Genesis 14:21-24 (ESV)
And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”
We should note first that we are picking up the above passage right in the middle of a paragraph. The paragraph is about what happened after Abraham rescued his nephew Lot. If you are not familiar with the events that lead up to this point, it goes like this:
1. Abraham and his nephew Lot had a lot of sheep. So much so that their herdsmen would fight over the watering holes to water the sheep.
2. Abraham give Lot the pick of the land and tells him that if he goes right, Abraham will go life and vice versa.
3. Lot decides to go toward Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. God tells Abraham that all the land he can see, from the east, west, north and south will be given to HIM ... even the land Abraham just gave to Lot.
5. Five kings decide to fight four other kings, of which was also the king of Sodom. But, in the process they take Lot captive.
6. Abraham rescues Lot and, apparently, the king of Sodom.
Now we arrive to our above verse. After the rescue, the king of Sodom attempts to reward Abraham for saving his life (and his city/kingdom). Abraham was not forbidden by God to take the gifts (at least we don’t read any command about that). But, Abraham must have had some sense from the Spirit of God because his reply to the king of Sodom, was “no thanks, least you walk around later and tell everyone it was YOU who made Abraham rich.” Abraham takes only what was needed to feed his 318 men and departs.
The lesson here is twofold. The first is that we need to be careful when dealing with the world that we do not allow them to believe our trust is in their riches, their provisions and their being gracious to us. Believers are not to live at the graciousness of man, but by the grace and mercy of their God. Does God use man to bless us? Yes! Just go back and read Genesis 12 and see how Abraham was made rich to begin with by the Princes of Egypt. But, we are not to seek that type of blessing. God can bless us with material goods any way He wants, but we are not to seek it from men who wish to later hold it over us.
The second lesson is that despite Abraham’s witness and demonstration of humility in front of the king of Sodom, the king, the city and the people of Sodom will still be wicked. We will soon read that Abraham has to pray for God to rescue Lot again, but this time from the very wickedness of the king whom Abraham just rescued. Despite being saved by Abraham and seeing the humility of Abraham, Sodom is still Sodom. We need to remember that we can often do everything we can by living a godly life in front of the world, but the world will still be the world.
We are to be the light of the world, but we must realize that some in the world, will still be in darkness.
No comments:
Post a Comment