When God Is My Friend
Genesis 14
8 Then the rebel kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (also called Zoar) prepared for battle in the valley of the Dead Sea.
9 They fought against King Kedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Babylonia, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five.
10 As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the tar pits, while the rest escaped into the mountains.
11 The victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and headed for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and the food supplies.
12 They also captured Lot—Abram’s nephew who lived in Sodom—and carried off everything he owned.
13 But one of Lot’s men escaped and reported everything to Abram the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies.
14 When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household. Then he pursued Kedorlaomer’s army until he caught up with them at Dan.
15 There he divided his men and attacked during the night. Kedorlaomer’s army fled, but Abram chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
16 Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives.
Melchizedek Blesses Abram
17 After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine.
19 Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give back my people who were captured. But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have recovered.”
22 Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,
23 that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you. Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’
24 I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fair share of the goods to my allies—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.”
- Make sure we don’t miss the contrast being offered here.
- Abram has immediate kinship, fellowship, bond, agreement, and honor with and for Melchizedek.
- Two kings meet the same guy, but the meetings could not be more different.
- What do you see immediately in what each “king” brings?
- One brings the blessing of God, the other says ‘take the stuff, give me the people’.
- Which is exactly the Temptation Jesus faced in the Wilderness in Luke 4 / Matt. 4.
- The Satan said the same thing to Jesus: Take the stuff I offer you, leave the people.
- Call it an oversimplification, but Jesus conquered that temptation and showed His great love for us.
Which is remarkable that so many who say they belong to Him seek the relief of stuff rather than the blessing and restoration of God.
The meeting with Melchizedek “cost” Abram something, the meeting with the king of Sodom would have cost more, because Abram, the friend of God, refused any part of that dealing.
2 Corinthians 6
14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?
15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them and walk among them.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers,
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.
18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
- We know there’s shady dealings in Sodom because we can read ahead.
- Yet Abram hasn’t lived through the Lord’s declaration of judgment against the wicked city of Sodom.
- We read ahead and see the plain command of God through Holy Spirit and the pen of Paul yet we want to have exact gauge of how much and to what degree a partnership with evil is too much partnership with evil.
- Don’t team up with unbelievers. We think that requires clarification.
- We make compromises, we choose ‘the lesser of two evils’ and somehow think Matt. 6.33 has no modern application even though it’s directly from the mouth of God:
Matthew 6.31
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’
32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
- What does Melchizedek bring? He brings Abram bread and wine.
You know any other kings who offer bread and wine?
Do we live risky worship, risky obedience, dangerous obedience, or ‘asterisk-y’ worship?
The Last Supper (Matthew 26) and ‘our supper’ 1 Corinthians 11:
20 When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper.
21 For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk.
22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!
23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread
24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”
26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against[g] the body and blood of the Lord.
28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.
29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.
30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.
31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.
32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
33 So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other.
34 If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.
- What actions in my life represents my trust in my provision, and is there anything– do I even have an un-distracted act of worship like communion– that indicates my trust in God’s provision, or is all my worship an asterisk?
