Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #20 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to read Genesis 14:15-16:

And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

I will stop reading there. We have spent a considerable amount of time discussing that this battle is an historical parable that pictures the final battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. God is victorious. Abram and his servants won the battle. God does not go into detail and give us specifics concerning how they went about fighting the battle. There is no blow-by-blow account concerning how many men were killed in the enemy army or how they were killed. We do not read any of that. All we read is that Abram gathered his servants and three friends (322 men) and Abram divided himself against them. We mentioned how that could relate to the body of Christ, which is made up of all those He has saved. There is a division among the servants of Abram and it is as though Abram himself is divided, but he divided himself against them by night and smote them.

Then we read that Abram pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. We talked about how the “left hand” identifies with those under the wrath of God and are cursed and Damascus ties in with salvation. We also saw that verse 17 told us that Abram slaughtered the kings.

This is all the information we were given. Based upon this, we would say that the four kings were killed and their armies were also smitten. We do not read of any captives. Abram brought back the inhabitants of Sodom and his nephew Lot and their goods, but he did not bring back captives from the armies he defeated. We also do not read of any casualties of Abram’s servants. It does not say that anyone was killed. We are not told of a single death. Historically, it does not mean that that none of Abram’s servants were killed. There could have been 10 or 50 or even 100 casualties, but God does not report it. God does not give any indication that there was any difficulty on the side of Abram and his servants. They were victorious, but the four kings were completely defeated – it was a slaughter of the kings.

Based on the information the Bible gives us, we could conclude that the four kings and their armies were all dead and all of Abram’s men were alive. Of course, that would be amazing to defeat all the enemy armies and lose none of Abram’s servants. And not only were Abram’s servants well, but he also brought back all the goods. It says, “and brought again his brother Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the people.” We do not find that they lost any of the captives or their goods. It is about as overwhelming a victory as could be won in a battle. Normally, battles do not work out that way. They are often hard fought and very grievous and there are casualties on both sides until one side finally overcomes the other, but not in this case. This was a rout. This was a slaughter. They wiped them out, as we would say in our modern day; so, it was a battle that paints a very accurate picture of the final battle of Judgment Day when Christ goes forth with ten thousands of his saints, the completeness of all His elect. How many saints are lost in the battle of Judgment Day? The answer is, “None.” God does not lose one child of God in that final battle between Satan and his kingdom and Christ and His kingdom. How many of Satan’s army are lost? The Bible paints an unmerciful picture because they are all lost; they are all destroyed. They are cast into a lake of fire and burned up. Just as the historical battle portrays, it is the actuality with the final battle between the two kingdoms. The last thing this world will ever know is that final battle of Judgment Day when Satan and his emissaries are completely destroyed. They perish for evermore. Not even one escapes the battle and lives on. On the other hand, Christ and all His elect with Him have no harm come to them and none die or perish; everyone lives on for evermore. We can see this in the language used, even though it is kind of “loosely fitted” language. Based on what God tells us, this is what we see and it perfectly aligns with the final battle that comes at the end of time.

In the final verse of Genesis, chapter 14, it says of Abram, in Genesis 14:16:

And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

The word translated as “brought back” is Strong’s #7725 and it is translated as “brought back” or “returned” many times in the Bible. It is a word that relates to restoring the captivity. All the ones brought back had been captive to Chedorlaomer and the four kings. In other words, they were taken captive by Satan and his forces during the Great Tribulation battle. Remember, Chedorlaomer was not originally doing battle with Abram, but he was fighting Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar, the five city states. Those five city states (especially Sodom) identify with the corporate church. Satan overcame the churches and took captives. In the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations and Ezekiel, God commanded the Jews of Jerusalem and Judah to go into Babylon in to captivity. That was the command of God, so as Abram went forth to deliver the captives and to set the captives free, it is picturing something that God has said repeatedly in the Bible. For instance, it says in Psalm 14:7:

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when JEHOVAH bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

We can find numerous references to these same things. I am condensing our review and I am not going to go to a great many places where similar language is used, but it also says in Jeremiah 12:15:

And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

Or, we could look at Jeremiah 16:14-15:

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith JEHOVAH, that it shall no more be said, JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Notice the language says, “bring them again.” All these verses have some variation of that same Hebrew word. This has to do with the bringing of the Jews out of the land of the north (Babylon). Remember, when we looked at the four kings that came against the five, one of them was the king of Shinar, which identifies with Babylon. One had the name of Arioch, which was the name of a captain of the Babylonian guard. One was the king of Elam and Elam was a province that identified with Babylon. So, taking the captives from these four kings (representing the universal rule of Satan) is really a picture of God delivering all His people out of the hands of the king of Babylon through salvation. Through salvation He is bringing them into the kingdom of God, the Promised Land. At the end of the Great Tribulation, God completed His salvation program and He gathered together His elect from the four winds (as represented by these four kings) and it was done by the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel that went forth and saved people from all over the earth. Since these people were in the world and the world was under the power of Satan, it was as if they were being held captive in Babylon.

Again, that was the command God gave to the Jews: “Go forth into Babylon.” We correctly understood the command to mean to come out of the corporate church and to go into the world, which God likened to Babylon because it was under the rule and authority of Satan. It was given to him throughout the 23-year Great Tribulation period.

In Jeremiah, chapter 24 we read the account of the good figs and evil figs. God likened the good figs to those that went in to captivity and the evil figs as those that stayed in Jerusalem. We could further understand the good figs to be those that came out of the churches and the evil figs to be those that remained in the churches. It says in Jeremiah 24:2-6:

One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said JEHOVAH unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. Again the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land…

I am going to stop and repeat this. We just saw that the spiritual dimension is that when God commanded the “figs,” it had to do with those carried away captive to Judah and it said in verse 5: “Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.” Those are the “good figs.” We understand correctly that it related to coming out of the churches and going into the world, but it does not end there. That is not the end of the story, as God says of the good figs in Jeremiah 24:6-7:

…and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am JEHOVAH: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

Here, God is very clearly indicating that returning to the land has to do with salvation. That is what it means when He says, “And I will give them an heart to know me.” They will return to Him with their whole heart because they have new resurrected hearts. This is the return of the land. Remember the command in Revelation 18:4:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

God had sent His people in to “her” or into Babylon. We were commanded to go forth out of Judea and go into Babylon or to leave the corporate church and to go into the world. But then God accomplished His salvation program and saved the great multitude out of Great Tribulation; and at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation God called His people out of Babylon because Babylon had fallen and the king of Babylon was defeated and the captives were restored – they are “brought again.” However, we do not return to the churches, but we return to the kingdom of God via our citizenship in heaven that God granted everyone He had saved. God gave that citizenship to all His elect and we are safe and secure in Christ in the kingdom of heaven, because we have received our new hearts. The whole company of the elect have received that heart and we have been brought again out of Babylon at the point of Babylon’s fall.

There are a great number of verses, but let us go to Ezekiel, chapter 39 where the context is that Gog and Magog had just fallen upon the mountains of Israel. Gog and Magog are Satan and the unsaved forces of the nations that he brought against the camp of the saints. They had won and overcome the camp of the saints, but when Gog and Magog fell it was at the end of the Great Tribulation and the end of the judgment on the churches. After the fall of Gog and Magog (the fall of Babylon), God says in Ezekiel 39:25:

Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

God had saved the whole body of Christ or the whole body of spiritual Israel. It was not just a few, but everyone whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life had been found. All the lost sheep had been gathered and returned, so God brings again the captivity. Of course, this goes along with this wonderful statement in Ephesians 4:7-8:

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

This is the spiritual picture we see in Genesis 14:16:

And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Captivity brought captive. The captives have been brought back again to the land.