Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to read the first three verses in Genesis 14:1-3:

And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

In our last study, we saw that the four kings identified with Babylon and, therefore, with the kingdom of Satan and they came against five kings. Regarding the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, we can show very clearly in the Bible that these four cities relate to the corporate church. As was mentioned in our last study, there is also an element of the final judgment that could be in view and the context determines if it is a picture of the judgment upon the corporate church or a picture of the final judgment of all unsaved people of the world.

Here, it appears to be pointing to the judgment upon the churches by the forces from the north or from Satan’s kingdom. The kings from Shinar and Elam identify with the kingdom of Babylon and the name “Arioch” identifies with the captain of the guard of the Babylonians. We saw that “Tidal king of nations” was a picture of Satan winning by right of conquest the rule over all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. The four kings identify with four beasts. The “beast” is the name God assigned to Satan that especially identifies with Satan’s short period of rule during the 23-year Great Tribulation. It was at that time Satan was loosed and came against the camp of the saints, which Judah and Israel normally typify. In Revelation, chapter 11 the Lord relates the fall of the “two witnesses” when they were killed and lying in the streets of “Sodom.” So, here, the four kings coming against five identifies with the spiritual battle that took place during the Great Tribulation period.

There has always been something odd about that battle because we know that at the beginning of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 1988 God’s Spirit departed out of the midst of the churches. That was when God loosed Satan and delivered the church in to his hands. The Lord officially gave the devil rule over the churches and congregations of the world as an instrument of punishment against them for their unfaithfulness and rebellion against God. So, when we read of a battle that identifies with the Great Tribulation, we wonder how there could be two sides because the forces of Gog and Magog that gathered the nations to battle to come against the camp of the saints were led by Satan. The assaulting army was ruled over by Satan, but so, too, was the corporate church because God had turned it over to Satan’s hand. That did not take any length of time. It was done in an instant, as the Holy Spirit removed Himself from the entire corporate church; every church and congregation in all the world lacked the Holy Spirit the moment He came out of the midst and, in that same instant Satan took his seat in the temple as the man of sin, showing himself that he was God, in the entire church body. We can go to Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 where the Lord pictures the forces of Gog and Magog or we could go to the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations or to passages in Ezekiel and we could see the parable of King Nebuchadnezzar (Satan) and Babylon (the forces of Satan) coming against Judah and Jerusalem (the churches and congregations of the world). Historically, God gave up His people of Judah and Jerusalem and turned them over to the hands of the enemy; God was not fighting with them against the Babylonians. So, we see this works out where the Bible is showing us that Satan came against the corporate church and Satan was also the leader of the churches at that time. The churches had been delivered over to him for destruction. They were under his power and authority which was officially given to him by God.

By the way, when we look at these nations or city states, we do not know how many people lived in these places like Sodom, Gomorrah, Shinar or Ellasar. As far as we know, Abram entered Canaan when he was 75 years old, so that would have been in the year 2092BC and we also know that Abram was 86 when Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, gave birth to Ishmael, so Abram may have been somewhere in the range of 77 to 82 years old, so it would have been about 2090BC, or so, and it was thousands of years before our present time. It would be more than two thousand years to the birth of Christ, so this would have been ancient history. And, yet, with the four kings, none of them identified with the kingdom of God or with righteousness or goodness. We would say they were evil kings, based on the information we know about the places they ruled over. They were coming against Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim and it was in the year 2068BC when Abraham was 99 that God would destroy these cities for their wickedness. Already in the previous chapter we saw that the men of Sodom were wicked: “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before JEHOVAH exceedingly. They were already wicked sinners and we can expect that Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim were following their lead, just like today where we have wicked cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York. These major cities can lead others in their messaging and their lifestyles, especially in our day when evil can be photographed or videoed and broadcast to all the world. So, yes, wicked cities can lead other places in to evil and Sodom led the cities of the plain.

In Genesis 14 we have a battle that is about to unfold in which there are no “good guys.” There are no righteous nations in view, until we look at Zoar, the “little city.” It was just a remnant of the population of the cities of the plain. It was a “little city,” hardly worth mentioning. They just included Zoar because it was in the general area, but they did not count on them for much in a battle like this and, yet, Zoar is a representative of God’s elect that were within the churches and congregations that had been doing wickedly; they had been disobeying God’s commandments and altering God’s commandments. Well, we know the sins of the corporate church that they were actively involved with for centuries and many false doctrines were “cemented” into their confessions and creeds as high places. They usurped the authority of the Word of God, the Bible, and they made their high places their authority.

We know full well that the churches were full of tares and they were like Sodom and their neighboring cities of the plain; they were doing wickedness exceedingly over the centuries of the church age. But for the entire church age of 1,955 years God’s elect were there. They were the remnant or the “little city” and they were scattered here and there within the congregations of the world. There was wheat along with the tares and because the Lord cares for the wheat (His elect), He would not permit judgment upon the tares until the wheat was ready and then He separated the wheat from the tares. We understand from the Bible that this was a process the Lord put in to effect during the Great Tribulation, especially during the second part of the Great Tribulation when He commanded His people to come out of the congregations and flee to the mountains. Of course, not everyone that came out were truly “wheat” or saved, but everyone that were truly saved would come out. Some unsaved individuals also came out of the churches, but it was effective in making sure all the true elect people did leave the churches before May 21, 2011 when Judgment Day came.

Then the fate of everyone left in the churches was sealed; they were bundled as tares for the fire. It was necessary, therefore, for all the elect to come out and all the elect did come out and the separating process was completed by May 21, 2011. But up until that point, it was like “Zoar.” There would be the true elect that were saved primarily through the witness of the churches and congregations. They are likened to “144,000” in Revelation, chapter 14 and they were the firstfruits unto God. They were just a small percentage, a little number of the total of those in the congregations. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Zoar is the only good “actor” in this battle and, yet, it is identified with Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, so Zoar is linked together with these other cities that have been doing wickedly and committing evil deeds.

We find a similar historic comparison in 2Chronicles but, first, let me read Genesis 14:3:

All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

The Hebrew word translated as “joined together” is Strong’s #2266 and it is found in 2Chronicles 20:35-36:

And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish…

Keep in mind that in the Bible ships identify with the churches. In Acts, chapter 27 the ship was made shipwreck, pointing to the end of the church age. Here, Jehoshaphat is a good and faithful king and a true believer (he would be like Zoar) and he “joined together” with Ahaziah, a wicked king of Israel and, yet, they were joined together, just like the wheat and the tares were joined together in the congregations. They came together to make ships and, again, the ships picture the churches. Did the saved and the unsaved join together to build the corporate churches? Yes, they did and there were both saved and unsaved in the Presbyterian churches, the Lutheran churches, the Episcopal churches, and so forth. They joined together and you could not fully know who was saved and who was not saved. You could have some idea based on what they taught: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” However, for the most part, you could not know who was truly saved and who was not, especially during the church age, because that was a time when many things were sealed in the Bible. God had not opened up a great deal of information and the Lord had determined there was not to be a separation between them at that time; they were to grow together and worship together, Sunday after Sunday, in the same church.

So, we really should not be surprised that Jehoshaphat had joined together with Ahaziah, king of Israel. After all, they were both Jews. We can understand Jehoshaphat’s thinking. He was a Jew and Ahaziah was a Jew and they were “brothers” in that sense. He joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish. It goes on to say in 2Chronicles 20:36-37:

… and they made the ships in Eziongeber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, JEHOVAH hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.

Here, we have a mini-picture of the end of the church age. In sending this prophet, God intervened and faulted Jehoshaphat for joining himself with Ahaziah. God was letting it be known that he was not to partner any longer with a wicked king and he was not to build these merchant ships to go to Tarshish. Remember how the Lord pictures “merchandizing” as sending the Gospel. To make sure that Jehoshaphat could no longer have this relationship, God broke the ships, just as in Acts 27 the ship was made shipwreck. That ended the church age and from that point there was to be separation. Jehoshaphat was to remove himself from Ahaziah, just as the wheat was to separate from the tares; the elect from the unsaved.

Here, we see that this word that means “joined together” does not have a good connotation. It has the idea of walking in agreement with those you have no agreement with and you should not have joined together with these wicked men. And “Zoar” really should not be included in this battle, but they lacked understanding due to the seals upon the Bible and not fully knowing the condition of the corporate church and not knowing that the majority were unsaved and that Satan’s emissaries had infiltrated the congregations, the elect remained within the corporate body. And Zoar went to battle with these other four.

In Daniel, chapter 11 we have prophecy about two kings. The king of the south is battling the king of the north. Daniel 11 is related to Genesis 14, verse 3, because the same Hebrew word translated as “joined together” is found a couple of times. It says in Daniel 11:5-6:

And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion. And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times.

Then let us skip down to Daniel 11:11:

And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand.

The word “joined together” appears in verse 5 and it also appears in verse 23 translated as “league.” We see the king of the south doing battle with the king of the north. And, yet, when we read Daniel 11 we find that both kings are wicked. They both deal deceitfully and neither of them represent God or the kingdom of God any longer. Maybe they did at one time, but in this battle they are not representing God and that is how it is in Genesis, chapter 14 with these four kings that identify with the four beasts (the rule of Satan during the Great Tribulation) and the five kings that also do not represent the kingdom of God any longer because God had abandoned them. Satan is typified as being with the four kings and Satan is also typified as being with the five kings; that is, Satan was the one that assaulted the churches and Satan was the one ruling the congregations that were being assaulted. It was basically a phony battle. It was a battle where God’s kingdom is no longer participating except through Zoar or the elect that remained in the churches and congregations for a little time until they were given commandment from God to depart out of the midst. Otherwise, it was Satan doing battle with Satan.

Let me give an example. We know the Holy Spirit left the corporate church world on May 21, 1988 and let us use as an example the most faithful Reformed Church that had the most faithful pastor that was teaching election and teaching that the Word of God was only the Bible and teaching from the King James Bible. And let us say that it was 1990 or any year after 1988 and this pastor was teaching as faithfully as he could be and, yet, the Holy Spirit was not in the midst. Faith could not come to anyone because the Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It takes the Holy Spirit to bless the Word of God to the heart of a sinner, so no one was being saved, but that is the “battle” when the Word of God is proclaimed. The churches were proclaiming the Word of God, supposedly to assault the kingdom of Satan and rescue the captives and deliver them to translate them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Although they were going through the motions, nothing happened.

During the early part of the Great Tribulation no one was aware of what had taken place when the Holy Spirit departed and Satan’s evil spirit came in and, yet, they were going through the motions of spiritual conflict in battle and Satan was going through the motions of defending his kingdom of darkness. His emissaries could have disputed each other on points of doctrine, but it did not matter one bit. No one was going to be saved and there was no need for defence to keep the unsaved captives because the Word of God had no power to deliver; the “two witnesses” were dead in the streets. No one was at risk of being delivered out of Satan’s kingdom. This is the battle that is pictured in Daniel 11 where the king of the north battled the king of the south and, yet, they were both doing wickedly.