SueAnn Porter

It’s January, and that means beginning “Reading through the Bible in a Year.” I recently joined a group who started in Job, instead of Genesis, because that’s okay, I’ve read Genesis 30 times. Or have I?

Did you ever have one of those moments while reading the Bible when a scripture seems to jump off the page at you, and you think, “I never noticed that before. How did that get in there?!” Well, that happened to me the other day while reading Genesis 14. (I’m not complaining, I love when that happens!)

So in Genesis 14, we start out with a war. I can’t pronounce most of these names but here we go:

King of Shinar, king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer, the King of Elam and Tidal, King of Goiim  (Let’s call them Team 1)

vs.

King of Sodom, king of Gomorrah, king of Admah, king of Zeboiim, king of Bela (aka Zoar). (Let’s call them Team 2)

Team 1 conquers a bunch of territories. Then in verse 8, Team 2 goes up against Team 1 in the valley of Siddim, which was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into the tar pits, and the rest fled to the hills. The four kings (Team 1) seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food. Verse 12: They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

{A little backup here. Genesis 13:12-12 says: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain, and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

So it seems Lot liked living on the ‘borderline.’}

So Lot was taken away, and one who had escaped came and reported this to Abram. So Abram called out the 318 men who were trained and went out to get Lot back. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, and the men and women that were with him.

THEN– Abram meets up with Melchizedek, where the first recorded tithe is offered. But I never noticed that the King of Sodom was also there and watched the transaction.

Verse 17: After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaeveh. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram saying,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.”

Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”

Abram responds that he will accept nothing belonging to the king of Sodom, lest he would be able to say “I made Abram rich.”

—

Preachers like to pull out Genesis 14:18-20 when teaching the tithe, but to get a better picture, we need to include v 17 – 24.

Abram gave his tithe. This means he is trusting God to provide for him. Immediately, the king of Sodom tries to tempt him with goodies NOW. Hmm. Anyone ever have that happen? You’re waiting for an answer from God, but something else comes first, and you’re tempted to take it, because you don’t want to wait?  <raises hand.> Me. I’ve done it.

So back to Lot. Here he was living on the edge of the town of Sodom, and got mixed up in a war, and carried off as a prisoner of war. Uncle Abram had to go rescue him.  [Chapter 19 is the more famous story of Lot being saved from Sodom by angels.]

I wonder why Lot liked living in Sodom so much?