Chapter 14, and it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, remember that name? We'll come back to that. Ariok, king of Elassar, Chattelomer, king of Elam, the entitled king of nations. that these made war with Bera king of Sodom and Bersha king of Gomorrah and Shinnab king of Adma and Shameber king of Zeboam and the king of Bela which is Zor which all of these were joined together and the veil of Siddam which is the salt sea. So I believe that is the southern end of the Dead Sea. is where they were at. Now I don't think it's all, it doesn't look exactly the same today as it did then, and we'll see that here in the chapters to come. Verse 4, 12 years they served Chattelormers. So that tells me that there was some wars before this, because Chattelormer had put them under submission. 12 years they served Chattelormer, and in the 13th year they rebelled. And in the 14th year, so get that, you know, 12 years, 13, and 14. So it took two years for this next thing to happen. And in the 14th year came Chattelormer and the kings that were with him, and they smote the Rephaim in Astaroth. That's a name we've talked about. Canarium and the Zuzims in Ham and the Emims in Shavah and the Cariathium. And the Horites in their Mount Seir unto Elphara, which is by the wilderness. And they returned and came to... Boy, these are some words, aren't they? In Mishpat, which is Kadish, and smote all the country of the Malachites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazorotamar. Now listen, remember the first couple of verses didn't say that those guys rebelled. It didn't even talk about them rebelling. It was talking about the five cities of Sodom and Gomorrah rebelling. there's consequences all the way around us. And it says there in verse 8, And there went out of the king of Sodom and of Gomorrah, and the king of Adam, and the king of Zoboam, and the king of Bela, the same as Zor. And they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddam, which Taloramor the king of Elam, with the title king of nations, and these other four guys, four kings with five. And the vale of Siddam was full of slime pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there. And they that remained fled to the mountain, and they took the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their victuals and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt," what does it say, near? Oh no, no, he's no longer towards Sodom, he's in Sodom. It says that his lot dwelt in Sodom. And his goods, and departed, remember? And his goods, he was a rich guy, just like Abraham, remember, that divide. Now here's a first mention. And there came one that escaped and told Abraham, The Hebrew, first time Hebrew is ever mentioned in the Bible. For he dwelt in the plain of Mamre in the Amorite, and the brother of Eschol, and the brother of Aner, and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his house, 318, and pursued them into Dan. Boy, he had a big army, didn't he? 318 guys. And he divided them. He only got 318 guys against five kingdoms, not just kings. He divided himself against them and his servants by night and smote them and pursued them unto Halba, which is on the left hand of Damascus. which is still there today, by the way, is the oldest inhabited city that we know of in history. And he, the longest continuously inhabited city is Damascus. And he brought back all the goods also and brought them again, his brother Lot and his goods and the women also and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return. How come he wasn't chasing them? His return from the slaughter of Chattelomer. Listen, it wasn't just a scuffle. The Bible says it was a slaughter. And the kings that were with him at the Valley of Sheba, which is the Kingsdale. I'm gonna stop there just for a second. So we can back up and go through some of these things. But remember, these folks had been in subjection under Chattelormer and those five kings for 12 years. And all of a sudden they decide, we're not gonna pay him anymore. Now you live clear on the other side. I mean, you don't just travel Straight across from persia into into palestine You had to go way north to haran where abram traveled and then back south because it's a great wilderness and desert in between So it's not like a small thing when we're sending tribute and you quit It takes me a while to get my armies together and then travel 600 miles to come and conquer you And come back and put you in in in uh submission but there in verse one we see remember ampharel the king of Shinar, remember the root for Shinar is Sumer which is the root for Semiramis. So we know where this guy is coming from, he's coming from the land of Nimrod and then we have this man is most people believe is the historical Hammurabi. If you've heard of the Hammurabi Code, it is a code or a law that was written on cylindrical pillars in ancient Sumer, or Semiramis, Sumerian language, and is still in existence today. And that, they have the Hammurabi Code, and they believe that that's the guy right there, Ambral. Now, he's a historical person outside the Bible, but the Bible proves history not the other way around. We gotta remember that, always, always, always. The Bible proves history, history does not prove the Bible. If history, if there's a discrepancy, guess which one's wrong? It's history. And I promise you, you can go into a lot of high school classrooms and you don't hear history anymore. They've rearranged it. social studies. I hated that. I liked it when it said American history, not social studies. I don't, I mean, as a kid, I wanted to hear history, but anyway, so we got Chattelomer. He's the king of Elam. If that is Persia or Iran, And they paid that tribute for 12 years. Now again, it took, verse four and five says, it took them two years to gather their forces. And he came with a vengeance, and he did not just conquer the five cities of the plain of Jordan, but he came and conquered everybody. I mean, north to south, east of the Jordan. And guess what else he conquered? He conquered the giants. Listen, those pictures you see, how'd you like to run into one of them guys? Jerry, I think they got him over there if they're done with him. I mean, to run into a nine foot tall army, that'd be a little bit scary. Not for Chattelomer. I mean, he heads in there. And listen, when you see M's at the end of a name in the Bible, it usually is a giant. They're called giants. Look there in verse five. It says that he smote the Rephaim. in Ashtaroth. Remember that word? Ashtaroth or Easter or Ishtar or whatever you want to call it. It's in town named after Semiramis in Palestine. So Ashtaroth, anytime you see that, that's where the word Easter comes from. Canarium and the Zuzims. I like there's some there's some pretty good names of these guys We got to lick some of them up look over in Deuteronomy chapter 2 some of the some of these are some very interesting to say the least How they got their names? I'm not sure But when you put M's in there, these guys came a conquering. And they didn't come, they didn't just come to get the five cities of the plain in order, they came to get everybody in order. They came to make an example of everybody. and they come in destroying giants. In chapter two of Deuteronomy, down there you see verse 10, it says, the Emams dwelt there in the times past, and the people great and many and tall as the Anakims. Anytime you hear Anakims, those are giants, which were accounted, how do I know that? Because the Bible says so. Which were also accounted giants as the Anakims. It's saying that the Emams were giants like the Anakims. But the Moabites called them Emams, and the Horems dwelt there. Look over in verse 20. Verse 20, it says, I could say that one. I've said it a time or two. You see in verse 21, you see the Anakims. 22, you see the Horems. 23, you see Avims. I mean, it goes on and on. And that's a whole nother story, but Sihon and Og. Listen, Og's bed was 14 feet long. That's a big guy. 14 foot long bed. And God's people, I love Caleb, give me that mountain. He says, I ain't afraid of him. I'll take his three sons on, I'll take him. These men obviously are thinking not too concerned about the giants either because they come in conquering back in Genesis 14 and they're killing the giants. Now listen folks, in our timeline, this is 400 years after the flood, after the flood. where all of this was supposed to be eliminated. But in Genesis 4, 6-4, where the Lord says he's gonna destroy them, but he says this took place, these giants, these men of renown, and he says, and also is gonna take place after that. Now that's a scary thought, and you just let that one sink in for a minute. But after the flood, they were killed at the flood, but somehow they came back in. Wicked, I'm not saying if you're tall, you're a devil, but I'm just saying there are some things in the Bible that the Lord said we need to keep track of. Now listen, wickedness brings judgment to all in the vicinity, even the righteous. That's why God calls us to separate from wickedness. I mean, I'm not calling these giants righteous men. They were obviously wicked pagans. But I mean, because of Sodom and Gomorrah, the whole east side of the Jordan River was leveled. They were killing everybody. They were making an example of them. And they were taking them for spoil, just like the devil does. Listen, we need to steer clear and keep plenty of space between us. You snuggle up next to sin for very long and it will bite you. How do I know that? It's like lightning. My barber when I was growing up, He was in the mountains and he would go on these pack trips. And one day they were coming through the mountains and I think there were seven or eight horses in the pack train and they were packing out and lightning struck and went right down that string of horses killing everybody but him, the men and the horses and he lived. Listen, he got hurt from it, but it killed everybody in there. Lightning didn't strike all of them, it struck one of them. But listen, lightning strikes, you don't wanna be too close to it, because it's just like sin. It will travel and it will affect those around them. Now, we read there that Lot moved into Sodom. Now, Lot was taken in this story, or we probably wouldn't even have this story. But there's a purpose because the story of Lot is not over with. Now here's Abraham's influence and power. He had separated himself from Lot. He had separated him and his own family because Lot and him were not getting along and their shepherds weren't getting along and they had too much. God had blessed them so much they had to separate. But that's not the only reason God had to separate him. Because Lot was just enjoying the benefits of being with a righteous, holy man, but he was limiting God's blessings. I mean, we can limit how much God can bless us by who we hang around with. I know men and women who are sold out and serving God and faithful to every service and all the way in, but they hung around with their lost friends long enough. that they ended up right back doing what they used to do. They ended up not being a testimony anymore. They didn't get away from them. Abram had, I mean, these people are not being blessed today. They're not in God's house today because they would not separate from their wicked worldly high school buddies and now their family. Little girl that got saved before her daddy left church And I heard the other day, somebody said that she was complaining about being out partying all night, and her mom and her dad and her were having a cussing fight, and she's 17. I thought, boy, if he'd have just stayed in church, he'd have just stayed away from that wicked old world, that he wouldn't have been having that discussion with his daughter and having a cussing match with his daughter, because he stayed separate, but he didn't. And you do reap what you sow. So now we have Abraham's influence. 318 armed servants. Wow. He's a great wealthy man. I think he could have raised a bigger army than that. It says he's in confederate with these other two leaders of the area. But God doesn't always need a big army to conquer, does he? I mean, God, he gave him, he's fulfilling his promise. He gave him great wealth, great power over people, just like he promised. But remember Gideon. God says, you got too many men, Gideon. You'll just take the glory for it. Let's whittle them down from whatever, 10,000 down to 300. Now, you can't take the credit for it anymore. It's got to be of God. And Gideon destroyed the army. Listen, God doesn't even need 300 men. God says, listen, I'll use one angel kill 180,000 enemy soldiers in one night. Wow, I want to be on that guy's side. God doesn't even need an angel. God turned the enemy against the enemy and had armies kill themselves as the Israelites wake up and the valley is full of blood. They didn't even raise a finger. God just turned the enemy against the enemy. So it's no big deal for Abraham to take 318 men, and he chased them clear north to Dan, or Damascus, and it's about 100 miles. So he's following him. As soon as he gets the word, this guy comes, gets him the word, and he's following him along. Then the kings, they're traveling. They gotta go all the way back up to Haran, and all the way back down the Euphrates, and they're not in a hurry. They got a massive army, they got all this booty behind them, all these slaves, all this gold, all this silver, and who's gonna mess with us? And lo and behold, here comes Abraham. Now he does this military maneuver. That's a great military maneuver. Divide your forces. Even if you've got 318 people, divide your forces. And General Lee did it all the time. General Lee never had the superior firepower, never had the superior manpower, but he would divide his forces and he would freak out the Union forces and they would run. and be defeated. One battle, Lee had 60,000 men, the Union Army had 115,000 men, and they run as fast as they could back to Washington. Why? Because Lee split his forces. Now listen, I'm telling you, if you're fighting this way and you get something shooting you in the back, you start to panic. Wait a minute, oh wait a minute, now I got these guys, I got these guys, the panic sets, it's just the military maneuver. Abraham did it. There's nothing new. Lee didn't invent it. He probably read the Bible. He said, divide your forces. He did it. And I mean, the thought of being surrounded has always caused panic. And that's what happened here, I believe. create panic, and when unorganized retreat turns into a rout, and what do you do? When you become panicked, you just drop everything, everybody, and you run for home, run for cover. And so everything that they had taken in the South, they left, they went off and left. And Abraham comes right back in there in verse 21 through 24, it says he brought all back, none were lost. Notice that, that's important, you know, because I think in Genesis we learn everything we learn in the New Testament except for the local church. Here it says that none were lost. Does that sound familiar? What Jesus said? When Jesus said, all my father had given me, have I lost not one? So your assurance of your salvation, if you are in Christ, Jesus will never lose you. He will never fall out of your pocket. You are saved to the uttermost. You're sealed into the day of redemption. I can go on and on and on. Here's a picture of that. Abram lost not one person that was taken out of the valley. But then let's go on. I'm gonna get to this and I don't know that I got time. In verse, 17 and the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chattelomer and the kings that were with them at the valley of Shabbat which is the king's dale and Melchizedek This important guy, this is interesting stuff. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the word Salem means peace, so he's the king of peace. It's where Jerusalem is at. He's king of Jerusalem, or Salem at the time. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God, not a pagan. He had the same God Abraham had. And it says, and he blessed him, Abraham, and said, blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And he blessed the most, blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. Abraham, giving tithes to Melchizedek. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyselves. He said, keep all the gold and silver, just give me my people back. Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I'll lift up my hand unto the Lord and the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatch. I won't even take a shoestring from you. and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shall 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, and Eshgal, and Mamre, those guys he was in confederate with, he said, let them take their portion. But he says, I won't take nothing from you, King of Sodom. Nothing do you have that could improve on my life. And you know what's interesting? Because Abraham believed God. You know why? Because Abraham's looking out at the plain of Sodom and the plain of Jordan, and God's already promised it all to him. What are you going to give me, king of Sodom? God's already given it to me. What you got's already mine. Your land's already mine. Everything I see is mine. Isn't that interesting? Man, we got to remember God's promises and not let the world tell us we need something from them. So Abraham refuses. He's not gonna have a testimony that's tarnished with wicked men's money. He's a God-made man. Isn't that the way to be? A God-made man, not a money or a king-made man. And he knew he didn't need these riches, he knew it was all his. So God provided all that he could ever need. Proverbs 15, eight says, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. I mean, listen, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Don't bring your ill-gotten gain and put it in an offering plate. God doesn't need that. God does not need that. Preacher's telling me not put money in the plate. God's word says it makes him sick to his stomach. Ill-gotten gain. Can you imagine a drug dealer coming in here tithing on his drug? God doesn't need that. You own a liquor store? Don't bring your tithing here. God doesn't want that. God wants your heart. God's got your heart. He's got everything. God needs our heart or wants our heart. Ecclesiastes says, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give sacrifice to fools, for they consider not that they do evil. In other words, there are people who come to God's house thinking they're doing right and they're doing evil. Listen, God says, I want your heart right first, then everything else will take care of itself. God doesn't need wicked men's ill-gotten means. Now, I wanna get to Melchizedek, because I don't know, we're not gonna have time. Melchizedek is mentioned four times in the Bible, three different books. His name is Malak. If you break down the name, Melech means king, and Tezet, Tezet, the other part, means righteousness. So he's the king of righteousness. We've already seen he's called the king of Salem or the king of peace. And the question is, who is Melchizedek? Because Melchizedek has a lot of different descriptions that people go over and over about who is this guy? He's the priest of the most high God, same God that Abraham's worshiping. Now, Jewish rabbis have always taught and believed that Melchizedek was Shem. And you know, they got some valid points there. The Bible says that he was without father or mother. Okay, this 500 years after the flood. He's 600 years old when he dies. He's the oldest man alive on the planet when he dies. Nobody's known his father and nobody's known as his mother and nobody even knows where he was born at. So I see where the rabbis get their description of no beginning and no ending. Hebrews 7. Let's look over there real quick. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Hebrews 7. And again, I don't want to be dogmatic about Melchizedek because the Bible does give us some words that we can use to figure some of this stuff out. In chapter seven, verse one says, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who Abraham met returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a 10th part of all, first being by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. So how did he make that up, see? without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. I mean, this guy is never gonna die. He's 600 years old. That's what they're thinking. This guy, he's gonna live forever. But made like, now listen, every word in the King James Bible's important. But made like, in comparison, a parallel, under the Son of God, abideth the priest continually. And now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. He's a Gentile king, worshiping the Most High God, and even Abraham says, listen, this guy's important. And verily they that had... Let me see where I'm at. Look at verse six, but he also, descent is not counted from them receiving tithes of Abraham and blessed him that he has without promise. Anyway, it goes on and says that he's not of the lineage of Aaron or Levi, but he's a priest of the most high God. So you mean there were people who actually worshiped the one true God before there was a temple? Of course there was. Here's Abraham. Abraham living in the time of Shem. Shem knew about it. Isaac knew about it. Look at that, I mean the comparison. Job lived in here sometime. Job worshiped the one true God. Job was a Gentile. Melchizedek is king of Salem and he's not a descendant of Abraham. He's a descendant of Noah. So no beginning, no end. Their argument could be that it's a pre-flood origin, but no man knows. So again, they have a good argument that Melchizedek could have been Shem. We know that he probably did not stay in the land of Nimrod where all the paganism was going on. If history's true and he killed Nimrod, he probably left that area and went where God sent him. We know that he's a Gentile king and he has knowledge of Jehovah, being the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. He understood who he was. He understood the power of God. When Job talks about it, he knew Jehovah. It wasn't just Abraham, but there were others like Abraham, like Shem, who knew the one true God. He's a Gentile priest of the Most High God. The Bible says King of Peace and King of Righteousness. He is, at minimum, a type of Christ. When I say a type of Christ, not meaning that he is a Christ, but it means a picture of Christ. Many of the things that he is described in Melchizedek are also a description of Christ. But remember that word like. It does not say he was. And when it says that Christ is after the order of Melchizedek, it doesn't say he was Melchizedek. So we have to use some of the words in the Bible to explain the Bible. We don't need necessarily men. We'll let the Bible explain itself. Jesus is said to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And the Melchizedek priesthood predates the Aaronic priesthood, Mosaic Covenant, the Levitical Covenant, this predates that. The Bible says he was a priest, continue on because I want to show you something else. Like Jesus, it says he had no beginning and end. And that he also holds some offices that Jesus will hold. Jesus will be the king, the prophet, and the priest. This man was the king and the priest. Does not say he was a prophet. Now here's the other possibility that some have said through time, again, I'm not being dogmatic about it, but some believe that it was Christ himself in the flesh. I do believe that Jesus Christ walked on the earth and dealt with men as he did, I believe, he did with Abraham. When the angels were on their way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe that was Jesus Christ, because He worshipped Him. You don't worship an angel, and you don't worship a man. And if you worship the one true God, you know that. So I do believe that Jesus did walk the earth and did talk with men like Abraham. Many of the early church fathers believe that it's called a Christophany, or an appearance of Christ prior to his birth, or a Theophany, which is just an appearance of God, Christ himself in the form. And literally, though, this man was the king of Salem. Again, like I said, Hebrews uses the words after the similitude of and like. So those two phrases are kind of against the teaching that this was actually Christ. Melchizedek was actually Christ. Because it says like and the similitude of. Now here's the other argument against Melchizedek being Jesus. And that is that Abraham, when he went into the land of Palestine, what did he do? Now listen, he knew who Melchizedek was. He knew who he was, because when he came back from the slaughter, he went straight to Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, and paid tithes to him. By the way, that was 500 years before the law, so don't tell me tithing is a law thing. 500 years before the law. It's not Old Testament, it's Bible. Anyway, so he knew where Melchizedek was, he knew where Melchizedek, now he's a priest, he obviously knows Melchizedek has altars to the most high God. But what does Abraham do when he goes down into the land, the promised land? When he goes into Canaan, he builds his own altars, doesn't he? He builds his own places of worship. Now if this was Christ, why would he build his own? In other words, listen, I'm in my town, I have a church in my town, there's a town over there, they got a church, that town has a church, different places of worship. Listen, if Jesus himself was here, guess what? You'd drive however far it was to get to the right church to see Jesus himself. So I believe that Abraham, the proof against this being Christ, if this was Christ, that Abraham would not have built an altar in Mamre or in Bethel, he would have went right to Salem, Jerusalem, and he would have worshiped with Melchizedek. But when Abraham traveled, he built altars to worship Jehovah. So we'd see that Hebrews parallels Christ and him, but it does make distinguishing things separating them. So what was he? What was Melchizedek? We know he was a Gentile priest before there was such a thing as a Jew. There is no Jew, there is no Israel. I mean, Israel doesn't come along until Jacob's day. So we have a priest, a Gentile priest, and I like where the Bible says that he was a man who was the friend of God. He honored and he respected and he learned, and like Abraham paid tithes to this man. He must have been a righteous man. I mean, he must have been a godly man. that Abraham would come and pay tithes to him. That says something about the man himself, that he paid tithes. Again, folks, tithing is not Old Testament. Abel paid tithes. He didn't only pay tithes, but Abel paid tithes and offerings. It says he gave of his firstfruits and the fat thereof. In other words, the good stuff also. He gave what was necessary and above and beyond. When we give to faith promised missions, that's exactly what we're doing. We're tithing, there's no way around that. That's just obedience. That just shows we can obey God. But when we give an offering, that shows that we love God. Offerings show love. Tithe doesn't. Tithe just says you're obedient. Offerings show you love. Abel says, I love you, God. I realize everything comes from above. I'm gonna give you my first and the fullest and the fat thereof. I'm gonna give you way above what I have to give you because I know where everything comes from. Abraham did the same thing. He says, listen, I'm gonna come through here. I'm paying tithes. And then I'll receive nothing from the devil. I'll receive nothing from the wicked. And I'm going to, why? Because I trust God. You know, whoever you think Melchizedek is, that's okay. I'm not gonna argue one way or the other because there's so many different things that we don't know about. God will tell us one of these days, I just know that Melchizedek was a righteous, holy man who worshiped the one true God and Abraham the patriarch in Hebrew says that Abraham respected him. If Abraham had that much respect for the man, he was an incredible man and a friend of God. We're gonna stop there, I think, tonight, or this morning, before we get into chapter 15, because there's a lot of different things coming up in the next few chapters that probably won't get done. You mark it down. We got one whole chapter done in one Sunday. Only took one Sunday to do a chapter. Now if we did that, we'll be done in a year and a half. We'll be done with Genesis. Anyway, let's stop there and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the many blessings you've given us. Lord, the Bible is so interesting, so exciting, so many things we can see in there. And Lord, if we just take it word by word, it interprets itself. Help us to trust the Bible that way, Lord, and love it so much that we don't question it, and we don't let men opinionate it, but we let the Bible describe and interpret itself. Thank you for that, Lord. I thank you for giving us a place to worship, and everyone that's out today, I pray you bless them for coming out. I pray you be with our pastors as he brings the message this morning. In Christ's name I pray, Lord, amen.