Thirteenth chapter of the book of Genesis.
In chapter 12, we find that Abram had
gone down into Egypt because of the famine.
And there, as a result of a lack
of faith and trusting God to take care
of him, he had Sarah pass herself off
as his sister.
God brought a plague upon the Egyptians because
the Pharaoh had more or less taken her
into his harem.
And he rebuked Abram for the deception and
ordered his men to allow Abram to travel
freely.
And so now Abram is returning from Egypt
in chapter 13.
He went up out of Egypt, he and
his wife and all that he had, and
lot with him into the south.
That would be into the south part of
the land of Canaan, into the area of
Beersheba, Kadesh, Barnea, Hebron, there in the southern
part.
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in
silver, and in gold.
So, God had blessed Abraham in a material
way, rich in cattle, silver, gold.
And he went on his journeys from the
south, even to Bethel, unto the place where
his tent had been at the beginning, between
Bethel and Ai.
So, when Abram first came into the land,
his first stop was at Shechem.
And then he came back towards the Jordan
River at a high point.
This is the highest point in the Jerusalem
range of mountains, which begins actually in the
area of Samaria and goes almost to Beersheba.
Just before you get to Beersheba, the Jerusalem
mountains sort of fade out.
But this is the highest point.
And there is this mountain between the city
of Bethel and Ai.
The mountain in which he had just a
tremendous view of the entire land.
Abram, when he first came there, was able
to see the entire land.
And there he built an altar unto the
Lord and worshipped the Lord.
And now he returned again to this spot
of Bethel.
The place is actually sort of a significant
place.
It was near Bethel there that Jacob was
fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau.
And he used a pillow of a rock.
And he had the dream and the awareness
of the presence of God.
And there God made the covenant with Jacob.
And said, I am going to be with
you whether so ever you go.
I'm going to bless you.
I'm going to prosper you.
And I'm going to bring you back into
this land.
And Jacob sort of made his deal with
God and said, if you'll be with me,
if you'll bless me and prosper me, I'll
give you a tenth of everything I get.
And so Jacob made his deal with God
and he left from the place of Bethel.
Later on in Jacob's career, God said to
him, I am the God of Bethel.
And the Lord commanded him to return to
Bethel.
It was at Bethel that Jacob first became
conscious of God.
And God then challenged him to return to
that place really of your first consciousness.
More or less as Jesus called upon the
church of Ephesus to return to their first
love.
That place where you first met God or
you first became conscious of God.
And it seems that God seeks to call
us back to that place of our beginnings.
The beginning of our faith.
The beginning of our devotion.
The beginning of that excitement of knowing God
and walking with God.
Sometimes we begin to take things for granted.
Our Christian experience begins to sort of just
become a prosaic kind of a thing.
I just sort of, you know, go along
with it and I lose the excitement.
God said to Israel at one time, where
is the excitement of the espousal?
You know, when I first called you out
and upon all the people was holiness under
the Lord.
In other words, the consciousness of the people
was a God consciousness.
They were so aware of the presence of
God and they were so excited in the
things of God.
And God is saying, where is the excitement
of that espousal when I first drew you
out of Egypt and all of you were
aware and conscious of me.
And we see movements of God's Spirit such
as we are experiencing here.
And it's so exciting.
Just the work of the Lord and the
excitement of everyone just being, you know, turned
on for Jesus.
And just, you know, we realize His presence,
His power.
We see His work and there is that
beauty of the excitement of God's work in
our midst.
There's always a sad and tragic day when
that excitement begins to wane a bit.
And we begin to take for granted those
things that at one time were so special
and important and exciting to us.
God help us that we will never take
for granted His goodness, His grace and the
blessings that we've experienced.
I pray that that excitement shall never diminish.
That each day we'll be excited with the
presence of God and with the work and
the power of His Spirit within our lives.
That we'll never lose that just overawed kind
of an experience that God is working in
our midst.
God is demonstrating His love and His power.
That we'll always have that fresh relationship with
Jesus Christ.
And so Abram returned to Bethel, the place
where he had built an altar and offered
a sacrifice unto God.
And God had first promised to him the
whole land that was before him.
And Lot also, which went with Abram, had
his flocks and his herds and his tents.
And the land was not able to bear
them that they might dwell together.
For the substance was great so that they
could not dwell together.
And there developed a strife between the herdmen
of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's
cattle.
The Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in the
land.
And so here there began to be a
division between Lot and Abram.
Lot was Abram's nephew, but Lot's father Haran
died very early.
And Lot was left as an orphan.
And so Abram more or less adopted him
as much as he did not have any
children of his own up to this point.
He had more or less adopted Lot and
raised Lot.
So Lot was really like a son to
Abram and journeyed with him.
But now they both become very prosperous, the
hand of the Lord's blessing upon their lives.
And you remember Abram had about 300 men
servants that he could arm for battle.
Gives you an idea of the size of
the multitude that was going with Abram.
And Lot was probably just about in the
equal position.
And so because the land just wasn't big
enough for all of them to graze their
cattle and sheep together.
And strife began to rise up between the
servants of Lot and the servants of Abram.
Abram called Lot and he said unto him,
Let there be no strife, I pray thee,
between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen, for we are brothers.
Is not the whole land before thee?
Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.
And if you will take the left hand,
I will go to the right.
If you'll depart to the right hand, then
I will go to the left.
And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld
all the plain of Jordan, that it was
well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah.
It was even as the garden of the
Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou
comest to Zorah.
So at that time, of course, it was
not too long after the flood.
The Great African Rift was probably somehow related
to the flood.
As we mentioned, there was a whole change
of the geographical surface of the earth at
the time of the flood.
And in the beginning, the Dead Sea was
formed actually because there was no outlet for
the Jordan River.
And in the beginning, there would not have
been the high salt content, which has been
leached out of the soil through the years.
And because there is no outlet for the
Dead Sea, all of the mineral salt contents
has just continued to build up over the
millennia.
So that today, of course, there's not possible
that anything can live in the Dead Sea.
But at that time, there was probably not
the high concentration of salts that we have
today.
And before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it
was all well-watered and it was a
place of really lush vegetation.
Of course, you're in a deep depression, 1200
feet below sea level, almost 1300 feet below
sea level there at the surface of the
Dead Sea.
And the weather is tropical type weather.
Gets very hot in the summertime and stays
quite mild in the wintertime.
Usually in the wintertime, it is in the
70s, high 70s, low 80s.
Can get up into the 90s even during
the wintertime down there.
And so it's great for growing tropical kind
of foods, papaya, mango, and of the tropical
types of foods.
And, of course, all kinds of vegetation, citrus
fruits and so forth grow very profusely down
there around Jericho today where they have a
good water supply, a fresh water supply.
So it is interesting because you're in such
a deep rift, so low, that there are
springs that just come out of the mountains
and flow then on into the valley.
And before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
much more, it was like the Garden of
the Lord, it was like the Garden of
Eden.
So Lot looked down at that lush tropical
area and he chose to move down in
that direction.
And Lot chose all of the plain of
Jordan and Lot journeyed east.
And they separated themselves one from the other.
And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan
and Lot dwelled in the cities of the
plain.
And he pitched his tent toward Sodom.
This was, you might say, sort of the
beginning of the backsliding of Lot.
First of all, his choice was a fleshly
choice.
He really didn't consider Abraham and Abram's needs.
But looking to himself first, he chose the
plain of Jordan and then he pitched his
tent toward Sodom.
The next time we find him, he is
sitting in the gates of Sodom.
Or actually, he's living in Sodom because he's
captured as he lives in Sodom.
So, at the beginning, pitching toward Sodom, attracted
somehow by this wicked city.
But the men of Sodom were wicked and
sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
It's a very wicked place.
And yet, Lot seemed to be somehow attracted
by it.
There does seem to be a certain type
of an attraction to sin.
Satan does make it look very attracting.
There is a way that seemeth right unto
man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death.
You want to look down the road and
find out what it leads to.
Sin can be very exciting.
Sin can be very thrilling.
It would be wrong to say that it
isn't.
It can be very pleasurable.
But it eventuates in death.
The wise man will look down and see
where is the road leading.
It might be a fun road to travel.
It might be filled with allurement, excitement.
But where is the path leading me?
My ambition is to someday ride the rapids.
Either in the Grand Canyon or up this
Idaho.
I just would love to get on a
raft and go down the rapids.
I think that it would be a...
I'm just looking forward to someday doing that.
Either now or in the millennium, but someday
I'm going to ride the rapids.
But there are rapids that I have no
desire to ride.
And those are the rapids above Niagara Falls.
Now, I don't doubt, but what they're just
as exciting as the Grand Canyon or any
other rapids that you might ride.
But I don't like where it ends.
So you go down, wee, fun, exciting, thrill,
thrill.
Man, the roar of the falls is getting
louder.
You know, you're heading for destruction.
And so the person in the path of
sin.
Excitement, thrilling, but you're heading towards destruction.
The end thereof are the ways of death.
Lot was attracted.
He pitched his tent towards Sodom, this exceedingly
wicked and sinful city.
Even before Lot ever got there.
And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan.
Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain,
pitched his tent.
And then the Lord sent unto Abram after
that Lot was separated from him.
It was probably a difficult experience.
Lot had become like a son to Abram.
He was close.
Abram loved him.
And parting is never an easy experience.
You see Lot taking off and it's always
harder to be the one that's left.
It's always easier, I think, to go than
to be the one that's left behind.
And to see them going, it always gives
you sort of an empty, sinking feeling.
As they sort of disappear over the hill,
you know.
And I can imagine for Abram, it was
a...
Here he'd been traveling for years together now.
For probably something like 50 years they'd been
together, close.
And now he sees Lot taking off.
And there has to be an ache in
the heart, a lump in the throat.
And so the Lord comes to comfort Abram.
And the Lord said unto Abram after that
Lot was departed from him, Lift up now
thine eyes and look from the place where
thou art.
Northward, southward, eastward, westward.
For all the land which you see, to
thee will I give it and to thy
seed forever.
God's promise to Abraham.
From the area there at, between Bethel and
Ai, this mountain peak.
Looking towards the north, you see the area
of Samaria.
You can look clear on up and see
Mount Hermon on a clear day.
And he wasn't bothered with smog in those
days.
Looking towards the east, you see the mountains
of Moab.
Looking towards the south, you see the area
of Jerusalem.
The southern range of the Jerusalem mountains.
Clear on down to the area of Beersheba.
Looking towards the west, you see the Sharon
Plains and the Mediterranean.
And so God said just look to the
north, the south, the east, the west.
Just as far as you can see Abram,
I'm going to give you this land to
you and to your seed.
And God was going to give it to
him forever.
But Jimmy Carter's going to take away part
of it from him.
What's that make him?
I get in trouble, I get a dozen
letters tomorrow.
But they just come out, I have to
apologize to the people.
I guess I'm too open, I just say
what's in my mind.
But anyhow.
And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth.
So that if a man can number the
dust of the earth, then shall thy seed
also be numbered.
Now God promised, hey I'm going to multiply
your seed like the dust of the earth.
Now later on, we'll get to it this
evening, a little later on.
God said to Abram in chapter 15, look
up into the heavens.
And I am going to make your seed
like the stars of the sky, innumerable.
Hey, that's an interesting, interesting thing.
Because modern science in that day thought that
there were 6126 stars.
They didn't think they were innumerable.
Many of the ancient people had counted the
stars.
And up until the time of Galileo, we
didn't realize that there were so many stars
out there in the universe.
But now, they estimate the number of stars
to be just so vast, that you really
can't count them all.
There are billions of galaxies, like our Milky
Way galaxy, and there are billions of stars
in our Milky Way galaxy.
Someone has estimated that there might be as
many as 10 to the 25th power stars.
But it's also interesting, they've estimated that if
you would take the amount of sand in
a cubic inch, and take the volume of
the earth, there's probably 10 to the 25th
power grains of sand that make up the
earth.
So in God's saying, I'm going to make
your seed as the sands of the sea,
or as the dust of the earth, and
then as the stars of heaven, they're probably
sort of an equal number here.
But the interesting thing is God said, the
whole idea is that they'll be innumerable, you
won't be able to count them.
Now, God's promise was that you can't count
them, and David's sin was what?
He tried to count them.
He took a census.
God didn't want a census taken of his
people, because God's promise is they're going to
be innumerable as the sands of the sea.
You're not going to be able to count
them.
David's sin was in taking a census and
counting the people, and it brought God's judgment
against Israel, because of David's sin in counting
the people.
So since then, they didn't take census in
Israel.
But everyone had to put a shekel into
the temple treasury, and then they'd count the
shekels.
But the Orthodox Jew to the present day
will not count off in a group.
If you're in a group and you're playing
party games, and you've got a number in
the group, an Orthodox Jew will not be
numbered.
And so they'll say, you're not one, not
two, not three, not four, not five.
You can always figure out ways to get
around things, you know.
So we're really not numbering, because you're not
one, and you're not two.
But the promise of God is the dust
of the earth cannot be counted or numbered,
so the descendants said, I am going to
give unto thee.
Now the Lord said, Arise and walk through
the land, through the length and the breadth
of it, for I will give it unto
thee.
Then Abram removed his tent and came and
dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is
in Hebron, and built there an altar unto
the Lord.
So Abram moved from the place about twenty
miles north of Jerusalem, or twelve, fifteen miles
north of Jerusalem actually, to a place approximately
twenty-two miles south of Jerusalem, still on
the Jerusalem hills, or the mountains of Jerusalem
they call them, down now south of the
valley of Eshkol.
Now Eshkol was a place with a beautiful
stream and well watered, and the grapes in
the area of Eshkol were just phenomenal.
They still are today, some of the most
delicious grapes we've ever had in our life
came from the valley of Eshkol.
And right, of course, is adjacent to the
area of Hebron.
When Joshua and Caleb came spying out the
land some four hundred years later, in order
to prove to the people that the land
was a very fertile land, they picked a
cluster of grapes that was so big that
they had to carry it in a staff
between them.
And they took back this huge cluster of
grapes to show the people, hey, this land
is really fertile, this is great.
So Abram moved south, plains of Mamre, which
are near Hebron, some twenty miles or so
south from Jerusalem.
This is the end of side one.
For side two of this message, please turn
the cassette over at this point.
And it came to pass in the days
of Amraphel, the king of Shinar.
Now, Shinar is Babylon.
And Ariok, the king of Eleazar, which is
Babylonia.
And Kedolamer, the king of Elam, which is
Persia, and titled the king of Goyim, or
nations.
So we don't know exactly what nations that
comprise.
Four kings.
They made war with Berah, the king of
Solomon, and with Birshah, the king of Gomorrah.
And Sheneb, the king of Adma.
And these kings really, and there's no sense
of reading their names off because we're not
going to remember them anyhow.
But they are the kings of the plain,
the area where there were five cities in
this lush area of the Jordan Valley there
that comprised the cities around Sidon.
Now, these were joined together in a confederacy
in the valley of Sidon, which is the
Salt Sea.
And 12 years, they served Kedolamer.
So, Kedolamer, the king of Persia, had conquered
the area and had put them under tribute.
And they had been under tribute for 12
years.
In the 13th year, they rebelled against the
tribute.
13 is a very interesting number, the number
of rebellion.
And so, it is significant that it was
in the 13th year that they rebelled.
The number 13 is a number that does
appear in other places.
It's always a number of rebellion.
It happens to be the number of Satan.
Every name for Satan in the Greek, when
you take the gametria, the numeric value of
those names, and total it up, it's always
divisible by 13.
Very interesting thing, I don't know what it
means, but it is just the number of
rebellion and has been scripturally the number of
Satan, the number 13.
And that is why 13 has become considered
as an unlucky number.
And that is why whenever you get into
spiritism, spiritual seances and so forth, and you
begin to dabble in those realms of spiritism,
the number 13 becomes a very significant number.
I don't know if you've ever been through
the Winchester Rifle House.
The woman supposedly was being directed by the
spirits in the building of that house, and
she had men working there continually.
But as you go through the house, you'll
find 13 windows in a room, or you'll
find 6 steps down, 7 steps up, and
the number 13 is woven through the house
all the way in the dimensions of the
rooms, in the number of windows, in the
steps, and so forth.
And she used that number through the whole
house.
It is a number that anyone who dabbles
into spiritism is familiar with because so many
of the seances and so forth are, the
number 13 is an important number to them.
And interestingly enough, it is a number of,
scripturally, a number of Satan, a number of
rebellion.
So, 12 years they served the king, in
the 13th year they rebelled.
Now in the 14th year, he got together
with these kings of Babylon, Babylonia, and they
made an invasion in the area that is
today Jordan, but in history was Moab, and
they invaded across the high country, clear on
down to the area of Edom.
Coming down to the, it gives you the
city, all of the cities that they conquered
here.
And they came on, finally, across to Kadish.
They came south, and then began to move
west, as they came to the area of
Edom, and Mount Seir is where it was,
and then across to Kadish.
Having conquered all of these cities, and archaeology
has certainly confirmed this particular part of history
here in the Bible, as they have uncovered
vast cities that were never rebuilt.
They just totally wiped out the cities and
all, took the spoils, and the cities were
never rebuilt.
They updated the ruins and so forth to
about the 17th century BC, to the 19th
century BC, so that it puts it about
the time of this invasion, and they've actually
discovered many of these cities that are named
here, and the ruins of these cities, as
they have put their spade to the tells,
and have uncovered really a vast civilization that
once existed there, but they were wiped out
by this invasion of the Babylonian confederacy with
the Persian confederacy of kings.
Now the whole purpose of the invasion was
ultimately to get at Sodom, these five cities
of the plain, that had rebelled against the
tribute that they were paying to Kedolomer, the
king of Elam, and so they came, in
verse 10, to the valley of Sodom, which
was full of slime pits.
Now the word slime pits is actually the
asphalt pits.
This was an area of a lot of
tar asphalt pits down there in the valley,
which, when God sent fire from heaven to
consume Sodom, probably set these things on fire,
and they probably burned for months.
Once you get that hot enough to where
it's ignited and burning, it probably went on
and on and on.
So, it was an area that was full
of slime pits.
Actually, it's an interesting thing that in the
Tower of Babel, they used pitch for mortar.
The word pitch there again is a word
that signifies tar.
Rockefeller, when he read the Bible, saw that
and figured, hey, if it's tar, there must
be oil, and that's why he began to
explore for oil over in that area of
Saudi Arabia and Iran and so forth, and
that's why he became such an extremely wealthy
man.
He read his Bible and used his hand.
And so the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
fled and fell there, and they that remained
fled into the mountains.
Now, of course, if you're down there, man,
you know that there's all kinds of steep
cliffs and caves and hiding places in Masada,
one of the mountains down there that would
overlook the area that was once Tyre and
Sidon.
And so these kings took all of the
goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all of
their vitual supplies, and they went their way,
and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who
dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed.
And there came one that had escaped, probably
one of Lot's servants.
And he told Abram in the Hebrew, and
of course, this is the first time the
word Hebrew is used.
It probably comes from the name of his
great-great-great-grandfather Eber.
And so he was called the Hebrew here.
It's a name that was adopted later, but
Israel was the name that really is adopted
for the people because of Jacob.
And Israel defines more the nation that God
had blessed.
The Hebrews would include actually the Arabs in
a technical sense because they are the descendants
of Ishmael.
For he dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
the Amorite brother of Eshcol and brother of
Aner.
And they were confederate with Abram.
So Abram had these others that he was
dwelling in this area of Mamre with Eshcol,
from whom the valley of Eshcol became named
later on.
And his two brothers, Mamre and Aner.
And when Abram heard that his brother, that
his Lot was taken captive, he armed his
trained servants that were born in his own
house, 318, and he pursued them unto Dan.
So it gives you the size of Abram's
wealth and all that he had 318 men
who were his own servants that he could
arm for battle.
Now you can imagine, you know, if you
had that many servants, you'd have a real
food supply problem.
You know, feeding everybody because you're responsible to
take care of them all.
So Abram was a man of very vast
means, very vast wealth that he could support
and keep that many servants.
They pursued them as far as Dan.
Now Dan is in the uppermost part of
Galilee.
It's just before you get to the base
of Mount Hermon.
It's probably five miles from Banias where the
Jordan River comes right out of the base
of Mount Hermon.
And so you're clear on up at the
northern end of the Upper Galilee which means
from the area of Hebron, he pursued them
about 125 miles which without armored weapons, carriers
and so forth, that was a pretty long
jaunt for these guys to go.
Figuring that on sort of a forced march
you can get 25 miles a day you
get an idea of how far they pursued
these armies.
On up to the area of Dan where
they caught up with them in the area
of Dan.
And he divided himself against them.
And he and his servants by night he
smote them and pursued them to Hobah which
is on the left hand of Damascus.
Now Damascus is some 45 miles beyond.
So he came upon them at night, took
them by surprise which was probably the wisest
thing he could do.
Because the armies that he was facing were
numbering anywhere from 50 to 100,000 men.
And here he comes up with his 318
servants plus those of the three brothers that
went with him, confederate with him.
And so probably at most an army of
500 or so coming against several thousand who
had just wiped out almost a whole civilization.
Wiped out five kings of the plain.
Tough guys.
And Abram came on them at night.
Now they probably number one figured no one
would dare attack us unless they had a
huge force.
At night they couldn't see how many Abram
had.
And they were taken by surprise.
They were confused.
They began to flee.
But from that point it was hard to
flee because you've got to go right on
up the Golan Heights.
You're in a box canyon.
And so whenever you flee the direction you
always try to flee at least is home.
And so they started heading home up Mount
Hermon really because they came to the left
side of Damascus which means that they went
on up Mount Hermon and as they were
fleeing gave Abram and his men a chance
to really wipe at their flanks and to
come up and to destroy them as they
were coming up on them.
Pursued them all the way to Hobah which
is to the left of Damascus that would
be going north.
And so Abram destroyed actually these armies that
had come.
And he brought back all of the goods.
And he also brought again his brother or
literally his nephew Lot and his goods and
the women also and the people.
So these kings had taken a lot of
captives that they would have made slaves.
Abram rescued them all and was bringing them
back.
And as he was returning the king of
Sodom went out to meet him after his
return from the slaughter of Kedol-Omar.
And the kings that were with him at
the valley of Sheba which is in the
king's dell.
And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought forth
bread and wine and he was the priest
of El-Yom or the God the Most
High.
The Most High God.
And he blessed him and said, Blessed be
Abram of the Most High God possessor of
the heaven and earth and blessed be the
Most High God which hath delivered thine enemies
into thy hand.
And Abram gave him tithes of all.
So briefly we are introduced to this interesting
mystical person Melchizedek of whom the scripture speaks
very little.
It tells us nothing of Melchizedek's parentage.
Nothing of his mother and father.
Tells us nothing of his genealogy.
All that it tells us is that he
was a servant or a priest actually of
the Most High God.
He came out to Abram with what?
Bread and wine which are the symbols of
communion.
And he gave these unto Abram and then
he blessed Abram.
Now the lesser is always blessed by the
greater.
Therefore in blessing Abram it puts him a
level above Abram.
In Abram giving tithes of all that he
had to him.
Again it was a signifying of the lesser
paying the tithes to the greater.
To the servant or the priest of the
Most High God.
So Abram received the blessing recognized the man
as a priest of the Most High God
gave tithes of all of the spoils that
he had taken unto him.
Nothing more is said of Melchizedek until we
get to the 110th Psalm.
And suddenly out of nothing that seems to
relate to the rest of the 110th Psalm
we read the words, I have sworn and
will not repent I have made thee a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Now Abraham's son Isaac had a son Jacob
who had 12 sons.
One of Jacob's sons was Levi.
And when the law was established Levi was
the tribe that was to become the priestly
tribe.
And so they were called the order of
Levi.
Or the Levitical order of priesthood.
Order referring to the family.
Now here is an order of priesthood that
precedes the Levitical order.
And is superior to the Levitical order in
that Levi in essence when Abram paid tithes,
the great great grandfather of Levi, Levi in
essence was paying tithes unto Melchizedek.
So it puts the order of priesthood of
Melchizedek in a superior order to the Levitical
order.
And God has sworn and will not repent.
I have made thee a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek.
That Psalm had to remain a mystery as
did Melchizedek himself until we come to the
book of Hebrews when the mystery begins to
unravel.
For the author of the book of Hebrews
when he begins to point out the fact
that Jesus though he is from the tribe
of Judah of which the scriptures have nothing
to say concerning the priesthood, but even though
he is of the tribe of Judah, he
is of the order of priesthood of Melchizedek,
the superior order of priesthood.
Thus he can be the great high priest
of those who will come unto God through
him.
Now Melchizedek was called the king of righteousness
as well as the king of peace.
King of peace is Salem which is the
early name for Jerusalem.
So he was one of the first kings
of Jerusalem.
But he was also called the king of
righteousness.
Now it is interesting when he refers to
Christ who is of the order of Melchizedek
and he talks about Christ making intercession for
us as our great high priest.
Therefore we have a great high priest even
Jesus Christ the righteous.
Again the repetition of that word the righteous.
King of righteousness.
We have a great high priest Jesus Christ
the righteous one literally who has entered into
heaven for us.
Now you see how the word of God
is so beautifully tied together.
Here is just a little snatch in Genesis.
By itself we don't understand it very much.
If that was all that was said Melchizedek
would be just lost in history as a
mystical character we know very little about him.
And then when David comes along in Psalm
110 and said I have sworn and will
not repent I have made thee a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek.
What in the world is David talking about?
Psalm doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense until it's all put
together in Hebrews and we realize that Jesus
is our great high priest.
He's not of the tribe of Levi true
for he had to be the lion of
the tribe of Judah to fulfill the prophecy
of the Messiah.
But he is also the priest but not
after the Levitical order after the order of
Melchizedek who has neither mother nor father or
genealogy.
Now there are many Bible scholars who believe
that Melchizedek was none other than Jesus Christ
himself.
Very possible.
Jesus said to the Pharisees Abraham rejoiced to
see my day and saw it.
They said what do you mean Abraham saw
you?
You're not 50 years old.
So Jesus could have been referring to this
particular incident.
Now after Abram received the elements of communion
the bread and wine received the blessing then
the king of Sodom verse 21 said unto
Abram give me the persons and take the
goods to thyself.
You know just give me the hostages that
you've recaptured and you keep all of the
loot and Abram said to the king of
Sodom I have lifted up my hand unto
the Lord the most high God El Elyon.
He uses the same term now that Melchizedek
could use concerning God.
El Elyon the most high God.
I've lifted up mine hand unto the Jehovah
the most high God the possessor of heaven
and earth that I will not take from
a thread to a shoelace.
I'll not take anything that is yours lest
you would say I made Abram rich.
Abram had acknowledged that the blessings and the
riches that he had had come to him
from God.
He was not about ready to let any
man take credit for making him wealthy.
He didn't want anyone boasting saying well I
made Abram rich.
God had blessed Abram had prospered him and
Abram wanted only God to get the glory.
So he refused to take any not even
a thread or a shoelace.
He said except just the food that these
young men who went to battle with me
have eaten and so forth and these others
let them have their share but I'm not
going to take anything because I don't want
you saying I made Abram rich.
It's an important lesson for us to learn
and that is never take the bows for
the work of God or never let man
take the credit for the work of God.
Man seems to always like to take credit
for what God has done.
Well I fasted for many weeks and I
did this and I did that and I
made this commitment and I made this sacrifice
and I you know and because I am
so wonderful God has done all of this.
Oh how horrible when man seeks to take
credit for what God has done.
The Bible says that no flesh should glory
in his sight and so Abram was very
wise in this recognizing that the hand of
God's blessing had been upon his life and
would continue upon his life because God had
promised it.
He said hey man I won't even take
a shoelace from you.
As in time to come I don't want
you saying hey I made Abram rich recognizing
that God was the one who had blessed
him with these riches.