Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #22 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to read Genesis 14:17-21:

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

We have spent considerable time discussing this second battle where Abram, his trained servants and three friends went forth to fight the four kings and how it is a picture of Judgment Day. It arose after the battle that represented the Great Tribulation, which was the first battle between the four kings and five. As was pointed out when we looked at the five kings that were led by the king of Sodom, they typified the corporate church and the four kings typified the forces of Satan. The four kings overcame the five, just as Satan overcame the churches and congregations of the world.

Then Abram, a type of God, and his servants (the elect) represent Christ and ten thousands of his saints as they go forth in the battle of Judgment Day. They overcame Chedorlaomer and the other three kings because Christ overcame Satan in the Day of Judgment and Christ took the kingdom of Satan, which would be the nations of the world including the corporate church that had been turned over to the hand of Satan by God for its spiritual destruction.

Now Christ has defeated Satan and his forces, as pictured by Gog and Magog that had overcome the camp of the saints. Now Gog and Magog are destroyed. We read in Revelation and in the Book of Ezekiel about the fall of Gog and Magog after they had their time of victory. As we are reading about the aftermath of the second battle, it spiritually describes the days of judgment in those days after the Tribulation.

At the conclusion of our last study, we began to wonder what the king of Sodom was doing in the forefront of this spiritual picture and he even appeared before Melchizedek when he met Abram. Why was the king of Sodom a focus after this battle that typified the Day of Judgment? What was he doing there at all? Should not the king of Sodom, who represents the corporate church, have been destroyed? Should not the people and goods taken from Sodom, who represent those within the churches and congregations, have been destroyed by this point? Why are they coming back in view? What is going on spiritually with this picture?

We are going to look at Genesis 14:17 and look at one word before we move on to discuss Melchizedek. The king of Sodom appears in verse 17, but then Melchizedek made his grand entrance into Biblical history. We had not read anything about him previously and we will not read anything more about him again until Psalm 110, where there is a brief reference to him. There is nothing further in the Old Testament until the Book of Hebrews brings him up in that New Testament Epistle, where God goes in to some extremely interesting detail about Melchizedek and his background that is very edifying and revealing concerning who he was. The Bible has just introduced the character of Melchizedek and, yet, God will speak of the king of Sodom in verse 21 and the last few verses of the chapter, and we will get a much better understanding about why God is referring to the king of Sodom at this point and how it identifies with thee spiritual teaching about what God is doing with the corporate church in the Day of Judgment. I think we will get a very clear understanding and, by God’s grace, I think I have a clear understanding of why the Lord introduces the king of Sodom at a time that identifies with the days after the Tribulation or Judgment Day. I think it is very interesting and helpful to see what God has done with the corporate church and professed believers in the Day of Judgment and it relates to some New Testament passages and helps us to understand passages in Mark 24 and Luke 17, which relate to the time of the end of the world.

But, again, right now we are going to look at the word “meet” in Genesis 14:17:

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him…

The Hebrew word translated as “meet,” which is Strong’s 7125, is at times translated as “against.” This same word is found in 1Samuel 4:1:

And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle…

Yes, they went out to “meet” the Philistines in battle, so the translators correctly translated this word as “against.” They went out against the Philistines to fight them.

But, here, the battle is over and did the king of Sodom go out “against” Abram? That does not seem to fit, especially considering that he was telling Abram good things: “Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.” Historically, I am sure the king of Sodom was happy that his people were returned and even their goods were being returned. There would have been some hesitation as he went forward to meet Abram and his men that had just defeated the enemies that had defeated the king of Sodom. What would Abram want? So, he does offer something: “Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.” He does not want to offend this mysterious character Abram. He was mysterious to the king of Sodom, for all we know, as he may not have been familiar with Abram. So, here, the translators translated it correctly as “meet” and it is translated as “meet” in other places, including Amos 4:11:

I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah…

This is not referring to this battle in Genesis 14, but it is referring to a battle that will take place later in history in Genesis, chapter 19. Again, it says in Amos 4:11-12:

I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

This was a warning to the people of Israel, a rebellious and unfaithful people, under the wrath of God. God was not pleased with them. If you read this chapter, God is outlining His judgment against Israel and God did have a program of judgment against the New Testament churches that were typified by Israel. In Amos 4, we read in Amos 4:6:

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH.

This refers to famine and in Amos chapter 8 verse 11 it is defined not as a literal famine of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the Word of God. So, when we read the earlier context we find that God was already judging Israel. We could say He was already bringing judgment upon the churches and, yet, they had not returned unto Him. They had not gone with a broken heart and spirit and besought the Lord that His wrath might turn from them; since they were unrepentant, it says in Amos 4:12: “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” That meeting between Israel and an angry God would finally take place in the Day of Judgment, in the day of His wrath and fierce anger. Again, Israel is a picture of the corporate church, just as Sodom was used as a type and picture of the corporate church in Genesis, chapter 14.

So, we see Sodom is coming after the Tribulation and the earlier battle that Sodom was involved in identified with the Great Tribulation. They lost that battle and now Abram and his forces have defeated Chedorlaomer and the other three kings that represent the worldwide, universal rule of Satan during the Great Tribulation period. Abram and his forces are coming back in victory and here comes the king of Sodom to meet him. Historically, it was just a man meeting another man. Spiritually, Abram was a picture of God meeting the “corporate church,” just as Amos 4:12 declared to Israel, “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” He does meet Abram. As he goes out to meet him, suddenly, we have this “mystery man” Melchizedek introduced. It is not until later that the king of Sodom will have the discussion with Abram about the persons and the goods and Abram will give his response. And we will see how that relates to what God is doing with the corporate church in the Day of Judgment, when we reach that section. I do not want to jump ahead to discuss verse 21 and following and, thereby, skip over this reference to Melchizedek. At this point, we are going to look at Melchizedek and what he is representing before picking up this discussion on the king of Sodom.

Let us look at Melchizedek. I mentioned he is only spoken of here in the Old Testament and in Psalm 110:1-7:

JEHOVAH said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. JEHOVAH shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. JEHOVAH hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

That is the entire Psalm 110. We see it says in Psalm 110:1: “JEHOVAH said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand…” It can be proven that JEHOVAH is God and the “Lord” he is speaking to is also God. It is the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is in view in Psalm 110:4:

JEHOVAH hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

It is JEHOVAH continuing to speak to the Lord. That established the conversation in verse 1 where JEHOVAH was speaking and He “said unto my Lord.” He also swore and will not repent, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Again, the Lord is in view in verse 5: “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.” Then we see it has to do with the judgment of the nations because “heathen” is the same Hebrew word for “nations,” as it says, “He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies.” It is Judgment Day. According to the context and spiritual picture that God has given us in Genesis, chapter 14 Melchizedek is making His grand appearance after the battle of Judgment Day has been won. Then He is upon the scene. The Great Tribulation battle (the first battle) was fought and there was no sign of Melchizedek. In the second battle between the 322 men and the four kings, Melchizedek did not appear until the battle was finished and Abram was returning from the battle. Then Melchizedek was introduced for the first time in history in the Bible – here he is and he brought forth bread and wine. We will look at what it means that Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine at the completion of this battle. He meets with Abram in a different manner than the king of Sodom met with him, as it says in Genesis 14:19:

And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine and blessing. Does the Bible have anything to say regarding Christ bringing forth bread and wine after the Tribulation? Does the Bible have anything to say regarding Christ blessing His people after the Tribulation? The answer to both of those questions is: “Yes.”

When we pick this up in our next Bible study, we are going to go to the Book of Hebrews and spend some time reading about how God introduces Melchisedec in the New Testament and what God says about him. God has a lot to say; it is a flood of information compared to what we read in the Old Testament in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110, where we saw just small bits of information. But in Hebrews God makes many statements regarding Melchisedec. They are informative and it lets us know who he is and why it was that he made this appearance to Abram. One big reason that Melchizedek appeared in history was to establish the Law of Melchizedek or the Law of the priesthood of Melchizedek. Otherwise, there would only be the priesthood of Aaron and God is extremely careful to follow the Law. There must be Law for everything God does. In other words, God cannot just introduce a priesthood and say, “Christ is after this priesthood,” if there were no record of it in the Law. We have said, again, and again, the entire Bible is a Law Book. Through this historical introduction of Melchizedek, God has introduced into His Law the Person and Priesthood of Melchizedek and that was sufficient for the Lord Jesus to be “after the priesthood of Melchisedec,” since Christ was not of the tribe of Levi, but of the tribe of Judah. It was not possible for Him to be after the Levitical order of the priesthood. Necessarily, there had to be another priesthood if Christ was to be the High Priest, so that is one major reason why God introduced Melchizedek into the Law of God, the Bible.