Genesis 18:16-33 - Blessing Nations and Sin’s Penalty

Genesis 18:16-33

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom

16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. 23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”

30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”

32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the LORD went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

Since all the nations would be blessed through faithful Abraham, God revealed what judgment He was about to pass as sin’s penalty on sinful Sodom where the term sodomites originates.  For God knew and chose this man of faith to teach his children and theirs to keep the way of the LORD and do righteousness with justice.  Then the LORD promised to bring Abraham the promises of blessings He had spoken to him.  Their obedient and righteous response was their required participation in keeping the eternal covenant given by sheer grace.  The sin of Sodom and the sister city Gomorrah had gotten to the point where the LORD had to deal with the homosexual activity of immorality and their related idolatry of denying the word of the LORD in many unspeakable ways.  He sent His angels to survey the scene one last time as a chance for repentance, the ones who had just been visiting Abraham.  As God revealed the impending judgment on the cities to Abraham and these angels left this man of God, he had a plea in the form of questions to God for mercy on these poor sinners who were his neighbors.  Abraham asked if God would spare them if certain numbers of them were found righteous who dwelt there.  He reasoned that the righteous should not be made to suffer destruction along with the wicked, for then the punishment would seem unfair.  He knew God was fair and just and also that the sin of the wicked needed to be addressed in judgment.  Therefore, Abraham kept pleading for mercy on behalf of all if just fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, or even merely ten righteous people were found there.  The final number obviously was not found, for there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:23) and judgment on the unrepentant sinners was required by God’s righteous requirements if not repented of and forgiven.  This is not just a judgment on homosexuality (Romans 1:27-28), but on all unrepentant sin; this heinous and abominable (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) sin was the example for others as well as a call to turn from the unrighteousness of sin to follow Him in holiness and willingness to obey His word in all things when God tells us what is acceptable and unacceptable to Him.  We who are in Christ now can see the need to flee from such sins of the flesh (1 Corinthians 6:28) and heart and mind because we are no longer consumed and ruled by them (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 11) and are without excuse if we continue (1 Corinthians 13, 18-20) in them.  God is coming to judge the world in His righteousness (Romans 3:5-6, Acts 17:31), not as we would like to define sin to excuse our it before others and Him.  We should therefore learn from Sodom and Gomorrah’s judgment as a warning of the wrath to come that hold us all accountable, no matter how abominable or seemingly innocuous the sin.  It is our sin nature that we are held accountable for which we have all inherited through the first man (Romans 5:12, 17, 18-19) and see that our only escape from judgment is the grace of Jesus Christ who alone can take away the sin of the world we have inherited and continue to engage in.  We are called and commanded to cease and desist from such sins (Romans 6:1) as if leaning on grace while not turning from them is acceptable.  We are told to stop allowing sin to rule us and serve the holy King of kings instead (Romans 6:12-13, 14) by His grace as we daily put our sin to death and choose instead to live as He created us, male and female in marriage intimacy and in no other form in sexual, mental, and heart morality in how we live in Christ who is our righteousness.  Here then is the account of Abraham blessing nations through his faith and sin’s penalty for living unrepentant lives in rejecting that call.

Genesis 18:1-15 - Do Not Laugh at God’s Promises!

Genesis 18:1-15

The Son of Promise (Hebrews 13:2)

1 Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”

They said, “Do as you have said.”

6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 8 So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”
So he said, “Here, in the tent.”

10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

Sarah doubted the LORD because what He told Abraham and she overheard.  The promise of a son as the channel of an eternal heir was given, which was a picture of the promise of the Son of God by faith through Abraham and of a nation on earth through Isaac in the people who would be known as Israel.  Unfortunately, when the incredulous promise of a fleshly heir was told to Abraham at their advanced age well past their child bearing years, and she heard the angelic announcement as Mary (Luke 1:31-32, 34-35, 37-38) would many generations later, but she doubted and laughed at the prospect instead of trusting God’s word to them as her husband had.  In the end she did learn the lesson when she was with child, do not laugh at God’s promises!  At that time, however, Abraham trusted God though initially doubted as he both fell in worship and had a chuckle of incredulity himself (Genesis 17:17) as he heard after being renamed from Abram to Abraham and was reassured of the promise (Genesis 17:19) of the son to come, and then he was asked why his wife had also laughed at God’s messenger.  The LORD God reminded them through His messenger that there is absolutely nothing too difficult for the LORD (Jeremiah 32:17, 33:3) to accomplish because with God nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26, Romans 4:19-20, 21-22).  Sarah denied laughing in disbelief, but Abraham held to the promise as if like the man speaking to Jesus who said in Mark 9:24, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”  Do we doubt the promise of saving grace in Christ and the hope of our resurrection to life after death given by the same certainty of promise by the same faithful God?  After reading this account from God’s word of trust in the midst of uncertainty and seeming impossibility, may we rather trust Him as we take the Lord at His word and rest fully on the hope (1 Peter 1:13) we have in Him.  His promises of salvation and eternal life are no laughing matter, no matter what the unbelieving (Titus 1:15, Revelation 21:8) say to dissuade and ridicule us in our resolve to trust God with our certain hope spoken to us by God’s word and recorded in scripture to remind us that nothing is impossible with God, even when we fail Him. 

Genesis 17:9-27 - A Covenant and Blessing

Genesis 17:9-27

The Sign of the Covenant (Exodus 12:43—13:2)

9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; 27 and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

This covenant given to Abraham was sealed by the circumcision  of the foreskins of all the males as a way to cleanse themselves in response to God’s promises of His covenant with them.  He was commanded to keep this covenant and to pass this on to all his descendants to follow.  This covenant was in the flesh for reminder and seal of an everlasting promise made by the LORD and kept in obedience by man.  Since God had already given Abram (‘exalted father’) a new name, Abraham (‘father of a multitude’), as a sign of him being promised as the father of many nations, now Sarai (‘princess’) was to be given the name Sarah, meaning ‘noblewoman’ or ‘queen’ because she was to be the ruling wife of the new family of God among the nations.  She was also promised a son as heir of these nations in her advanced age as the ‘mother of nations,’ but she found the impossibility of it laughable because she did not have the faith of trust in God’s word that her husband had.  Even Abraham wavered in doubt in sympathy with Sarah as he asked God to let Ishmael be the heir to live through forever instead.  God reinforced the promise of their son to come to be named Isaac (‘he laughs’) and reminded Abraham of the unshakable promise to be accepted by continuing faith.  With this son Isaac God promised to make His everlasting covenant as heir of the faith of Abraham (Romans 9:7-8, Galatians 4:28) as we who are of his faith are heirs in Christ (Galatians 3:29) according to the promise of faith in trusting the work on the cross for all God’s children.  This covenant given through Isaac was a foreshadowing of faith in Christ and His work to give us the promise of eternal life (John 5:24) in an unbreakable covenant in His lifeblood of atoning sacrifice for all who share the faith of faithful Abraham (Galatians 3:9).  As for the other son of the bondwoman signifying bondage to sin (Galatians 4:22-24, 28, 30-31), his descendants would be fruitful in number and worldly wealth with might, but not given this everlasting promise of grace.  We see this in the physical realm in the Arabs versus the Jews, but it points to a greater truth of the true children of God by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ who are set free from the bondage of sin by the same faith of believing Abraham.  We who are in Christ then are the only children of the eternal covenant promise of never ending blessing by this same faith, while all others of both Israel (Isaac’s son Jacob) and other nations apart from faith in the gospel only have worldly blessings of common grace without hope of eternal life.  This then is the eternal covenant of promise forever in God’s presence versus mere blessings of fruitfulness in this life.  We therefore should be laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) until we meet Him there as a response of everlasting thanksgiving. 

Genesis 17:1-8 - God’s Covenant Promise

Genesis 17:1-8

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 

3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 

7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

God made good on His earlier promise to Abram (Genesis 12:2, 13:16, 15:5, 18) to multiply his lineage to father many nations, including Israel and all others to come in a spiritual sense through faith.  It was not just a promise of genetic inheritance but of the spiritual by that faith in God’s promises.  This is why we who are in Christ are there among the nations and Jews with the same faith as Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9).  Here we see that Abram did not seek out salvation or the promise by his own initiative, but it was the LORD God who called him out and chose him to be the father of all in the hope to come of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.  We see how God made a covenant promise based on his obedience of faith and holiness, which we now find the same faith is required, but the holiness of acceptance is found in the righteousness of Christ and not ourselves.  This was intended all along, but the obedience to the Law to follow later in Moses was to demonstrate our complete inability to appease God by our fallen nature of corruption (Romans 3:20-23, 6:23) that never is righteous enough to save us from sin’s penalty.  God promised to multiply Abram exceedingly and abundantly to have many physical offspring and descendants, hinting at those to follow would be by the lineage of faith and not the physical lineage we first see in scripture here.  As we read in the explanation found in Romans (Romans 4:13, 18, 4:20-22, 23-24), our righteousness is obtained through faith as Abraham demonstrated.  These are the true descendants of the promise by faith in God’s work and promise found in the Messiah out of all nations and not just one by physical descendants.  Abram believed God and that was his righteousness and why God bestowed the promise on him.  He established His covenant of grace as a foreshadowing of the sign of circumcision which pointed through the flesh (Romans 4:11, 12) to the spiritual reality of God cleansing the hearts (Romans 2:28-29, Colossians 2:11) of men and women by faith in His work to transform them.  He therefore gives those of the faith like Abraham the everlasting possession of the kingdom of God in Christ that is so much more than a physical country (Hebrews 11:16).  The proof of our covenant is the seal of God’s Spirit in us (Ephesians 1:13-14) which is obtained by God calling us and covenanting with us by His lifeblood on the sacrifice of the cross to make us His spiritual children and people by this trust in His work and word.  This is God’s covenant with all who have the faith of Abraham. 

Genesis 16:1-16 - Conflict Child

Genesis 16:1-16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.”

6 So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

7 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” 10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her:

“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,

Because the LORD has heard your affliction.

12 He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

The son of Abram born to a slave woman (or maidservant) was named Ishmael, meaning God hears since God heard his rejection and that of his mother by Sarai.  This child was to be a child of constant conflict with the world  as we see even today among the Arab peoples who are his descendants.  Ishmael and his descendants continue the heritage of a wild child set opposed to others in constant strife with those they dwell among.  Sarai had wanted a child so badly that she told her husband to take this Hagar as a wife and bear children through her as their inheritance and her heart’s desire.  Unfortunately, when the child was conceived she was immediately jealous and hateful of Hagar who despised Sarai even more than she hated Hagar and she seemed not to care for the child of her husband by her because Ishmael still would not be her own son.  When she complained to Abram of the way Hagar looked at her and treated her, he told her that it was up to her to take measures to deal with Hagar since she was her maid.  She had told Abram, “The LORD judge between you and me,” and that was the impetus for him to hand over Hagar to her judgment to do right in the sight of God.  He passed the decision to her and she seems to have beaten or at least harshly mistreated the woman and the maid then fled the scene in a run for her life.   The LORD intervened with Hagar when she stopped by a well on her way to the region of Shur, “a place southwest of Palestine on the eastern border or within the border of Egypt; the Israelites passed through the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea (Strongs).”  She was basically heading into the desert to die because she had nowhere to turn.  The LORD told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her authority over her and God would make her fruitful and multiply in number by many descendants.  He told her to name the child Ishmael as her answer for a son because God heard her suffering and answered with him.  However, this son would be a wild child, set against everyone in conflict and with everyone against him and his descendants also.  He would still love among God’s people, just not inherit the blessing which was reserved for the true son of promise in the lineage of the Messiah to Abram (Genesis 17:19-20, 21) in fourteen years (Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born and one hundred when Isaac came as Genesis 21:5 tells us).  When God told Hagar that Ishmael was her answer to prayer heard by Him, she called the place where He told her about him, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees as a reminder of God’s grace to see her plight and answered in His might on her and her son’s behalf.  She would have a legacy of nations, just not the legacy of promise for God’s spiritual nation of His people (Galatians 4:22-24) as Isaac was (Galatians 4:28-29, 30-31) chosen and promised to and through Abraham to Christ the Messiah as our heritage and inheritance of faith.  For God sees and hears the faith of Abraham echoing through time to we who trust His work in Christ as God’s true and only Son who accepts us by grace in His calling of that promise.  We still deal with the conflict child’s children who oppose those who are of the New Covenant of grace (Galatians 4:28-29), yet we are safe and secure in our inheritance as chosen children (Galatians 3:18, Romans 4:18, 20-22, 23-24) of faith. 

Genesis 15:1-21 - Trust of Faith and the Assured Promise

Genesis 15:1-21 

God’s Covenant with Abram (Hebrews 11:8–10)

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

7 Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

8 And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:

“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Abram trusted God with supernatural faith yet still asked how he would know the promise to inherit the land would happen.  It is as the man who told Jesus he believed but asked Him to help his unbelief (Mark 9:23-24), to assuage his doubts as he held to that trust.  The spirit can hold onto God’s word by faith while the mind wrestles with the certainty by needing explanations of our belief at times.  The LORD God told Abram directly that He was his almighty shield to protect him and the immeasurable reward of his soul.  Abram had doubts still and asked how he could have an heir to fulfill the promise to become a nation of nations (Acts 7:5) when all he had was unseen as of yet.  Yet Abram still trusted to the promise because of Him who had promised was entirely faithful and omnipotent, unable to lie or go back on His word (Numbers 23:19), and perfectly able to do all He said.  The LORD then told him to try to count the stars in the heavens as a picture of how many descendants he would be given.  Because Abram believed God when He told him this, that faith was marked on his account as righteousness, just as our trust in God’s Son and His sacrificial atoning work on the cross by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) results in His righteousness imputed to us as if it were our own.  This is the faith of believing Abraham spoken of (Galatians 3:9, 14) later by Paul to illuminate what was hidden (Ephesians 3:9-11) before in the Old Testament and revealed in all its glory in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  We are saved just as Abram by trusting God’s word and work of His unbreakable promise.  We are therefore Abram’s spiritual descendants of this faith (Romans 9:7-8) that takes God at His word and puts all trust in His work and righteousness.  We know that we will inherit the kingdom of God as history unfolds before us, just as Abram was told that his descendants would be afflicted for four hundred years in Egypt as strangers in a strange land until they would be set free from bondage while their masters would face judgment for this.  This is a picture of how we are in bondage to sin until delivered out of this strange land opposed to Him and His word and then are delivered (saved) from that bondage to sin to enter into His Kingdom by repentance, faith, and grace.  Abram was given a covenant promise of these things by God honoring him with a burning sacrifice to seal the covenant; our New Covenant (Hebrews 8:10) is sealed with the lifeblood of God’s Son as He sacrificed Himself for us to establish an eternal and unbreakable covenant with Him.  This trust of faith and assured promise keeps us through all trials and tribulations until His return when this sin-filled world is judged as Egypt was for enslaving the people of God and we then enter into the fullness of the promised country (Hebrews 11:16, 13:12-14) to come. 

Genesis 14:18-24 - Tithes to the King of Peace

Genesis 14:18-24

Abram and Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1, 2)

18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said:

“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

And he gave him a tithe of all.

21 Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.”

22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’— 24 except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

The king of Salem who is also the king of righteousness (Melchizedek) and king of peace (Salem) as verified in Hebrews 7:1-2, this king met Abram after battle and blessed him.  This high priest of God Most High was of unknown origin and yet was the servant of the LORD and knew Abram.  This priest was a picture of Christ as seen hidden in veiled language here, but more fully explained by the writer of Hebrews as the type of a High Priest without beginning or end as the divine Son of God is and was and always will be.  He even is described there as made like the Son of God, without beginning or end and was an eternal priest, a perfect picture and type of God’s Son to come as our eternal High Priest, forever interceding (Hebrews 7:24-25, 26) for us!  We see also how Abraham gave a tenth part of all he had from God’s blessing in the battle of the kings to this high priest as a foretaste of us giving our tithes to the Lord High Priest in the heavens, Jesus Christ the righteous.  We also owe him homage, honor, and service with all we have because it is all given by Him in His victory over the world to deliver us for our enemies into His grace and worship.  A mere tenth is only a token beginning of all we have.  Before Abram gave a tithe to this high priest of righteousness and peace, he heard this blessing pronounced on him and on God for His grace to him.  This earthly priest had blessed Abram first by extolling him and as a servant of the Most High God who owns the world and delivered Abram’s enemies into his hand.  When this king of peace then asked only for the people Abram brought back (he rescued his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people as Genesis 14:16 tells us), Abram offered everything (“from a thread to a sandal strap”) along with everyone to him instead.  He swore to the LORD, the Highest and only God, knowing everything and everyone belonged to God, he swore to offer all to the high priest just as we who are rescued from sin’s penalty of death in Christ the heavenly High Priest should offer all we have and know to Him as it is all His anyway.  This includes family and fortune alike.  The only thing not offered back was what his men had already eaten for sustaining them and that promised to those who came with him into the fray.  We can see then that God allows for our daily bread to keep us when asking us to offer all to Him; the Lord owns us all yet provides for our needs as well.  We are not expected to give at the expense of the wellbeing of others, therefore.  The question left to us is who do we serve and worship with all we have (2 Corinthians 9:7-8) as expected of us?  We are to faithfully give tithes to the Prince of Peace and meet urgent needs (Titus 3:14) as well.

Genesis 14:1-16 - Caught in the Middle with You

Genesis 14:1-16

Lot’s Captivity and Rescue

1 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations, 2 that they 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). 3 All these joined together in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him came and attacked the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and attacked all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon Tamar.

8 And 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 joined together in battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; some fell there, and the remainder fled to the mountains. 11 Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were allies with Abram. 14 Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 

15 He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. 16 So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.

Abram and Lot got caught in the middle of a great war between local kings and kingdoms.  He must have wondered why he was there as he asked Lot why am I caught in the middle of this conflict with you. That thought was amplified when Lot and his lot were taken prisoner after the neighboring kings of Sodom and Gomorrah by Abram’s nephew were killed in the conflict between rebel forces.  While those in these doomed cities ran from the onsla, many ended up in the hot asphalt pits or made it to freedom in the mountains.  Sodom and Gomorrah were plundered along with Lot who was living in Sodom as they plundered all he possessed as well.  Abram was dwelling nearby after he and Lot parted company (Genesis 13:11-12, 18) earlier in the area.  He saw the carnage rage on and then heard from one who escaped what had happened to his nephew.  He raised his version of an army as a sword from its sheath to assist his family.  They were but three hundred and eighteen trained servants, but were highly trained and loyal to their lord and readily pursued the abductors all the way to Dan and routed the captors of this immense army in a surprise night attack.  God was with him as with Gideon and his three hundred to demonstrate that the success was God’s and not his own.  This small number, divided in half, was used to drive back the invaders out of the land and past Damascus to the north!  Abram and his band of brothers brought back not only Lot, but also all his people to include the women who were often taken as wives and slaves by conquerors, and all their stolen goods as well.  This was the hand of God.  The following part of the chapter adds even more glory to the account as it sets in place a clear picture of the Messiah to come as our High Priest of peace. 

Genesis 13:1-18 - The Eternally Promised Land

Genesis 13:1-18

Abram Inherits Canaan

1 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. 6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. 16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

18 Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

The eternally promised land was shown to Abram after he had worshiped and called on the name of the LORD at Bethel on the return trip with his nephew Lot.  They brought all their possessions obtained in Egypt with them as they came to the place where Abram had pitched his tent (Genesis 12:8-9) and first called on the LORD in Bethel, named the House of the LORD because of his dream of the stairway to heaven.  When they looked around, Abram and Lot realized they had far too many animals and people to settle in the same place, so Abram gave Lot the choice of where to settle.  He chose the fertile plain of the Jordan River, but one which held hidden evil of immortal sodomites in place sight there.  These “exceedingly wicked and sinful” men who were opposed to God and who would find God’s judgment on their abominable behavior later.  Lot pitched his tent near them without considering the consequences, however.  As for Abram, he listened to God who told him the promise of the land for eternity granted to him and his descendants as the LORD pointed it out to him.  As he looked around as far as he could see in all directions, he heard the promise to multiply him as the innumerable dust of the earth covering that land.  He told Abram to walk through that land to see and feel the reality of the promise for himself as God’s gift of grace.  Abram obeyed and pitched his tent near Mamre in Hebron.  Then he built another altar to the LORD to worship in thankfulness for the promise and for God’s faithfulness in bringing him out of Egypt and his deceit there to rely on an honest appreciation of God’s provision by faith instead of his own efforts.  Do we rely on the Lord in worship for the promises of the kingdom or do we attempt to earn them on our own terms instead of according to His word by faith?  May we learn that the Lord is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:3) who promises and wait (Psalm 27:14) on Him for the eternal heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16, 40) to come. 

Genesis 12:10-20 - Deception is not Safety

Genesis 12:10-20

Abram in Egypt

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”

14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

Abram thought he had to be deceptive with the Egyptian princes and Pharaoh, but ended up causing unsafe consequences for those he and Sarai deceived.  Instead of trusting God for his wife’s safety from the Egyptians because of her great beauty, he lied because he imagined it would be safer for him to stay alive and she would be treated better.  Such is the reasoning of fallen men and women.  The unintended consequences could have led to God’s wrath of judgment on Pharaoh if he had married her who was already married to Abram.  When the deceived uncovered the truth, he was incensed against Abram but still let him live and keep all the riches given him for her sake as he was wooing Sarai.  Yes, Abram succeeded in saving himself from being taken out of the way for the king to have his wife whom he pretended was only his sister, but at what moral price?  Was it worth deceiving the Pharaoh to protect himself and gain riches when he could have trusted the LORD whom he had worshipped and trusted before for all he really needed?  The Pharaoh was spared the worst of the plagues on him and his household because he did not yet take Sarai as a wife, but there was suffering and a close brush with judgment and death due to the deception.  It is always best to trust the LORD and not lean on our understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6) and rationalizing of actions to protect ourselves at the expense of others because of our fear of suffering.  We should also consider the suffering deception causes others as Abram failed to consider.  Nothing is worth lying to protect yourself and gain prosperity at the expense of another in the eyes of the Lord.  Deception is never true safety, security, or gain.  Godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6) is the only true and great gain as treasure (Matthew 6:19-20, 21) laid up in heaven.  Love does not harm your neighbor (Romans 13:10) and is the fulfillment of the second greatest commandment (Luke 10:27) to love.  Safety and soul prosperity is found in living and loving as God’s word shows us in Christ.