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

Copyright (c) 1998, 2020, 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. Abram exercised his warrior skills at this point, freeing Lot's family. But, citing his promise to the LORD, Abram rejected any of the booty to which his victory entitled him to take. The probable reason for the 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 Canannite pantheon. 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 Abram. Even though the Law and sacrificial system was not yet delivered, Agram would have obeyed it.

God's Covenant with Abram

As the years roll by and he continues to age, Abram 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 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 Abram believes God; in doing so, God "reckoned it to him as righteousness." The LORD then gives Abram a pophecy that his descendant 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 that Abram was brought up with, necessary to instill in Abram full confidence that the promise will be fulfilled. The procedure was 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 covenents 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 Abram's level, perhaps reminding the Christian reader of the incarnation.

Genesis 12-13 | Genesis 16-17