Sermon Tone Analysis

I’m beginning to think that Genesis 14 was put here to challenge those who get to preach it.

The list of names is simply ridiculous; bear with me as I attempt to read the first half of the chapter.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Genesis 14. Follow along with me.

Besides all the names, it just a bit confusing.

The last phrase in verse 9 was helpful to me: four kings against five.

That’s the essence of what’s going on here: rival alliances of kings fighting against one another: four kings against five.

I just kept reading these verses this week and then I would jot down on paper who was with whom and where each king was from.

I’m a visual person; I need to get a picture in my mind.

This map helped me out a great deal.

[SLIDE] The four Mesopotamian Kings

It’s immensely helpful for me to see the region in question, and to understand the scale of it all.

The king who’s farthest away is Chedorlaomer (roughly 1,200 miles via the route he takes to fight the other kings).

I compared this map to a map of the United States.

If Abram was living in this general area, Chedorlaomer would be in Virginia Beach, Virginia—right on the coast.

He traveled to what would be West Virginia to meet up with Amraphel.

They traveled to Chicago where Tidal (Mackinac Island) and Arioch (Detroit) would meet up with them and the four kings would travel through Illinois and Iowa before turning south.

Something like that.

It’s a long journey for them, but they have to get their people in line; those who have been subject to them need a good whoopin’.

On their way to battle the five kings, the four kings display their military strength along the way, defeating a number of tribal groups they encounter.

If we imagine them working their way down I-49, they’d be fighting people in several of the towns along the way.

Grandview, Harrisonville.

These four kings from the East would have smacked Adrian around like our boys did Friday night.

In the battle between the four kings from the east, the five kings of the Jordan Valley fail to beat back the alliance of the four traveling kings.

It’s four kings against five and the four kings win.

The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee from the battle sight and either fall into the tar pits or hide themselves there (the Hebrew word can mean either fall or lower into).

Either way, the four kings from the East emerge victorious and take everything all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food.

The real intrigue of the battle comes in verse 12:

This makes the entire event—all the names and places and maps—much more relevant the story-arch of Genesis.

I love a good battle scene, but this isn’t that.

This is just a bunch of names—people and places I don’t really care about or know anything about.

We don’t really know why the kings of the Jordan Valley decided now was the time to stage a revolt after 12 years.

I can’t explain why the four kings from the East took off on a 2,500 mile road-trip to beat down some inferior armies.

The real kicker—the reason this story is included in Genesis—is that Lot was carried off.

Lot, Abram’s nephew.

This has moved from a boring battle of random names to an event that matters very much.

This makes it pretty interesting, though not in the way people might think.

People might think, “Boy, put 9 kings from all over the ANE into a story—four kings against five—toss their names around for a bit, have them battle it out, and you’ve got front page, above the fold news.

This is primetime, interrupt-the-game-with-this-special-news-event kind of news.”

That’s not what makes this interesting.

The only reason we know about these kings, the only reason they’re in the story at all, the only reason we struggle to pronounce the names of these kings we’ve never even heard of is because their story happens to intersect with the story of Abram.

As much as these kings and all the people of the time would consider them to be the main event, it’s actually Abram and Lot whose stories we’re concerned about all these thousands of years later.

The Story of God and His People is the Real Story

Genesis 14 is an odd account and not very familiar to us at all.

The author of Genesis starts the story with the big, important names of the day.

But we end up seeing just how small they really are in the grand scheme of God’s story.

The Bible does this often.

Listen to Luke 2:1-4

At Caesar Augustus’ death, the Roman empire took in 3,340,000 square miles (that’s just a little smaller than the entire United States)

Caesar Augustus was hailed as “savior, bringer of good tidings, and a god.”

And yet, Caesar and his decree at the start of Luke 2 are just background information for the real story, the story of a baby born to save the world.

The great Caesar is nothing at all in our telling of the Christmas story.

We ignore Caesar and talk instead about a carpenter from Nazareth and his fiance and a baby and a feeding trough.

A baby is the story; the mighty, mighty Caesar is background information.

Luke 3:1-2 borders on the hilarious:

Luke must enjoy this kind of subversive storytelling.

For six clauses, Luke builds up the expectancy.

Something big’s gonna happen if all the area leaders are mentioned.

But it’s not what anyone thinks.

The big story, the main event, the most significant news of the day is that the word of God came to John.

The Bible understands what we don’t have eyes to see:

Presidents and Congress and stock markets and the playoffs and Hollywood aren’t that big of a deal, despite what we tend to think about them and what they certainly think of themselves.

They are merely the background of history.

God’s attention is on Abram and his family.

God’s concern is with His people.

They might not make the cover of a magazine or headline the evening news, but God’s mind and His story are always focused on wherever His people are.

What matters is what happens among Abram’s family.

What counts is when a mom and dad read the Bible to their children and pray with them at night.

What matters is when a handful of ladies gather together to pray for friends and neighbors.

What’s significant is when Christian wakes up, goes to their job, and puts in a solid day’s work—doing so for the glory of God.

What’s important is that conversation you had about with your co-worker about Jesus, that plate of cookies delivered to a neighbor along with an invitation to church.

What matters is a decision to follow Jesus, a commitment to serve the church, repentance from sin or a lifestyle you know is wrong.

The story of God and His people is the real story.

Abram’s involvement has been hinted at, and now he enters the story.

Here’s a map to help us:

[SLIDE] Abram and the four kings

Abram, officially involved, hearing his nephew was taken, called out the men who had been trained (in combat apparently).

They attacked and routed the four kings.

Abram recovers everything that was taken, including, most importantly, his nephew Lot.

There’s no explicit mention of the LORD here.

We don’t hear from Him or anything about Him up to this point in the chapter.

But, remember: the LORD God is always looking out for His people.

The promise the LORD made to Abram still stands.

He promised to Abram:

This, here, is part of the “whoever curses you I will curse” promise.

The forces who are against Abram and his family are no match for the LORD.

The LORD promises to bless Abram.

Implicit in the promise is provision—of land, blessing, care, food, protection.

The LORD’s promise is a guarantee; an anchor for the soul.

The LORD is looking out for His people.

This is true where Abram is concerned and where we are concerned.

The Story of God and His People is the Real Story

After the 9-king battle, the rescue of Lot by Abram, the recovery of everything Chedorlaomer & Company took, we read this:

What started out as 9-king battle is now a tale of two kings, really.

The king of Sodom comes out to meet the conquering hero Abram, but Melchizedek, the king of Salem cuts him off.

Melchizedek is mysterious—he comes from out of nowhere, we don’t have any background information on him, he shows up and then he’s gone.

He’s a mystery (I’ve spent as much time thinking about him and reading about him as I did working to pronounce the names of the kings).

Psalm 110 is a messianic psalm; that is, it finds fulfillment in Jesus, saying that Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6-7 speak of Melchizedek and Jesus together and how they are similar they are.

Hebrews says Melchizedek was someone resembling the Son of God.

Melchizedek is a type or foreshadowing of Christ; he’s comparable to the eternal high priesthood of the righteous Son of God—Jesus—who truly is the King of Righteousness and the One who brings true and lasting peace by the sacrifice of His body and blood.