Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #39 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are going to 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.

We are continuing to look at Genesis, chapter 14 and the historical account of the aftermath of the battle between Abram and his trained servants and the four kings that had typified the rule of Satan during the Great Tribulation. Abram and his servants were victorious because it pictures God and His saints that do battle with Satan and his forces in the Day of Judgment.

We also saw that initially the four kings had defeated the five (kings) which were led by the king of Sodom and the people of Sodom. They were taken captive and Abram delivered all the captives, including Lot and his goods, but he also delivered the people of Sodom and their goods. We have seen that the king of Sodom and the people of Sodom (and their goods) picture the corporate church, so we wonder when we look at the deeper spiritual meaning how this is possible. If we continue to carry over the same meaning throughout the chapter, this would mean that at the end of Great Tribulation and the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011 God also delivered the corporate church out of the hands of Satan and his forces. That seems unusual to us and it just does not sound right and, yet, that is exactly what happened because when Judgment Day began Christ took the kingdom of Satan. Christ took over everything that Satan had previously ruled over.

Remember, another historical incident that was an historical parable (because it teaches a spiritual meaning) in Daniel, chapter 5. The last king of Babylon, Belteshazzar, had a vision of writing on the wall at the time he was holding a banquet for all his lords. Daniel was called to interpret the writing and Daniel did interpret the writing. Then in the same night, it says in Daniel 5:30:

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.

Darius, also known as Cyrus the Persian, took the kingdom of Babylon in one night in a surprise attack. Otherwise, the king of Babylon and his lords and princes would not have been having a party. They were completely caught off guard and the Medes and the Persians marched at night and took the kingdom and slew the king of Babylon. It is a historical parable and a picture of Christ coming as a thief in the night. Darius, also known as Cyrus, was referred to by God in the Book of Isaiah as “my anointed,” which was the word for “Messiah” and He would build the city. It is a name for Christ and Christ came as a thief in the night on May 21, 2011, upon the completion of the 23-year Great Tribulation period. He came as a thief in spiritual judgment on the world, just as He had come as a thief upon the churches and congregations 23 years earlier to bring judgment upon the house of God. Unsaved man, whether in the churches or outside the churches, cannot perceive spiritual things. He is a natural-minded individual and to see spiritual things, you need eyes of faith and, according to the Bible, “all men have not faith.” When they hear things, like the spiritual judgment on the churches, they do not discern. Likewise, when they hear of spiritual judgment on the world, they do not discern. That is why it says in Daniel, chapter 12: “…and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” That is why it says in Ecclesiastes 8:5: “…and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.” The implication is that a fool’s heart does not discern both time and judgment. Why? It is because it is spiritual in nature. The judgment on Christ in the Garden Gethsemane could not be discerned by an outsider as He cried out to the Father: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He was not drinking from a (literal) cup and no one would have seen a sword hanging over His head. He was experiencing invisible suffering and invisible judgment.

Or, we can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God warned, “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.” Eve ate of it and gave to her husband with her and he ate. What would you have seen if you were an outward observer? Did they fall over dead? No – that means the “death” was not outward, but it was inward in the soul. You cannot see the soul. It was spiritual judgment. The most major judgments in the Bible have all been spiritual.

When God brought judgment on the churches and congregations, could anyone see it? We could see the effects of it and the outworking of it, with unfaithful churches, but there had always been some unfaithful churches. There was no way you could visit them all, so some people would say, “You cannot say all churches are unfaithful.” But, yes, we can say that because the Bible says so; all churches became like a harlot the moment Christ departed out the midst. Christ’s presence within the midst of the congregations was spiritual – it was invisible. No one could see Him when He was there and when He left, no one could see Him leave. It was invisible. It was a spiritual judgment.

The same was true of May 21, 2011. God shut the door of heaven. No one could see the door of heaven when it was open because it was an invisible and spiritual “door.” So, when it was shut, no one could see that either, but the Bible says that this is what God did and we believe it, because the Bible says that the wise will discern both time and judgment. The wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand. We can add to that what it says in Proverbs 28:5:

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek JEHOVAH understand all things.

The true believers understand because God has given them eyes of faith. It goes along with what we read in Matthew, chapter 13, as Christ answered His disciples’ question of why He spoke in parables. He said in Matthew 13:11:

Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

You see, there is a connection between understanding parables and understanding “judgment,” because a parable is that which is hidden – it is hidden truth. And God hid the truth of judgment beginning at the house of God or the corporate church and He hid the truth of judgment beginning on the world. They are unseen things that are discerned by the wise: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”

So, as God said of His people Israel (and it is true of the churches) in Jeremiah 8:7:

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the JEHOVAH.

And this is because God’s judgments were spiritual, including the judgment in the Garden of Eden and the judgment on Christ the Garden of Gethsemane or the judgment on Christ at the foundation of the world before the world was, which made it an invisible judgment to mankind. We were not there, so no one witnessed it, but we know it by faith. We are able to discern the mystery and to discern both time and judgment. This goes along with these other things, as God opened up information about the spiritual judgment of Christ at the foundation of the world. And by spiritual, I mean unseen to us and invisible to us. God’s people hear and understand.

You know, it is not me that is saying these things. It is not me who said the wise will understand, but the wicked will not understand. It is God. It is not me who said that a wise man’s heart will discern both time and judgment. It is God. It is not me that said that evil men understand not judgment. There are many similar statements like these. God is saying these things. I am not pointing the finger at anybody, but the Word of God is declaring these things and the people of God recognize and know these spiritual things because we have been given spiritual sight. An unsaved individual is spiritually blind and he does not have the ability to see or know or understand these things.

God brought judgment at the end of the seventy-year historical period in which Babylon had been used to judge Judah. At the completion of the seventy years, Darius, also known as Cyrus, took the kingdom of Babylon and began to rule over all Babylon. The seventy years is a figure of the Great Tribulation, which was a (actual) full 23 years or 8,400 days in actual time. The king of Babylon was a type of Satan and the king of the Medes and Persians was a type of Christ. Christ took the kingdom of Babylon, which was the entire world including the corporate church. Satan had ruled over the churches, showing himself that he was God, but Christ took everything that had belonged to Satan. Satan was defeated and deposed and put down from all official rule over the churches and the world. That is why we read of Christ in Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron…

Christ is ruling over all that Satan had previously ruled over, but He is not ruling for their welfare or benefit. He is ruling with a rod of iron and He is smiting them and punishing them as He rules over them. Included in that are the corporate churches. They were “delivered” in the sense that Christ conquered Satan on May 21, 2011 and removed him from his rule over the churches and congregations. Now Christ has ownership through right of conquest over the corporate church, but He is not ruling for their “good” or to bless them. It is over and done with and it is past.

It is like what we learn in the Book of Esther when Haman was hanged. He was hanged on the seventeenth day of the second month, which is the underlying Hebrew calendar date for May 21, 2011 and the date that God shut the door of the ark and the flood began. That was the day Haman, a type of Satan, and his dominion was given to Mordecai, the Jew. And Mordecai was a type of Christ and he began to rule over everything Haman had ruled over and, yet, Haman had ten sons that continued to live for several months until the days of Purim, the day chosen by lot, came. They are also a picture of Satan, but they ruled without power, which is revealing that Satan continues to exist after May 21, 2011. He can be active in the churches or in the world, but he is doing so without any official authority or rule because Christ has taken his official authority away from him. This was a severe blow to Satan and a severe judgment upon him because it “hit him where it hurt,” in his pride and his prideful, stout heart. He was in his glory during the Great Tribulation, ruling in an unparalleled manner, but now God had brought him down from ruling over the nations and from ruling over the corporate church that had born the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as Christian churches. Satan had shown himself to be God after God loosed him and commissioned him to come against the churches and congregations, turning them over into his hands. It was all official and, yet, all that official rule was taken away from him and now Christ rules in the churches and in the world with a rod of iron.

Again, no one should think that this means they can return to the corporate churches. God’s commandment still stands: “Come out of her, my people.” We would no more think about returning to the churches than we would think to worship in a Jewish synagogue. Once God ends a corporate relationship or that bond between Himself and an entity like national Israel or like the New Testament churches, it is done forever and there is no returning, as it says in Matthew 24:17-18:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

We are not to turn back. The context as seen in the parallel verse in Luke 17:31:

In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

This is the context in Matthew 24, except here in Luke 17 notice what comes next in Luke 17:32:

Remember Lot’s wife.

It is a definite tie-in to those returning to the churches in our day. They are doing exactly what Lot’s wife did historically when she looked back at Sodom, which was under the wrath of God and experiencing fire and brimstone. God rained down spiritual fire and brimstone to destroy the corporate churches and there is no salvation there.

When I say that Christ has taken over the corporate churches and is ruling there, it is not as before when Christ was “in the midst” and there was salvation. Now there is no salvation. He is smiting the nations and He is ruling with a rod of iron and it is not a benevolent rule, but it is the rule of a punishing Lord and a wrathful God. It is a rule intended to afflict and to rain down “fire and brimstone” to destroy it completely. So, no one should think, “I am going to go back to the churches.” They would be like Lot’s wife and it would serve no purpose, but to show forth evidence that they were not “gold, silver, precious stones,” but “wood, hay stubble.”

Remember, the wheat and the tares were separated and the churches are the location where the tares were cast into the fire and burned up, spiritually. It would just be an indicator that the wrath of God is upon anyone returning to the churches. By the way, some people try to get around that. They return to the former teachings and doctrines. They return to listening to pastors and ministers. They return to everything else, except they do not literally step inside a church, so they try to deceive God into thinking that they have not gone back to the churches, but they are listening to all their teachings and doctrines. The Bible does speak of returning to Egypt in one’s heart, so there is a “fine line” between returning to former doctrines and theological teachings or former confessions and creeds and preferring these over the teachings God has graciously opened up at the time of the end. They are trying to make a narrow distinction because they have not literally set foot inside a church, but they have gone back to everything else. They may as well go back because they have returned in their hearts to former doctrines and that is just as grievous and terrible.

When we get together in our next study, we will continue to look at this and we will see how the language in the concluding verses of Genesis 14 strongly indicate that God is not pleased with the delivered captives of Sodom. The deliverance of Lot and his goods was another matter, because it points to the elect that were delivered out of Great Tribulation, but the delivered captives of Sodom were not well pleasing or acceptable to God.