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Abram and the Tale of Ten Kings

Text: Genesis 14:1-24

Introduction

The Bible is supremely the story of God’s Son, Jesus the Christ. And nowhere is this more apparent than in Genesis 14.

As the psalmist will reference later in the Old Testament, and as the writer of Hebrews will make explicit in the New Testament, Genesis 14 is an extremely important passage. Why? Because it points beautifully and powerfully to the glory of God’s Son Jesus.

Genesis 14 might be entitled “Abram and the Tale of Ten Kings”. Nine of the kings, though important in their day, are lost to history. But the tenth king—a king named Melchizedek—serves as a timeless reminder that God was loving his Son, glorifying his Son, laying down the groundwork for the coming of his Son hundreds of years before Jesus would even be born into this world.

I. Sodom and Lot Are Looted (vv.1-12)

  1. vv.1-3 the mention of Sodom links this chapter to what went before in chp 13.
    1. Now vv.1-3 of Gen 14 relate how that 5 local kings, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, band together to fight against 4 powerful, invading kings. Why?
  2. vv. 4-7 give us a little background. These 5 local kings had been paying tribute for over a decade to another king named Chedorlaomer. They had been under his dominion for 12 years, but in the 13th year they banded together to form a rebellion.
    1. Not surprisingly, Chedorlaomer did not take well to this uprising, and so he gathered together an alliance of his own, with 3 other kings and they marched their way toward the Jordan Valley.
    2. It is striking that in v.5 we are told that this powerful  coalition of kings under Chedorlaomer also conquer the peoples known as the Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emim…. giant peoples, we know from Deut 2.
  3. vv.8-12 Well, as it so happened, this giant-conquering king Chedorlaomer went on to defeat all 5 of the local kings who had risen up against him.
    1. But in v.12 we find Chedorlaomer made a fatal mistake. In conquering and looting the wealthy city of Sodom, he unwittingly also took captive a man named Lot.
    2. Lot was the cousin of Abram. And Abram was God’s man, the man by whom God had chosen to bring about his special people Israel, and the man through whom God had  promised to bless the nations.

II. Abram Is Victorious over Kings (vv.13-16)

  1. vv.13-14 tell us that one escapee from the conquest of Chedorlaomer makes it to Abram and tells him that his cousin Lot has been taken captive.
    1. So Abram gets together 318 trained warriors from his own household and pursues after those who have taken his cousin Lot captive.
  2. vv.15-16 detail how Abram strategically attacked. Abram divided his men into several bands and attacked their enemies at night, from several sides at once.
    1. Such was their victory that Abram chased the enemy clear out of Palestine, reclaimed his cousin Lot, and looted the 4 kings of all their loot.
    2. And so, in v.16, Abram is blessed with victory, takes Lot back with all of Lot’s family and possessions, and heads toward home.

III. Abram Honors One King, but Rejects Another (vv.17-24)

  1. vv.17-18 As Abram returns from his successful war campaign, he is met on the way—and out of the blue, as far as all the rest of the Bible is concerned—by this mysterious man named Melchizedek.
    1. v.18 is literally everything we know about this man personally: the name ‘Melchizedek’ comes from 2 words meaning ‘king’ and ‘righteousness’.
      1. And he is king of a city named Salem, which comes from the word ‘shalom’/peace. Salem will later become the city ‘Jeru-salem’.
    2. But Melchizedek is not only a righteous king of peace; he is priest of the Most High God, Abram’s God, the one true God Yahweh.
      1. The write of Hebrews capitalizes on each of these little tidbits of information, in order to expound on this mysterious character: He 7:2
    3. But where does he come from? what happens to him aftr this? We don’t know.
  2. But in vv.19-20 we read of a very peculiar and unexpected turn to the story of Abram.
    1. Abram, father of the faithful and of the nation of Israel, is blessed by Melchizedek and then turns around and pays a tithe to Melchizedek from his recent spoils.
      1. IOW, mighty/blessed/faithful Abram treats Melchizedek as his superior.
    2.  And king Melchizedek reminds Abram that it is the Most High God who delivered his enemies into his hands.
      1. In response/admission of this truth, Abram acknowledges God’s victory by giving God’s priest a tenth of his spoils in war.
    3. What does all this mean? Well, we are told later in the OT, from King David himself,  that Melchizedek would prove to be a pattern for the coming Messiah, who would himself be THE priest of the Most High God: Ps 110:1-4
      1. Therefore, the writer of Hebrews in the NT—who is writing to Jewish readers in order to prove to them the superiority of the Christian gospel to OT religion—draws from both Gen 14 and Ps 110 to explain that Jesus is a better priesthood than Levite, being after the order of Melchizedek He 7:4-10 
    4. The gist of his argument is this: the Levites normally receive tithes from people. But in Gen 14, through Abraham as their ancestor, the Levites gave tithes to Melchizedek.
      1. Also, the author of Hebrews explains, if you are on the giving end of a blessing than you are greater than the one receiving blessing.
      2. The Messiah is greater than Abraham himself—being the one who blessed Abraham and to whom Abraham paid tithe—and so the Messiah also has a greater priesthood  than the Levite priesthood because his is a priesthood like Melchizedek’s. It is forever.
    5. God’s plan of redemption was so concrete, that he could so order the description of the king of Salem in Gen 14 that he would beautifully picture the plan of redemption thru the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
      1. Even the way Melchizedek’s story is told in Gen 14, without any recounting of who his parents are and without any account of his death, is a purposeful pointer to the fact that the Messiah would have a supernatural birth and have a never-ending priesthood.
  3. There is a stark contrast, then, in vv.21-24 when the king of Sodom tries to give Abram a ‘blessing’: “Abram, you keep all the spoil/wealth and just give us back the people.”
    1. Abram has saved the king of Sodom’s skin, and so the king obviously has no resource to offer Abram.
    2. Yet even so, Abram is not willing to take anything from the king, refusing to benefit from this encounter; and part of the reason is that he doesn’t want anyone to say that he became wealthy through this, but rather that God fulfilling his promises is the source of Abram’s wealth.

Conclusion

Those who, like Abram, trust in God’s promised Redeemer will find that all of history is unfolding for the good of God’s people and the glory of his Son.    

  1. Those who faithfully follow God will find giant-slaying power on their side; but they will also find that even the real pain and deep suffering they experience in this life—because of real and deep sins—are paid for and eternally removed by the priesthood of Jesus Christ on their behalf.