Genesis 14.1-16 (ESV)
In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness. Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.
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) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.
Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.
So in this passage, we have a battle involving multiple different kings. Essentially, this is a kind of ancient power struggle, and Lot, who was Abram's nephew, gets caught in the crossfire. And this is interesting because this is the Bible's first ever war report.
There are these four eastern kings, which are kind of the Mesopotamian superpowers, and they defeat the five local Canaanite kings around the Dead Sea. Now Lot, being caught in the crossfire, becomes one of the people that are looted, enslaved as a result of this. But Abram is loyal to his family.
And so God had already promised Abram the land of the Canaanites back in Genesis 12. And remember, he gave Abram this threefold blessing that he would have land, that he would become a great nation and that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him. And so yet Abram is still living here by the oaks of Mamre. And so he's going to go and rescue his nephew, Lot, who has been not so wise and has settled in the land next to Sodom, which is a place that was known for its evil and its iniquity.
And in this story, we see that God's strength or God's power through his covenant people, his power to deliver people from their foolish mistakes, is not rooted in strength or numbers, but it's rooted in God's desire to save people and to bless all nations ultimately through Abram and his family.
And so there are these 318 house-trained servants – warriors – that are going to fight against the armies of four entire kingdoms. And we're kind of left wondering, well, how is this going to work? There's only 318 men and they're going to fight against these massive armies. And the math tells us that this is not going to work out statistically – it's not going to be a good idea.
But instead, because the Lord is with them, numbers don't matter. Numbers don't dictate the outcomes. And so ultimately, Abram beats these armies and he delivers Lot from captivity.
Now, what does this matter? What does this have to do with us?
Well, it's easy for us to fall into the trap here to think that we are the Abrams of our time. We should, in the courage and faith we have, we should be courageous because the Lord is bigger than our problems. And in some sense, that is true. God in his divine power is able to deliver us from vastly outnumbered situations where even though we are weak and small, he will nevertheless empower us to save the situation or to save others.
And we can think of all the wonderful ways in which Christians over the years have actually lived this out. We think about how Christians were the driving force at abolishing slavery almost right across the world, particularly starting with the British Empire. We can think of how Christians are the ones who primarily have built hospitals and have treated the sick, provided welfare programs for the poor. And there are these massive social ills that were tackled by Christians, particularly in small numbers that grew into massive changes throughout the world.
And so it's true that the problems of the world are not bigger than us. But at the same time, this passage forces us to remember that we're actually far more like Lot than we are like Abram. We need a kinsman redeemer, a kinsman rescuer like Abram, who would come and save us from our poor decisions.
Lot had looked at the situation, decided he was going to choose the best land for himself and establish his own sort of mini kingdom because that's where all the fertile soil was, while leaving Abram with the bad land. And so he settles near Sodom, which was this place of iniquity, this bad place. And because of his choices to situate himself literally physically close to places of evil, he was caught up in the consequences of the evil.
And so we are a bit like Lot. We make mistakes. We put ourselves in places and make decisions that kind of walk us away from God or separate us from God. And then we bear the consequences of that. But God delivers us. And he has delivered us through not Abram, but through Jesus.
Jesus left the safety, not of the trees of Mamre, but the safety of heaven. And he pulled some stubborn relatives – who are us – out of enemy hands, the hands of sin. But unlike Abram, this victory cost him his life, his blood, not ours.
So what do we do with that? Well, we will see in the next passage that Abram is going to meet Melchizedek, this king of Salem, who is also the king of righteousness, the king of peace. And in response to this miraculous victory that Abram won over these armies, he gives an offering, a thanksgiving offering to Melchizedek. And we're going to be looking at what that means tomorrow.
So this story is not just about ancient geopolitical stuff, even though it's true that there were real wars and that these kings were real people and that this was actually happening. This is more of a preview of the way in which God delivers. He takes the weak and delivers them from the strong. He uses the weak things of this world to magnify his name. And our response is to say thank you to God for that. And we're going to look at that a little bit more tomorrow.
Let me pray.
Lord, thank you for Jesus, who is our brave kinsman redeemer, who rescues us when we are helpless and ensnared, like Lot was in this story. Help us to trust in you and your strength, and not in our own or in the statistics. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
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