Now, if you found your place in the
Bible at Genesis 14, we're putting in at
verse 12 today.
Now, we saw last time the first war,
and I found myself very hesitant because I
did not know how far to go into
it.
And I feel that we should not probably
develop a section like that too much, but
here is a very interesting side line for
somebody to follow through, and you will find
it very absorbing and very interesting.
This is a historical document that tells of
a war, the first war that's recorded.
I do not know whether it was the
first war that ever took place.
I don't think that's the intention of the
writer.
The purpose here is because Lot is involved,
the nephew of Abraham.
But we find that the kings of the
east defeat the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And frankly, they evidently had fought before because
they had them in subjugation, and they had
reached the place where they had rebelled.
Now, the thing that had happened was that
Lot lived in Sodom, and Lot was taken
captive, and Abraham goes out and defeats the
kings of the east and delivers Lot.
The question arises, how could he do it?
Well, let's look at this.
And as I suggested before, that when the
kings of the east left the area of
Sodom and Gomorrah, they moved north along the
west bank of the Dead Sea.
And frankly, it's not too far from Hebron
and Mamre where Abraham was dwelling.
You can stand where Abraham stood in that
day, and you can see any movement that
takes place down toward the Dead Sea.
And so when word was brought to Abraham
and it was brought to him, he immediately
began to pursue the enemy as he moved
north.
Now, will you notice this?
And they took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who
dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and departed.
Now, that's Genesis 14, 12.
And that's the reason this war is significant
to the record here.
It reveals what Abraham's going to do in
connection with his nephew.
Now, verse 13, "...there came one that had
escaped, told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt
in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother
of Eschol, and brother of Aner, and these
were confederate with Abram."
Now, you see, Abram has a group of
men that are with him.
Actually, they had to stand together in that
day because of the pursuit of an enemy
or the approach of an enemy.
And there was safety in numbers, or they
either had to hang together or hang separately.
Now, the thing that's startling here to us
is this, and it reveals something of the
extent of Abraham's possessions.
Verse 14 of Genesis 14, "...and when Abram
heard that his brother was taken captive, he
armed his trained servants, born in his own
house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them
unto Dan."
Dan's up in the north.
Now, 318, that gives you some conception of
the number of servants that Abraham had.
In his own household, he could arm 318.
Well, how many did he have that he
couldn't arm?
For instance, women and children, the old folk.
But he could arm 318.
Now, he's carrying on, may I say, quite
a business in that area, raising cattle and
sheep and that type of thing.
Now, verse 15, "...he divided himself."
Now, here's the way he did it.
"...he divided himself against them, he and his
servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued
them unto Hobah, which is on the left
bank of Damascus."
Now, you see he pursued them all the
way north to Damascus.
Now, that's quite a stretch.
What Abraham apparently did here, he divided his
servants and one group would make an attack
from the rear as they were pursuing them.
The other group went around.
And when the enemy turned to fight the
first group, you could see what would happen.
He'd come down upon them.
And as a result, he was able to
get a victory.
At least he was able to scatter them
so that they fled across the desert and
left the people they had captured in the
booty.
Now, he brought back all the goods and
also brought again his brother Lot and his
goods and the women also and the people.
You see, they were taking the women and
the people as slaves.
Now, Abraham has done a tremendous thing, of
course.
And he did it because of his nephew
Lot.
That is it, very definitely.
And that's the reason that all of this
is mentioned here.
And I would say for this reason and
another reason, we'll see when we get into
the next chapter, Abraham very definitely is not
having a chapter put in here that's extraneous.
It's along with the life of Abraham and
very important.
Now, it's very important for what follows.
Notice, the king of Sodom went out to
meet him after his return from the slaughter
of Shador Laomer and of the kings that
were with him at the valley of Sheba,
which is the king's dale.
The king of Sodom went out to meet
him.
Now, someone else is going to come out
and meet Abraham.
And it's a good thing that he did
because the king of Sodom is putting him
in grave danger, at least temptation.