Genesis 14:17  And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.
18  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
19  And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
20  And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
21  And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
22  And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23  That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
24  Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

This past weekend our country welcomed Mr. Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, into the Parliament building to address the country of Canada. It seems no one took an interest in considering who this man is and what he stands for. Then too, it was learned after the fact that the government invited another elderly Ukrainian man as a guest into the Parliament. After the high praise given to this man, it was reported that he was a Nazi who had served in Hitler’s army. He came to Canada after the war in a fraudulent manner. He was a Nazi Waffen SS a soldier. After it was exposed, who this man really was, the speaker apologized for bringing him into Parliament and for publicly praising him for his “war effort.” The speaker claimed the decision to bring this man into Parliament and then to publicly recognize him was his decision alone. He claimed no one else knew of it. This seems rather strange that one man can invite a visitor into the Parliament building where all the MPs are gathered together and the background of the man is not checked first. Maybe our government actually operates in such a careless manner. On top of what happened last week in Parliament, this latest incident speaks volumes of where our country is at. Those who are saved need to be much in prayer for our country. We are in big trouble. The proclamation of the Gospel offers the only hope to the darkness in this country. From our P.M. and on, many people need to turn to the true God in repentance and be saved.
As we continue our study of the life of Abram, we continue to see the effects of making short-sighted decisions. Lot did not concern himself with his spiritual life or that of his family. He just wanted a “good life.” He pitched his tent toward Sodom, and in chapter 14 we see that he had already moved into Sodom. Due to his ungodly associations, when a war broke out, he and his family were taken captive along with the rest of the people of Sodom.
Abram was separated from this wicked city and when he heard of the situation, he took his men and went out to rescue his nephew and his family. God blessed Abram and gave him success in not only rescuing Lot, but also all the captives and all their possessions.
The king of Sodom came out to meet Abram after his victory and he wanted to reward Abram for his success. Abram was not interested in the king’s reward. Abram was a servant of the true God. He did not want to diminish the glory that belonged to God. He did not want this wicked king to get the idea that he had a part in making Abram rich.
Abram was not being ungrateful, nor was he being a “snob.” He wanted to be careful that God would receive the glory for his success. He did not want anything to interfere with a godly testimony in this area. He would still need to learn some important lessons in other things, but he understood the importance of trusting God for his material blessings.
There is another king mentioned in this passage as well, by the name of Melchizedek. This is a unique king. This king is mentioned in Psalm 110:4 as well. God directed the writer of Hebrews to write about this king in Hebrews 7. This king is somewhat mysterious in that we do not know his origins. There is no record of his birth or his death. Yet we learn that Abram gave tithes to Melchizedek. The Bible shows us that Melchizedek is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ has no beginning and no end. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Creator of all things. By Him all things consist. He is the KING of kings. He is the Great Hight Priest. He is the Saviour of mankind. He is worthy of our worship and part of that is our tithes.
Abram did not suffer because he refused help from the king of Sodom. He could be a blessing to many because he made it known that he trusted in the true God. He was not a secretive believer in God. His faith in God was open for all to see. He would need to learn how to walk by faith more, but he identified himself as a servant of the “most high God”. These were not just words that came out of his mouth. He demonstrated the reality of this by his actions.
Those who are God’s children need to have a testimony of that fact. As we will see further in the life of Abram, Lot did not have a testimony of trusting in God. If God did not tell us that Lot was a just man, we would would not see that from his testimony. Lot is used in the Bible as someone we need to avoid following after. God would refer to the faith of Abram/Abraham, but He could not encourage anyone to follow after the faith of Lot. Jesus warned people to remember Lot’s wife. That remembrance was not in a good way. It was given as a warning of the love of materialism rather than the love of God.
Today we need to choose whom we will follow. Will we choose to know the God of Abram, or will we try to justify carnality in the shadow of Lot’s life? Those who are truly born again, cannot hide in the shadow of Lot’s life. They must get away from that life and serve the true God.
Pastor Bartel