Genesis 14:17-24 | Encountering God's Blessing Through the Priest-King

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at Newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Our first scripture reading this morning is taken from Genesis chapter 14, starting at verse 17 to 24.

Genesis 14 · chapter mention

After his return from the defeat of Kdorleomer, the kings who were with him and the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shave, that is the King's Valley.

And Melchizedek, King of Salem, wrote about bread and wine.

He was the priest of Most High God.

And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

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 Amer, Eshkal, and Mamre take their share.

This is the word of the Lord.

Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

Let's pray.

That we would receive Christ and delight in Him.

It's in His name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So from time to time I fantasize about preaching a sermon series on things that sound like they come from the Bible but don't.

We've probably heard one or two of these expressions.

Here's one of my favorites: God helps those who help themselves.

That gets quoted so frequently we would almost believe it comes from the book of Proverbs.

But as we encounter this God, which by the way is our purpose in the sermon series, right?

We're calling this sermon series encountering God Abram and the life of faith.

We want to encounter this God, this true and living God, as Abram encountered him.

Looking at him through the eyes of faith and receiving from him what he has to say to us.

And I think if we look at the life of Abraham, in fact, if we look at the whole trajectory of Scripture, we start to see that it's this God's character less to help those who help themselves.

Rather, maybe we could put it this way: God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

I wonder if that is a more biblical statement.

This is what we're going to see in Abraham, at least, or at least it's what we see in Abram.

When we left Abram last Sunday, he was journeying on, having received God's blessing.

He and his wife Sarai go to sojourn in Egypt.

And even though I don't have time to go into detail in this strange passage, it's very clear that he is doing what he can to help himself.

And God has a lesson for him.

He will do for Abraham and for Sarai both what they cannot do for themselves.

They have only to trust in him.

So Abraham is in this process.

Abraham or Abram, by the way, I'm going to confuse the two.

He will get renamed Abraham, and we will get to that.

Abraham is learning that the God of grace doesn't operate on the basis of helping yourself.

Instead, he does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and he does so through his appointed means.

And this brings us to a very mysterious character that we meet today named Melchizedek, the priest king.

Here's what this text in Genesis is telling us.

Here's what this episode in Abram's life tells us, suggests to us.

The life of faith means encountering God's grace through his appointed means.

Supremely his appointed priest-king.

In light of this encounter, the encounter with God's blessing, the encounter with the priest-king, the believer's faith, like Abram's, is expressed in at least three ways.

Number one, in receiving the blessing of the priest-king.

Number two, in responding generously to the priest-king.

And three, in refusing any rivals to the priest-king.

So the believer's faith, like Abram, is expressed in these three ways: receiving the blessing, responding generously, and refusing any rivals.

So for a character who only appears in five verses in Genesis 14, Melchizedek looms large over Scripture.

And I hope we'll see why.

Through Melchizedek, we can see how abundantly God blesses his people, and we see what we ought to do in response.

We'll see the good news put on display.

So open up the scriptures, if you will, to Genesis 14, 17.

You can open up your order of service, or you can turn to page 10 in one of the Bibles and the tr uh pews or the seats in front of you.

I always want to say pews.

You know what I mean.

Turn to page 10 and we will look at Genesis 14 together.

How do we see the life of faith expressed?

First, we see it in receiving the blessing of the priest king.

Verse 17.

After Abram's return from the defeat of Shedeliamer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him, meet Abram in the valley of Shiva, that is the king's valley.

And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

He was a priest of God most high.

Okay, so since their sojourn in Egypt, Abram has mounted a successful rescue of his nephew Lot, and it accomplished a great victory against a coalition of kings, including the king of Sodom.

And so we meet this very mysterious king, Melchizedek, along the way.

Who is this guy?

Melchizedek seems to come out of nowhere, and he disappears just as quickly.

His name means king of righteousness.

And he's introduced as king of Salem, a name connected to Shalom, meaning peace.

And it's a city which will later be known as Jerusalem, the city of peace.

All this is very interesting, isn't it?

Here we have the king of righteousness and the king of peace and the king of Jerusalem.

But verse 18 tells us something even more remarkable about this king.

He was priest of God most high.

Now it's hard to overstate how surprising this statement would have been to its first readers.

Priests are intermediaries between God and humanity.

And even though the surrounding nations all have their own priesthoods dedicated to their own various idols, the scriptures give very clear instructions about the strictly hereditary priesthood of the Old Testament that God has in mind for his people Israel, which is established through Aaron and all of his descendants strictly in the tribe of Levi.

And all of these Old Testament instructions make clear no Levitical priest was also to serve as king.

Puzzling, isn't it?

Yet Melchizedek is both priest and king of God Most High, the one true living God whom Abraham has encountered in chapter twelve.

There is some sort of higher order of priesthood, not simply a priesthood by hereditary right, but a priesthood of divine appointment.

And what does this priest king do for Abram?

He blesses them.

Verse 19.

And he blessed Abram and said, Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

We said last Sunday that blessing is connected with life, just as cursing is connected with death.

It also connotes redemption, a relationship with God that transforms the beneficiary and provides security.

This is the definition provided to us by Peter Gentry and Stephen Willem in their book, Kingdom Through Covenant.

In other words, blessing is the communication of God's favor, his life, his power that enables a person or a creature to flourish in accordance with God's design.

Notice where Melchizedek directs Abram's attention.

He directs it to God Most High, El Elyon, possessor of heaven and earth, and the true source of all blessing, including Abram's blessing.

Not only that, while Abram's just led a successful military victory and he's successfully rescued his nephew, Melchizedek reminds him that ultimate deliverance, ultimate victory, belongs to this God.

Friends, this is nothing short of a gospel announcement, isn't it?

Abram demonstrates to the believer, in this moment, faith, the life of faith, receives the blessing of God in his appointed way through his priest king.

Blessing's been central to Abram's story from chapter 12.

He's promised Abraham that he'll bless him.

Now through this priest-king, God ministers that blessing once again to Abram, which Abram receives by trusting the God who appointed this priest king.

But Melchizedek's significance doesn't end here.

The rest of Scripture looks back to Melchizedek like a pattern or like a like a type pointing forward to something greater to come.

You've probably heard of the literary device or gimmick or whatever you call it called Chekhov's gun.

You've heard of that, right?

The idea is this this is a letter he wrote in 1889.

Uh this author writes that one must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off, right?

Don't include unnecessary details, right?

When you notice a detail of importance, focus on that.

Right?

Don't a bad writer includes irrelevant detail, and we need to acknowledge God is a master storyteller.

He doesn't include unnecessary detail, just little frivolous whatevers.

The details he's included in his word, in his scriptures, are key, crucial, and important.

We should take note of them.

Because God will take those details and he will amplify them.

He will show us the significance of them as he unravels, or I should say, unveils his revelation over time.

Even here, Melchizedek points to something greater than himself.

In Psalm 110, our Psalm this morning, uh, it anticipates God's appointed Messiah and it makes a remarkable claim about him.

The Messiah is going to be a priest and a king, just like Melchizedek.

But his priesthood is not going to be a hereditary priesthood like the Levitical priesthood.

God says, you are a priest forever.

After what order?

After the order of Melchizedek.

And the author of Hebrews develops this connection even further in chapters 5 to 7 of the book of Hebrews.

And I've included just some of those verses in your bulletin today because I thought they were so crucial for understanding the significance of what's happening here.

Hebrews makes clear, Melchizedek points forward to the ultimate priest king whose name is Jesus Christ, our King of righteousness, our King of peace, whose eternal priesthood and sacrifice is sufficient once for all.

Hebrews 7.25, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.

That's a statement about priesthood.

This is where this strange encounter takes on real significance, doesn't it?

It takes on significance for our life of faith.

Because just like Abraham, if we are going to know who this God is, if we are going to be recipients of his blessing, we need to go to where God has willed, has appointed to minister that blessing to us through the priest king.

But Melchizedek is only a type.

He's in anticipation of what's to come.

He's the gun introduced in scene one that'll later go off.

I don't know.

Anyway, don't think about that too hard.

The point is this the great priest king has come to us, and his name is Jesus.

So like Abraham, we come to know God's blessing, not because we've earned it, because of our great victories, because of our impressive CV.

Just like Abraham, if we're going to know God's blessing, we need to go, pardon me, just like Abraham, nope.

We need to receive it as a gift freely offered to us and received by faith.

And just as Melchizedek brought Abram bread and wine and blessed him following his victory, so our great priest king gives us a victory feast of bread and wine.

Only the victory we celebrate is not our victory, it's his.

And he shares the benefits of his victory with us.

Our deliverance, our salvation is God's greatest generosity to us.

It is his supreme blessing ministered to us through the great priest king.

We need only receive it by trusting the God who so freely and generously offers it to us.

And then having received God's generosity, we respond accordingly.

That's how the life of faith first expresses itself in receiving the blessing of the great priest-king.

Let's see the second way it expresses itself.

It responds generously to the priest-king.

Verse 20 continues.

And Abram gave him, that is Melchizedek, a tenth of everything.

So literally, Abram tithed to Melchizedek, since a tithe means a gift of 10%.

Notice that Abram doesn't simply give him 10% of whatever particular particular loot he's won in that battle.

He gives a tenth of everything he has.

Why?

Because Abram has received God's generosity and blessing.

He acknowledges the significance of God's promise that he's provided to him, and he is so moved to respond that he responds in generosity of his own.

Abram's gift acknowledges that God has the right to possess all of his creation, including Abram's own wealth.

Abram understands what David will later articulate, and it's what we say every Sunday together: all things come from you, O Lord, and of your own have we given you.

Abram's gift also acknowledges that the victory he's just experienced has ultimately come from God.

His life, his possessions, his circumstances all rest in God's sovereign hands.

And notice something important.

Or because he is obligated.

So all that says this.

So all this raises an important for us as question, important question for us, I should say, as Christians.

How should we respond to the generosity that God has shown us through Jesus, our great priest-king?

As a pastor, I'm sometimes asked, How much do I have to give?

And that is a fair and very courageous question.

And it's an important question in the life of a disciple and in the life of faith.

But I wonder if Genesis 14 can help us refine this question.

Instead of how much do I have to give, maybe we can ask this on the basis of Genesis 14.

What makes for a fitting gift in response to God's generosity?

See, under the Old Covenant, God gave his people specific requirements about tithing.

Some biblical scholars even estimate it went beyond 10% at the end of the day.

It might have gone as high as 25% plus.

But I'm hesitant to appeal to these Old Testament laws as absolute, since the Old Covenant is superseded by the new covenant.

But I want you to notice this.

We need to notice this.

Abram's tithe comes more than 400 years before the inauguration of the Old Testament laws that govern tithes.

His giving is not simply an act of legal compliance or obligation.

Instead, it is a fitting response to the blessing that he has received from God.

And if that's the case before the inauguration of the Old Testament law, why wouldn't it be the case for us new covenant believers as well?

If this amount doesn't make a fitting response to God's generosity, then what does?

See, I think Abram gives us an important biblical precedent to consider.

For Christians, I believe 10% provides a biblically grounded norm and standard for giving, not out of obligation, not as a way of earning God's favor, but as a committed, generous, and faithful way of responding to God's provision and generosity to us.

Now, if I were sitting where you're sitting, I'd probably be thinking this.

There's your angle, Pastor.

I want to be clear.

Giving to the Lord does not necessarily mean giving to Newsong.

If Nusong is your home church, I hope you'll consider contributing regularly and committedly to its ministry as your means enable you to.

Money is an important muscle in the church, in any church.

And with it, we can glorify God and we can do a lot of good together.

But if you're a member of another church, give there.

If you support gospel ministries or missionaries, give there as well.

Discern where God is asking you to distribute the means that He has provided and do it.

And if 10% is too much of a stretch, don't be unwise.

Don't ruin yourself financially.

Some of us struggle to give what we can, others are in a position to give well beyond 10%.

But begin somewhere.

If you're not tithing, consider making a commitment to give 2% of your income this year to the ministry of God.

Then perhaps consider increasing it to 3% or 4% in the year that follows.

And year for year prayerfully consider increasing your giving to aim at this biblical norm.

See, Abram tithed not because he expected anything in return, but simply because it was a fitting responsibility.

Response to the generosity and grace that he had already received.

In doing so, he's putting himself in a position where he must rely on God to do for him what he cannot do for himself.

And that is the great benefit of tithing.

Early in our marriage, Rachel and I made the commitment to give at least 10% of our income to the life and ministry of the church.

And I won't lie, it has never not been a challenge for us.

It has meant living with a little less, it's meant taking one less vacation every year, and it's meant probably retiring five to ten years later than we otherwise would.

But through our commitment to tithing, we discovered something quite beautiful, something that even surprised us.

God actually provides what we need and beyond.

It has increased our faith in Him.

And over time, tithing has also become a sort of spiritual inoculation against the false idea that money is the most important thing in our life.

What started for us as how much do we have to give has increasingly, if imperfectly, become how much do we get to give?

And that's the point.

Christian generosity isn't about paying God back, it is about responding to what God has already given to us in Christ, our great priest king.

So I want you to hear me clearly.

Christian generosity begins not with our generosity to God, but with God's generosity to us in Christ.

If you have not yet experienced God's generosity to you in Christ through the gospel, if you've yet to put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then don't give him your money.

Hear the good news of your salvation.

Consider the word, consider his great love for you, and then begin by giving him your heart.

Know his salvation first, his generosity towards you, and then see what follows.

But it's by saying yes to the generosity of this great priest king, responding with generosity of our own, that also means saying no to the things that might entice us the most.

This is the third way that faith expresses itself in refusing any rivals to the priest-king.

Let's look at verse 21.

Abram has given generously to Melchizedek, but now the king of Sodom makes Abram a very enticing offer.

Verse 21, the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.

Now the contrast between these two kings is really hard to overstate.

Melchizedek, the king of righteousness and peace, blesses Abram, points him towards God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

But the king of Sodom represents a kingdom characterized by depravity and violence, and he offers Abram not God's word, but his wealth.

Taking the king of Sodom's wealth means allying himself with everything that the king of Sodom represents, and treasuring the very thing that this greedy king treasures most himself.

Abram could easily have thought this.

I even defeated the king of Sodom.

This tribute is what I'm owed.

Besides, God's made a bless a promise to bless me.

Perhaps this is how God's going to fulfill his promise, make my name great.

Maybe God helps those who help themselves.

But what does Abraham do?

Verse 22.

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've made Abraham rich.

I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who are with me, let Anar, Eshkal, and Mamre take their share.

So what is why does Abram refuse the King of Sodom's offer?

It's because Abram has already decided who is most worthy of his trust and his devotion.

He will not allow the king of Sodom to become the source of his wealth and lord it over Abram.

Abram trusts the Lord.

And notice Abram is not merely trusting the Lord or God's plan.

He's trusting God's way of accomplishing his plan.

God has promised to make Abram great, but Abram refuses to grasp that promise through whatever means happen to be available to him at the time.

He will wait for God to fulfill his promises in his way.

That matters.

That matters to me, honestly, because truthfully, I'm inclined to think if God wants a good thing for me, and if it's right there, then I might as well reach out and snatch it, right?

But Abram knows that God's blessing is not something we secure for ourselves.

If God has promised it, then God is capable of providing it.

Abram would rather go without Sodom's wealth than receive wealth in a way that compromises his character, his integrity, and his devotion to the Lord.

Let's not overlook the reason he gives for refusing this offer, lest you, you, the king of Sodom, should say, I've made Abram rich.

Abram wants his life to testify to one thing.

God alone has enriched me.

God has blessed me, and I trust God alone to provide for me.

So important is this for Abram that he would rather give 10% of his wealth as an offering to God and a tribute to the priest king, than receive, presumably much more than that from the king of Sodom.

There's ultimately only one object of Abram's trust, and that is the true God, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, who has blessed him through the priest king.

Here Abram demonstrates to the believer faith is expressed in one's refusal of any rival to the God of grace who makes himself known in the priest king.

And this is where the gospel, I think, offers a Christian tremendous freedom.

Tremendous freedom because Christ is our only true King.

And if that's the case, then earthly wealth cannot be our ultimate treasure.

I'm thinking about that movie Wall Street.

You've seen Wall Street?

The great line from Wall Street is what?

Greed is good.

No one's seen Wall Street?

Come on, y'all.

Wall Street is all about the enormous greed of this guy, Gordon Gecko, who's a Wall Street magnet.

And his big line is greed is good.

It's fueling innovation and industry.

It's driving everything that he's about.

But the whole parable of this film demonstrates exactly the opposite.

Greed leads to the corruption of our character, the distortion of what's most meaningful in life, and it ultimately leads us to our downfall.

Jesus says no one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

It frees us from the corruption of greed to discover the good of generosity.

But it only frees us insofar as we are devoted to the one good master.

Now, some of you have heard there's a wedding taking place today.

Yeah?

And when a bride and groom make their vows, they promise to love each other, hold each other, cherish each other, in sickness and in health, etc.

But not just that, doing so forsaking all others.

Right?

It's not simply enough to promise to share what's ours with the other person, but reserving the right to share what's ours with as many others as we like indiscriminately.

No, exclusive, exclusivity, I should say, is an inherent part of this covenant relationship.

Saying yes to the one we love means saying no, pardon me, saying yes to the one we love means saying no to all others who would compete.

And so it is with our relationship with God.

We don't simply add Jesus to our lives as one more source of blessing, along with money, along with success, along with security, along with identity or reputation or whatever else we might trust to make life meaningful.

It doesn't mean that we don't trust God to provide through ordinary means.

Christians should cash their paychecks and give thanks to God for them.

But in all this, we don't compromise our devotion to God in order to secure what we think we need or what we think we're owed.

I love the missionary Hussen Taylor's great word of assurance.

God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.

I think Abram would agree.

When we trust God's way, when we refuse all contrary or competing or rival ways, we discover something.

We discover that we do not grasp after God's promises as though everything depends upon us.

We discover that we don't need to compromise our integrity to get what we need to get ahead in life.

In fact, we discover that we've already been blessed by everything we need and more through the great priest King.

Christ has given himself for us.

And our salvation is secure in him.

The life of faith means trusting God above all else, and being willing to refuse every other way of securing what only God can provide.

But friends, what good news is it to know how generously God supplies in Christ.

So I hope you see the difference.

I hope you see the difference between a God helps those who help themselves, theology, and a God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, theology.

It is the difference between encountering a false God and the true and living God in Christ.

And it's the life of faith that encounters this God of grace through his appointed means by drawing near to the great priest king, receiving his blessing, responding generously, refusing any rivals, that we discover the freedom that the gospel has to offer.

Blessed be Abram, by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

Salvation in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.