Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to read Genesis 14:3-4:

All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

In our last study, we spent some time discussing the first couple of verses regarding the kings and the city states they represent. We saw that the four kings identified with the four “beasts” or Satan and his rule during the time of the Great Tribulation. The five kings were the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar which identified with the churches and congregations that were assaulted by Satan when he was loosed on May 21, 1988 for the 23 years of Great Tribulation. We read in verse 3 that all these were “joined together” in the vale of Siddim; they were joined together because it was spiritually pointing to the forces of Satan (Gog and Magog) that came against the camp of the saints. God had departed from that camp and turned it over to Satan to rule over and, therefore, Satan was coming against Satan. The only exception to this is that even though the churches were filled with a majority of tares, there was a little “wheat” and the presence of these few elect are represented by Zoar, that “little city.” So, there was this joining together of these groups and individuals and God’s elect were initially involved, but they really should not have been part of it. The Lord would make this clear later when He opened the Scriptures during the Great Tribulation to show them that they must get out of the churches, but at this point it was the beginning of the battle and they were all “joined together” in the vale or valley of Siddim, which God tells us is the “salt sea.”

We can gather from the reference to it being a “salt sea” that it is a place of judgment because “salt” relates to judgment in many Scriptures. It says in Leviticus 2:13:

And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Every offering or sacrifice was a picture of the wrath of God being poured out upon sin. In other words, it was a judgment. Salt takes on that kind of meaning. It identifies with judgment and that is why Lot’s wife would later be turned to a “pillar of salt” when God poured out His wrath with fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. She was turned into a “pillar of salt” to emphasize that the judgment of God was upon her. Since salt does identify with judgment and this battle of four kings against five is a picture of the beginning of the end of the world and it is pointing to the time when judgment began at the house of God and then transitioned to the final judgment of mankind. It has everything to do with judgment and, therefore, the battle took place at the salt sea.

Again, there are no winners in this battle. Both sides are under the power of Satan and they will all be destroyed, eventually. But during the Great Tribulation, Satan’s forces were victorious and they won the battle.

Let us go on to Genesis 14:4:

Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

The number of years mentioned in this verse is amazing for its significance regarding what we are talking about, which is the final judgment that comes at the time of the end of the world. If anyone knew our present circumstances and had the Biblical calendar of history laid out before them, they could go back in time and write these things down. And if they were attempting to hide some information in an historical parable that would point to events that would take place at the end of the world, they would come up with four kings that identify with Babylon and bring them against five kings that identify with the corporate church. And if they wanted to point to a particular time period, they would use these numbers “12” and “13,” because they are numbers that identify with the final spiritual battle that has taken place in our day. Of course, no man could write this way; God is the Author of the Bible and God is the one that knows the end from the beginning. Therefore, when God permitted these circumstances to develop historically, He had in mind that He would later cause Moses to record these things and they would fit perfectly for end time events.

Specifically, the numbers “12” and “13” are used and you could not pick two numbers that would be more in line with things that would happen at the end of the world than these numbers. It is incredible. Of course, God is incredible. God is amazing. He is infinitely above us and His thoughts are supremely higher than our thoughts. He sees the entire spectrum of existence from any point of His Being, so in that time period He allowed these circumstances to unfold as four kings come against five. He also allowed Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar to serve the king of Elam, Chedorlaomer, for “12” years. Why did they not rebel against him in the ninth year or the tenth year? God held them back from their rebellion until they had served him 12 years and then, very specifically, in the 13th year they rebelled. I said God held them back because the Lord is in control of all circumstances. He is in control of setting up kings and putting down kings. He is in control when a nation determines to rebel against injustice for whatever reason. God is in complete control of the timing and circumstances surrounding these things; He can ease tensions or maximize tensions through applying or lifting His hand of restraint.

God permitted everything to go relatively smoothly, even though there may have been wrongs done by King Chedorlaomer or whatever the problem may have been. We were not given information about this, as it did not serve God’s purpose, but all we know is that they served Chedorlaomer 12 years. Based upon other events in the Bible, we know that when one city or state is in subjection to another city or state, they must give of their crops or herds and there is a payment that is made because they must do service to a king. They permitted this to go on for 12 years, but as people tend to do there would have been mumbling and grumbling and every year it would get worse and people might have started to speak of rebellion, but they did not act until after 12 years were completed and in the 13th year they had had enough. Sodom got together with Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain and they decided to fight back: “Let us gather all the men of our cities and let us get weapons and go to battle against Chedorlaomer, the king of Edom.” And, yet, Chedorlaomer also had allies and he gathered together with Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar and Tidal king of nations. Perhaps Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies were not expecting this, but he did not come alone. They came to do battle and we will read about the battle shortly. It was a battle that the forces of Sodom lost and their rebellion was put down and they were defeated.

Again, we are interested in the number of years stated here: “Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer.” We will look at the spiritual meaning of their serving Chedorlaomer. Then in the thirteenth year they rebelled and we will also look at the spiritual meaning of that rebellion. But, first, let us spend some time looking at the numbers “12” and “13.” In the Bible, we know that things are not as they appear to be when God is speaking a parable or presenting an historical parable. He can refer to “days,” like when He said of the flood, “And yet seven days,” or He can say, “A day is as a thousand years.” Or, God can refer to “52 days,” the time it took Nehemiah to build the wall, which identified with 52 weeks or “one year,” the year of salvation. There are several instances in the Book of Ezekiel. The Lord told Ezekiel to lie on one side for 390 days and to lie on his other side for 40 days, and then God said that each day was a year. So, we have a good number of verses that support the idea that when we read in the Bible about “one day” or “one year” it can represent a much longer period of time, like the seventy weeks of Daniel, chapter 9, which has to do with a number of years that provide a time path to the first coming of Christ and to the cross, and so forth.

So, when we read that Sodom and the other kings served Chedorlaomer for 12 years, we must look at the possibility that this could point to 1,200 years or 12,000 years. Could 12,000 years be in view? Likewise, with the number “13,” could it be “130” or “1,300” or “13,000” that is in view? In a spiritual understanding of the verse, what could be in view? When we begin to look at it this way, we search the Bible. Does the Bible say anything about a 12,000-year period? The answer is, “Yes.”

The Bible has information from the creation until the first coming of Christ that points to an 11,000-year period. There are verses that Old Testament believers could have looked at to give them the idea that the Messiah would come after 11,000 years of earth’s history. They could have gotten that idea, for instance, from the information about the birth of Isaac in 2067BC to the laying of the foundation in 967BC, which was exactly 1,100 years. The birth of Isaac pointed to the Messiah and the laying of the foundation of the temple pointed to the Messiah; on one hand, it pointed to the birth of the Messiah and, on the other hand, to the death of the Messiah. An Old Testament child of God could have looked at this and took note of the number of years that had passed from one date to the other (1,100 years) and they could have set that aside as interesting for future reference. Then they could have looked at the death age of Joseph of 110 and the death age of Joshua of 110. They could have seen that “10 x 11” equals “110,” and how the numbers “11” and “10” were featured, just like “1,100” is a multiple of the numbers “10” and “11,” which points to completeness and they could have asked, “What will complete after 11,000 years of history?” Since Joseph and Joshua were both pictures of the Messiah, that is more evidence they could have set aside for future reference.

Then they could have gone to a very curious verse in Deuteronomy 1:2: “(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)” Then, perhaps, the Lord could have opened their spiritual eyes to Psalm 90, where it says, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past,” and that would represent a thousand years as “one day.” They could have also seen Scriptures in Ezekiel where God related days to longer periods of time and they could have thought, “What if I substitute a day for a thousand years and where the Lord says there is an 11-day journey, I substitute a thousand years?” They could have noted that Horeb was the place of the giving of the Law. God had initially given a Law to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” That was a Law and it was a Law that they broke and they brought death upon themselves. So, there was “11,000” years from the beginning of the Law at creation unto Kadeshbarnea and Kadeshbarnea was the place where the spies entered the land of Canaan, so it typifies heaven. And the Messiah has everything to do with heaven and bringing His people into the Promised land of the (eternal) kingdom of God. So, that would have been another bit of interesting information and an Old Testament believer could have thought, “Are there 11,000 years to heaven?”

There was 1,100 years from the birth of Isaac to the laying of the foundation and there were the death ages of Joseph and Joshua and much more information. We are not going to go into all of it because we have discussed this previously, but we can see how an Old Testament saint could have looked at a period of 11,000 years. The Biblical calendar of history the Lord opened to the understanding of His people at the time of the end (in our day) does reveal that from creation in 11,013BC to the birth of Christ in 7BC, there was a period of 11,006 years. The six years can be understood as “2,300 days,” as the Bible often modifies a time path with a “tribulation period” of 2,300 days or 23 years. For example, from creation to the flood was 6,023 years and from the flood to the cross was 5,023 calendar years; and from creation to the beginning of the end stage of the world in 1988 was 13,000 years and until Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 it was 13,023 years.

So, we see that the Bible points to “11,000 years,” or the fulness of the number of years and then a tribulation period of 2,300 days and then Christ came. The Bible points to Christ entering the human race after 11,000 years of history. Yes, it was a little bit more than that and He would go to the cross in 33AD, which was 11,045 years or 11,046 calendar years, but, basically, the fulness of the number is in view and then the period of His ministry until the cross. What did Jesus do on the cross? The Bible reveals that when Christ went to the cross in that demonstration, Satan was bound. The binding of Satan is spoken of in Revelation 20:1-3:

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Other Biblical information has shown us that Satan was loosed on May 21, 1988 and that began the “little season” of Great Tribulation. It was the end of the church age and the point at which judgment began at the house of God and, therefore, the thousand years of Satan’s binding was not a literal or actual thousand years, but from the cross in 33AD until his loosing in 1988 was 1,955 years. But, figuratively, God related that time period to “a thousand years.”

This is how the Bible views the history of the world. It was 11,000 years to the first coming of Christ. Christ accomplished His purpose in showing forth that He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, going to the cross in 33AD and binding Satan for “one thousand years.” Now let us do the math: “11,000 + 1,000 = 12,000 years.” Upon the point of Satan’s loosing in 1988, the Bible tells us it was “12,000 years,” on the one hand. When it was 11,000 complete years, Christ came and then 1,000 (figurative) complete years of being bound, Satan is loosed. There is 12,000 total years and then Satan was loosed. But, in actuality, upon the point of Satan’s loosing in 1988 it was actually the 13,000th year of earth’s history. It that not amazing? To me, this is incredible. What human being could concoct this kind of time relationship and insert this information in the Bible? First, you must insert the 11-day journey in Deuteronomy, chapter 1 and you must make sure that Joseph and Joshua die at the age of 110 and you must space 1,100 years from the birth of Isaac to the laying of the foundation; you must make sure the Old Testament information points to 11,000 years and then you fulfill it and you must present language in Revelation of only “1,000 years” of Satan being bound when it was actually 1,955 years; then you must present the time relationships necessary to fulfill the numbers give in Genesis 14:4:

Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.