Notes on Genesis 14
Gen 14:1 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;
Gen 14:2 That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of
Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of
Bela, which is Zoar.
Gen 14:3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt
sea.
I believe sincerely that if Sodom and Gomorrah had lived righteously and feared
God no nation would have come against them. God's hand of protection is removed
from nations who are sinners before the Lord or in the face of God with no
repentance. Although the innocent do suffer in bad times, as a nation, those
that do not fear God have less protection.
I believe the hand of protection was not as strong upon our nation on September
11, 2001 like it was previously. We no longer have the fear of God that we once
had. When I was a child in the first grade, I remember our classroom teacher
opening up the day with the pledge of allegiance and the Lord's prayer. By the
time I got to the 3rd grade, we only said the pledge. I think it is too late to
return to that now. Now we must pray in our homes and churches for our
nation to repent.
Gen 14:4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year
they rebelled.
Human nature wants to control. We don't like people disagreeing with us so we
want to force everyone into our own mold. There are always those that desire to
rule and take control over other kingdoms. They are not content to have domain
over their own territory but want to rule the world. This is the spirit of Satan
for that is his desire to rule this world. He uses human agents for this
control. Hitler, I believe was one of these agents. When a nation knows God and
worships God, that nation has God's protection but when that nations starts to
return to sin and no longer acknowledges God, God's hand of protection is not
there as before and evil nations can then have the power to either destroy or
control them. God allows wicked nations to bring judgment upon those that turn
against Him. That is why I fear for the United States since we have turned our
back on God in the name of freedom, have allowed abortion in the name of women's
rights and we are afraid to warn the homosexual that what they do will not only
destroy their souls but their bodies as well. We are not telling them the truth.
9/11 should have been a wake up call to repent and turn back to God.
I'm not advocating any church-state religion. That has never worked and it will
not work. Repentance must come from the heart and be genuine. We cannot achieve
this by having a religious group control the government and force everyone to
live right. We have the freedom to choose to do right on our own but if we
don't, God may allow judgment to come in the form of a church-state religion
similar to Roman Catholicism, Islam, Communism or some other "ism" to control us
since we did not exercise restraint when we had freedom. Without God's
protection any dictator, representative of Satan, or religion can have the power
to take control.
Salvation is repenting of sin and being born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
This comes when someone believes in the one God sent to save us from sin. This
one is Jesus Christ who died for our sins so that when we repent of sin and
believe in Him, we can have the living water of the Holy Spirit come within us
and make us a new person. We are then changed. We are not the same. We still
have the power to choose and we can go back into the sin we came from but if we
continue in the Lord, we shall inherit eternal life. This is the kingdom of God
that is within us. His kingdom is not of this world. The world as we know it,
has to be changed and God has to do the changing. It will only be changed when
Jesus comes. Until then we must preach the gospel of repentance, obey the Holy
Spirit and occupy faithfully until Jesus returns. We must never attempt to set
up the kingdom of God on our own by the use of force and taking over
governments. All religions whether Christian or non-Christian have already tried
that and it does not work.
Gen 14:5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that
were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in
Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
Gen 14:6 And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the
wilderness.
Gen 14:7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote
all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in
Hazezon-tamar.
Gen 14:8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the
king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar)
and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;
Gen 14:9 With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and
Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five.
Gen 14:10 And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom
and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
Gen 14:11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their
victuals, and went their way.
Gen 14:12 And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his
goods, and departed.
Gen 14:13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he
dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner:
and these were confederate with Abram.
Gen 14:14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his
trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued
them unto Dan.
When the Lord is one our side, who is it that can stand against us? Remember
Abraham had only 300 servants against all the nations mentioned above. We see
peaceful Abraham who only wanted peace, arm his household when he saw injustice
and saw one of his family members in trouble. He was no wimp. He loved enough to
take action when action was needed. Abraham was not an aggressor or one who
conquered lands just to conquer them. He only fought when he had to.
A nation should never instigate war and desire to occupy other nations but they
do have a right to defend their borders and people.
When God is our protector, no matter how weak we are, nothing can stand against
us. If God removes His protection, we are history. Usually godly people will
stop God from bringing judgment against a nation. We see this in the chapters we
shall study later. Sometimes though God has to send judgment and it will affect
even the godly. We see this in the captivity by Babylon on the nation of Judah
even though Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel were godly men.
Gen 14:15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night,
and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of
Damascus.
Perhaps this is where we got the saying, Divide and conquer.
Gen 14:16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother
Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
Gen 14:17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the
slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of
Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was
the priest of the most high God.
We see another person who was a servant of God. Some say the Melchizedek may
have been Christ Himself but we do not know this for sure. We only know that
this man represented God and was a high priest having no beginning or ending of
his priesthood and was not of the priests from Aaron which came much later
during the days of Moses. Christ came with the priesthood of Melchizedek instead
of Aaron. Now that we have Christ as our high priest, the priesthood or priests
after the order of Aaron are no longer necessary. Christ brought in a new way in
which the law is written in our hearts and we are changed. We no longer need
daily sacrifices or priests to intercede on our behalf. Christ alone is
sufficient for our salvation. Any religion after Christ that offers another way
of salvation is a false religion. Even if they teach Christ but add to that
rituals, intercessions or other rites necessary for salvation, it is false.
Christ alone is sufficient to save us once we repent (turn from) sin and turn to
Christ. There is no other way to be saved or Jesus would not have had to die for
our sins.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus;
2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Gen 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high
God, possessor of heaven and earth:
Gen 14:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies
into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Whoever this priest was, Abraham gave him tithes. This seems to be a willing
offering and not a requirement of the law because this was before the law given
by Moses.
Gen 14:21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and
take the goods to thyself.
The king of Sodom offered Abraham the spoils of war and just desired to have the
captives returned that Abraham rescued.
Gen 14:22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand
unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
Gen 14:23 That I will not take from a thread even to to a shoelatchet, and that
I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made
Abram rich:
Gen 14:24 Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the
men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
Abraham here shows great wisdom. He did not want to get rich by those men of
the world but trusted in God for his provisions. This is the opposite of many of
us today. We think that if we obtain riches by hook or crook, it is a gift of
God. This is so false. If all prosperity and riches came from God, then God is
also blessing wicked men who are rich. The love of money is the root of all evil
and so many of us are lacking spiritually because we have money and goods as our
goal in life instead of the things eternal.
Shouldn't our goal be to desire to see souls obtain salvation and be born again
by the spirit than to prosper in this life only? This stuff we trust in is going
to pass away and be no more. Souls live eternally one place or another.