Look to the stars Part 6

Jeret Foshee

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So we have set up the story of Abram

A man that God chooses for the sake of humanity

Abram has had his moments of flaws and failures and he has now had his moments of triumphs and successes.

Today we continue in through Abram’s life as we see another problem arise and Abram take action

Let’s read today all of Gen 14 and then we will dive in and then even get into Gen 15 some this morning.

Genesis 14:1–24 NIV

1 At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim, 2 these kings went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea Valley). 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 Hazezon Tamar. 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboyim 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 Goyim, 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 A man 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 Eshkol 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 praise be to 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, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap 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, Eshkol and Mamre. Let them have their share.”

pray

Ok so let’s set the scene here.

There is this list of a bunch of kings right

And there’s been numerous attempts to link these kings to historical figures but for the most part they remain pretty obscure

Not a lot is known about most of them

The geographical areas they represent can be identified with some confidence but not the kings themselves

If you’re a history buff you can go and study these places and what they were known for and where they were located

But for our sake today there’s these 4 kings on one side and 5 kings on another.

And apparently on the side of 4 there was one king

King Kedorlaomer had enslaved these other kings and nations

So the group of 5 rebel against him and join forces together to fight against Kedorlaomer

Who has joined forces with 3 other kings and began taking over other cities and peoples

Then they all meet up in the valley of Siddim

a big battle happens and the 4 conquer the 5 and the 5 go running

Which leads these 4 kings taking possession of Sodom and Gomorrah

They take all of their goods and foods and we are told that they also carry off Abram’s nephew Lot.

Now if we remember back to the last chapter, Abram and Lot have run into a problem that their possessions have outgrown their space and so they split up and go separate ways and Lot chooses Sodom and Gomorrah

Now he’s been taken captive and they carry him off

Well our man Abram here’s about this right.

And I really think that if they had the technology that we do today Abram would have called king Kedorlaomer up and said,

I don’t know who you are and I don’t know what you want but I have a particular set of skills if you let Lot go now that will be the end of it. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

I could be wrong but I really feel like that’s how it would have went down

But Abram hears this news and so he gathers up some men

And the text is interesting here because it gives us a very specific number

Usually, it would say something like around 300 men but it doesn’t it says “he called out the 318 trained men born in his household.”

Now, I don’t know how you run your household but Abram must have been a pretty bad dude.

Like they were out there everyday doing Crossfit and taekwando or something

Whatever they were doing they felt pretty confident they could run down, take down, and defeat 5 kings who have been going crazy on cities and other kings

I don’t know, when I read that I thought, I’ve got make my girls a little tougher.

I’m not sure we could take a pack of butterflies right now

But Abram does. He calls them out and they pursue these kings and it says that they routed them.

He caused them to run

And Abram recovers all the goods and of course brings back his relative Lot.

Then the scene changes a little and we see the response of the king of Sodom and the king of Salem

Melchizedek, the king of Salem, comes and brings bread and wine which would have been customary in this time. It signified gratitude and thanks and it was a way to initiate a treaty or peace agreement.

So Melchizedek does this and he blesses Abram

Genesis 14:19–20 NIV

19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The king of Sodom comes empty handed and declares, “give me the people and you can just keep the goods.”

And Abram responds with

Takeaways

Train up your household

When the time for battle comes, Abram’s household is ready and Abram makes sure of it

We went in depth of the spiritual warfare that we face in our “not today satan” series.

Father’s, men, is your household prepared for spiritual war?

This falls on you. As the man, by the positioning of God, you have the responsibility of training up your wife and children

Are you loving your wife the way that Christ has loved you?

Are you giving yourself up for her?

Are you washing her in the Word of God?

Our children, are we more concerned about their batting averages and their grades or are we even more concerned for their relationship with Jesus?

Do the hard things. Have the hard conversations. create a consistent dialogue with your children about the Word of God. Read to them at night, pray with them, ask them questions, train them up because there will come a time that they will need to be ready to battle and go to war.

Mother’s, are you supporting or are you undermining?

Are you looking for ways to respect and encourage your husband or are you just waiting for him to mess up so that you can tell him how lousy he really is?

Are you setting an example for your children? Are you being someone that you would want them to be?

As a culture, we are losing the war at home and it’s time to take back what God has given to us. Train, prepare, fight, take hold of, and be ready to win

Recognize the provisions of God

The text is clear that Abram had only 318 men

He was going against 5 kings and an army

There is no question that he was outnumbered and outmatched

It didn’t matter how well he had trained his household, he still needed God

And God proves to Abram that He will provide for him and protect him

I think far too often God is working and moving and providing for us and we are just too blind to see it.

It could have been easy for Abram to just take the credit here but it is clearly the Lord at work

And we see that God protects and provides for Abram

Genesis 15:1 NIV

1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

God declares to Abram that He is His shield

Psalm 18:30 NIV

30 As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.

He is our shield. He is our protector.

But a shield is not much good unless you use it

You have to pick it up

You have to position yourself behind it

You can stand by the shield, around the shield but unless you pick it up it won’t do you a whole lot of good.

You can talk about how great the shield is, how powerful and wonderful the shield is but unless you are holding tight to it it’s just a shield on the ground.

You also can’t hold the shield out far away from you, you can’t get out in front of the shield or it does you no good!

We have cling to Jesus. We have to allow Him to be Lord over us, to surround us, to protect us. We can’t get out in front of him. We have to lean back under His power and sovereignty

Remember the faithfulness of God

God had promised Abram in chapter 12 that He would bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him

Here we begin to see glimpses of this

Melchizedek comes and he blesses Abram

Now, Melchizedek is kind of a strange figure here in the story and there are lots of things going on here

I’d encourage you to go study him

But he’s the first Priest mentioned in the Bible

He’s king of Salem which is short for Jerusalem

He brought bread and wine which really meant in the Hebrew wedding that they had a feast

And then he blesses Abraham by saying what we see in verses 19-20

Genesis 14:19–20 NIV

And so God, in return, blesses Melchizedek

And Abram also blesses him by giving him a tenth of everything or a tithe.

So Melchizedek realizes God as the provider of victory and savior of his people and town

He blesses Yahweh

He throws a party for Abraham

And he’s blessed

The king of Sodom takes a nonchalant approach to Abram and to God’s provision.

A nonchalant approach to God produces the same result as no approach or an anti approach to God

And so we begin to see some foreshadowing of what is to come for Sodom

Here we see the beginning of Sodom’s despair and destruction that we will later see in full

And it’s because Sodom is disinterested in the things of the Lord

Instead of responding properly with worship the king responds with uninterested indifference

God isn’t looking for the lukewarm

He’s looking for sold out, unashamed, authentic, worshipers who worship Him in Spirit and truth

And so because of the promise He made to Abram He must follow through with His Word because God is a god who keeps His promises.

He is faithful. He always has been and always will be.

remember the faithfulness of God

And that doesn’t matter if you are a king with power and people

or if you are a nobody with nothing and no one

He is faithful to His word

So we can experience His justness and wrath against sin if we so choose to show him indifference or disdain

or we can experience His grace and love and the freedom and hope He gives if we surrender it all to Him

My prayer for us is Paul’s prayer for the churches in Ephesus found in Ephesians chapter 3

Ephesians 3:14–21 NIV

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.