New Manifestations of God to Abram

[0:00] The term Hebrew, this is out of Vine's expository dictionary of Old Testament words or biblical words.

[0:22] ! The word Hebrew, the origin and meaning of that word is debate.! There's a lot of debate back and forth about it. Where this actually began. But it's an early generic term for a variety of Semitic people.

[0:38] And it's somewhat akin to what we know as the word barbarian. All right, so that's interesting. In Genesis 14, 13, it's an ethnic term indicating family origin.

[0:52] As opposed to the term sons of Israel, which is a political and religious term. So, in ancient Near East, the term Hebrew was applied to a far larger group than the Israelites.

[1:06] The word occurs in Ugaritic, Egyptian, and Babylonian writings describing a diverse mixture of nomadic wanderers, or at least those who appear to have at one time been nomadic.

[1:22] And there are times it is used as a term of derision. We see that in 1 Samuel 29, 3, where the leaders of the Philistines asked the Asius, quote, what do these Hebrews hear?

[1:37] Why are these Hebrews doing here? And so, in that case, the term of derision. So, I found that to be interesting. So, now here, the scripture calls Abram, Abram the Hebrew.

[1:50] And literally, the idea in Abram's case here, is the idea that Abram is, in his identity, has come from beyond the Euphrates River into Canaan.

[2:04] Because that word Hebrew, or the Hebrew, literally means, in this case, to pass over or to come from beyond. And so, that gives you the idea where the name Hebrew comes from and what it means.

[2:19] They've come from beyond. Now, you get that idea and you get that picture here when you recognize that the Jews, the people of Israel, were not originally from the land of Canaan.

[2:34] All right? Where did Abram come from originally? Ur of the Chaldees. All right? And so, he was not a part of the land of Canaan.

[2:48] So, he came from the other side, if you will. He was the beginning of, if you will, the Hebrew race that we know as the Jewish race, the Jewish people.

[3:00] So, now, Abram, the Hebrew, has gotten word concerning the capture of Lot. It's interesting that the first thing Abram wants to do is go rescue him.

[3:17] All right? I don't see any indication to this point that Abram was a military strategist. If he knew anything about war.

[3:30] But he's going to go rescue his nephew because he's been captured. So, he's going to have to defeat four kings.

[3:41] Amen? In order to do this. And so, what does he do? Notice what he does here. It says in verse number 14, So, he takes the slaves.

[4:26] And many of them were born in his household as his slaves. He numbers them at 318. Now, these were men that were trained in whatever armament they had at that particular time.

[4:40] And so, they knew how to use whatever they had. Spears, bows, arrows, whatever. Now, he takes them. He's going to take them with him to go rescue Lot from these kings that were victorious over the other kings in the battle they engaged in.

[4:59] So, at night, he divides himself up among those people. Among those servants. All right? Divided them into companies. And then came against these kings and their armies from different sides.

[5:14] Did that at night. Now, he smote them and pursued them to Hobah. That is, to the north of Damascus. And also brought again his brother.

[5:27] That is, his brother's son, Lot. And his goods. And the women also. And the people. So, Abram. Not a military man, per se.

[5:37] Is victorious. All right? Don't know what his thoughts are when he's finished with that skirmish. After he's successfully rescued his nephew.

[5:50] But if it were me. I would look back after I got to safety and stopped and rested a while. I'd look back and I'd say. Whew. Whew. What just happened there?

[6:03] You know. Don't know if that was the case or not. But nonetheless. Something happens here. God makes Abram aware of what happened.

[6:14] All right? Why he was so successful. So, look in verse number 17 and 18, if you will. The king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Shadolahomer.

[6:33] And of the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheva, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine.

[6:44] Now, notice the statement. And he was the priest of the Most High God. I've always been fascinated with Melchizedek.

[6:59] Where did he come from? Well, he's the king of Salem. But where did he come from originally? Recognizing the context of what's happening here.

[7:10] He's taking Abraham through a process through which God will bring the promised Redeemer. The one promised to Adam in the Garden of Eden.

[7:22] All right? Now. But here, this Melchizedek is described as he meets and comes to meet with Abram.

[7:32] That he was the priest of the Most High God. Now. We'll see that here in just a minute. What that means.

[7:44] Melchizedek's not the only one that meets him. Scripture says when he comes back, he's met by the king of Sodom. And he's met at the valley of Sheva, which is the king's dale.

[8:00] Now, there's a connection here that's interesting. And that connecting link is the place where the king of Sodom meets with Abram. It's called the king's dale.

[8:11] All right? It's adjacent. The king's dale is adjacent to the residence of Melchizedek. And of course, it's Melchizedek then that comes out to greet him as the victor and to refresh he and his army or his servants.

[8:31] All right? Now. Stop here a minute and recognize something. Abraham went, did battle, rescues Lot, comes back. Comes back to where he was when he began.

[8:43] But on that trip back to where he began, the king of Sodom and Melchizedek come out to meet him.

[8:55] Probably rejoicing because he was victorious and he rescued some of their people. All right? But we've got to recognize this as a divine appointment.

[9:09] This wasn't just by happenstance, if you will. This is something that God has ordained in the life of Abram. Now.

[9:21] Let me ask you. Why? Not that you have the mind of God. Why did God do that? Why did God initiate this divine appointment, if you will?

[9:35] Now. Recognize this is purposed by God in order to show something about himself to Abram that Abram had not yet discovered on his own.

[9:50] All right? Now notice what happens here. Melchizedek says is the king of Shalem. The ancient name for Jerusalem, as we see in Psalm 76.

[10:03] 2. Jerusalem is near Sodom and the king's dale. But notice something.

[10:16] How is Jerusalem spelled? What do you see in the name Jerusalem? All right?

[10:27] What is the ancient name of Salem? It's now the foundation that we know as the word Shalom. All right?

[10:38] Salem, Shalom are synonymous here. So it gives us the idea here that Jerusalem, all right, as well as Melchizedek's kingdom, king of Shalem, is a place of peace.

[10:57] And it shows that both the king of Sodom and the king Melchizedek of Shalem have a foundation of their kingdom, of their rule, of their reign, as that of peace, of Shalom.

[11:12] That's the citadel of peace, if you will. And that comes through the righteousness of those sovereigns that are the rulers of those kingdoms.

[11:22] That's the reason David chooses Jerusalem as the place where he will establish the royalty in Israel, the seat of royalty.

[11:33] That's where God says, I'm going to place my name forever. All right? Jerusalem, the place of peace, the place of sacrifice for the kingdom of God that's going to come once down the future.

[11:52] All right? Now, by name, Melchizedek, king of righteousness. And by office, he is the king of peace.

[12:05] He now brings forth bread and wine. Now notice something here. All right? New experience here for Abram. Bread and wine, simple foodstuffs.

[12:19] All right? To refresh the body, to refresh the men of Abram. Later on, by divine appointment, something happens with them.

[12:32] The bread and the wine. They be placed on the table of showbread in the tabernacle. And they were, as well, accompaniments of the Paschal Lamb in Matthew chapter 26.

[12:43] Then, of course, later on, adopted by the Lord Jesus in the giving of what we call the Lord's Supper as the heavenly provisions which God has given so that we can live forever.

[12:58] The sacrifice of his son. Now, take note what else happens here. Verse number 19.

[13:10] Here's what Melchizedek says as he comes with refreshment for Abram and his men. Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, the founder of heaven and earth.

[13:29] Blessed be God the Most High, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. The Most High God in the Hebrew is El Elyon.

[13:40] All right? The Most High God. So, a new name that's given for God, now given for Abraham to recognize and see.

[13:53] Now, these are in your notes. Three primary names of God are given to us in Scripture. Elohim, which literally gives us the idea of the strong, faithful, covenant-keeping God.

[14:09] All right? Jehovah, the self-existent, almighty God, holy, righteous, and just. Important factor in that is, in all of that, he is the one who reveals himself to man.

[14:26] You see that already earlier in the life of Abram, what Jehovah does in revealing himself to him. And then there's, thirdly, Adonai, which is simply the word that means master, lord, or sovereign.

[14:42] All right? Of those primary names, there are also compound names. From the name Elohim, you get El Roi, the God who sees.

[14:56] El Shaddai, the almighty God, literally the breasted one, gives us the idea he is the one that satisfies, gives nourishment to, and strengthens.

[15:08] All right? As El Shaddai. El Elyon, as we see here, is the Most High God. Now, in verse 18 here, we find the first usage of the name El Elyon.

[15:24] El, short for Elohim, meaning strength. Elyon means literally to be elevated to the highest degree. All right?

[15:34] So it's the idea of Elohim being elevated to the highest degree. So he becomes the Most High God, or literally the strongest strong one, since Elohim denotes the idea of strength.

[15:50] So, with that in mind, recognize the idea here. There's a principle called the principle of first mention when you study the scriptures.

[16:00] So, the first usage of a name or a word in scripture usually gives the clue as to the significance of that name or of that word.

[16:12] All right? So, in the context here, in the use of the name El Elyon, recognize Abraham is returning back from that battle in which he was successful.

[16:29] All right? He's defeated four eastern kings in a miraculous confrontation here and rescued Lot.

[16:41] He's coming back now, and as he does, he's introduced to El Elyon, the strongest strong one. The one who is possessor of heaven and earth.

[16:56] Interesting that he puts that in there. That Melchizedek puts that in there. It's not just El Elyon, most high God, but he's also possessor of heaven and earth.

[17:08] It's all his. It all belongs to him. All right? By his creative acts, by his sovereignty, he's God. All right?

[17:18] So, as a result, he has complete control over everything that pertains to the earth. Amen? Now, that's who he is as possessor of heaven and earth.

[17:33] Now, to put all that together, realize this. In those times, in the day of Abram, every kingdom, and their armies in particular, had localized deities.

[17:47] All right? Their particular, what they called their God. Now, but realize, these gods of other nations were not viewed as being infinite, eternal, or all-powerful.

[18:03] All right? They were just their gods. So, when one army goes after another army, all right, the army that's victorious and conquers the other senses and feels that their God is stronger than the gods of the armies that they defeated.

[18:27] All right? Now, so, that's the picture you see here. Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God.

[18:40] There were three steps that were taken in order to bring the enemy to humiliation and submission. Number one, the battle itself.

[18:52] When the armies went to battle, the army that defeated the enemy believed they did so because their God was greater than the enemy's God. Secondly, was the desecration of the temple.

[19:07] The victorious army would go into the temple of those that they defeated, and they would take all their deities, their idols, their statues, everything else that pertain to their worship.

[19:21] They would take those. Then they would bring them to their own temple, lay them at the feet of their, quote, stronger God. All right?

[19:31] Now, thirdly, they were forced into worship and citizenship, forced into worship of the God of the successful army and citizenship in their foreign country.

[19:49] The ultimate humiliation was this. They would be forced to bow down and worship before the gods of the army that defeated them.

[20:00] And you would be made part of the nation. Now, here's the ultimate humiliation. They would be forced to pay taxes to that foreign country.

[20:16] Amen? Yeah. Yeah. Now, you see the setting then for Genesis 14. The four kings of the east went from Sodom and Gomorrah in conquest, believing that their gods were superior and stronger.

[20:38] They were successful. Abram goes after them to deliver Lot, and he's triumphant. As he returns, he's stopped by the high priest of who?

[20:50] Of the most high God. Amen? Abram, the reason you were so successful is that your God is the most high God.

[21:07] El Elyon. All right? Now, stronger than any other one. The strongest strong one.

[21:20] Now, but not only that, he is the possessor of heaven and earth. And as such, he knows no boundaries.

[21:32] He's not like a dog that's trained when and where to stop, where to sit up or anything else. He is one that has no boundaries. He's not restricted. Not restricted by anyone or anything.

[21:45] No other force, no other power. He's unrestricted in what he does. And he's infinite. That was and is Abraham's or Abram's God.

[21:59] That's who he is. But to this point, Abram did not know that. The experience of rescuing Lot, defeating those kings the way that he did, merely with his armed servants, is proof to Abram of who God is.

[22:22] He is El Elyon, the most high God, the strongest of the strong ones. All right? Possessor of heaven and earth.

[22:33] Now. Now. At this point, he didn't know it, but now he does. Through that divine appointment that God gives with Melchizedek in particular.

[22:45] And by the way, this was a priestly meeting, if you will, with Melchizedek as the high priest of the most high God. So, Abram reciprocates by giving him a tithe, a tenth, of everything he took as spoils in the battle.

[23:06] All right? Verse 20, he gave him tithes of all. Interesting. Giving the tenth was the practical acknowledgement of the divine priesthood of Melchizedek.

[23:23] The custom was that a tenth was always given, presented to deity. All right? Where that began, we don't know. All right? But, we see that carried on into the law of Moses, to Israel, and even described for us by Malachi.

[23:44] Verse 21 through 24, quickly. The king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. That's the king of Sodom that said that now.

[23:56] And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord. In other words, I swear an oath unto the Lord. The most high God. See, he's catching it now.

[24:07] All right? I raise my hand to Jehovah, the most high God. The possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoe latch it.

[24:19] And I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich. Wow. Wow.

[24:30] What is that a picture of? First of all, He recognizes that God is His source of supply for everything.

[24:43] I'm not going to make it possible for the king of Sodom to someday say, I made Abram rich. Secondly, it's a sign that Abram has submitted to that reality.

[24:56] He's given it up himself. God is God. He is my God. Now I know Him as the most high God. And that's sufficient.

[25:07] Amen? Yeah. Now. So. The only thing He wants is that that was used by His servants to have eaten from the place of the battle to where they are now.

[25:23] All right? Now. Let me throw one other thing out here quickly. Go to Hebrews chapter 7 real quick. Hebrews chapter 7.

[25:34] Closing part of chapter 6. Remember. The writer is talking about the promises God made to Abram.

[25:44] And the idea of God doing certain things, swearing by Himself to make that a solid promise. Unchangeable promise.

[25:56] And He says we have in verse 19, Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil. So whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

[26:14] For this Melchizedek, chapter 7, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor ending of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest continually.

[26:47] Now, does not necessarily mean that's a literal thought, a literal thing. The idea could be that there's just literally no record of that.

[26:58] No record of his lineage. Whoever he is, wherever he came from, nobody knows. All right? What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ coming from the portals of heaven, taking on the body of flesh, living among man, and then ascending back to the Father.

[27:24] Amen? Yeah. Yeah. Without ending of days. He has no beginning. Not talking about the birth as the baby, but in eternity past in the presence of the Father.

[27:40] In full fellowship, intimate fellowship with the Father from eternity past. No beginning. No ending. He's eternal. Always has been.

[27:50] Always will be. Amen? Amen. That's the picture we see here of Mel Chesedek. So, with that in mind, we'll get into chapter 15 next week.

[28:03] Let's pray together. Father, again, thank you for your loving kindness today. Thank you for your goodness and your grace to us, and for, again, the privilege of being back with this wonderful group of folks that love you, love your word, to study together.

[28:22] Thank you for that opportunity tonight. And, again, now, we just thank you and praise you for who you are and what you have done on our behalf, even through the life of Abram, to cause us to realize and remember that there are things you're doing in our life day by day to reveal to us more of who you are and what you are to us in our daily life.

[28:48] Enable us, Father, to recognize that, to see that, and to embrace that and rejoice in that. And we'll thank you for it now. We ask it all in Jesus' name for his sake.

[28:59] Amen. Amen. Amen.