GENESIS 14
This chapter shows the man of faith as the one who can overcome the world. That is one feature in which Abram is a marked contrast to Lot. I am not aware that there is a single instance in the history of Lot where he appears in the character of an overcomer. He was a true saint, and the Spirit of God has spoken of him in the New Testament as ‘just Lot’, but he never overcame; he was always being overcome by one influence after another. Egypt got [p. 115] a place in his heart, and then “the well-watered plain” because it was like Egypt, and then Sodom, and then Zoar. He always had some influence in his heart which was not of God. He never showed his true colours as a saint; his name means ‘concealed’ or ‘dark-coloured’. If you do not show your colours you are sure to drift into association with the world, and when you do that you lose your happiness and all power to be an overcomer. It is very solemn to be a Lot. There are many concealed saints who do not come out in their true colours. A man like Lot becomes a source of weakness and trouble. Moab and Ammon were children of Lot: he became the unconscious parent of two nations, who, though kindred with the people of God, were always hostile to them. That is the kind of fruit a man like Lot produces.
In view of overcoming much depends on where we live. We have already seen where Abram dwelt; here the Spirit tells us where Lot dwelt. He adds this striking comment on the circumstances which He had recorded (verse 12), “For he dwelt in Sodom”; and in the next verse He tells us again where Abram dwelt, as if to mark the contrast. If people dwell in Sodom they get involved in Sodom’s troubles. Sodom was a lawless place; it says in verse 4, ‘they rebelled’. There is always the element of lawlessness in the world, and in the government of God it always leads to trouble. Lot was powerless, and fell into complete captivity. He had no personal power, and he had no allies or confederates; he was simply carried off. The features we have seen to characterise Abram enable a saint to overcome. But if we are not habitually going on with them, when a crisis comes were are not equal to it. We might wish to make a stand sometimes,
[p. 116] but if we have not been walking in the divine path we have no divine power. Abram was an overcomer: he overcame the world in its hostile form and in its patronising form. But there was a brother who by reason of his associations was helpless in the presence of the world; he could not stand. If we are not going on as pilgrims and priests we are helpless in a crisis. No doubt Lot would have liked to have made a stand when the crisis came, but it was too late: he had not been following the pilgrim and priestly path, so was not fit for the militant path. If not a pilgrim and priest you cannot be a soldier.
There was nothing in his house that he could bring out to meet the difficulty. But Abram had a good army — trained, too — all able men for conflict. It is very instructive to see this moral result of dwelling in the right place. Hebron means ‘company’, and is suggestive of fellowship; Mamre is ‘firmness’ or ‘vigour’; Eshcol is ‘cluster of grapes’; and Aner means ‘waterfall’. These names seem to speak of spiritual vigour, and the joy and freshness resulting from being in the good of the presence of the Spirit and of the fellowship. The result is strength for conflict, for the saint has to be both a son of peace and a man of war. All these things become strengthening ‘allies’; Lot in Sodom had no allies, but with such confederates there is no lack of military power to overcome.
Abram had no sympathy with the king of Sodom; it was not a question of taking sides, but of rescuing a brother who had fallen under the power of the world: it is a great thing to have power to do this. There is such a thing as delivering one’s brother: Abram did not fight to preserve his own liberty, but to rescue [p. 117] Lot. It is good to have power to rescue a brother who falls into captivity to the world. This power will only be found with those who are on the line of Abram, not with those who dwell in Sodom. The Abram of the New Testament is the apostle Paul: he speaks to the Colossians of the great conflict he had for them. He saw them in danger of falling under the power o£ the rudiments of the world, and he brings all his forces to deliver them: he does this at Colosse and in Galatia; he had great conflict to deliver the saints from the world; for he saw the saints being drawn into bondage, and he came in for their deliverance. Many a saint has been delivered from elements of the world, which had overcome him, by the spiritual energy of another. We might covet to be thus deliverers of our brethren.
After the victory Abram was tested by the world in another way. He first got the victory over it in its hostile character, and then over it as tempting with honour and gifts. The offers of the king of Sodom are perhaps frequently more deadly than open hostility. We all have to fear the seductive proposals of the world, and the moment of victory is a moment of peculiar danger. When a spiritual victory has been gained the enemy often comes in with something seductive, some honour, some gift. We need to stay in “the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s valley”. In the king’s valley the King of Salem always meets you before the king of Sodom, and what you get from Him fortifies you to meet the king of Sodom. The king’s valley is the low place, for the king of Sodom comes out to make something of us, and to confer favours, and it is good when he finds us in that valley. It is there where we get priestly support.
[p. 118] There is One who calls us to Himself in the king’s valley, and says, “I am meek and lowly in heart”. The end of Matthew 11 is the king’s valley, and those who are there are safe from the king of Sodom. “My heart is not haughty nor my eyes lofty” (Psalm 131); that is the king’s valley, the spirit of lowliness, and the consciousness that all has been done by divine support. “Not unto us but unto thy name give glory”; that is the spirit of the king’s valley, and there the King of Salem always meets us before the king of Sodom, and His refreshment and blessing make us superior to all that the king of Sodom has to offer.
Melchisedec bringing forth the bread and wine is very suggestive. It is a most remarkable Scripture: it is the first presentation to us of the royalty and priesthood of Christ, and therefore is of the deepest interest. Melchisedec is one of the most remarkable persons in the Old Testament: we see in him a new character of royalty. We have had Nimrod, the rebel king, and we read in this chapter of nine kings; but not one of them was a king of righteousness or a king of peace: this introduces a new character of royalty which the world had never seen before, and which will predominate in the world by-and-by. God means to have the world dominated by a king of this character.
The bread and wine suggest to me what we sing sometimes
“Thou dost make us taste the blessing,
Soon to fill a world of bliss”. (394:5)
It is the divine refreshment of the blessing that is going to fill the universe. The blessing that will fill the world of bliss is that the will of God is fully established by the One who said, “Lo, I come to do thy will”; so that the love of God can be displayed and enjoyed. The loaf in the Lord’s Supper speaks of the will of God established, and the cup speaks of the love of God made known and enjoyed: we have got it in the king’s valley now. Christ brings in the will of God and the love of God; He will bring both in publicly, but saints have the refreshment of both privately in the king’s valley — a low place in this world, but where Melchisedec is known, and the blessing that is to fill a world of bliss is tasted. If you get a taste of that, the king of Sodom has not much to attract you; you do not want even a shoe latchet from him.
There is nothing more wonderful than the Lord’s Supper, and nothing the devil has more deadly hostility to: he has made it sacramental to many, and just remembrance of what Christ has done to others; he has sought to cloud all the depths and sweetness and beauty of it, as that by which the Lord rallies His own and brings Himself and His love and the love of God livingly before their affections. If our eyes were opened to see what the Supper is in the thought of the Lord it would bring us all together.
It was not only that Abram was blessed, but blessing went up to God; it came down from God and rose again to its source. The king of righteousness and peace brought forth bread and wine; but he was also priest, and as such he blessed Abram, and blessed the most high God. Most High God is a millennial title; all that is connected with it will be publicly known under new covenant conditions in the world to come. If you get the blessing of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, you are set up in independence of [p. 120] the king of Sodom. And then God is blessed as the One who has given victory. Blessing comes down upon man, and goes up to God.
The king’s valley is only mentioned twice in Scripture; here, and in connection with Absalom; Absalom set up a pillar there; that is very striking (2 Samuel 18: 18). Absalom was a rebel, and he set up in this very place a monument to himself. It shows that the devil would seek to displace all that properly belongs to the king’s valley — all the moral beauty and perfection of Christ — by man’s beauty. Absalom was a beautiful man, but his beauty was used to steal away hearts from the true king.
Scripture makes us feel that we have to do with God in it, for these things could not have been put together except by the Spirit of God. The meaning of every name is pregnant with divine instruction, and the Spirit of God reasons on it, and tells us that Melchisedec means King of righteousness, and that King of Salem means King of peace (Hebrews 7: 2). Melchisedec as a type brings out the peculiar and unique greatness of Christ; He is priest in His own title as Son of God. In the Aaronic priesthood, every link in the chain depended on the one who went before; but here was one who stood alone in personal dignity in his own title. The Aaronic priesthood was instituted long after. But in connection with Aaron there is a thought which is not seen in connection with Melchisedec. Aaron had sons, Melchisedec was alone; he was a type of a unique glory of priesthood that belongs to Christ alone; but in Aaron there is added a very precious thought; he has brethren, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”.
It is a blessed thing to have a true sense of the [p. 121] greatness of the Son of God. We overcome the world because we are made independent of it. In John 2 the Lord comes in when everything has failed, and turns the water into wine. He becomes the minister of divine joy to man. He can eclipse the best thing in nature and throw it into the shade by that which He brings in. Melchisedec’s bread and wine were far better than anything that Sodom could offer. And at the end of John 2 we see Him as a priest ministering to God by securing the holiness of His house. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”. He cleanses the temple; He maintains everything according to the holiness of God. He ministers to man and to God. That Person loves every one of us with a present, personal love, and we are bound up with Him in everlasting ties. He is the Person in whom we are more interested than in anyone else; He is near to us, and if we only keep in the king’s valley He will meet us and minister divine refreshment to us.
In Luke He goes up into heaven as a priest blessing His people. Everything is secured in Him for man and for God. Luke is the priestly Gospel: the key to its character hangs at the door, as it does generally in the books of the Bible. The first words are, “There was a certain priest”. In Luke the blessing is brought in in priestly grace for man, and in that way everything is secured for God. Luke begins with an empty temple and a dumb priest — a man silent to God, not able to speak His praise; but it ends with a company filled with such praise as makes the courts of the temple ring.
“He gave him the tenth of all”. There is in that the recognition of what is due to God in connection with what comes into our hand providentially here.
[p. 122] And there is a spiritual thought in it also, that the victories of faith minister to what is priestly. If we were in the good of what is set before us in these verses the things of Sodom would not appeal to us. Abram declined them all “from a thread even to a sandal-thong”. There you see an overcomer of the world: he, as it were, says, You cannot add the smallest thing to my wealth or happiness. He had registered a solemn vow that he would not have anything from the world; and God was delighted to come to him and say, “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”. That is to say, I will be your reward; you have refused the world, but you shall have Me.
This is a most instructive and exercising chapter as showing what enables us to overcome the world.