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“Lot in the Middle”Lot’s decision to take advantage of Abram’s brotherly kindness begins to have immediate ramifications. In what is the first recorded account of combat in the Bible and the only recorded instance of warfare that involved Abram, the fourteenth chapter opens with a battle of nine armies.
This passage reads more like a history book and it’s helpful to come at it as such by making a series of observations. The first observation is the combatants. While their names may mean nothing to us, they certainly meant something to Moses’ audience and indeed we learn much from the details he provides. |
The second observation is the combat itself. We learn of the tactics and motives of both sides and that neither are innocent. The third and main observation is who gets caught in the middle. Lot, whether by accident or design, gets swept into the thick of conquest because of his living in Sodom.
Abram reads himself and his men to rescue one of his own. In the attempt to redeem Lot and his household, Abram successfully routes this foreign invasion. God was clearly on his side, how is that true for us?
Abram reads himself and his men to rescue one of his own. In the attempt to redeem Lot and his household, Abram successfully routes this foreign invasion. God was clearly on his side, how is that true for us?
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“Melchizedek”After his victory over four invading kings from Mesopotamia, Abram is confronted by Bera, king of Sodom, requesting tribute and an alliance. In the first three verses of this encounter we are introduced to a man by the name of Melchizedek, who not only blesses Abram but receives a tithe from him. While this man is only mentioned here once in Genesis, he appears twice more in Scripture. The Author of the Letter to the Hebrews offers to us some compelling exposition on this passage.
The remaining verses of the section show us Abram having no part in wickedness when he refuses the partnership offered by Bera of Sodom. Being a godly man, Abram knows that the salvation of Bera and the other kings was an act of God’s common grace, extended to them during his specific goal of redeeming his nephew, Lot. The five Cities of the Plain are wicked and unrighteous and the godly are to have no fellowship with them. |