Genesis 13–14

0:00 I don't know how many of you come from the eastern and southern parts of the city, but if you do, and in order to get here, you get on Interstate 65 headed north at some point, maybe off the Watterson 264 right there at the airport, you may have noticed that as you kind of take this big curve headed toward downtown and headed toward, you know, the University of Louisville and Cardinal Stadium, there's this giant billboard right there on that curve that gives you the current jackpots of Mega Millions and the Powerball? Well, the other day as I was going, the other day as I was, we're just going to press on. As I was rounding that curve to get here one day this week, or maybe it was last week, I noticed that the Powerball lottery said that it was worth one million dollars. And I was like, what happened? It usually starts at like 20 or 30 or something like that.

0:56 Why is it only $1 million? Well, I finally, you know, figured it out because I read it somewhere online that it wasn't $1 million, it was $1 billion. Well, a couple of drawings happened, nobody won it. At the time of the drawing last night, Saturday night, the Powerball lottery was valued at $1.8 billion with a one-time payout of $837 million, the second largest jackpot in U.S. history. What would you do if $837 million just dropped into your lap?

1:38 Well, that's the thing. It would be life-changing, right? But a lot of times when that has happened to people in the past and there's enough lottery winners and data to know at this point, It's life-changing in all the wrong ways. There are stories all over the place in the media of lottery winners, gigantic lottery winners, having all kinds of bad stuff happen to them because they won the lottery. Winners being murdered by jealous family and friends. Winners squandering the millions of dollars and winding right back up in some dead-end job somewhere.

2:14 I mean, you know, it's one thing to sort of serve fries at McDonald's. That's a noble job. It's another thing to have been worth $200 million and wind up serving fries at McDonald's. You probably did something wrong if that happened. Or winners spending all the money and winding up drowning in debt. Psychologists have come up with a term for this. It's called sudden wealth syndrome. It doesn't just happen when you win the lottery. It also happens to people sometimes when they inherit wealth. Sudden wealth syndrome is a condition marked by guilt, isolation, paranoia, poor decision-making.

2:51 And the point of it is that the stuff of this world is often, I would say always, not all it's cracked up to be. In fact, it seems to be true that the stuff of this world operates on us more than anything else like a drug. When you don't have it, you desperately want it. And when you get it, you desperately want more of it. Over and over and over. Time without end. There is no stopping it.

3:23 Well, that's what I want to talk with you about today. The fact that the stuff of this world is not all it's cracked up to be. And I want to encourage us as we study these couple of chapters in the book of Genesis, therefore, to not be about the work of laying up treasures in this world, but to be about the work, as Jesus said, of laying up treasures in the next. In order to do that, we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter 13 and 14. Let me invite you to take a Bible, turn over there. You don't have to turn very far from the beginning. It's just on page 9 of your Bible if you're using one of these red pew Bibles in front of you.

3:55 We're actually continuing a series that we've been in for precisely one week now. We started this series last week looking at Genesis chapter 12. We looked at chapters 1 through 11 about a year ago through the fall and over the next, I don't know, Five or six falls, we're going to be returning to Genesis until we finish it up some years from now. In this series, though, we're going to be looking at the life of a man named Abraham from chapters 12 all the way through 22.

4:25 Abraham is one of these characters in the Bible that's just absolutely pivotal to the storyline. He's one of the monumental characters in the Bible. He's this previously unknown pagan who just sort of explodes onto the scene in Genesis chapter 11. and to whom God winds up making some just spectacular promises. And he goes over the course of the story from being a homeless wanderer to a guy who has a permanent homeland, this barren old codger who was to have sons and grandsons that would be more numerable than the stars of the sky.

5:01 A nobody through whom the entire world was to be blessed. In fact, from the minute God makes these promises to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3, you could say that the whole story of the Bible all of a sudden begins to revolve around the question, okay, God, you've made this promise to Abraham about all this spectacular stuff. When are you going to fulfill it and how? And the whole rest of the story of the Bible, through the histories and the prophets and the new test, all of it is trying to answer the question, when are you going to do this, God, and how? And the answer, centuries later, comes back, well, he's going to do it through Jesus, this great king, offspring of Abraham, who gathers a great nation to himself and doesn't just give them a little plot of land in the Middle East, but gives them a brand new heavens and earth. Not a city made by human hands, but a city built by God.

5:54 But all that, of course, from where we're sitting in Genesis chapter 13 today, all of that is a long time coming. For now, as we pick things up in chapter 13, all of that, if anything, is just a glimmer in Abraham's eye. He has no idea how God is going to fulfill these promises. All he's got is the bare promise itself. And to make matters worse, he's just come off this highly unfortunate episode in Egypt where his own unbelief in that promise has threatened to destroy the whole thing entirely. So that's where we pick it up in chapter 13, as Abraham is chastened by this experience in Egypt. Let's look at it. Genesis chapter 13. So Abram, that's Abraham, Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot went with him into the Negev. That just means the south, the southern part of the promised land, into the south. Now Abraham was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold, and he journeyed on from the south as far up as Bethel to the place where his

6:54 tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. And Lot, who went with Abraham, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together. For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. So Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. It's not the whole land before you. Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, I will go to the left. So Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abraham

7:57 settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley, and moved his tent as far as or near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you sea, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring will also be counted.

8:28 Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are to Hebron. And there he built an altar to the Lord. In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elessar, Keter-Leramer, king of Elam, entitled king of Goyim. These kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shanav, king of Adma, Shemeber, king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar. And all these joined forces in the valley of Sidim, that is the Salt Sea. Twelve years they had served Keter-Leramer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. So in the fourteenth year, Keter-Leramer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim and Ashtaroth-Karnaim, the Zuzim and Ham and the Imim and Shavakiriathim. And the Orites in their hill country of Sire as far as El Parang on the border of the wilderness. Then they turned back and came to Enmishpat, that is Kadesh, and defeated all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazan Tamar. Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zeboiim,

9:33 and the king of Bela, that is Zoar, went out. And they joined battle in the valley of Sidim with Keter-Lerim, or king of Elam, title, king of Goyim, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of al-assar, four kings against five. Now the valley of Sidim was full of bitumen or tar 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 they went their way.

10:06 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, These were allies of Abram. And when Abram heard that his kinsmen 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. That's way up in the north. And he divided his forces against them by night. He and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Way, way, way up north. Then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen Lot with his possessions and the women and the people.

10:41 After his return from the defeat of Keter-Leramer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh, that is the king's valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the persons but take the goods for yourself but Abram said to the king of Sodom I have lifted my hand to the Lord God most high, possessor of heaven and earth that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours lest you should say I have made Abram rich I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me let Aner, Eshkol and Mamre take their share it's an interesting story right but i think at first glance these two chapters don't seem to have

11:45 much going on that ties them together in fact they just they don't have any particular time connection to each other in the text so we don't know you know exactly when it all happened it certainly seems that the war of the kings and abraham rescuing lot happened after the division of the land but how long it was in between we don't know in chapter 13 you've got this story of Abraham and his nephew Lot, realizing that they've both gotten so rich in cattle and sheep and all the rest of it that the land can't support them both. There's just not enough vegetation in this little piece of the land. So they separate from one another, go their different ways.

12:18 Then in 14, you got this other story, first recorded war in the Bible, which Abraham ultimately gets swept up into because Lot is captured. And then after that little episode, you have this incredibly mysterious meeting between Abraham and two kings, one of which we've never heard of before. They're in the second half of the chapter. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of connection at first glance, but I think if you think about it a little bit harder, you'll see that there is. In fact, both of these stories are kind of teaching the same lesson from a different perspective.

12:53 They're both about a threat to Abraham's faith in God's promise. And the question in both of these stories, though different perspective, but it's the same question. Will Abraham, in the midst of these circumstances, look to the things and people of this world for security? Or will he hold tight to God's promise? That's the question. That's what it's asking. That's the challenge that's being put in front of Abraham. And it turns out it's not just about Abraham.

13:25 It's about us too. When we're faced with circumstances in this life, circumstances that are difficult or dangerous or just tedious, will we look to the things and people of this world for security or will we hold tight to the promises God has given us? Here's the main idea, the main point of this text. I think everything this world offers you, Everything this world offers you pales in comparison to what God gives you in Christ.

13:57 Live accordingly. Everything in this world, everything that it can offer you pales in comparison to what God gives you in Christ. So live accordingly. I want to look at this text in three points this morning. That might surprise you. But these are three things that must characterize us as the people of God. Here they are, first looking at chapter 13. Number one, we live by God's promise, not by our sight. We live by God's promise, not by our sight. That's chapter 13, point one.

14:28 Point number two, looking at chapter 14, we love God's blessing, not the world's treasures. We love God's blessing, not the world's treasures. That's chapter 14. And then number three, I will give that to you later. Here's my prayer for you as we look at Genesis 13 and 14 today. My prayer for you, for us as a church, is that however much the world may have given you of its glittering treasures, I pray you'll learn what Abraham ultimately learned.

15:06 That those treasures, as pretty as they are, as fun as they are, as safe as they sometimes make you feel, they are ultimately a vapor. Here today and gone tomorrow. And I pray you'll put your hope instead, not in them, but in God who is everlasting. That's where we're headed. Let's look at the text. Look at chapter 13, point 1. We live as God's people by God's promise, not by sight. We live by God's promise, not by sight.

15:37 So when chapter 13 opens, you can see there in verse 1, Abraham and his wife are still in Egypt. That's where chapter 12 had left them and they're still there. If you remember back from last week, Abraham had gotten himself in trouble essentially by going down there in the midst of a famine. And the reason it got him in trouble is that God had just told him like a couple of verses before. This right here, the land that you've got your feet on right now is the land that I am giving to you. This was the point of the whole thing. And Abraham looks around and thinks, ah, there's not enough food. I better go down to Egypt instead of staying in the land that God has just told me he's given me.

16:10 So he sins in that way, not trusting in God. But then, even worse, he asks Sarai, or Sarah, his wife, to lie for him and say that she's his sister, not his wife, so that the Egyptians wouldn't kill him. And the upshot of the whole thing, if you remember last week, was just disaster. Sarah is promptly taken into the harem of the Egyptian Pharaoh, and though Pharaoh gave Abraham a bunch of riches, it also wound Abraham up in the position of almost losing the one person, his wife, through whom the promise of sons was going to be fulfilled.

16:41 He nearly bankrupted the promise in order to get the riches. So in order to prevent that, because it was God who made this promise in the first place, God steps in. He inflicts Pharaoh with all kinds of plagues, which is supposed to make you think of Exodus. And when Pharaoh finds out what happened, he rebukes Abraham and sends him back to Canaan and showers him in gold on the way. So when chapter 13 opens in 1 through 4, what you've got there is, I think, a much chastened Abraham who is now trudging back up into Canaan, the promised land.

17:15 In fact, I think what you've got here is a repentant Abraham. And there are certain clues in the text that tell us that. I mean, think about the geographical situation back up in chapter 12. You remember what happened, right, geographically. So Abraham worships the Lord, he builds an altar at this place between Bethel and Ai, right? It's this valley, Ai on this side, Bethel on that side, two different cities. One means house of God, the other means ruin. And so Abraham is right in the middle of them, sort of trying to decide if he's going to be in the house of God or in ruin.

17:46 He builds an altar, he chooses right, and he worships God. Then, from Bethel, he goes down to the Negev, the south, the text says. And then from there, on down further south into Egypt. Well, here at the beginning of 13, that geographical procession is exactly reversed. He starts out in Egypt in disgrace. He goes back up into the Negev, and then he goes back to this valley between Bethel and Ai. And again, he builds an altar and worships God. So yeah, this is a chastened Abraham.

18:23 But I think there's also a beauty in it. It's not just Abraham kind of in an ugly way with his tail between his legs going back to his homeland. There's some beauty in it because I think here you have a humbled, repentant Abraham. Look down at verse 4. I love this phrase in verse 4. He comes to the place where he had made an altar at the first. He comes back to the place where he made an altar and worshiped God at the first.

18:55 Friends, isn't it good? Isn't it just amazing to know that even though Abraham had abandoned that place of worship in unbelief, he could still return to it. It wasn't like Adam and Eve anymore. God didn't set a flaming sword in front of Bethel to keep him away. God did not slam the door on him. The doorway to repentance and back to worship of God and belief in God was wide open. It is good, brothers and sisters, to know that our God is always holding the door of repentance open.

19:30 He is holding open the place that we were at the first, when everything was right. I mean, take just a second and think back to those days, however long ago they were, when you first became a Christian. Like the first few minutes, the first few days, the first few weeks and months and maybe even years of what it was like when you first came to faith in Christ. I mean, you remember what it was like, right? You're fired up for Jesus. You want everybody around you in every walk of life to know about Jesus.

20:01 You want to tell everybody you're willing to give up everything for Jesus' honor and glory. But then life happens, doesn't it? Jobs happen. School happens. Spouse happens. Kids happen. The years pass, and certain compromises are made, and slowly but surely you abandon that place. Don't you wish you could go back? Don't you wish you could feel again what those first few weeks or months were like?

20:36 Don't you wish you could go back to the altar you made at the first? I remember some years ago, I was at my parents' house sort of digging through. This was back when they lived in Texas, even digging through some old, you know, VHS tapes. Some of you will know what those are. And I found one that said on it, kids singing. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Let's see, you know. So I plug it in, and it turns out that the kids who were singing were me and my brother in various performances at our church.

21:10 And so for literally about an hour, first of all, completely cringing, I watched myself as like a 14, 15, 16, 17-year-old teenage boy standing in front of my church with a microphone singing solos. We don't do that here, but we did it in Texas. And I was a culprit in singing some of those solos. Don't any of you ever get your hopes up that you're ever going to see that. It will not happen. So at first it was cringy. But then, as those memories started kind of flooding back in, and I remembered various things that were going on, it dawned on me, and I started to sort of feel, it was almost like a memory of a feeling.

21:47 It was a feeling and a memory all at the same time, if that makes sense. And I remembered what it felt like in those early years of being a Christian. And I thought, God, I wish I could go back to that altar that I made at the first. I wish it could be like that again to that simple, fiery faith. But here's the thing. Dear, chastened, weary Christian, you can.

22:19 You can go back to the commitment, the obedience, the excitement and honor for Jesus that you had then. You're not going to go back without the scars. You're not going to go back without the weathered skin. that's all there but even those things can be glorious in repentance you know what it takes like abraham it just takes a little recognition that you never should have gone down to egypt in the first place you never should have made the compromise in the first place sometimes it takes a retracing of the steps that took you there and a commitment just like abraham that now from this moment on at the place where i first laid down the altar i'm giving my life to him and then you start doing things differently. You start reacting to the world differently. You start reacting to the world's promises differently. And that's exactly what Abraham does here. Because he's starting in verse 5 of chapter 13, immediately this newly repentant faith in God and God's promise that lives in Abraham's heart is tested. And that's the story that runs from verse 5 all the

23:21 way to the end of chapter 13. The setup of the story is really straightforward. There's a lot of words that end up telling it, but it's really straightforward. Lot was Abraham's nephew, the son of his brother, who went with him into the promised land. We don't exactly, we haven't heard of Lot before this time, so we don't know what motivated him to do it, but he did. He went with his uncle Abraham, and both of them in the promised land wound up being fabulously rich. So rich, in fact, that the land that they were on couldn't sustain all the flocks and the cattle and everything that they had. They were just eating everything, and it just wasn't going to work. So Abraham comes to Lot, and he makes his proposal. And starting in verse 9, you've got really a contrast between Abraham and Lot. Let's look at it. First, look at Abraham's proposal to Lot.

24:11 Starts in verse 8, really. Let there be no strife between you and me, between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. I'm your uncle, you're my nephew. And then in verse 9, he makes his proposal. It's not the whole land before you. Separate yourself from me. Like just go away from me. Go find some other land. We'll be on different lands so it can sustain us. And then he tells him what he wants to do. If you go to the left hand, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right hand, I will go to the left. But let's just get away from each other so the land can sustain us. Now what do you make of that? What do you make of that proposal? Because people have looked at it and they've had various reactions to it, right? They've interpreted that proposal in a lot of different ways. So some people have said that Abraham is being wrongly passive here. That again, he's putting the promise in jeopardy. He's standing on the land that God told him, this I'm going to give to you. And he says, Lot, if you want to take this land, I'll go over there. So some people have said he's being just wrongly passive by allowing Lot potentially to take the land of promise for himself. I don't think that's right though. I mean, for one thing, it turns out that even the land that

25:16 Lot chose, the portion over in the valley of the Jordan was also part of the promised land. And God's going to make that clear when he tells Abraham down in verses 14 to 18, I want you to, you know, use your eyes and look around. I want you to look to the north, to the south, to the west, and to the east where Lot just went. All of this I am giving to you, right? It's all the promised land, so losing it doesn't really seem to be the issue here. And for another thing, the text just in no way whatsoever gives any side eye to Abraham in what he does here. In fact, at the end of the chapter, God seems to commend Abraham for his open-handedness with Lot here. He's not grasping for the land. He's not trying to manipulate Lot or anybody else in order to keep it. He's just trusting God to give it to him when the time is right. And I think that's ultimately what's going on here. See, Abraham, by this point in his life, is fabulously wealthy.

26:12 He has a lot of stuff, but he's able to be open-handed with Lot. He's able to give him the choice of the land precisely because he's totally convinced. It took a little bit, but finally he's totally convinced that God is going to do what God promised to do. Abraham doesn't have to make it happen. He's convinced of that now. He won't be in a couple of chapters. Then he will be again. Then he won't be. Then he will be. That's how it works. But for now, he's convinced God is going to do what he promised. Maybe a lot will take the good land.

26:42 Maybe a lot will take the bad land. To Abraham, it just doesn't matter because he's not scraping and grasping to hold his wealth together. He's just convinced that God's promise is solid, and so he's happy for whatever. In other words, Abraham has his wealth, but his wealth does not have him. You hear that? Abraham has his wealth, but his wealth does not have him. Brothers and sisters, you and I have to be careful as Christians that we have that same attitude about the stuff that God has given us in this age that Abraham had.

27:23 There is absolutely nothing wrong. There is nothing wrong at all with being rich as a Christian. Abraham was. And there are lots of different people throughout the Bible that are, in fact, righteous, rich people. But we have to be sure that we have mastery over our wealth, not the other way around. That whatever wealth God has given us, we use it as a tool for his glory. And that that wealth does not use us as a tool. So friend, what's your relationship with your money?

27:57 Do you own your money and your stuff for good? Or does it own you for your destruction? because there's nothing wrong with being rich there's nothing particularly right about being rich either just as there's nothing wrong or right about being poor that's not the point you should pray that God would give you the same heart that Abraham has here able to be open-handed and generous precisely because your trust is not in that stuff it is deeply in God and not in the things you have So Abraham makes this sort of open-handed offer.

28:36 You take whichever one you want, and I'll take the other one. And in verse 10, Lot scans the land and chooses to go to the east. Now, if you're reading this for the first time, if this is your first kind of encounter with the Bible, first encounter with Genesis, that may not strike you in any particular way. In fact, it may seem a little bit random, other than that the land seems really good, as opposed to the land they're standing on now. Now, soon enough in the story, it's going to become clear that Lot is making a bad, bad, bad decision. But there's nothing particularly on the surface of the text that clues you into that, at least right here.

29:12 But there are Easter eggs. Like I was talking about last week, there are these little hints and nudges that are like some low, ominous music that are starting to swell in the background. And as a reader, as those little, you know, nudges and hints and Easter eggs kind of explode in your mind, you're supposed to start to realize that, Oh my goodness, this is a terrible decision for Lot to make. Now let me show you a few of these details. So for one thing, 10 to 13, verses 10 to 13 of chapter 13. So the description of Lot's choice.

29:44 It's all chock full of language from the worst parts of the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It just grabs phrases from all over the very worst parts of Genesis 1 to 11 and crams them in here. So you've got references to the garden of God. you've got references to something being well watered which makes you think of the garden of eden but if you twist it just a little bit you're also thinking of the flood right you've got references to to uh lot lifting up his eyes and seeing something that looks good for food what does that remind you of eve looking at the tree in the garden of eden it's all the same phrases. Then you've got the phrase too there, that he journeyed east, which is another phrase grabbed from Genesis chapter 10, where the people did just that. They journeyed east before founding the evil city of Babylon. I mean, everything about this and all the little hints is calculated to make you think if you've read the first 11 chapters of Genesis, this is bad, bad, bad. And then you've

30:49 got just the killer in verse 13. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. You see what's going on here? Lot is operating entirely by what his eyes can see. And the promise of what he can see is more valuable to him than remaining faithful to God and pursuing his promises. Same kind of thing that happened to Esau. He saw that stew and he was hungry and he wanted it. The promise of God was nothing to him compared to what his eyes wanted right now. Lot does the very same thing. He sees fertile land, and he decides to go settle next to the evil people of Sodom. And the result, ultimately, is disaster. So in coming chapters, this decision to go settle next to Sodom is going to cost him everything he has. He's going to escape by the skin of his teeth, almost getting killed when God destroys Sodom, and it's going to take everything that he has, but it doesn't happen all at once. And that's what I want you to see. It's not that Lot takes

31:50 one step down the mountain toward the city of Sodom, and boom, he gets struck by lightning. It's not how it works. It's not immediate consequence. There's a progression to it. Did you notice that as we read it, that there's a progression in Lot's movement towards Sodom? So look at verse 10. The very first thing that he does in verse 10 with regard to Sodom is that he looks in its direction. That's all he does he doesn't take a step toward it he just looks in the direction of Sodom and his heart is enticed by what he sees I kind of want what Sodom has to offer verse 12 he pitches his tents near Sodom that's what the phrase as far as means just means close to so he's gone from looking at it to pitching his tents near Sodom he's not quite in it but he's beside it he's making peace with it look down at chapter 14 verse 12 all of a sudden he's no longer living beside Sodom or near Sodom he's living in it dwelling in Sodom and then if you were to look forward in chapter 18 you would

32:56 find that not only is he living in Sodom he's actually sitting in Sodom's city gates which means that he's an elder of the city which means that he's a leader of the city and the thing is The thing is, the thing that is terrifying and yet the thing that is a bright, shining, flashing warning to us is that he never intended it to happen. He never intended it to happen. I'll just get close to him.

33:28 I'm a worshiper of Yahweh, just like you, Abraham. Just like you, I'm a worshiper of Yahweh. I'll just settle next to them. And before long, he's one of them. You see how that works, right? You see how the world and the flesh and the devil gets you, right? Quick glances turn into settled decisions. And settled decisions become entanglements. And entanglements lead to ruin.

34:04 It's always how sin does it. It's always how sin destroys its victims. It doesn't destroy you all at once. You'll never in all your life, if Satan wants to destroy you, you're never going to get from hell some black, smoking, sulfur-smelling envelope of an invitation that says, come to your death. It's going to be a little bit at a time. It's just going to be a little wagging finger. It's just going to be a little invitation. It's just going to be a little suggestion that you look in that direction and envy what they have.

34:35 It's going to be this little wiggling fish bait. As James puts it, a little here, a little there, just a little bit further. Just stick your head in that dragon's mouth a little bit further until the jaw snapshots. That's how sin works. Friend, is there anywhere in your life where you are on Lot's road? Think about that. It's a matter of life and death. Is there anywhere in your life that you are on Lot's road?

35:07 I mean, maybe at this point you're just kind of looking towards Sodom. You're just envying a little bit what they have. Maybe it's gone a little further and you're living next to them. You're using their language. You're adopting just a few of their cultures and customs. You're adopting their values. Friends, for a lot of you, I know that your jobs, your classes, your internships are inviting you to settle next to Sodom.

35:39 Be careful. Be careful. Look, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I'm not saying that you can't have the job, that you can't take the classes, that you can't have the internship. And Paul says it as clear as he possibly can. You can't go out of the world. But friend, you can be careful that you don't embrace the world that your tents are next to. There was a famous preacher who said it better than I think I ever could. The place for the ship is in the sea.

36:12 But God help the ship if the sea gets into it. Be careful. Well, if the result of Lot's decision was ultimately disaster, the result of Abraham's decision not to sort of grasp and take matters into his own hands, it was wonderful. So you get this beautiful moment in 14 to 18 where God kind of leads him on a personalized walking tour through the promised land. Look down at those verses, 14 to 18. We're not going to read them.

36:43 But you can see what happens. Abraham also lifts up his eyes, but this time it's good because it's commanded by God. And he's looking at everything that God is giving him, not what he's taking. And then he walks through it one foot at a time, setting his feet concretely on this land in a kind of symbolic taking possession of it. It's not full yet. The land is still full of Canaanites, but he's walking through the land, setting his feet on it as a kind of preview of what God was going to do. Look to it, how many times his offspring is mentioned, this promise of sons.

37:15 Three different times in 15 to 16. This is clearly important. This is not just about the land. This is about the offspring. But there's something strange about that word offspring, too. Even though it's constantly here talking about how many there are going to be, there's numerous as the stars, as numerous as the sands, all of it. And even though that's what it's talking about, the word offspring there is wildly singular. One offspring. See, because ultimately this, and you'll know this if you were even here last week, this is the language of a king.

37:50 One king who's going to gather a nation around himself. So Abraham walks through the land. And in the midst of it all, every step that he takes, every time he looks at the horizon, every time he sees the sun rising or setting, God is turning his mind to the one royal offspring who's going to stand at the head and center of a great nation. That's what Abraham's looking forward to here. And finally, he's living by faith in the promise and not by sight, like his nephew Lot. We as God's people should do the same. Here's number two, turning to chapter 14 now.

38:23 We, as God's people, love God's blessing, not the world's treasures. We love God's blessings, not the world's treasures. So at the beginning of 14, the camera weirdly, and I'm sure you felt this as I was reading it, it kind of weirdly pans out, basically to give us some international politics. And for about two paragraphs there, 11 verses, you get an account of the first war recorded in the Bible. And at first, it is just bewildering. All of these names and places just cascade down on you.

38:55 And a lot of them are unpronounceable. I don't know if you noticed, but I mispronounced about six of them when I was reading that thing. You probably didn't notice because I was confident about my mispronunciation. Which is what you have to do sometimes with the Bible. I mean, there's no reason to get into all the details of it. Except to say that there was this group of five kings who were supposed to pay tribute to this group of other four kings. But those five kings rebelled, and so the four kings therefore opened up a can on them. That's what happens. That's basically it. But for 11 verses, you just get names and places and kings and bitumen pits.

39:29 And as readers, we have absolutely no idea who all these people are or why we're being told about them. And it just goes on and on and on and on until verse 12. And then it all becomes clear. they also among all the spoils took lot abraham's nephew who was dwelling by now in sodom and they took his possessions and they went their way so there it is there's why the story is being told the whole story is here to show us that lot is already getting what's coming to him because he decided to live in sodom his king gets beat and as a result he and his stuff and his people are carried off as part of the spoils of war. Well, in 13 to 16, I mean, again, we don't have to spend a lot of time on it. Abraham is told about his nephew's capture. He rallies his 318 men, supposed to remind you of Gideon, probably, maybe even David, and he goes out and he rescues him. Now, there's a couple of important things happening here. There's a reason that this whole story is told, even of importance to the story. One is that Abraham is just becoming a genuine player on the world

40:34 stage. God is doing what he told him he was going to do. He's beginning to make Abraham a great nation and setting the stage for that. He always keeps his promises, and that's happening. Abraham is interacting with and even defeating kings of the known world. That's a big deal. Also, notice here that Abraham is playing the part of Savior for Lot here. He's playing a part of Savior, and he's going to do that at least two times with Lot. So here, he's got to save him from these kings, and how does he do it he does it through battle he rallies his men and his swords and he goes out and he battles those kings and he defeats them in chapter 18 a few few weeks from now he's going to do it again he's going to save lot again but this time it's not going to be through soldiers and swords it's going to be through intercession through prayer for lots battle and intercession that's how he saves. Battle and intercession. I think it is just fascinating how that tracks with our own Savior's work for us. It's just fascinating that even here in Abraham as Savior, you get a

41:39 foreshadowing, you get a picture, a preview of what Jesus is going to do. He goes to battle for us against hell and death and sin, and he wins and saves us. And he intercedes for us too, standing between us and the wrath of God. The Bible is just incredible, isn't it? Well, the real tension of chapter 14 starts in verse 17, when Abraham returns from the battle. He's rescued his nephew Lot.

42:10 He's coming back into the land, and he's met on the road by two kings. So you've got Bera, son of Sodom, not son of Sodom, but king of Sodom. Bera, king of Sodom. And then you've got Melchizedek, king of Salem. And once again, as has been the sort of pattern throughout this section of Genesis, Abraham is presented with a choice. And it's a choice of which king he's going to accept. Which king is he going to ally with, Melchizedek or the king of Sodom? Which one is he going to put his faith in? And it's a decision that puts his faith in God's promise on the line.

42:42 Let's look at it. So first of all, I want you to skip the part about Melchizedek for a minute. And I want you to look down at verse 21, at what the king of Sodom says to Abraham. 21. So the king of Sodom now says to Abraham, give me the persons. So all of the soldiers that you captured and all the rest. Give me those. But take the goods, the spoils of war, the gold, the silver, the swords, the armor. You take all that stuff that's worth a lot of money for yourself. Now, in terms of ancient warfare, this is an incredibly generous offer from the king of Sodom.

43:20 Just incredibly generous, because he could have taken it all from him, right? He probably has bigger armies, all the rest of it. Could have taken it. And anybody that looks at it can see its value. I mean, the king of Sodom offers to let Abraham keep basically everything, all the spoils of war, except the POWs. Abraham was already rich, but this would have made him rich beyond belief. It's incredible. It's a real, tangible offer. It's a reason for Abraham to say, you know, even once he's gotten it all, he could turn around and say, look what God has done for me again in making me fabulously wealthy.

43:57 And besides, I mean, to take these riches from the king of Sodom surely isn't any worse than taking riches from the king of Egypt, which he'd already done, right? But Abraham has learned. He's learned, even from the debacle in Egypt, he's learned. So look how he answers the king of Sodom there in 22, 14, 22. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord. I've sworn, in other words, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth. It's interesting that that's exactly the phrase Melchizedek uses, if you look up there.

44:29 Anyway, I've sworn that I wouldn't take a thread or a sandal strap, anything that's yours, lest you should say I have made Abraham rich. Did you see what's going on there? Abraham, at least for this moment, is no longer convinced. He does not think that he has to take matters into his own hands. He doesn't have to rely on pagan kings to bring God's promise to fruition. He knows that God is going to take care of it. And he has no intention, he says, of stealing God's glory by taking wealth from someone as wicked as the king of Sodom.

45:01 So he refuses. No, I'm trusting God to do it. I am not doing this on my own. That's one offer that he's got. Look now, though, at verses 18 to 20. So if the king of Sodom comes with this tangible, concrete offer of wealth, I mean, this is an offer that the hardest-nosed financial analyst in the world would say, absolutely take that deal, right? Well, if that's what the king of Sodom comes with to try to get Abraham's loyalty, what does this Melchizedek offer?

45:40 Look at 18 to 20. He comes out, not with riches, but with a little bit of bread and wine, and he offers Abraham a blessing from God. Now, which one should he take? Fabulous riches or a little bit of bread and wine and a blessing from God. Now, we're in church, so of course most of you are sitting there thinking with your hands like this, at least mentally, of course you take the offer from Melchizedek.

46:16 Of course you take the blessing from God. And others of you are giving it the old evangelical mmm. You know that, right? The evangelical Bible study, mmm, when you really agree with something, mmm. Seems easy in church, but it's not so easy. I mean, compared to Sodom, what Melchizedek is offering here is just laughable. If you're a financial analyst, if you're a human, this has no value at all.

46:46 It's a little bit of bread and a little bit of wine. And what else? Words? Just a blessing? Blessed are you, God most high? It has no value at all except in the eyes of faith. And in the eyes of faith, the blessing of God is everything. To be blessed and favored by God is, in the eyes of faith, everything. It's the greatest treasure of all. It's always going to be like that. For those of you who are Christians, it's always going to be like that. You are always going to be seen as odd by the world around you because you are going to value things that they don't value.

47:26 We as Christians have eyes that they don't have, and so we see things, and therefore we do things that they would never do because they do not see. Friends, never, ever, never, ever envy the world's blindness. I know it can look fun sometimes. I know it's tempting to envy them, to wish that you could act like them, to wish that you could do the things that they do and enjoy the things that they seem to enjoy. But friend, be glad and grateful that you don't.

47:59 Precisely because you can see realities that they don't see. This world offers so, so much. And it looks so, so good. Just like Sodom offered to Abraham. But what it offers to you pales in comparison to what God has given you in Christ. Never get those reversed. And what about you if you're not a Christian? What about you? I mean, to you, I say exactly the same thing.

48:32 You need to realize, even sitting right there in your pew or in your seat this morning, you need to realize that whatever it is you are chasing in this world, it is nothing compared to what God offers you in Christ. Because he offers you what may seem ridiculous to you right now, but someday I pray will mean everything to you. His blessing, his favor, his smile. And that is eternity. I think the word blessing is a light thing to us. We don't know what it means, right?

49:05 My sainted grandmother, Momo, we called her, even used it as a kind of backhanded curse. You'd do something stupid and she would just go, bless his heart. But in the Bible, the blessing of God is the favor of God. It is the smile of God. It is the declaration of God that you are righteous and you can be in his presence for eternity. That is worth more than anything you're chasing right now. There's nothing, nothing, friend, better than the favor and blessing of God.

49:44 And you know where you get it? You get it from the one that all these promises were pointing to in the first place. You get it from Jesus. So come to him. Put your faith in him. and be saved. We, as God's people, love God's blessing, not the world's treasures. Now, one more point. You know, this sermon, I think, could have ended right there if it were not for the fact that this Melchizedek guy is just so stinking weird. And so we have a third point. We worship our King Jesus and no one else. In fact, there's so much weird about this Melchizedek character that both Jews and Christians have just kind of shaken their heads over him for thousands of years I mean you look at the story and it's just odd it's odd in how he shows up it's odd in what he brings it's odd that he knows God most high I mean who is this guy he doesn't he's the king of Salem and yet he doesn't show up in the accounting of the wars of the the kings he just appears out of nowhere and then disappears into the midst and we never hear from him again until people start

50:47 theologizing about him much, much later. I mean, how on earth does he know about God most high? And for that matter, how did he become a priest of God's most high? And this is the first time in the Bible, by the way, that priests are ever mentioned. And you're not going to hear about priests again until the law is given in Exodus like 600 years later. So what in the world? And why does Abraham see this guy as so great that he gives him 10% of everything he won in the war? Now, to make matters weirder, Melchizedek doesn't even seem to be his real name.

51:19 Translated, Melchizedek means king of righteousness. That's what it means. Melchizedek, king of righteousness. Salem is quite obviously Jerusalem, but the way they've shortened the name of it, the word Salem means shalom, means peace. So do you see what you've got here in Genesis? Like written, this stuff is happening 2,000 years before Jesus. It was written 1,500 years before Jesus. Do you see what you've got here? 1,500 years before Jesus, you've got this great king of righteousness, priest of God most high, reigning in Jerusalem, the city of peace, and handing out God's blessing to those who trust in him.

52:03 That is weird. Now, there have been a lot of suggestions about who this guy is. Some have suggested, well, maybe it's Noah's son, Shem. And we know from the numbers in Genesis a little bit earlier on that Shem actually lived into the life of Abraham by 85 years. So we may be dealing with Shem, some people have said. Others have said it's an angel, maybe even a pre-incarnate Christ. The trouble with all those suggestions is that the Bible never says any of that.

52:38 In fact, the author of Hebrews does an extended riff in like chapters 4 to 7 or so, 5 to 7 of the book of Hebrews. There's an extended riff on Melchizedek. And honestly, he seems just as befuddled by the guy as you and I are. So the best way to understand Melchizedek is probably not as Shem, not as an angel, not as a pre-incarnate Christ. The best way to understand him is just that he's this supernova, bright foreshadowing for just a second of what God intends to do to save humanity.

53:12 In other words, he's a pattern. You see this kind of thing in the Bible all the time. He's a pattern or a type or a stamp, right, of the coming Savior, Jesus Christ. He is one who is both priest and king. Now, that right there, that he's both priest and king, that's a critical thing to see. Because for the rest of the Old Testament, those two offices, priest and king, are going to be kept strictly separate. You never, ever put them together so that a priest is a king or a king is a priest. You just don't do that. In fact, kings die. They get killed by God when they try to do priestly stuff.

53:46 But in this supernova pattern of Jesus, Melchizedek is showing us that it's not always going to be that way. In the fullness of time, when the great King Jesus comes, the crown of the high priest and the crown of the king are going to be forged into one and set on the head of one man. He will be the great high priest and king. Just like Melchizedek here. And friends, if you start to think about that, it's critical that he be both priest and king. You ever thought about that?

54:17 It's critical that he be both because merely one or the other is not going to cut it to save you and me. Think about it. If Jesus was only king, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He'd have all the authority in the world to command us. He would have all the authority in the world to judge us and to crush us. But there would be no sacrifice to save us. He could rule us, but he couldn't reconcile us to God. Well, what if he was only a priest?

54:48 Well, then he could intercede, he could offer a sacrifice, but he wouldn't have a throne. He'd have no power to enforce the sacrifice. There'd be no kingdom to bring us into. You'd just have this bare sacrifice with no one to accept it. But the glory of it, the glory of what Melchizedek is showing us in having a king who is a priest and a priest who is a king is that he can both save us and reign over us. He can both redeem us by his sacrifice. and he can lock us into his love for all eternity.

55:22 You see that, right? He offers the sacrifice. Jesus offers the sacrifice that saves us from the wrath of God for our sin, and he rules with perfect authority to keep us forever and bring us into his kingdom. That's why Melchizedek here is such a beautiful preview. It literally is just like a star exploding for just a moment, Because it's so dark and misty, and you're kind of staring through 1,500 years of prophecy and history. And it's just very dark at this point in Genesis. And then, boom, there's Jesus.

55:55 And you're supposed to see his beauty. In Melchizedek, right there, we glimpse what only Jesus could finally bring. A priest who sits on the throne. If you're not a Christian, that's what you need. I know those terms are not normal to you. Priests and kings and thrones. I know that that's not the case. But to put it in our language, what you need is someone who can give himself up for you, die in your place, and then who has the authority and the power to make it good.

56:28 And that's what you've got in Jesus. What exactly are you looking for in this life? it's not worth it. Everything this world offers you is nothing compared to what God can give you in Christ. So friend, look at your hands, look at your hands. What are you grasping at?

57:00 What are you holding on to? Here's my appeal to you today. Lay down your dirt and take the treasures of heaven. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we honor you and worship you this morning as King of kings and Lord of lords and as the high priest of God, the Lamb of God who was slain. So that the wrath of God for our sin might find its home in your heart and not in ours.

57:34 Our Lord, we thank you for acting on our behalf in great mercy and compassion to save us and make us your own. We pray, oh Lord, that we would spend all of our days serving you, the great high priest, the great king of kings, until you take us home to be with you in heaven. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.