Abraham had caught the Sumero-Akkadian army by surprise and defeated
them, recovering all the things they had taken.
It wasn’t long before the news reached Sodom and the cities that were
her allies, and a delegation went out to meet him and reclaim their stuff. They planned to meet him in a valley just
south of Salem or Salim, as Genesis 14:17 tells us. “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.” Some fifteen
hundred years later, Rehoboam would set
up a monument to himself in the same valley and it would become known as the
King’s Dale.
Abraham and his servants were coming from Damascus,
traveling south along the river. They
stopped at Salem, where the met the
king, in Genesis 14:18-20. “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth
bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram
of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most
high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him
tithes of all.”
Originally all of the people had known about God. While many were turning away in Abraham’s day,
making up their own religions, , there were still many groups that worshipped
God. One of those groups was in Salem. Melchizedek, the King of Salem was a priest
of God, teaching the worship of God in the same way Noah and his family
worshipped, and extended all the back through Seth’s family to Adam and
Eve. Based on the description in Hebrews
7:1-3, many believe He may have in fact been Christ or one of the angels. “For
this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also
Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of
righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without
father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor
end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.” Whether he was actually Christ or an
angel, he was worshipping God in the original way and as Hebrews 7 tells us,
Christ takes up back to that original priesthood and worship of God, bypassing
all other religions. As God told him in
Hebrews 7:17, “…Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
Although the break it down differently, both Covenant Theology
and Dispensationalism teach that God has had to repeatedly change his plans
because of man’s sin, and that Christianity is the result of those changes. Hebrews tells us that in Christ we go back to
before those changes were made. It is
why Paul puts so much stress on the promises to Abraham in Romans 3-4. While it seems new to us because it is so
different than traditional religions, it is in fact much older than they
are.
The king of Sodom offered Abraham all the things as a reward
for bring back their wives and children., in Genesis 14:21-24. “And
the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to
thyself.
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, 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: 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.”
Abraham’s only concern had been the welfare of Lot’s
family. He refused to take any kind of
reward from the Sodomites and their allies because he did not want anyone to think
he owed them anything. The only thing he
would accept was the food his servants had eaten. It was a personal choice, and he was willing
for the Amorites and Philistines who had accompanied him to be rewarded. He would not impose his personal standards on
them.
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