just Did your know that Sarah, Abraham’s wife,
was Abraham’s half-sister?
I didn’t! I missed it!
But I should have guessed it!
It seems that most humans, back in the day,
intermarried and had lots of children.
I think the DNA of humans
had to be more resilient than it is today!
Anyway, in chapter 20 of Genesis,
it is recorded that Abraham said,
“Besides, she really is my sister,
the daughter of my father
though not of my mother;
and she became my wife.
And when God had me wander
from my father’s household,
I said to her, ‘This is how
you can show your love to me:
Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’

Abraham said this Abimelek, the king of Gerar.
in response to the king’s question,
“Why did you lie?”

You see, after God displayed his wrath,
in Sodom and Gomorrah,
“Abraham moved into the region of the Negev
and lived between Kadesh and Shur.”

Kadesh was an ancient city
on the Orontes River in western Syria.
The site is located about 15 miles
southwest of modern-day Homs.

Shur was the location given to wilderness area
East of Egypt and the Red Sea - 
on the Arabian peninsula -
what we know today as Saudi Arabia.

Gerar was a Philistine town
in what is today south central Israel,
and Abimelech was it's king.

We have to remember how it was back then.
Kings had the power
to take whatever they wanted -
including women!

Scripture says,
“For a while he stayed in Gerar,
and there Abraham said
of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.”
Then Abimelek king of Gerar
sent for Sarah and took her.”
“But God came to Abimelek
in a dream one night and said to him,
“You are as good as dead
because of the woman you have taken;
she is a married woman.”

As we saw in Genesis 2,
God defines marriage as one man and one woman 
becoming one.
God apparently does not approve of another man
taking a married woman as his own.

“Now Abimelek had not gone near her,
so he said, “Lord, will you destroy
an innocent nation?”

Let’s break that down!

Since the king ruled a nation, 
he knew the individual choices he made
had an effect on everything
and everyone that extended from him.

Abimelech said to God,
“Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’
and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’?
I have done this
with a clear conscience and clean hands.”

Then God said to him in the dream,
“Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience,
and so I have kept you from sinning against me.
That is why I did not let you touch her.
Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet,
and he will pray for you and you will live.
But if you do not return her,
you may be sure that you
and all who belong to you will die.”

Dang! God really is sovereign!

God took responsibility
for being the reason why the king
had not yet touched Sarah!

“Early the next morning
Abimelek summoned ALL of his officials,
and when he told them ALL that had happened,
they were very much afraid.”

God is so good!
He uses every opportunity
to show himself as sovereign!
Everyone knew
that the God of Abraham was omnipotent!

Then Abimelek called Abraham in and said,
“What have you done to us?
How have I wronged you 
that you have brought 
such great guilt upon me and my kingdom?
You have done things to me
that should never be done.”

Then Abimelek asked Abraham,
“What was your reason for doing this?”

Abraham replied, “I said to myself,
‘There is surely no fear of God in this place,
and they will kill me because of my wife.’

You see, Abraham knew that Sarah’s beauty
was irresistible to most men,
and he knew that she would draw
the attention of kings who had eyes to see
the desires of their lands.
He knew without fear of the Lord,
they would just take what they wanted.

Apparently Sarah was like Bathsheba,
the woman whose beauty triggered David to sin.

This is when Abraham responded
“Besides, she really is my sister,
the daughter of my father
though not of my mother;
and she became my wife.
And when God had me wander
from my father’s household,
I said to her, ‘This is how
you can show your love to me:
Everywhere we go, say of me,
“He is my brother.” ’

Abraham wanted the king to understand
that he told a half lie 
because he knew the king did not have 
a relationship with the Most High God.
The half lie could be seen as a moral failure -
or it could be seen as a reason to live.
What do you think?
Do you think any of God's people were moral?

“Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle
and male and female slaves
and gave them to Abraham,
and he returned Sarah his wife to him.

And Abimelek said,
“My land is before you; live wherever you like.”

To Sarah he said,
“I am giving your brother
a thousand shekels of silver.
This is to cover
the offense against you
before all who are with you;
you are completely vindicated.”

Abimelech recognized Abraham
not only as Sarah’s husband, but he also said,
“I am giving your brother
a thousand shekels of silver
to cover the offense
I have committed against you.”

He acknowledged
both the divine and the human sin.

“Then Abraham prayed to God,
and God healed Abimelek,
his wife and his female slaves
so they could have children again,
for the Lord had kept all the women
in Abimelek’s household from conceiving
because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭20:1-18‬

God is so good!
He gave all them grace -
for the wrongs they had done.
And in the end, a Babylonian man
who God turned into a prophet,
and his half-sister, 
who was an extension of him,
and a Philistine king who came to his knees
to repent and pray unto God -
we’re all saved by grace through their faith
that God was the sovereign king.

Are you ready
to hear another twisted story
about sex and manipulation?
It does not come from
Vogue Magazine or Entertainment Today,
it comes straight from the Bible,
the written Word of God.

It’s about two young girls
who grew up in Sodom -
a place so evil that God heard
the outcry of the people
and finally sent His fire down -
to destroy the town,
and the towns extending from it.

This is true account.
However, it’s based on a nugget of truth,
because God’s Way had been watered down
by wicked social customs created by men 
who had gone bad.

This story is about
two young virgin daughters
who were chosen by their father
to marry two wicked men
from the town they were raised in.
But as was their custom -
their socially accepted norms -
the men from Sodom
preferred to have sex with men
and the role of women was to have children.

To me, it sounds much like the world
when the sons of God took human women
- Pre-Flood.
But it only got worse!

Here’s a summary of the account…
Two angels of the Lord,
appearing as men,
entered the gates of Sodom,
to bring Abraham and his extended family out
before the wrath of God showed up.

When Lot saw them,
he immediately recognized them as lords.
He urged them not to sleep in the city square,
but to stay the night with him, at his house.

But it was too late.  The men of city saw them.
“And before they had gone to bed,
ALL the men from EVERY part
of the city of Sodom - both young and old -
surrounded the house and called out to Lot,
“Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us
so that we can have sex with them.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭19:4-5

So Lot went out to the wicked men,
and offered his daughters
as a substitute to them.

Lot said, “No, my friends."
"Don’t do this wicked thing.
Look, I have two daughters
who have never slept with a man.
Let me bring them out to you,
and you can do what you like with them.
But don’t do anything to these men,
for they have come
under the protection of my roof.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭19:7-8‬

Can you believe -
Lot offered his daughters, not only in marriage,
to two wicked men -
But he offered them up, like pieces of meat
to be raped by ALL of the men of Sodom!

Now granted -
he was trying to save the men,
who were actually angels of the Lord,
But the truth is - dark cannot touch light
without it being destroyed; so the angels
would have destroyed those men
if they had tried to touch them.

But Lot had lost his common sense.
He called those wicked men “friends”
probably because he had lived -
participating in their customs, for far too long.

But the Lord showed mercy to Abraham,
And chose to graft Lot in,
by saving him and his family 
from the wrath of God.

The angels of the Lord
were even going to save
the wicked men who were betrothed
to Lot’s daughters,
but the men refused to listen
and thought Lot was making it all up.

Sounds like the people I know today.
When you share the truth in love -
they scoff it off as nonsense -
and continue to believe
that since God is love
they don’t have to follow in His ways.

Since they say “God is good” -
there is no fear of the Lord.

Now Lot had a wife,
who probably came from Sodom,
because when she was running
with Lot and her girls, for Bela,
otherwise known as small town of Zoar,
she defied the angel of the Lord
and looked back at Sodom.

When she saw the wrath of God,
she became a pillar of salt.

But Lot and his daughters 
were saved that day,
and after taking refuge in Zoar,
they went to live in a cave.

And this is where the story
gets even more twisted -
keep on listening.

The scripture says
they went to live in the mountains,
“for he was afraid to stay in Zoar.”

Perhaps Lot saw in Zoar
a people who were wicked?
And after being saved,
and seeing his home destroyed,
maybe he had gained
a healthy fear for the Lord?

Maybe that is why Lot was afraid
to stay in the town of Zoar?

Perhaps Lot thought,
“if I take my girls away,
to the mountains - to live in a cave,
away from wicked men - then I can save them
from experiencing further destruction?”

But Lot did not consider the social dilemma -
the twisted thinking that had been implanted
in his daughters by a wicked and corrupt culture
that they lived in, in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Listen to what they did.

Genesis 19:32-33 says,
“One day the older daughter said to the younger,
“Our father is old, and there is no man
around here to give us children -
as is the custom all over the earth.
Let’s get our father to drink wine
and then sleep with him
and preserve our family line
through our father.”

The girls believed that since their role
was to have children, then they would have to
have sex with their father, the only male,
to preserve the family line.

And yet, she knew it was wrong.
She said they would need
to get their father drunk
so that he would not know 
what was happening to him.

Scripture says,
“That night
they got their father to drink wine,
and the older daughter went in
and slept with him.
He was not aware of it when she lay down
or when she got up.
The next day, the older daughter
said to the younger,
“Last night I slept with my father.
Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight,
and you go in and sleep with him
so we can preserve our family line
through our father.”
So they got their father
to drink wine that night also,
and the younger daughter went in
and slept with him.
Again he was not aware of it
when she lay down
or when she got up.”
“So both of Lot’s daughters
became pregnant by their father.
The older daughter had a son,
and she named him Moab;
he is the father of the Moabites today.
The younger daughter also had a son,
and she named him Ben-Ammi;
he is the father of the Ammonites today.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭19:30-38‬

I have to say, many years ago,
when I first read this story,
I thought those girls were totally crazy! 
But now, after growing up in a culture,
where "wicked is good and good is wicked,"
I see how easy it is for social norms seep in -
like the serpent did in the Garden
with Adam and Eve.

I see how the Word of God
has been twisted
to fit into the wicked minds of men,
and how it gets even more insidious
with the passing of generations.

These girls were a product of their society.
Their identity was wrapped up in motherhood.
Women had no worth -
the men of Sodom didn’t even want
to have sex with them.
They were not even protected
by their future husbands.
They were nothing more than pieces of meat
to be thrown out and abused.

Imagine what they had learned.

In the girls twisted little minds,
they thought they were doing something good -
they thought they were preserving the family line.

And that is what they did!

They gave birth to two sons,
two nations who would cause
much irritation to the chosen people of God.

Moab, the emerald in the sand,
would comprise a people who would live
just beyond the Jordan -
just short of the promised land.
Moab would be a source of war.

Ammon lived just north of Moab,
and they also made war with Israel.
Deuteronomy 23:3 says,
“No Ammonite or Moabite
or any of their descendants
may enter the assembly of the LORD,
not even in the tenth generation.”

This is what happens when people sin,
and take matters into their own hands.
We just saw this with the decision
of Abraham and Sarah, 
and the birth of Ishmael,
and now - we see it again -
with Lot’s daughters
taking matters into their own hands 
and giving birth to Moab and Ammon.

Lord help us learn a lesson from this.
Help us teach our children the truth.
Help us to show your love
and teach our children
that fear of the Lord is for our own good.
Help us not take matters into our own hands.
Give us the endurance
to wait patiently on the Lord.

Protect our eyes and ears from wickedness,
and send an angel of the Lord
to grab our hands
and lead us into safe passages.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit
who continues to guide us
into your righteousness.
We love you.

In Genesis 18
the Lord appeared to Abraham
near the great trees of Mamre.

Abraham was sitting by his tent
when he looked up
and saw three men standing nearby,
He hurried over to meet them
and bowed low to the ground.

Later we learn that two of them were angels,
and one of them was the Lord.

Scripture says two of the men left for Sodom,
and one stayed behind to talk to Abraham.

Scripture says,
“The two angels arrived at Sodom
in the evening, and Lot (Abraham’s nephew)
was sitting in the gateway of the city.
When he saw them, he got up to meet them
and bowed down with his face to the ground.

“My Lords,” he said, “please turn aside
to your servant’s house.
You can wash your feet and spend the night
and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered,
“we will spend the night in the square.”
But Lot insisted so strongly
that they did go with him and entered his house.

Lot prepared a meal for them,
baking bread without yeast, and they ate.
Before they had gone to bed,
all the men from every part
of the city of Sodom -
both young and old - surrounded the house.

They called to Lot,
“Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us
so that we can have sex with them.”

If you didn’t know
where the name sodomy came from,
now you do!
These men acted like dogs -
wanting to hump every single one.

Scripture says,
“Lot went outside to meet them
and shut the door behind him and said,
“No, my friends. don’t do this wicked thing.
Look, I have two daughters
who have never slept with a man.
Let me bring them out to you,
and you can do what you like with them.
But don’t do anything to these men,
for they have come
under the protection of my roof.”

Can your imagine
offering your own children,
Your daughters who are still virgins,
to be raped by sick and demented men?
The thought of this just makes me cringe!

“Get out of our way,” they replied.
“This fellow came here as a foreigner,
and now he wants to play the judge!
We’ll treat you worse than them.”

The men of Sodom were super angry -
Highly emotionally dysregulated!
They did not want to be told what do by Lot - 
a foreigner who had entered their land
and would not bend to their social customs.

All of the men of Sodom were wicked!
The whole lot of them hard hearts towards God.

Not one of them were righteous in God's eyes.
“They kept bringing pressure on Lot
and moved forward to break down the door.
But the men (angels) inside reached out
and pulled Lot back into the house
and shut the door.”

I wonder if this is what God does with us,
when we are being approached, attacked
and influenced by demons?

“Then the angels struck the men
who were at the door of the house, young and old,
with blindness so that they could not find the door.”

Man - these angels had great power!
They were able to confuse the wicked
by making them blind!
Thank you Father for your great love!

The two men (angels) said to Lot,
“Do you have anyone else here -
sons-in-law, sons or daughters,
or anyone else in the city
who belongs to you?
Get them out of here,
because we are going to destroy this place.
The outcry to the Lord
against its people is so great
that he has sent us to destroy it.”

Once again we see the power
of God's covering through mercy and grace!

The same thing happened to Noah,
when his wife, his sons and their wives
were allowed to live.

It’s seems back then,
if a man was found guilty of sin,
his whole household was destroyed,
and if a man found favor
in the eyes of God,
then everyone in his household
was allowed to live.

“So Lot went out
and spoke to his sons-in-law,
who were pledged to marry his daughters.
He said, “Hurry and get out of this place,
because the Lord is about to destroy the city!”
But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.”

The Lord was going to allow
the wicked men to live, all because
they were betrothed to Lot's daughters.
The wicked men who did not put up a fight
to protect the young girls
they were betrothed to marry.

Sounds much like the wicked today -
who read these poems
and think it's all in my head.
They don't believe the Lord is coming back -
as the Lion of Judah with scepter in hand.
 They don't believe the Lord is going to destroy
every living being that he granted breath.
They don't believe that God has a divine plan
to restore Eden
by making a new earth and a new heaven.
Some believe if they say they believe in Christ,
they will be saved from experiencing eternal death.
But what they don't realize is that Jesus said,
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 
Many will say to Me in that day,
‘Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?’ 
And then I will declare to them,
‘I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!’
Matthew 7:21-23

“With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot,
saying, “Hurry! Take your wife
and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away
when the city is punished.
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand
and the hands of his wife
and of his two daughters
and led them safely out of the city,
for the Lord was merciful to them.”

Did you hear that?  Lot hesitated -
so the angels of the Lord
grabbed all of their hands
and led them to a safer land.

Lot was not seen as good by God.
He did many things that were morally wrong.
Nor was his wife or his daughters good,
and the men they were betrothed to
were very wicked!

They lived (and had the chance to live)
because the Lord showed grace
and was merciful to them!

“As soon as they had brought them out,
one of them said,
“Flee for your lives! Don’t look back,
and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!
Flee to the mountains
or you will be swept away!”
But Lot said to them,
“No, my Lords, please!
Your servant has found favor in your eyes,
and you have shown great kindness to me
in sparing my life.
But I can’t flee to the mountains;
this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.”
“Look, here is a town near enough to run to,
and it is small. Let me flee to it -
it is very small, isn’t it?
Then my life will be spared.”

One of the angels said to him,
“Very well, I will grant this request too;
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
But flee there quickly,
because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”
(That is why the town was called Zoar.)”

Zoar in Hebrew means insignificant.
The actual name of the city was called Bela -
and my guess is the Lord was planning to destroy it.
The insignificant city
was an extension of Sodom and Gomorrah,
my guess - along with Admah and Zeboiim.

Do you remember Genesis Chapter 14
when the five kings of the Jordan plains
formed an alliance and joined forces
in the Siddim Valley, known as the Dead Sea,
to fight against the four kings
of Babylonia, Ellasar, Elam, and Goiim -
the kings of Mesopotamia?

The angel said,
"I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
But flee there quickly,
because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”
To me, this means Bela was going to be destroyed,
but because favor was extended to Lot once again,
Bela would become a land of refuge instead. 
However, the blessing was attached to Lot,
which meant that Lot would have to beat
the fire's path.
  
Lot bent.
Lot hesitated.
Lot complained.
Lot was a lot like us!
God's wrath is coming to earth?
Will we beat the fire's path?

“By the time Lot reached Zoar,
the sun had risen over the land.
Then the Lord rained down
burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah -
from the Lord out of the heavens."

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and
“every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”;
and all tribes on earth “will mourn because of him.”
Revelation 1:7

"Thus He overthrew those cities
and the entire plain,
destroying all those living in the cities
and also the vegetation in the land.
But Lot’s wife looked back,
and she became a pillar of salt.”

Imagine that!
Dust of the earth that has breath,
seeing the wrath of the Lord’s godliness-
turned back into the salt of the land.
In my opinion,
this is evidence of the truth
that we currently live in the valley
of the shadow of death!

“Early the next morning Abraham got up
and returned to the place
where he had stood before the Lord.
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah,
toward all the land of the plain,
and he saw dense smoke rising from the land,
like smoke from a furnace.
So when God destroyed
the cities of the plain,
he remembered Abraham,
and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe
that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭19:1-29‬

And there you have it.
Lot got to live because
he was connected to Abraham.
And all because the Lord chose Abram
and brought him out of Babylon to Canaan;
to take back possession of the promised land
and to give him a son 
so that he could father many nations.
This was all part of God’s divine plan.
To offer redemption to the people he favored,
the morally just and the wicked -
and this is how our faith is won -
understanding that God is good and we are not.

Amen.

We must understand through Godly wisdom,
that righteousness administered through a human,
is a figment of our imagination.

According to the Word of God, no man or woman
is in a position to judge sin.

The Word says,
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and all are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:22-24‬

In Psalm 14, verse 1-3, David said,
“The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind to see
if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
All have turned away,
all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Genesis Chapter 18 speaks to the level of sin
that has risen up to a completely Just God.
Instead of bringing a flood,
or taking away a common tongue,
like in the days of Noah or Pigsah,
the Lord brought fire down.

After the three men, who came from Heaven,
finished communing with Abraham,
they looked down toward Sodom.

The Lord said,
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
Abraham will surely become 
a great and powerful nation, 
and all nations on earth
will be blessed through him.
For I have chosen him,
so that he will direct his children
and his household after him
to keep the way of the Lord
by doing what is right and just,
so that the Lord will bring about
for Abraham what he has promised.”

The Lord said,
“The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great 
and their sin so grievous that I will go down
and see if what they have done
is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.
If not, I will know.
The men turned away and went toward Sodom,
but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”
Then Abraham approached and said:
“Will you sweep away
the righteous with the wicked?”

Abraham proceeded with his plea.

“What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?
Will you really sweep it away
and not spare the place
for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing
to kill the righteous with the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike.
Far be it from you!
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

In this moment,
the Lord showed grace,
because He once told Job,
who was “the most righteous” -
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty
correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer Him!”
‭‭Job‬ ‭40:2‬

The Lord said to Abraham,
“If I find fifty righteous people
in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Then Abraham spoke up again.
“Now that I have been so bold
as to speak to the Lord,
though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
what if the number of the righteous
is five less than fifty?
Will you destroy the whole city
for lack of five people?”

The Lord responded,
“If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it.”

Once again Abraham spoke to Him,
“What if only forty are found there?”

The Lord said,
“For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then Abraham said,
“May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak.
What if only thirty can be found there?”

The Lord answered, “I will not do it
if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said,
“Now that I have been so bold
as to speak to the Lord,
what if only twenty can be found there?”

The Lord said,
“For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then Abraham said,
“May the Lord not be angry,
but let me speak just once more.
What if only ten can be found there?”

The Lord answered,
“For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished
speaking with Abraham, he left,
and Abraham returned home.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭18:16-33‬

It's hard to believe the Lord entertained
Abraham's questions for so long!
Abraham, like Jacob, all of us,
wrestle with the Lord.
Those who remain and see God face to face,
have their life spared.

Is it not the same question we have today.

How could a good God execute His judgment,
on humans?
Humans whom we believe are morally just,
and full of righteousness, in our eyes?

As we know, the scripture says
no one is righteous -
not Abraham, Sarah, Issac or Jacob.
Not Moses, Aaron, Joshua or Caleb.
Not even the virgin Mary,
the one who gave birth to God's son.

The only thing that saves
these men and women from the eternal grave
is their faithfulness.

“And it was not through the law
that Abraham and his offspring received the promise
that he would be heir of the world,
but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:13‬

“Without weakening in his faith,
Abraham faced the fact
that his body was as good as dead -
since he was about 100 years old -
and Sarah’s womb was also dead.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief
regarding the promise of God,
but was strengthened in his faith
and gave glory to God,
being fully persuaded that God had power
to do what he had promised.
This is why
“it was credited to him as righteousness.”
The words “it was credited to him”
were written not for him alone,
but also for us, to whom God
will credit righteousness -
for us who believe in him
who raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead.
He was delivered over to death
for our sins and was raised to life
for our justification.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:19-25‬

Let us remember how the Lord
spoke to Job out of the storm.

He said,
“Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
“Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me
to justify yourself?
Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?
Then adorn yourself
with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself
in honor and majesty.
Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at all who are proud
and bring them low,
look at all who are proud
and humble them,
crush the wicked where they stand.
Bury them all in the dust together;
shroud their faces in the grave.
Then I myself will admit to you
that your own right hand
can save you.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭40:6-14‬

The fact that we live today,
and continue to take physical breath,
shows how much God loves us.
We are not the creator.
We are the creation - 
completely unjustifed -
except by faith in Jesus Christ
that God counts as righteousness.

Genesis 18
sums up the gospel message,
metaphorically speaking of course.
It’s starts with Lord appearing to Abraham
near the great trees of Mamre,
and this is how it goes.

While Abraham was sitting
at the entrance to his tent
in the heat of the day, he looked up saw
three men standing nearby.

Now I know Jesus was only one man,
but He actually contained
the three parts of God.
He was designed by His Father,
who expressed His Holy Spirit
to conceive the Word of God
in the physical realm.

When Abraham saw them,
he ran out to meet them
and bowed low to the ground.

Humility in Love and Fear of the Lord
is the correct response to presence of God.

Abraham had
the wisdom to understand that these three men
were not ordinary men.

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes,
my Lord, do not pass your servant by.
Let a little water be brought,
and then you may all wash your feet
and rest under this tree.
Let me get you something to eat,
so you can be refreshed
and then go on your way -
now that you have come to your servant.
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
Genesis 18:3-5

Abraham responded with the gift of hospitality.

When a lover of God’s Word
uses their gift of hospitality,
they aren’t expecting payment for their generosity,
and they do so joyfully.

The apostle once wrote a letter
to the Roman church,
and this is what it said in 12:6-8,
“We all have different gifts,
according to the grace given to each of us.
If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy
in accordance with your faith;
if it is serving, then serve;
if it is teaching, then teach;
if it is to encourage, then give encouragement;
if it is giving, then give generously;
if it is to lead, do it diligently;
if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

So Abraham hurried into the tent to get Sarah.
“Quick,” he said, get three seahs of the finest flour
and knead it and bake some bread.”
Then he ran to the herd
and selected a choice, tender calf
and gave it to a servant,
who hurried to prepare it.
He then brought some curds and milk
and the calf that had been prepared,
and set these before the three men.
While they ate,
he stood near them under a tree -
as if waiting for their word.
Finally, they asked him,
“Where is your wife Sarah?”
It confuses me
how the pronoun “they” is used
when the scripture says,
“they” asked him where she was.
How can three men speak all at once?
Perhaps it really means,
that they each took turns -
or they were all grouped as one?
Abraham responded
and told them Sarah was in the tent.
Then one of them said,
“I will surely return to you
about this time next year,
and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now that is interesting.
Only one of the three men
said he was coming back.
This is the first time,
we see division of the three.
Now Sarah was listening
at the entrance to the tent,
which was behind him,
and when she heard what the divine man said,
She laughed to herself.
You see,
Abraham and Sarah were very old,
way beyond childbearing years.
So Sarah laughed and thought to herself,
“After I am worn out and my lord is old,
will I now have this pleasure?”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭18:12

I can't tell if Sarah was being sarcastic?
"After I am worn out and my lord is old,
will I now have the pleasure this give birth?"
Was she using irony to mock or convey contempt?
It sure sounds a little like that.
‬
Also, did you notice that Sarah
called Abraham her Lord?
“Adown” in Hebrew is the superintendent
of the household, the master of the affairs
the ruler who is king or lord -
it is the word general used to recognize superiority.
No wonder God never wanted humans to have a king!
Look what happens almost every single time
a human being gets a little power!
They believe they are God!

Then the Lord said to Abraham,
“Why did Sarah laugh and say,
“Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
I will return to you
at the appointed time next year,
and Sarah will have a son.”

The Lord did not go to Sarah
and question her lack of faith.
He spoke to Abraham 
and held him accountable instead.
Before Christ came, this is the way it was.
The man was the leader
of his household, and he was responsible
for everything and everyone
that God blessed him with.
The reality is husbands and wife were one -
they were supposed to lead with humility and love,
not with power and dominion and heavy hands.

According to scripture,
if a man strayed and walked away from God
then his wife and his children
were also specked and flawed.
If you don’t believe me,
read the story of Korah
"when the earth opened its mouth
and swallowed his entire household-
along with his rebellious friends."
Numbers 16:32

Today,
humanity falls under the covenant of Christ,
as written down by Paul
in his letter to the Galatian church
This is what the Word of God says,
“Before the coming of this faith,
we were held in custody under the law,
locked up until the faith
that was to come would be revealed.
So the law was our guardian
UNTIL Christ came
that we might be justified by faith.
Now that this faith has come,
we are no longer under a guardian
(or any other man).
So in Christ Jesus
you are all children of God
through faith,
for all of you who were baptized
into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
If you belong to Christ,
then you are Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3:23-29‬

This means, if we believe in Christ
and love Him with all our heart,
then we are justified by faith -
not by a law or a man.

This portion of Genesis
shows Sarah being afraid,
so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But the Lord said, Yes, you did.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭18:13-15‬

Women of God -
Are you still operating under some kind of deceit?
Do you think you need a husband or a priest,
to connect you to God?

Be careful what you think -
for the Lord is coming back soon.
Every person will bow at the foot of the Lord,
and give testimony to whether they believed in Christ -
the ONLY way to Heaven, and to the House of God.

You see, Sarah was hidden behind a tent
masked beneath hurt and deceit,
bitterness had set in
and sarcasm had become her response -
the Lord saw her and saw the heart of Abraham.

Perhaps we all need to be a little like Hagar,
the servant mistreated by Sarah,
who was cast out, utterly ashamed
who said to the Lord,
“You are the God who sees me,”
“I have now seen the One who sees me.”
in ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16:13‬.

Remember this - the Lord keeps his promise.
He is coming back soon.
Not as a lamb, but as the Lion of Judah.

Don’t get stuck in laws and traditions.
Don't get stuck behind man-made rules and roles.
Scripture says, we are saved by Grace Alone,
through Christ Alone by Faith Alone.

All you need is faith -
this is what God counts as righteousness.
​Romans 4

Abram had been living in Canaan,
the land the Lord promised him,
for ten years, when his wife Sarai
offered Hager, her Egyptian slave,
to Abram because she was barren.

You see,
the Lord had given His word
and promised Abram a son,
and told Abram
that he would father many nations.
But Abram was well into his eighties -
and no child had come.
So Sarai told Abram to take Hagar,
and make her his wife.
“Abram was 86 years old
when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16:3, 16‬ ‭

Thirteen years later,
“When Abram was 99 years old,
the Lord appeared to him and said,
“I am God Almighty; walk before me
faithfully and be blameless.
Then I will make my covenant
between me and you
and will greatly increase
your numbers.”

Abram fell facedown,
and God said to him,
“As for me, this is my covenant with you:
You will be the father of many nations.
No longer will you be called Abram;
your name will be Abraham,
for I have made you a father
of many nations.
I will make you very fruitful;
I will make nations of you,
and kings will come from you.”

Before I go on, let me stop right there!
I have been wondering when
Abram became Abraham.
It didn’t happen until he was 99!

This is moment
that Abram heard the Lord
and fell facedown!
God completely changes us
and gives us a new name
when we are fully prone
with our heart on the ground.

The Lord said,
“I will establish my covenant
as an everlasting covenant
between me and you
and your descendants after you
for the generations to come,
to be your God and the God
of your descendants after you.
The whole land of Canaan,
where you now reside as a foreigner,
I will give as an everlasting possession
to you and your descendants
after you; and I will be their God.”

Then God said to Abraham,
“As for you, you must keep my covenant,
you and your descendants after you
for the generations to come.
This is my covenant with you
and your descendants after you,
the covenant you are to keep:
Every male among you
shall be circumcised.”
“You are to undergo circumcision,
and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and you.
For the generations to come
every male among you
who is eight days old
must be circumcised,
including those born
in your household
or bought with money from a foreigner
those who are not your offspring.
Whether born in your household
or bought with your money,
they must be circumcised.
My covenant in your flesh
is to be an everlasting covenant.
Any uncircumcised male,
who has not been circumcised
in the flesh, will be cut off
from his people;
he has broken my covenant.”

At this moment, in human history -
the Lord has made three covenants
between Him and human beings.
First there was the promise
that the Seed of the woman
would crush the serpents head,
then there was the promise
that God would never send
a flood of water again.

Now in Genesis 17,
God makes a promise tied to the flesh.
God said,
“My covenant in your flesh
is to be an everlasting covenant.
Any uncircumcised male,
who has not been circumcised
in the flesh,
will be cut off from his people
(and removed from me).”
God also said to Abraham,
“As for Sarai your wife,
you are no longer to call her Sarai;
her name will be Sarah.
I will bless her
and will surely give you a son by her.
I will bless her
so that she will be
the mother of nations;
kings of peoples will come from her.”
Abraham fell facedown;
he laughed and said to himself,
“Will a son be born to a man
100 years old?
Will Sarah bear a child
at the age of 90?”
And Abraham said to God,
“If only Ishmael might live
under your blessing!”

It is apparent from Abraham’s comment
that Ishmael is the male child
that Abraham had grown to love.
I would imagine
that since Hagar came back,
Abraham had decided
that Ishmael was the promise
the Lord had told him about
earlier in the timeline
of carrying His Word out.

Then God said,
“Yes, but your wife
Sarah will bear you a son,
and you will call him Isaac.
I will establish my covenant with him
as an everlasting covenant
for his descendants after him.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard you:
I will surely bless him;
I will make him fruitful
and will greatly increase his numbers.
He will be the father of twelve rulers,
and I will make him into a great nation.
But MY covenant
I will establish with Isaac,
whom Sarah will bear
to you by this time next year.”

The scripture says,
“When He had finished
speaking with Abraham,
God went up from him.”
I wonder what this means?
Was all of God present,
or does it mean God’s voice
was no longer heard by Abraham?

Scripture says,
“On that very day
Abraham took his son Ishmael
and all those born in his household
or bought with his money,
every male in his household,
and circumcised them,
as God told him.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old
when he was circumcised,
and his son Ishmael was thirteen;
Abraham and his son Ishmael
were both circumcised
on that very day.
And every male
in Abraham’s household,
including those born in his household
or bought from a foreigner,
was circumcised with him.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭17:1-27‬
​
I can’t imagine
how Abraham must have felt.
It would be hard to circumcise Ishmael from his heart.

a Women -
Can you imagine what it might be like
to do everything you can to become pregnant
and still be barren?
And what if your husband came to you and said,
“God told me I would father many nations
through my own son, my own flesh and blood.”
How would you feel if you had grown old,
and everything you were told did not unfold?

This is what happened Sarai
after God had told Abram 
he would give birth to a son.
Sarai grew desperate, and did not believe Him.

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, 
had borne him no children.
But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
so she said to Abram,
“The Lord has kept me from having children.
Go, sleep with my slave;
perhaps I can build a family through her.
and Abram agreed to what Sarai said.”
Genesis 16:1-3

This sad story reminds me of Adam and Eve.
Eve did the same thing.  She was deceived
into believing that her own thoughts were good,
even after God told Adam don’t eat from this tree.

So Eve took a bite,
and gave some to her husband
who was standing right there, next to her.

Adam and Abram
have so much in common -
they both received a word from God,
and then chose not to believe in Him.
Both men fell into the enemy’s hands,
by submitting to their wife
instead of listening to God.

“So after Abram had been living
in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife
took her Egyptian slave Hagar
and gave her to her husband to be his wife.”
Genesis 16:3

This verse totally makes me sick -
on so many levels - for so many reasons!

First, how in the world
could a man and woman of God -
take another human, make them a slave
and bind them into captivity?
This is not the ways of God!

Second,
the idea of a person using their power
to make another human have sex with them
is absolutely stomach-turning! 
In my mind - rape is the epitome of sin!

The scripture says,
“So Abram slept with Hagar,
and she conceived.”

Poor Hagar!
Today,
in the world of women 
having the right to abort,
especially after rape -
I would imagine that Hagar
might have chosen
to put an end to her pregnancy.
If nothing else,
she probably would have taken Plan B.

Either way, even though she was raped -
abortion is murder
because the scripture says
a soul begins when a child is conceived
in the mother’s womb.

Oh, Poor Hagar!
I can't even imagine how difficult it was for her!

The scripture says,
“When she knew she was pregnant,
she began to despise her mistress.”
The queen of servants
was now on Sarai’s shit list,
and Hagar now hated the one
who gave her away to her husband.
Then Sarai said to Abram,
“You are responsible
for the wrong I am suffering.
I put my slave in your arms,
and now that she knows
she is pregnant, she despises me.
May the Lord judge
between you and me.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16:4-5

And here we are back to the blame game!
Just like in the Garden with Adam and Eve!

“Your slave is in your hands,”
Abram said.
“Do with her whatever you think best.”
Then Sarai mistreated Hagar;
so she fled from her.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16:6‬

Isn’t it amazing
how humans can kill the dream?
God gave his Word to Abram
to give him a son -
but because he did not wait on God’s timing -
he sinned so shamelessly! 

It’s hard to believe
the Lord keeps His Word
even after humanity messes everything up!

The scripture says,
“The angel of the Lord 
found Hagar near a spring in the desert;
it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai,
where have you come from,
and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,”
she answered.
Then the angel of the Lord told her,
“Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
The angel added,
“I will increase your descendants
so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant 
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
She gave this name
to the Lord who spoke to her:
“You are the God who sees me,”
for she said, “I have now seen
the One who sees me.”
That is why the well was called
Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there,
between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar bore Abram a son,
and Abram gave the name Ishmael
to the son she had borne.
Abram was eighty-six years old
when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16:7-16
‬
It’s amazing how the angel communicated
both God's grace and God's wrath.
Kindness and mercy and blessings were gifted
to both Hagar and her son.
Ishmael means “God listens” and he was granted
descendants too numerous to count.

The problem is Ishmael was not
the promised son of God.
He was not the son who God talked about
when He declared His word to Abram.

The angel of the Lord told Hagar the truth,
even though as his mother, it had to hurt.

The angel said Ishmael would be
“a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

Later you will see,
that Ishmael had 12 sons -
just like Jacob, Isaac's son.
who God renamed Israel
after wrestling with the angel of the Lord.

Ishmael operates in the parallel realm.
He is the embodiment of God’s Word,
turned upside down.

If only Sarai and Abram
took God at His Word...
Today, there would be no Islamic nation
trying to dominate Israel.

After the word of the Lord
came to Abram in a vision,
Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,
what can you give me since I remain childless
and the one who will inherit my estate
is Eliezer of Damascus?
You have given me no children;
so a servant in my household
will be my heir.”

Ugh!
When I first read this I thought to myself,
“Man - God must be so tired of our doubt!”

Instead of taking God at His word,
We question Him and focus on
what our eyes can see in this dark world.

Then the word of the Lord
came to Abram and said,
“This man will not be your heir,
but a son who is your own flesh and blood
will be your heir.”

God was patient
and answered Abram’s question.
In essence He said,
“I am going to give you a son
who is your very own flesh and blood.”

This means that Abram and his wife Sarai
would conceive a son -
because a marriage covenant is based on
a man and his wife becoming One.

God took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars -
if indeed you can count them.
So shall your offspring be.”

Perhaps when the Lord showed Abram
what he had already done
in the earth and the heavenly realm -
Abram believed the Lord -
and this is when the Lord
counted it to Abram as righteousness.

Righteousness-
Obviously man has also got this wrong.
God does not focus on our morality,
or what we think is right or wrong.

He does not focus on
the works of the flesh,
but to the one who trusts and believes
that God justifies our wickedness.

God said,
“I am the Lord,
who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land to take possession of it.”

That means when Abram’s father,
Terah, left the land of Ur, and took Abram, Sarai
and Lot with him, then settled in Haran -
it was all part of God’s divine plan.

But Abram said,
“Sovereign Lord, how can I know
that I will gain possession of it?”

There he goes again!
Doubting God for what He says.
Or maybe, Abram is just looking for
a little confirmation.

So the Lord said to him,
“Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram,
each three years old,
along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

That’s interesting -
instead of God giving Abram
a direct explanation,
He gives him a command
to bring animals to Him.
"Abram brought all these to him,
cut them in two and arranged the halves
opposite each other;
the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
Then birds of prey
came down on the carcasses,
but Abram drove them away."

Now, how did Abram know
to bring the animals dead?

We have to go back
to when man first doubted God,
and look at how
God responded to them.
When Adam and Eve had doubted God,
and noticed there, naked they stood -
they tried to use fig leaves to cover their sin.
But their man-made hiding was not that good.
Fig leaves could not cover up
the guilty sinner and make him right with God.

God, however,
has great compassion for man,
and he chose animal skins
to cover up Adam and Eve.
"And the Lord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife, and clothed them."
Genesis 3:21

God was willing to use
animal life blood,
to cover the sin that separated man -
At least until the Lamb of God
Who would be the final sacrifice
for all of mankind.

As the sun was setting,
Abram fell into a deep sleep,
and a thick and dreadful darkness
came over him.
The darkness was not
an evil presence as one would think,
the darkness was the God
sharing a troubling thought.
He gave Abram a brief timeline
of future events.
Then the Lord said to him,
“Know for certain that for 400 years
your descendants will be strangers
in a country not their own
and that they will be enslaved
and mistreated there.
But I will punish the nation
they serve as slaves,
and afterward they will come out
with great possessions.
You, however,
will go to your ancestors in peace
and be buried at a good old age.
In the fourth generation
your descendants
will come back here,
for the sin of the Amorites
has not yet reached its full measure.”

Let’s not forget
what we have already learned,
King Og of Bashan, will be 
the Amorite King who is called
the last of the Rephaim,
a descendant from the Nephilim -
produced during Genesis 6,
when the sons of God
possessed daughters of men.

The land of Canaan 
must not have been
some coincidence.
The land of Canaan
was inhabited by evil men,
and God used Abram
to take possession back.

We are either vessels
working for God, or against Him.

Man - God is so good!

In a second,
Holy Spirit unfolds spiritual wisdom!

Scripture says,
“When the sun had set
and darkness had fallen,
a smoking firepot
with a blazing torch appeared
and passed between the pieces.
On that day the Lord made
a covenant with Abram
“To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt
to the great river, the Euphrates -
the land of the Kenites,
Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites,
Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites,
Canaanites, Girgashites
and Jebusites will be yours.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭15:1-21‬

Do you remember
what Paul says in Ephesians 3:10
about Gods marvelous plan for the Gentiles?
“I became a servant of this gospel
by the gift of God’s grace
given me through the working
of his power. Although I am less
than the least of all the Lord’s people,
this grace was given me:
to preach to the Gentiles
the boundless riches of Christ,
and to make plain to everyone
the administration of this mystery,
which for ages past
was kept hidden in God,
who created all things.
His intent was that now,
through the church,
the manifold wisdom of God
should be made known
to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly realms,
according to his eternal purpose
that he accomplished in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
In him and through faith in him
we may approach God
with freedom and confidence.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:7-12
‬
God has a plan and purpose
for every single thing!
He made the beginning
with the end in mind.
The scripture is very clear -
We either participate with God
and become a vessel for Him,
 or we take things upon ourselves
and remain a vessel of evil
covered by fig leaves.

How often
have you experienced fear,
even after
God has offered you peace?

Fear is defined
as an emotion, unkind -
caused by the belief
that someone or something
is dangerous,
and is likely to cause pain -
or poses a threat.

I can only imagine
how Abram must have felt,
after he and his 318 trained men
defeated King Kedorlaomer
and the three other strong kings
who were allied to him.

Abram probably thought,
“It’s only a matter of time
before those kingdoms bear arms
and rise up against us.”
God must have known
what was in his mind
and his heart
because the scripture says,
“the word of the Lord came to Abram
in a vision and said,
‘Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield, your very great reward."
Genesis 15:1

The Word of the Lord came
after God directed Abram to the land of Canaan,
and told him he would own all that the eye could see,
in every direction.
Genesis 13:14

The Word of the Lord came
after Abram defeated
a great multitude of vey strong men
with his very small troop of 318 trained men.
Genesis 14:14

The Word of the Lord came
after Melchizedek, the King of Salem (peace),
came out to meet him with the
bread and wine in hand.
Genesis 14:18

The Word of the Lord came after
“Melchizedek, priest of God Most High,
blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies
into your hand.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭14:19-20

Even after experiencing
God’s promise, victory and peace,
Abram was still afraid.

I ask you,
Have you ever felt the same?
I know I have.

It is true.
God came to Abram in so many ways.
He came to him in visions and dreams,
and guided him to the promised land.
He came to him through 318 trained men,
and He came to him with a promise and command.

God said,
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”

If you are a child of God,
and you have received the King of Salem,
then you are in the Holy Place of great communion.

Come to the table of the Lord.

It is time to receive the bread and the wine.
The Lord has invited you in
to receive his command and his promise.

Child of God, You like Gideon.
You who thinks you are lowly and unworthy.
Come to the table of the Lord.

Child of God,
The Word of the Lord says,
“Do not be afraid.
The Lord is your shield,
your very great reward.”

“On this mountain (Jesus)
the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast
of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine -
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain (Jesus)
he will destroy the shroud
that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord
will wipe away the tears from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭25:6-9‬

This last passage of Genesis 14
gives us a glimpse of the gospel message
through the order of Melchizedek.

Scripture says,
"the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah,
Admah, Zeboyim and Bela
(that is, Zoar) - marched out
and drew up their battle lines
in the Valley of Siddim
against Kedorlaomer king of Elam,
Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar
and Arioch king of Ellasar.
Now the Valley of Siddim
(the Salt Sea) was full of tar pits,
and when the kings
of Sodom and Gomorrah fled,
some of the men fell into them
and the rest fled to the hills.
The four kings (of Mesopotamia)
seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah
and all their food; then they went away.
They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot
and his possessions,
since he was living in Sodom.
A man who had escaped came
and reported this to Abram the Hebrew
(the man who God had spoke to
and promised to give all the land
as far as the eye could see).
Now Abram was living near
the great trees of Mamre the Amorite,
a brother of Eshkol and Aner,
all of whom were allied with Abram.
When Abram heard that
his relative (Lot) had been taken captive,
he called out the 318 trained men
born in his household
and went in pursuit as far as Dan
(That’s interesting because the tribe of Dan
did not yet exist - so this place is hard to understand).
During the night
Abram divided his men
to attack them and he routed them,
pursuing them as far as Hobah,
north of Damascus (northern Syria).
Abram recovered all the goods
and brought back his nephew Lot
and his possessions, 
together with the women and the other people.
After Abram returned
from defeating Kedorlaomer
and the kings allied with him,
the king of Sodom came out to meet him
in the Valley of Shaveh
(that is, the King’s Valley).”

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem (Peace)
brought out bread and wine 
(the communion elements).
Melchizedek was priest of God Most High,
and he blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram
by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies
into your hand.”

Melchizedek -
the king and priest from Salem
came to greet Abram in the Valley of Shaveh,
also known as the Valley of the King.

I wonder if this could have been
the name for Jerusalem -
the city of peace,
the Holy City that sits in Mount Zion?

Melchizedek appears
to have come down from Heaven
as a king and a priest 
with bread and wine in hand.
His mission was to bless Abram -
all because El ʿElyon, the Most High God,
delivered Abram’s enemies into his hands.

*This reminds me of story of Gideon
who defeats the Midianites
with only 300 men, not 10,000
like there could have been.
The only way it could have happened
was through the power, direction
and protection of the Most High God.

“Then Abram gave Melchizedek
a tenth of everything.”
I wonder if this is where
the tithe comes from -
giving a 10th of all that you have?

“The king of Sodom said to Abram,
“Give me the people
and keep the goods for yourself.”
“But Abram said to the king of Sodom,
“With raised hand
I have sworn an oath to the Lord,
God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth,
that I will accept nothing
belonging to you, not even a thread
or the strap of a sandal,
so that you will never be able to say,
‘I made Abram rich.’
I will accept nothing
but what my men have eaten
and the share that belongs
to the men who went with me -
to Aner, Eshkol and Mamre.
Let them have their share.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭14:8-24‬

I just love how this story ends.
Abram continues to praise the Lord.
He stands on the oath He made with God.
He does not want one thing
from the king of Sodom.
He does not want the king to have
any ownership of him.
And then He demands
that the men who helped him
be grafted in, and be given the share
of what is owed to them.

May God continue to bless us
with this message.
May the gospel glimpse
be burned into our hearts where it belongs.