God, for he was the “priest of the Most High.” There were no formal churches or religious organizations at this time that Abram could give and offering to, so he dedicated his tithe to the representative of God in that region. He had confidence that Melchizedek would use the tithe properly.
When you receive an unexpected windfall, what should you do? You should praise God and give to God graciously.
When the king of Sodom suggested that Abram keep all the material goods that he had recovered from the kings, Abram refused. In spite of his refusal, though, we still see gratitude shining through. We should not fault Abram for not taking the goods, we need to honor him for being unselfish and showing such gratitude.
Abram remembered the do nots and refused to be guilty of doing them. Sometimes it is important for us to remember what not to do as much as what to do. Before God told Jeremiah he was to build and to plant, he warned him that he would have to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down. In other words, sometimes negatives are essential for us to do before we can have positives. The destruction of the devilish has to come before we can really establish the Christlike.