This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Day 14, Chapter 14 of our look through the book of
Genesis. And as we begin our look at Chapter 14, we're going to meet a man by
the name of Malchisedec in a few moments, but before that I want to talk about a
man by the name of Lot. We haven't talked much about Lot.

You notice that Abraham took Lot with him to the promised land, and you may have
noticed that there was a sort of a behind-the-scenes thing going on there. God
had said, "I want you to go to the promised land. I want you to leave your
household.

I want to take just your family. " And yet Abraham had taken his nephew Lot with
him. The Bible doesn't say much about what that meant when it first happened,
but we learn a little bit more about it here in Genesis 14, verses 1.

I want to read 1 to 2 and then skip down and read verses 11 and 12. At that
time, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariat, king of Elisar, Kirtamuhr, king of Elam,
and Tidal, king of Goyim, went to – by the way, these are great words to read,
aren't they? This is the phrase, this is the verses that if you're in a Bible
study class, you are terrified somebody is going to make you read these with all
these incredible names.

Let me just tell you, nobody knows what these names should sound like, so you
just read them with confidence. And when you do that, people think you're a
Bible scholar. So you've got Tidal, king of Goyim, at the end of verse 1, and
then in verse 2, they went to war against Barah, king of Sodom, Bersha, king of
Gomorrah, and Shinnab, king of Adma, and Shembar, king of Zeboim, and the king
of Bela, that is Zohar.

That's exciting verses, isn't it? So there's wars going on between all these
kings that we can't ever repeat their names again and all these places we
couldn't repeat their names again, but listen to what happens in verses 11 and
12. The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their
food, and then they went away.

And they also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was
living in Sodom. Let me just say it this way, God let Abraham take Lot to the
promised land. He allowed it.

He told him not to, but he allowed it. And when he allowed it, when God allowed
Lot to leave with Abraham towards the promised land, he didn't send a lightning
bolt at the end of town and say, "Don't do this. " He didn't make them go back
to the start button in order to make this whole thing work.

He just let him. And Lot became one of Abraham's biggest headaches, and not just
a headache in the end, but one of his devastating, devastating disappointments.
Going to the promised land not only didn't help Abram, it also didn't help Lot.

His life is going to be destroyed by what happens there. I don't know if you've
noticed this, but God will often let you. He will often let you take a Lot along
with you.

He'll let you do what you want to do. He could stop you, but he allows it. And
when he allows it, we learn later why he said no in the first place.

If you're like me, you've had to learn many, many times, and we'll have to learn
many, many times again to trust God with this. Lord help me to trust you right
now with whatever Lot I want to bring along in my life that you're saying no to.
Because in this case, Lot has decided to live in the town of Sodom.

We're going to see what happens with that later. Most of you are familiar with
that story. And Lot, because he's living in that town, gets caught up in this
war and he gets carried off and so Abram has to go and protect him.

How does this happen? Listen to what happens in verse 13. Let me read verses 13
to 20.

"One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was
living near the great trees of Marmaray the Amorite, the brother of Eshkol and
Anar, all of whom were allied with Abram. When Abram heard that his relative had
been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and
went in pursuit as far as Dan.

During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them,
pursuing them as far as Hobah north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and
brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and
the other people. After Abram returned from defeating Kedilomar and the kings
allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Sheva,
that is the king's valley.

Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of
the Most High God, and he blessed Abram, saying, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most
High, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who delivered
your enemies into your hand. ' And Abram gave a tenth of everything, gave him,
Melchizedek, a tenth of everything.

So Abram goes and he rescues his nephew, and in rescuing his nephew he brings
everything back, the women, all the goods that had been stolen, back to the
kings who had been attacked. And in doing so, we meet this man by the name of
Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God. The Bible tells
us about Melchizedek a little bit more in the book of Hebrews.

Have you noticed how often we've turned to Hebrews, by the way, as we've been
walking through the book of Genesis? The book of Hebrews has a lot to say about
Genesis because Hebrews was written to Jewish believers in the days of Jesus.
And because it was written to Jewish believers, the explanation is given many
times to show that Jesus had been promised from the very beginning, and
Melchizedek is one of the ways that we're shown the promise of Jesus.

Let me read for you Hebrews 7, 1-4. This Melchizedek was king of Salem and a
priest of the Most High God, of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the
defeat of the kings.

Notice he doesn't name them in Hebrews, he just says the kings, and he blessed
them. And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, Hebrews tells us, his
name means king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem means king of
peace.

Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of
life, like the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he
was. Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder.

That's Hebrews 7, 1-4. Who was this guy, this Melchizedek? Some see him as a
spiritual appearance of Jesus before he became a man.

He was actually appearing somehow spiritually. Other people see him as an angel
that came from God as a representative. Most likely, most people see him as a
great man who isn't recorded in the genealogies, but who is recognized as a
priest by Abraham.

And the writer of Hebrews is saying to those who believe Jesus had to be of some
priestly line, remember Jesus wasn't of a priestly line, he was of another line
of the Jewish people. He was of the tribe of Judah, not the tribe of Levi, the
priestly line. He's saying, Jesus wasn't of a priestly line?

The writer of Hebrews says, oh yes he was. He is a priest on the order of
Melchizedek. In fact, Melchizedek is not only a priest, he's told to us to be a
priest in Genesis, he's a greater priest than all of them.

Because Melchizedek precedes all of them, so he is greater. And not only that,
Abraham, who is going to be the father of the priesthood line down the road,
Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything. He recognizes him by an
offering as a priest.

Now, these arguments may not make a lot of sense to us. They may not seem
important to us, even if they do make sense. They were very important to a
Jewish believer in that day, because the line of priests was so important.

And so here's Melchizedek, put right at the right place, right at the right
time, by God Almighty, so that when the writer of Hebrews was writing about
Jesus, he could talk about Melchizedek. And Abraham receives a picture of Jesus
who is going to come. Throughout his life, God's going to give to Abraham
pictures of Jesus.

And as you and I read the life of Abraham, we get to see those pictures too.
Abraham saw the birth of the Messiah and the miraculous birth of his own son,
Isaac, that a promised birth was waited for, and then it finally came. He saw
Calvary, the cross, foreshadowed in the fact that he offered Isaac to God.

We're going to see this later in the book of Genesis. And he sees here the
priestly ministry of Melchizedek. And in that, he could see the heavenly
priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, the Jewish rabbis taught that Genesis 12. 3 was a promise that Abraham
saw as the promise of the Messiah's coming someday. In what God was going to do
for the nations, it was going to be coming through a Messiah.

And many taught that Genesis 15, 8 to 21, which we're going to see some of
tomorrow, was Abraham having a vision of the entire history of the nation of
Israel, including the birth of the Messiah. God, whether he did that or not, is
foreshadowing in the life of Abraham the person of Jesus Christ and that Jesus
is going to come into this world someday. God's plan for your salvation was
established not just here when Melchizedek shows up on the scene, no long time
before that.

It was established before the beginning of time. God did not desire for us to
sin, but he knew that we would make that choice. So even before we made that
choice, he planned to bring us back into relationship with himself.

And you see that plan unfolding even in Genesis. You see that plan unfolding
even in Melchizedek. God's plan for your life, for your salvation from before
the beginning of time.

That is a plan that we need to thank him for. Jesus, thank you. Although
Melchizedek may not seem as important to us as a Jewish believer in Jesus's day,
we recognize, we see that you've planned from the very beginning to meet the
need of every person, to show every person the way back into relationship with
you through your son, Jesus Christ.

And you answered the questions before they were even asked, the questions about
priesthood and the questions about sacrifices that a Jewish believer might have
had. You answered those questions. And Jesus, you answered my questions before I
even had them.

The questions about relationship, the questions about whether I'm really loved,
the questions about whether someone really cares about me. You answered those on
the cross, Jesus, by sacrificing your life for me. You answered those questions,
Jesus, in your resurrection by raising from the dead for me and offering a new
life to me.

Jesus, thank you for that new life. Thank you that in ways that I don't even
understand, you planned for my salvation, for the salvation of all who would
turn to you before the beginning of time. Thank you that your plan never fails.

In Jesus' name, I thank you. Amen.