Genesis 13-14: How to succeed without trying (Genesis chapters 13 & 14)
This article is based on a talk given by David Couchman at Above Bar Church Southampton on Sunday 11th March 2007. It may be reproduced in print or on other web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
We all want to succeed - but we can spend a lot of energy trying, and not quite getting there. This story has some pointers on how to succeed without trying.
On the face of it, it doesn't have much to do with us. It's about a bit of enthusiastic tribal blood-letting three and a half thousand years ago. What on earth can it say to us today? As we look more closely at what happens in these chapters, we'll see the connection.
In verse 1, we're introduced to four kings: First, there's Amraphel, king of Shinar. Shinar has already been mentioned in Genesis chapter 11. It's the place where the Tower of Babel was built - or not built, as the case may be. Shinar is better known as Babylon, and it corresponds roughly with today's Iraq.
Then there's Arioch, king of Ellassar, and Kedorlaomer, king of Elam. Elam corresponds with today's country of Iran, or Persia. And finally, there's Tidal king of Goiim.
So these are powerful kings from the Iran/Iraq area. For twelve years, they've ruled over five smaller kings down at the southern end of the Dead Sea. These are rulers of cities, rather than nations.
For twelve years, these five kings have been subject to Kedorlaomer and his allies, but verse 4 tells us that in the thirteenth year, they revolt. In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and his allies launch a punitive expedition (verses 5-7).
Their route isn't clear, but it seems that they sweep down the eastern side of the Jordan river, as far as present-day Eilat, on the Persian Gulf - probably securing a trade route. Then they turn back and sweep round to attack the kings from the west.
The revolt is a lost cause from the start. The five kings go out to fight against Kedorlaomer and his allies, and they are soundly beaten. The victors take away all their food, all their goods - and they take prisoners, presumably to turn them into slaves (verses 8-11).
So that's the story. As I say, it's a bit of enthusiastic tribal blood-letting three and a half thousand years ago. What does it have to do with us today?
If we're going to see how it relates to us, we need to put it into a wider context - particularly the context of Genesis chapters 12 and 13.
The beginning of Genesis tells the story of God creating a perfect world. In chapter 3, humanity rebels against God, and from then on things go downhill all the way:
- The first murder comes in chapter 4
- There's spreading violence, so that chapter 6 verse 11 says: 'The earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.'
- There's the Flood, in chapters 6-9
- There's the tower of Babel, in chapter 11
All through these chapters, humanity is rebelling against God, and saying to God: we don't need you. We don't want you. We can run our own lives.
Then from Genesis 12 to the end of the Bible is the story of what God does to put right the effects of humanity's rebellion.
God's call (chapter 12)
He starts by choosing one man, Abram, and his family. At the beginning of chapter 12, God tells Abram to leave where he's living, and set out on a journey. God says to Abram:
'I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse…' (Genesis 12:2-3)
So God promises that he is going to bless Abram (that is, in our terms, he will make Abram successful).
But this is not just for himself and his tribe. At the end of verse 3, God says, 'all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.' It's the beginning of God's worldwide rescue plan.
This plan is ultimately going to be worked out through Jesus Christ. So in the New Testament, Paul quotes Genesis 12:3:
'The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith, and announced the Good News in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.'' (Galatians 3:8)
Do you get it? God announced the Good News - the Good News about Jesus, and his worldwide rescue plan - to Abram, when he told him, 'All nations will be blessed through you.'
That's what God is talking about in Genesis 12. This is where God's rescue plan for the whole world begins - with him calling Abram.
Chapter 12 verse 4 tells us that Abram set out, obeying what God said. His nephew Lot went with him.
Abram is successful - he is blessed by God.
This is a nomad culture. The people aren't industrialised. They aren't even settled farmers. They travel round from place to place, looking for somewhere they can get water and graze their flocks. There are still people like this today in Africa and Central Asia.
If you're a nomad herdsman, the way you measure success is by the size of your herds. Chapter 12 verse 16 tells us that
'Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.'
I'm not sure about the order of priorities in this list - slaves come lower than cattle and donkeys - but you get the idea.
So the context in chapter 12 is God's promise to bless Abram. In chapter 13, the context is Lot's choice.
Lot's choice (chapter 13)
When you get to chapter 13, Abram is still being blessed. Verse 2 tells us that he has become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
His nephew Lot is also doing quite well, thank you. Verse 5:
'Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.' Some of God's blessing on Abram was rubbing off on Lot.
In fact, it's a bit too much of a good thing, because in verse 6 they reach the point where the land can't support both of them because their herds are so great, and their herdsmen start fighting.
Abram suggests a solution. In verses 8-9, he says to Lot, let's not fight. Let's separate. You choose which way you want to go, and I'll go the other way.
Lot looks around, and he sees the Jordan valley. It's well-watered and green and fertile, so he says 'I'll take that, thanks very much.' He leaves Abram with the hills, which are much less fertile. He chooses what looks best for him. I'm sure that he prays for God to bless him and make him successful.
Abram is quite passive. In chapter 12, Abram was manipulating people, as he persuaded his wife to lie about their relationship. But here, at least for the time being, he seems to have learned a lesson. He doesn't try to manipulate people or circumstances. He seems content to leave the outcome to God.
But after Lot leaves, you can imagine that Abram might be feeling a bit down. He's just been separated from his close relative. He seems to have drawn the short straw, and got the less fertile land.
But if you look at the end of chapter 13, God renews his promise to make Abram successful. In verses 14-17, he tells him:
'Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.'
(Of course, this includes the land that Lot has just taken.)
So verse 18 tells us that Abram moves his tents and goes to live at Hebron, where he builds an altar to the Lord. He's still trusting God - and trusting God's promise to make him successful.
Let's go back for a moment, and think a bit more about Lot's choice.
How often do I make choices because they look good to me?
They look like they have success built in. Yes, I ask God to bless me
- to make me successful. But I don't ask God what he is doing, or how
I fit into that. I seize the thing that looks good.
At this stage in the story, there are a couple of alarm bells ringing:
In chapter 13 verse 11, Lot leaves Abram. He is going away from the person God is blessing. And he is going towards people who are offending God.
Chapter 13 verse 13 says that the people of Sodom were wicked, and were sinning greatly against the Lord. This is going to get picked up again in chapter 18.
Here, verse 12 says that Lot chooses to camp close to them - to people who have a reputation for their evil. Of course Lot knew about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he thought he could handle having them as neighbours, if this was the price of getting the best land.
So there are some alarm bells - some warnings that his choice isn't as good as it looks. He's going away from the person God is blessing, and heading towards people who are offending God.
This is the context of chapter 14, which we read earlier: God blessing Abram, in chapter 12, and Lot making a poor choice in chapter 13.
This brings us to the beginning of chapter 14, which is where we came in. The five kings revolt.
Their revolt is crushed, and Lot is taken away among the captives.
What's important in this chapter isn't the big picture of the war between the kings. The important thing is what happens to Lot.
Lot's choice, which looked so promising, so likely to lead to success, doesn't look quite so good now.
In chapter 14, we see him being sucked in by the life of his evil neighbours. In chapter 13, he camps near Sodom.
But by chapter 14:12, when he's captured, he's actually living in Sodom.
Lot wasn't a bad man. The New Testament says he was a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of the people around him. It says that he was tormented by the lawless deeds which he saw and heard. (2 Peter 2:7-8)
But here, in chapter 14, he's living among them, and when war breaks out he's taken prisoner with them, in a war that isn't his. It's a mess.
Abram's actions (14:13-16)
Meanwhile, Abram is doing fine. He's up in the hills, away from it all. He's living near Hebron, and he's made some new friends - Mamre the Amorite, and Eshcol and Aner.
In verse 13, someone comes to tell him what has happened to Lot. Abram's close relative has been taken prisoner, and family loyalty demands that he does something about it.
So Abram musters his forces - three hundred and eighteen trained men. Surely the important point here is that this is a small force. He's greatly outnumbered by the armies of the four kings.
But he sets out and chases them the length of the country. And to everyone's surprise he defeats them thoroughly. (verse 14-15). He rescues Lot, and he recovers the captured goods.
This is the whole point of the story: Abram is unstoppable, not because of the size of his forces, but because God is with him, and God has promised to make him successful. This is what it's all about. It's a 'worked example' of what God promised in chapter 12 coming true:
'I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse…'
You may think I'm overdoing this connection with chapter 12 - but watch what happens in the next few verses.
After the victory (17-24)
Abram has just won a huge victory. Is he, to use a modern phrase, in danger of believing his own press releases? Does he think he's made himself successful? Well, we don't know that. But as he comes back, he's greeted by two very different characters.
First, in verse 17, the king of Sodom comes out to greet him. But apparently before he can say anything, or Abram can say anything to him, this other mysterious character Melchizedek appears, in verse 18-20
We don't know anything about Melchizedek, other than what these three verses tell us. He hasn't been in the Bible up till now, and he doesn't come into the story again. We don't know anything about his parents, or where he came from, or whether he was married, or anything. He just appears, then disappears.
- His name means 'king of righteousness' - Malki-Zedeq.
- He's the king of Salem - that is, Jerusalem. 'King of Salem' means 'king of peace' - king of Shalom.
- As well as being a king, he's also a priest of God most high. Although he isn't part of God's covenant with Abram, he worships the one true God. More than that, he is a priest of this God.
Look at what Melchizedek says, in verses 19-20:
'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.'
Melchizedek recognises that it is God who has made Abram successful. He recognises what is really going on, and he worships God for it.
If Abram was in any danger of believing his own press releases, Melchizedek brings him back to reality. Yes, he's had a huge success - because God made him successful, just as he had promised.
And Abram is happy to be blessed by Melchizedek. He recognises that it is God who has made him successful. That's the significance of him giving Melchizedek a tenth of what he has taken, in verse 20.
After this incident, Melchizedek disappears from the pages of history. He's only mentioned twice more in the Bible.
In Psalm 110, God is speaking to the king, and he says:
'You are a priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.' (verse 4)
The New Testament picks this up. It quotes Psalm 110 more than any other Psalm, and applies it to Jesus himself.
In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer uses Melchizedek as a picture of Christ. We aren't going to look now at how the New Testament uses this story. That's something for another time.
But here in the chapters we're looking at, the important points are that he's the king of righteousness and the king of peace, and he's a priest of God most high - he worships the one true God. He reminds Abram that it is God who has made him successful, and Abram acknowledges this by giving him a slice of the spoils.
What happens between Melchizedek and Abram confirms that what's going on here is a worked example of God's promise being fulfilled.
The king of Sodom is a different ball game: We've already been told that the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord (13:13)
So this king is not a good man. He doesn't acknowledge God at all. He offers Abram a reward for getting the people back.
Abram refuses, quite abruptly. He brings God into the conversation, and says he has promised God that he won't take anything from the king of Sodom. He isn't going to let this evil man boast that he made Abram rich. Whatever success Abram gets will come from God, not from this man.
You can't get God's blessing by evil means.
All he will take is the share that legitimately belongs to the people who went with him.
And so the story ends.
What about us?
What does the story have to do with us? There are two pictures we can take away from it:
(1) The picture of Abram's success
First, as we've seen, it's a picture of God making Abram successful. It's a 'worked example' of what God promised in chapter 12.
But chapter 12 is the start of God's worldwide rescue plan. When God keeps his promise to Abram, and makes him successful, this is a marker that he's going to do the rest of what he said too. All the peoples on earth are going to be blessed through Abram and his descendants. Of course, this includes us, today, through Jesus. God keeps his promise.
(2) The picture of Lot's choice
Lot looked around, saw what looked good, and took it for himself. But it ended in tears, as he moved away from the person God was blessing, and lined himself up with the people who were offending God. He was sucked into their life and their world.
He decided what he was going to do, and then he invited God to bless it.
But the way to succeed without trying is to see where God is at work, and join him in it. That way, you can't fail, because God can't fail.
What does this mean, in practice? As we close, let's very quickly flag up four things that it meant for Abram in these chapters:
- It meant separation. In chapter 12, he was separated from his home and family. In Chapter 13, he was separated from Lot. Sometimes for us too, joining God where he is at work will mean separation.
- It meant trusting God with the outcome, not trying to engineer circumstances or manipulate people. So he could say to Lot, 'You choose which way you want to go, and I'll go the other way.' Do we trust God, or do we try to manipulate people and engineer what happens?
- It meant being a peacemaker when he could, but being ready to fight when he had to. When conflict arose with Lot's herdsmen, Abram was a peacemaker. But when Lot was taken captive, Abram was ready to fight. So often we seem to fall off this one side or the other: some of us are in a hurry to fight, when we should be making peace. Some of us aren't willing to face conflict when we need to.
- It meant giving God the credit for his success, not taking the credit for himself. That's the significance of his encounters with Mechizedek and the king of Sodom. What about us? Do we give God the credit, or do we try to take it for ourselves?
For us today as followers of Christ, for us today as a church - do we decide what we're going to do, what looks good for us, and then invite God to come in, and hope that he will bless it? That was Lot's way, and it ended in tragedy.
Or do we look to see where God is at work, and seek to join him in it? Trust him, obey him, give him the credit? That's what Abram did, and he succeeded without trying.
Copyright notice
You may use this article in print or on a web site, subject to the following limitations:
- The article is reproduced in its entirety, without variation.
- There is a link back to this site.
- There is a copyright notice crediting Focus Radio for this article, and including these conditions.