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The Kings of the East
The Kings of the East
Lot and Abraham parted ways in the last passage we looked at together. Things did not go so well for Lot, however. He chose the land that looked promising, but he chose by sight and not by faith. Little did he know, a war was already brewing between the kings of that land and the kings further east. So, just as lot settles in near Sodom, King Chedorlaomer and his allies lay siege to the city. The king of Sodom is thoroughly defeated, and Lot and his household are taken captive. Luckily, Abram hears about his nephew’s kidnapping. So Abram gathers his forces together to go and rescue lot. Abram has only 318 men, yet he was able to defeat this army of the eastern kings and rescue Lot. We’re not told how Abram manages to do this, at least not yet.
Melchizedek: Giving to God
Melchizedek: Giving to God
When we left Abram and Lot, they had just chosen to part ways. Lot chose to go to the land that looked best, but Abram chose to hold fast to God’s promise and inhabit the land that didn’t look quite so appealing. But, little did Lot know, as he moved his tent closer and closer to Sodom, the land that had looked so promising to him was about to be invaded by Four Kings from the East. The King of Sodom and his allies, you see, had decided that they were tired of serving under the kings of Mesopotamia. They were going to rebel and seize control and power for themselves. They were going to refuse to pay tribute to these tyrant kings, and would go to war to seize control and power over their own kingdoms. And so, as Lot moved closer and closer to Sodom, so too did King Chedorlaomer and the other mighty kings from Mesopotamia. When these kings reached Sodom and Gomorrah, all there was a great battle just outside Lot’s door. And Sodom lost. So, as kings do when they win a war, King Chedorlaomer went into Sodom and took what he wanted. He took the gold he wanted, the treasure he wanted, the horses he wanted, and even the people he wanted, some of whom were Lot and his house.
So, celebrating their victory, Abram, Lot, and Abram’s men head back south to their home. They are met by the King of Salem and the King of Sodom on the way.
And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
This is a rather shocking turn of events! Salem, if you haven’t already figured it out, is what the Canaanites called the city of Jerusalem. See, Jerusalem was already around long before the Israelites settled the land and claimed the city as their own. In fact, v.13:7 already tells us, “At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land.” So, here we have a Canaanite King ruling over the city of (Jeru)Salem long before the Israelites are even a nation, and this King is a priest of El Elyon, God Most High. The problem here, of course, is that Yahweh has not yet established the priesthood. Aaron has not been born yet. The Levites are not a tribe yet. So how can this guy be a priest of God Most High? Being a priest was a birthright for the Israelites, so what qualified Melchizedek to be a priest of God? The story doesn’t say, but it leaves no doubt for us that lineage or not, Melchizedek was a qualified priest of God. He blesses Abraham, father of Israel, and then shockingly, Abram even gives him an offering, a tenth of everything he owned.
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
While the origins of Melchizedek are no doubt mysterious, as pointed out by the book of Hebrews, this is actually not the primary focus of this passage. No, the primary focus is not on the person of Melchizedek, but on the person of Abram. In Melchizedek’s blessing we learn that Abram’s earlier victory came from God. How did Abram’s 318 men defeat the mighty Chedorlaomer and his allies? It was by God’s hand. Abram, recognizing this, responds in the only way appropriate: by giving thanks. The offering he made was a sign of his gratefulness for God’s faithfulness and goodness.
King of Sodom: Giving to others
King of Sodom: Giving to others
The King of Sodom is defeated, his plan to seize power by force has failed, and he runs away into hiding. Lot is carried off, likely thinking he’ll never step foot back in the land of Canaan again. Luckily, one of the men from the battle escaped and thought to tell Abram. So Abram, with only 318 men, goes after his nephew Lot, and with God’s aid, Abram is able to defeat Chedorlaomer’s armies and take Lot back.
As Melchizedek finishes his blessing over Abram, the King of Sodom steps forward.
Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
You see, as victor, Abram had a right to all of the goods that he had captured from the other kings. He had won, so he can keep all of the treasure, all of the people, all of the loot he had gathered. The King of Sodom has no power or authority to demand these things from Abram, and he even expects that Abram will be keeping all the treasure for himself. After all, Abram had defeated the very same kings who had just finished beating up on Sodom. Abram, however, does something surprising. He refuses to keep all of the treasure from the battle, treasure that King Chedorlaomer had no doubt stolen from the King of Sodom. He hands all of it back over to Sodom, and only keeps Lot and the people of Lot’s house. This is in stark contrast to the story we read only a few chapters ago in , where Abram is more than happy to take the treasures from the King of Egypt which he did not have a right to.
Since that event, however, Abram has learned a great deal. He has learned to trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God. God has promised Abram life and fruitfulness, and Abram knows he doesn’t need to steal those things from others. Other people don’t have to go without in order for the Lord to provide for Abram. And so, Abram has learned to live generously. In light of the great victory God has just granted him over Chedorlaomer, Abram is not only generous with gifts toward God, but also generous towards his fellow men, even sinners like the Sodomites! God has provided Abram with a great blessing, and so Abram chooses to respond in thanksgiving by being a blessing to others.
Now, however, Abram
Another High Priest: The Great Gift
Another High Priest: The Great Gift
This response to God’s gift should draw our eyes to the gift which we have received from God: Jesus.
Responding to the Gift
Responding to the Gift
Melchizedek: God’s victory
Melchizedek: God’s victory
As Abram returns with Lot to their own land, he meets with two kings in the valley of Shaveh, just outside of modern day Jerusalem. The first king he meets is the King of Salem, Melchizedek.
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
20 and blessed be God Most High,
And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
There’s something so very different about this Melchizedek character. First, we should note that he is both a king and a priest. That’s not a very common arrangement. In fact, in later Jewish and Biblical writings, the prophets begin to look for another one who will be both King and Priest (and also a prophet): the Messiah. But this isn’t just any Priest-King, this is the Priest-King of Salem. Now, you don’t have to know a whole lot about Hebrew to see that Salem sounds a lot like Jerusalem. And if you’re thinking, “Gee, what an odd coincidence!” then let me say: it’s no coincidence! Salem is just what the Canaanites called Jerusalem. So Abram meets a Canaanite Priest-King of Jerusalem long before God has ordained the order of Priests for the Israelites. Aaron, the first Levitical priest is not even close to being born yet. In fact, the tribe of Levi isn’t even close to being born yet. Now, this in itself wouldn’t be odd. Maybe Melchizedek is Priest-King of Ba’al, or Molech, or Ashera, or any of the many Canaanite gods. But the blessing Melchizdedek gives Abram, and Abram’s response to it, makes this abundantly clear: Melchizedek is a Priest-King of El Elyon, God Most High, who Abram says is the same God he Worships, Yahweh! Now this is absolutley shocking! How could Melchizedek be a Priest for Yahweh? The Priests haven’t even been ordained yet! And Melchizedek can’t be from the line of Aaron, since Aaron hasn’t been born yet. So how is this Melchizedek qualified to be a priest? This is certainly a mystery, but it’s one the text simply doesn’t answer.
What it does tell us, however, is that the Priest-King Melchizedek is not at all like the other Kings around town. He hasn’t tried to seize power by warfare. He is the only one of all the kings in Canaan that seems to recognize who Abram is, and his special blessed status by Yahweh. And Melchizedek, unlike the other kings, seems to recognize that he cannot win a military victory without God. It is God Most High, in fact, who has delivered the victory to Abram. Melchizedek uniquely seems more concerned with worshipping God and receiving victory from El Elyon, rather than attempting to amass huge armies and seize power and control for himself. And so Abram offers Melchizedek a tithe: one tenth of all of the spoils of the war which God has handed over to him.
The King of Sodom
The King of Sodom
It is at this point that the King of Sodom finally arrives back on the scene, licking his wounds. Having run away to hide, he comes back to Abram, and asks that Abram hand over the people he saved from the armies of Chedorlaomer. Abram, of course doesn’t have to do this. He is the victor, he can do what he wants with the spoils of war. And this man, the King of Sodom, isn’t exactly a great guy either. In we learn that, “the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.” So why should Abram give this guy anything? He’s a defeated king with a scattered army, who has brought shame on his city and on himself. Yet, Abram agrees not only to give this king his captured people back, but also all of the treasure that Chedorlaomer had captured from him.
Abram, having been blessed by God, having received the gift of victory from God Most High, then turns to also share that victory, and to be a blessing to the defeated king of Sodom, wicked sinner that he may be.
The Unexpected Messiah
The Unexpected Messiah
This story about Melchizedek eventually gets picked up by later biblical authors. In , the author writes:
The New Revised Standard Version Assurance of Victory for God’s Priest-King
The LORD says to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The LORD sends out from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly
on the day you lead your forces
on the holy mountains.
From the womb of the morning,
like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter heads
over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path;
therefore he will lift up his head.
And so, as Jesus the promised Messiah, the Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, marches into Jerusalem, the people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosana! Hosana!” they have certain expectations about who Jesus should be and what he should do. They hear the words of this Psalm, predicting armies, executing judgement against nations, and shattering heads, and they expect that Jesus is about to go to war. He will be like the kings of Sodom and Canaan. He’s going to rebel with an army against the Roman authorities, and seize power for the Jews. But that’s not what Jesus does. If that’s the Messiah people are looking for, they ought to have looked somewhere else. Because at the end of the week, King Jesus takes his seat on the throne of the Cross. His enemies are made into his footstool, as they jeer and shout and spit at him while he hangs, bleeding and bruised upon the wood of the cross. The forces he lead in the hills of Zion were fishermen, prostitutes, and tax collectors, and they have all but deserted their King. “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”” Only this priest has done something bizarre and unheard of: he has offered himself as sacrifice for the sins of the people. And the Lord has indeed executed Judgement at the coming of his Messiah on the nations.
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
“And this is the judgement: The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.”
You see, Jesus, like Melchizedek, knew that the way of the other kings wouldn’t work. Waging war like the king of Sodom would not lead to victory. Chedorlaomer could not be overthrown in that way. Rome could not be overthrown in that way. It was only by placing himself fully in the hands of the Lord that Christ was able to achieve victory. It was only by turning away from the violent and self-serving means of worldly kings that Jesus could become the true King. For those who live by the sword die by the sword, but those who live by God receive eternal life.
Finding Ourselves in the story
Finding Ourselves in the story
As we reflect on the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem this morning, and on the story of Abram, Melchizedek, and Sodom, I think the God’s word invites us to find ourselves within the story. As we reflect on Abram, Melchizedek, and the king of Sodom, I know I’m certainly not Melchizedek. I’m not a priest with mysterious origins, and I’m certainly not greater than Abraham, that I could receive an offering from him. I would like to think I’m Abram. I’ve recieved God’s grace, I’ve put faith in God and been rewarded, and now I live out a life in grateful response to God’s good gift. And maybe, at times, for many of us, we find that we fit quite neatly in Abram’s shoes.
I think if we’re honest, however, we’re much more likely to find ourselves in the shoes of the King of Sodom.
For many of us, however, the King of Sodom seems a lot easier to relate to.
More often than not, however, I think we tend to fit better in the sandals of the King of Sodom. When we get into an argument, our first instinct isn’t to lay down our pride in humility, it’s to shout louder, to form better, bigger, stronger arguments, to beat our opponent and win. When we’re thinking about politics, our first instinct isn’t to help the ones less fortunate than us, it’s to protect ourselves. We just naturally gravitate towards that kind of violent, brute force power.
We cheer on super heroes like Captain America, Thor, Batman, and Superman, who beat the badguys into the ground. We love watching the old westerns with the tough and tumble cowboys who get justice with fists and guns.
But, maybe, like the king of Sodom, you’ve come to a point where you’ve realized that this kind of worldly kingship, this worldly approach to power, hasn’t really gotten you anywhere. You tried pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, you tried making your way in the world by sheer force of will, and that’s just not done it. Or maybe you’ve watched from afar as the rest of the world tries this approach again, and again, and again. And you’ve noticed that Jesus was right: Those who live by the sword die by the sword. All that fighting and power grabbing hasn’t gotten the world anywhere. The world is in no better shape than it has been, in fact, it seems to get worse and worse with each generation.
This is no doubt the feeling the king of Sodom had as he approached Abram. He was utterly defeated. He didn’t expect to get his great fortunes and wealth back. He was just hoping this new king on the block wouldn’t steal his people away too. But then this Abram did something totally unexpected. He gave the king of Sodom a free gift. Not a gift he deserved, not a gift he’d earned, not a gift with any strings attached.
That, I think, is where we stand with Jesus. We who would no doubt have waved the palm branches, hoping for another violent and tyrannical king, just one who’s on our side this time. We who would no doubt have stood and jeered at this so-called king, nailed to a cross.