Becoming people above reproach (Genesis 14)
Gen 14:1-24
As an Old Testament lecturer, I spent some time on the doctoral board of a secular university representing the Bible college/seminary where I taught. The group was generally friendly on a personal level, so when a Christian proposal for a PhD was discussed, I was shocked at the level of vitriol in the comments from non-Christian board members. I got the feeling that some thought of Christians as an absolute waste of space and the atmosphere was one of suspicion and contempt. While such behaviour is not necessarily universal, it was a reminder that Christianity is no longer in a majority position or necessarily associated with uprightness and integrity. In that sense, the world today resembles Abraham’s time, when he was a minority in the world of greater powers. Thus, his engagement with outsiders and the Lord’s response to his situation are worth pondering over.
Forces at war, Abraham’s intervention
Genesis 14 opens with five kings near the Dead Sea (including Sodom) who rebelled against serving four kings in the region of modern-day Iraq and Iran (Shinar is associated with Babylon, Elam with the area north of it; Gen 14:1-2). The latter coalition marched south, conquered territories along the way (Gen 14:3-9), defeated the rebel kings and took captives and loot including Lot and his possessions in Sodom (Gen 14:10-12). The long description underlines the strength of the victorious forces, so that it is all the more surprising that Abraham’s quick response ends in victory and recovery of all losses (Gen 14:13-16). Reminiscent of Gideon’s triumph with only 300 men, Abraham achieves with 318 and with some allies what the five city-states with their armies could not. Abraham then is both an outsider and yet a force to be reckoned with, a combination that leads to varying reactions.
Melchizedek and Sodom
Melchizedek, the king-priest of Salem (generally identified with Jerusalem cf. Ps 76:2)[1] comes out to the King’s Valley (just south of Jerusalem where the Hinnom and Kidron valley meet) and lays out a banquet for Abraham on his return from fighting (Gen 14:18).[2] Melchizedek has no great stakes in the previous conflict yet shows hospitality and a well-disposed attitude towards Abraham. Moreover, he recognises God’s help in Abraham’s victory and blesses both him and God (Gen 14:19-20). The patriarch responds to this generosity and goodwill with giving this priestly king a tithe.
In contrast, the king of Sodom who benefitted most from Abraham’s action, shows no hospitality and his words are terse as he demands the people from Abraham.[3] Booty belonged to the victor (including captured people who often ended up as slaves), and Sodom, as an earlier defeated party, is in no position to set terms. Abraham’s response suggests that he anticipated Sodom’s antagonism, the king’s suspicion that the patriarch would try and exploit his power position and ‘make himself rich’ at Sodom’s expense (Gen 14:22-23). What makes Abraham able to act with generosity and not hold on to his rightful gains? As we have seen in his earlier dealings with Lot (see my post What it takes to receive God’s promises (Genesis 13)), it is his trust and dependence on God that empowers him to let go of his due.
The attitude of outsiders and ours
This episode illustrates the twofold attitude that God’s people face. There are those who bless them and those who show contempt (Gen 12:3).[4] The promise to Abraham is an encouragement that though we may be insignificant and a minority among others, God sees how His people are treated and will respond and ultimately vindicate His own. In this light, Sodom’s latent antagonism hints at the city’s coming judgment. Most importantly, Abraham’s situation echoes our own: as Christians we are no longer the privileged majority and may need to learn new ways of relating to outsiders that recognises this. Sadly, the Christian Church has not always handled power well so that some of the suspicion of outsiders in seeing us as exploitative (e.g. sexually, financially or emotionally) is warranted. It is all the more important to learn from Abraham’s self-effacing and generous behaviour of not giving occasion for outsiders to malign us but instead living above reproach, even when it costs us our ‘rights’ or financially.
[1] Zion in the psalm is another name for Jerusalem.
[2] Bread and water were the standard fare of hospitality, so bread and wine are thought to indicate a more lavish meal characteristic of royal banquets. Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC 1 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987), 316.
[3] The evaluation of the king of Sodom varies in commentaries, but I fundamentally agree with Wenham who notes the terseness of the king’s demand that lacks any courtesy customary on such an occasion. Ibid, 318. The absence of any gesture of hospitality is especially glaring given Melchizedek’s generosity and foreshadows the later incident in Gen 19:5, where the men of Sodom will want to abuse Lot’s angelic guests who came to warn him of the city’s destruction. Hospitality may seem a minor fault for us, modern readers, but in the ancient world, it was an essential virtue that reflected on a person’s overall character.
[4] In the Hebrew, the phrase ‘those who curse you I will curse’ uses two different words for ‘curse’. The first means ‘to revile’, i.e. show contempt, to which God’s response is His curse.
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