Genesis 14

Today’s Passage: Genesis 14

You left Lot in the last chapter pitching his tent toward Sodom, choosing the well-watered plain and drifting toward a wicked city, and now that choice comes due. Four kings from the east sweep down into the land, crush five kings of the plain, sack Sodom, and carry Lot off with all the plunder. Word reaches Abram, and the old man of the tent does something you might not expect. He arms three hundred and eighteen trained men from his own household, chases the armies through the night, routs them, and brings back Lot and all the people and goods. Then, as he comes home tired and victorious, two very different kings come out to meet him. One is a mysterious priest-king named Melchizedek, who brings bread and wine and blesses him. The other is the king of Sodom, who offers him a reward. And how Abram answers each of them is the whole point of the chapter.

As you read, hold this: Let God Most High be the one who makes you rich.

Genesis 14:1-4 (BSB)

¹ In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim ² went to war against 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 The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). ⁴ For twelve years they had been subject to Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

Do not let all these names weary you, for the Bible lists them on purpose. It wants you to feel the sheer weight of the world Lot has wandered into. Four kings on one side, five on the other, whole nations lined up in the field, and every one of them a real man who once wore a real crown. This is not a fable set in some once-upon-a-time. It is the ordinary machinery of power grinding away in the ancient world, tribute demanded and tribute refused, and behind all the marching feet a single thread that God is quietly watching: Abram’s nephew is living in the middle of it. The great affairs of nations will, before this chapter is done, come knocking at the door of one family’s tent.

Genesis 14:5-7 (BSB)

⁵ In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶ and the Horites in the area of Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is near the desert. ⁷ Then they turned back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

Now watch the eastern army roll like a storm across the whole region, sweeping down one side of the land and back up the other, beating down people after people, the Rephaites, the Zuzites, the Emites, the Horites, names of tribes long since gone from the earth. It is a picture of unstoppable force. By the time Chedorlaomer turns toward the cities of the plain, he has already flattened everything in his path, and no reader could imagine that five small kings, or one man with a household, could stand against him. The Bible is stacking the odds high on purpose, so that when the deliverance comes you will know exactly where it came from.

Genesis 14:8-12 (BSB)

⁸ Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and arrayed themselves for battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹ against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. ¹⁰ Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some men fell into the pits, but the survivors fled to the hill country. ¹¹ The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way. ¹² They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in Sodom.

The battle is joined, and it goes badly for the plain. The valley was pocked with tar pits, sticky wells of the black pitch that bubbled up from the ground there, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their men tumbled straight into them. The rest scattered to the hills. The victors then did what victors always did, gathering up the goods and the food of the fallen cities to carry home as spoil. And there, tucked almost quietly into verse twelve, is the sentence the whole chapter has been reaching for: they also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot, since Lot was living in Sodom.

Remember how carefully the last chapter told you Lot’s story. He lifted up his eyes, he saw the well-watered plain, he chose it for himself, and step by step he moved his tent closer until he was living inside Sodom’s walls. Now the city he chose has been plundered, and Lot is dragged off with it, roped in with the plunder and marched away to the east. There is an old and sober lesson here about the company we keep and the places we settle our hearts. When Sodom fell, the man who had pitched his tent toward it fell along with it.

Genesis 14:13-16 (BSB)

¹³ Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram. ¹⁴ And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan. ¹⁵ During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶ He retrieved all the goods, as well as his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the rest of the people.

A survivor stumbles out of the wreckage and brings the news to Abram, and now see what kind of man the promise is riding on. Lot had parted from him, had chosen the better land and left his uncle the leftovers, and no one would have blamed Abram for shaking his head and saying it was Lot’s own doing. Instead he moves at once. He gathers three hundred and eighteen men, trained servants born and raised in his own household, and he chases an army that had just crushed five kingdoms, all the way north to Dan.

And by night he wins. He splits his little force, falls on the enemy camp in the dark, and scatters the great coalition that nothing had been able to stop, chasing them past Damascus and bringing back every last thing they had taken, all the goods, all the people, and Lot. Do not miss the wonder of it. A shepherd with a household defeats the armies of the east. The Bible does not pause to explain how, because it does not need to. In a moment the priest of God Most High will say the only explanation that matters. God delivered the enemy into Abram’s hand.

Genesis 14:17-20 (BSB)

¹⁷ After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). ¹⁸ Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High— ¹⁹ and he blessed Abram and said: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, ²⁰ and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.

Here the story slows and grows quiet and strange, and two kings come out to meet the returning hero. First the king of Sodom starts toward him. But before that king can say a word, another one appears, unannounced and unexplained: Melchizedek, king of Salem, and something more than a king, for the text says he was priest of God Most High. He brings out bread and wine, the food of welcome and of gladness, and he lifts his hands and blesses Abram in the name of the Maker of heaven and earth. Notice how carefully he divides the blessing. First he blesses Abram from God, and then he blesses God for Abram, giving the credit for the whole victory back to where it belonged: God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

And Abram, this weary and victorious man, does the most telling thing in the chapter. He gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything. He bows, in effect, to this priest of the true God, and he hands over a tithe of all the spoil as an act of worship and thanks. He is saying with his hands what Melchizedek said with his mouth, that the God Most High is the giver, and that everything Abram has just won came down from Him. Keep this priest in your mind. The Bible will not forget him, and neither should you, for he stands at the front door of a mystery that only Jesus will open all the way.

Genesis 14:21-24 (BSB)

²¹ The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.” ²² But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, ²³ that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ ²⁴ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share for the men who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. They may take their portion.”

Now at last the king of Sodom gets to speak, and hear the difference between his offer and Melchizedek’s blessing. Sodom’s king does not bless God. He makes a deal: keep the wealth, just give me back my people. And Abram, who has just tithed gladly to the priest of God Most High, will not take a single thread from the king of Sodom. Watch how he says it. He has already lifted (רוּם) rum, pronounced ROOM. Strong's H7311, to lift up, raise high, exalt. Here it lies behind an old and serious gesture: “I have raised my hand to the LORD.” To lift the hand toward heaven was to swear an oath, to make a vow so solemn that God Himself was called to witness it. Abram is not merely turning down a gift. He has bound himself in advance, hand lifted before the Most High, that his blessing will come from one source only. There is something worth carrying away in that raised hand. Long before the king of Sodom ever made his offer, Abram had already settled in his heart whose he was and where his help came from. When the tempting deal finally arrived, the decision was already made. A hand lifted early to God makes the answer easy when the world’s offer comes late. his hand to the LORD, God Most High, in a solemn oath, and he will not touch even a sandal strap of Sodom’s goods, for one reason he names out loud: lest you should say, “I have made Abram rich.”

There it is, the whole heart of the chapter. Abram will not let the king of a wicked city be able to boast that he was the one who lifted Abram up. If Abram is going to be made rich, and God has promised he will be, then it must be God who does it and God who gets the credit, not Sodom. He is fair to his allies, letting the men who fought beside him take their earned share, but for himself he takes nothing from Sodom’s hand. He would rather be poor and belong wholly to God Most High than be enriched by the world and owe his blessing to it. That is a costly and beautiful kind of faith, the faith of a man who has learned that the best hand to receive from is the hand of God.