Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #38 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to read Genesis 14:19:

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

In our recent studies, we have been looking at the word “possessor,” which could accurately be translated as “purchaser” of heaven and earth. We have been checking this out in the Bible to see what the Bible says about God “purchasing” heaven and earth. For instance, we know it says in Revelation 5:6:

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…

Right away, when we see “Lamb” and “slain,” we would search the Bible and it would lead us to Revelation 13:8:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

That is when Christ offered up Himself for the sins of His people. Again, it says in Revelation 5:6-9:

…stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

The word “redeemed” is from a Greek word, Strong’s #59, which can be translated as “bought.” That was the “price” of redemption or the price of the purchase – it was the life of Christ. The Bible says the life is in the blood and it was His life that was paid to satisfy the demand of the Law of God because the “wages of sin is death.” The Lamb was slain. Christ died at the foundation of the world, thereby paying the price in full for the sins of all His people. He purchased them. And not only did He purchase them, but it says in 2Peter 2:1:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

This word “bought” is the from the same Greek word that was translated as “redeemed.” The Lord is the one that bought them or purchased them. In the past, we have understood this to mean that when Christ died for the sins of His people, He established the churches and congregations, but it has far greater meaning. When Christ died at the foundation of the world, He established the heaven and the earth of this present world and He established the new heaven and the new earth to come. Everything was based upon His death and resurrection, as it was the justification of payment received in full. He purchased the heaven and the earth and He has bought us. This is what we were looking at in the short parable found in Matthew 13:44:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

In this parable, Christ is the “man” that finds the treasure hidden in the field and the treasure is the elect, the “gold, silver, precious stones.” But to be even more specific, it says in Psalm 135:4:

For JEHVOAH hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

Jacob represents the elect, the chosen of God, as the Bible says, “Jacob have I loved.” The elect are God’s “peculiar treasure.”

It says in Exodus 19:3-5:

And Moses went up unto God, and JEHOVAH called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Here, again, the “house of Jacob” represents all the elect. Out of the whole world and all the people in the world, God raised up a people for Himself, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) and they became God’s “holy people.” They became His chosen people, in the sense that they were chosen out of all the nations of the world. In setting up this illustration of what He had done before the foundation of the world in predestinating certain ones to salvation and to have their sins paid for by Christ, God set up a nation that was distinct from all other nations. They were a nation that would be His representatives, but, of course, that nation was filled with unsaved people and, yet, it pointed to the elect. Again, it said, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” God purchased the whole earth or the whole “field,” and in this earth He has His “peculiar treasure,” the ones He was obligated to save because Christ had already died for their sins before the world began.

The salvation program of God over the course of history was really for the purpose of the application of the “blood,” as it says in Revelation 5:9: “…for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” If you can visualize this, it was as if the “blood” was placed in a big basin and over the course of time, generation after generation, the Word of God was “dipped,” as it were, in the basin and applied to the hearts of the elect. These were God’s “peculiar treasures” and this is what the parable is teaching. The treasure was hid in the field and the field is the world. The “man” is Christ and when He found the treasure, He “hidest” the treasure. The Greek word translated as “hidest” is the same word that was used a little earlier, starting in the middle of the verse in Matthew 13:35:

…I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

The words translated as “kept secret” is the same Greek word that was translated as “hidest.” It is interesting that these things have been “kept secret from the foundation of the world,” because that is when all the action happened regarding when payment for sin took place. It was then that a “man” found the treasure and he hid it; God hid His Gospel program. He had already predestinated before the foundation of the world all He planned to save. He placed the sins of all the elect upon Himself and He was smitten and died as the Lamb. He rose from the dead to be declared the Son of God and this all happened from the foundation of the world. All these things were kept secret. Remember, a parable is that which hides truth. The whole Bible is a parable because the entire Bible hides truth. God had hidden the truth that took place at the foundation of the world and then He would reveal a little bit here and a little bit there, but now the truth is coming forth like a “gusher,” as God is revealing all these things done in eternity past.

In the parable, it says in the second part of the verse: “he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” It is expressing the desire and the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ in purchasing a people for Himself by first purchasing the field. This phrase, “for joy” can be compared to Hebrews 12:2:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…

By the way, His authorship would have been the beginning point, as He was “Alpha” and “Omega” and that authorship would go back to the foundation of the world. It is His faith, not ours. It goes on to say in Hebrews 12:2:

… who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Notice the phrase, “who for the joy that was set before him,” and in Matthew 13, verse 44, it said “for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” This relates to the shame of the cross because the Lord emptied Himself of His glory, as it says in Philippians 2:5-8:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

So, we have the “most high God,” the King of kings and LORD of lords and the Creator of all things, who so humbled and lowered Himself from His high throne. He left all the glory, honor and praise that He was worthy to receive and He sold all that He had and He died a shameful death to buy the “field.” He purchased the world so He could have the “peculiar treasure” that was hidden in the field. This was really a wonderful parable that Christ spoke.

Let us return to Genesis 14 and I will read Genesis 14:20-24:

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. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto JEHOVAH, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

If you remember, when we looked at verses 13 through 17, we saw that Abram and his army of trained servants delivered all the people that Chedorlaomer and the other three kings had taken captive, along with their goods. I mentioned that this also meant that they delivered the people of Sodom and the goods of Sodom. We need to be consistent. It is true that the deeper spiritual meaning can change from one verse to the other, but, for the most part, God is consistent in this chapter. The battle between the four kings and five typify the Great Tribulation. The second battle of Abram and his trained servants going against Chedorlaomer and his league of kings typified Judgment Day. The deliverance of Lot and his goods was a picture of God, as represented by Abram, delivering the righteous (His elect) out of the hands of Babylon, as Judgment Day commenced. As the Great Tribulation concluded and God had saved the last of His elect, it transitioned immediately in to Judgment Day. So, as Abram returned the captives and His nephew Lot and his goods, it pictures all the elect being delivered out of Babylon (through salvation) and this picture is reinforced as Abram gives “tithes” unto Melchizedek, who is Christ. Tithes relate to “fruit” and God is concerned with His precious fruit of the earth, His elect, so the giving of tithes points to the elect being delivered and the eternal house of God that Christ built being delivered. It is the eternal house or the eternal church that was delivered to Melchizedek, not the corporate churches we see on every street corner.

But, here is where we must be consistent. Sodom, Gomorrah and the other city states and their captives and goods were restored and delivered by Abram. We recognized that Sodom is a type of the corporate church, as this is what the Bible teaches, but now we have a problem. It is one thing for Lot and his goods to be delivered and for tithes to be given to Melchizedek in this regard, but Sodom was also taken captive. It was overcome by these four kings and that pointed to Satan overcoming the “camp of the saints” or the corporate church and then ruling over them. So, as Abram and his trained servants (322 men) fight against the four kings and deliver the captives, it can only be that the corporate church was included in the deliverance. As Mr. Camping used to say, “Now we have boxed ourselves in to a corner.” How can that be possible because God has nothing good to say about the apostate corporate churches? They had been given in to the hand of Satan for their destruction, so how can we understand the spiritual teaching that the corporate church was “delivered” on Judgment Day? What about these people and goods of Sodom?

This is how we must study the Bible and we cannot avoid difficult questions by just talking about Lot and his goods and the tithes delivered to Melchizedek. We must answer these things, or else, how would we know we had truth about the rest of what we are learning?

When we get together in our next study, we are going to think about how the corporate church (not the eternal church that was delivered through the completion of God’s salvation program) could have been delivered on May 21, 2011? Lord willing, we will discuss this when we get together in our next Bible study.