LESSON 9
Genesis for Today: Chapters 14-15
by Herb Drake

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Melchizedek

Chapter 14 begins with a curious account of battles, five kings defeating four kings, and the taking of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah--which included Lot and his family as Sodom was Lot's place of residence. Abraham exercised his warrior skills at this point, freeing Lot's family. But, citing his promise to the LORD, Abraham rejected any of the booty to which his victory entitled him to take. The probable reason for this rejection of anything from the King of Sodom was a refusal to build any kind of relationship with that city or its monarch.

He does, however, receive a blessing from, and pay a tithe to, the mysterious Melchizedek, "priest of the Most High God and maker of heaven and earth," who was probably the high priest of the chief god in the Canaanite pantheon in Jerusalem ("Salem"). While the purpose of Melchizedek is debated, it appears that Melchizedek is a kind of place holder for the missing priestly system that will not exist until the days of Moses. The blessing and tithe would, if that be the case, simply demonstrate the pious nature of Abraham. Even though the Law and sacrificial system was not yet delivered, Abraham would have obeyed it.

God's Covenant with Abraham

As the years roll by and he continues to age, Abraham becomes anxious about God's promise of future generations bearing God's promise. He wants God to formalize that promise with a covenant. Realizing his own age and Sarai's age and barrenness, he decides to help God by proposing that the promise be fulfilled through his adopting his chief servant, Eliezer of Damascus, to have his proxy. God, however, insists that the promise will be fulfilled as it was offered, and Abraham believes God; in doing so, God "reckoned it to him as righteousness." The LORD then gives Abraham a prophecy that his descendants would suffer through 400 years (430 years in Exodus 12:40) of slavery in a foreign land, but that the blessing would continue through those generations and beyond.

What follows is the "cutting" of a formal covenant according to the culture in that part of the world at the time. This was necessary to instill in Abraham full confidence that the promise would be fulfilled. This procedure is documented in the Mari tablets and is described as follows: The division of the animals, and the passing of parties between them, symbolized that the one who failed to live up to his part of the agreement would suffer the same fate as the butchered animals. That covenants were "cut" comes from that ancient protocol. That the LORD would participate in this ancient ratification of a covenant shows that He was willing to go down to Abraham's level, perhaps reminding the Christian reader of the incarnation.

Genesis 12-13 | Genesis 16-17