Genesis 16:1-3 Abram!!!!!! What In The World Do You Think You Are Doing????

Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

As I read this, I can't help myself from screaming at Abram. In the past two chapters, we saw Abram faithfully pursue the five kings and smite them, with a handful of men. Afterwards, he was rewarded by meeting the Word of God, in the flesh, Melchizedek and then entered into a unitlateral agreement with God, to give the land to his descendents. Now, Abram has a lack of faith moment. He listens to Sarai, instead of relying on God. It's like taking two steps forward, then one step back.

God promised Abram descendents and here, ten years later, he doesn't have any. The sad thing here is that Sarai blames God for the lack of children. Therefore, like many of us today, Abram and Sarai decided to circumvent God's Will and do it their way, and force the heir issue. Did he lack the faith, or did he think this was God's Will, since Sarai presented it to him?

The amazing thing is that regardless of our shortcomings, God's Will continues unabated. Praise God!

Genesis 15:1-21 God's Unilateral Agreement With Abram And His Descendents

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

After Abram defeated the kings in chapter 14, he was in an excited state of consciousness. That's what the Hebrew word, machazeh, translated as vision, actually means. The word means to be so centered on something that everything else fades away, a kind of tunnel vision.

I can actually see Abram praising God, for the battle he just won, and the godly example, he just portrayed to the other kings. He was literally in seventh heaven. This is where God can touch man and man can listen to the voice of God. If you praise God with all your mind heart and soul and spirit, and pray with only him in mind, you, too, can hear the voice of God.

God reaffirms that he will be Abrams protector and greatest reward in life. That is, eternal life with God.

Also, here we have the Word of God, who later manifested in the flesh, as Y'shua, Jesus. Please let me explain what it means, to be manifested in the flesh. Every time God speaks, it is a promise, that you can take to the bank. It's like cash in the hand. When you read in the Gospel of John, that the Word of God manifested in the flesh, it means that God's promise became reality. In the case of Y'shua, Jesus, he was the promised Messiah that came to be, by the word of God.

In the same way that Y'shua, Jesus, was the promised Messiah, here we also have a promise that will be manifested in the future. One day, the descendants of Abraham will occupy the land that God is about to promise Abram. Therefore, it will be said that the Word of God manifested in the nation of Israel.

But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

I just want to interject at this point that The name, Eliezer, means comforter. We'll use that later, in a few chapters, so keep it in mind.

During this time, if the master of the house did not have any children, all his possessions, including his spouse, went to his eldest servant, which was Eliezer of Damascus.

I do believe, that at this moment in time, Abram or Sarai was sterile, they were not able to have any children. However, because Abram exhibit great faith and works and truly believed God, he will be rewarded with a miracle, a son, an heir.

These type of rewards are available to us today, if we only commit ourselves wholly unto God.

Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

Some people point to this statement as and example of a Braums lack of faith. Wanting proof from God. However, I believe this is a misinterpretation. If you look at the actual Hebrew, It says,

"Amar Adonai, Yahweh, mar yada yarash.

Word for word, it says,

"Vowing, Lord Yahweh, 'Here's how you may be assured of this possession."

God is reassuring Abram of this gift of his faithfulness, by way of a covenant.

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

God is using a form of making a covenant was very usual in Abram's contemporary culture, and thus Abram received the assurance of his inheritance by means of a ceremonial with which he was very familiar. In this type of covenant, two parties are said to cut or strike a covenant. This most solemn method of covenant, involving the severing of the bodies, was to represent the two parties; and as explained in Jeremiah 34:18-20, it sets forth the penalty of a broken covenant. It implied that the covenant-breaker would receive a destruction as complete as that which had befallen the slaughtered animals.

It was normal, that the two parties would then walk between the slaughtered animals, signifying a bilateral agreement between the two parties. However, God has a surprise for Abram.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

First, when Abram fell into a deep sleep, God gave him a prophesy, that Abrams descendants would go to a strange land, and be kept as slaves for 400 years. For this atrocity, God will punish this nation. As a result, Abram's descendants would come out with a great abundance of wealth. However, Abram would not see this happen. He will live to a good old age. The fourth generation, spoken of here, signifies that the average lifespan of these descendants would be 100 years.

It is interesting that God mentions the iniquity of the Amorites has not been completely dealt with. As a reminder, the Amorites are descendant from Ham, son of Noah. Ham performed a great sin against his father. This is a reminder to the descendants of Abram that they will have to deal with the Amorites. And sure enough, we will see that it will be the Canaanites, descendants of the Amorites, with which the descendants of Abram will have the most trouble with.

And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Back to the covenant....Now remember Abram is in a deep sleep and typically two parties normally pass through the cut pieces of  the covenant. However, The Spirit of God, symbolized by the smoking oven and burning torch, passes through the pieces. God is making a unilateral agreement with Abram. Because of Abram's great faith, God will fulfill the requirements of this oath, covenant, by himself, even if Abram's descendants lack the faith of Abram and fall away from God, God will fulfill his promise.

Therefore, if anyone says that Israel is no more, or God is finished with Israel or the Church is the new Israel, please show them this covenant concerning the faithfulness of God. As a matter of fact, Israel has never occupied the land, promised to them by God. Hopefully, we will see the fulfillment of this covenant as depicted in the following drawing.

Genesis 14:16-24 Melchizedek, King of Salem

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.

Here we have the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar coming northward to meet up with Abram's victorious entourage. As a reminder, the map below shows the approximate locations of these cities, located south of the Dead Sea, in the valley of Siddium.

They traveled to the Valley of Shaveh, just outside of Jerusalem, to meet with them.

As a side note, Absalam erected a monument, in this valley, during his reign. The historian, Josephus, wrote that it was still there at the time of Y'shua. If this is correct, then the Valley of Shaveh is the Kidron Valley, just the east of modern day Jerusalem. Otherwise, it could be the valley, just to the south of Jersusalem, as seen in the following map.

I find it very intriguing that the meeting could have been in modern day Kidron Valley, which is directly between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, where Y'shua ascended into heaven.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

After the return of Abram, the first king, to meet him, is Melchizedek king of Salem. We already have established that the Spirit of God has gone to great lengths to develop a word picture or model of salvation, within his Word, in order that we can stand back and see his Plan of Salvation, from Beginning to End. This is no different.

Here, out of the blue, we have this king Melchizedek arrive on the scene. If you look at the scriptures, this guy has no beginning or history. He appears here. David writes, concerning the Messiah,  in Psalms 110:4 and is not heard of, again, until Paul writes about him in the book of Hebrews, where he makes the following astonishing claim.

Let's take a quick look at his name. Melchizedek means King of Righteousness. In the this verse, he is King of Salem, which means Peace. He is also the priest of the El Elyon, the most high God. Could he an appearance of the real King of Righteousness, the King of Peace and Priest of the Most High God?

Well, it is known, in the Middle East, that a person of a greater statute gives blessings, while a person of a lessor statute gives tithes. In this verse, we see the King of Righteousness, the King of Peace, the Priest of the Most High God, give blessings to Abram, while Abram gives tithes back to Melchizedek. During this transaction, the lesser would bow or kneel to the greater.

What in the world is going on here? How can Abram, our Patriarch, be involved in having a gentile king give Most High Godly blessings to a Jewish Patriarch, while the same Jewish Patriarch give tithes back to the gentile king, with Abram on his knees. This is unheard of and is very shocking to a Jew. In the Jewish mind, there has to be something else going on here, and in fact, there is.

First of all, Abram would not have submitted himself to any gentile king. He allowed this to occur because he recognized Melchizedek as who he actually was or represented, the Word of God. I believe that this is one of two incidences that Y'shua referred to when he said, "Abraham saw my day and rejoiced in it."  Abram saw the Most High God, that day, when he look into the eyes of Melchizedek, in the same way that the apostles saw God in the eyes of the Messiah, or Moses saw God in the flaming bush.

David wrote, in his Psalm, that the Messiah, would be the same representation, of God, that Melchizedek was that day, in front of Abram. Paul put it all together when he wrote of Melchizedek, in the book of Hebrews. Was Mechizedek an Old Testament appearance of Y'shua? In the flesh, no, but in the Spirit, yes, because God's Spirit is the power behind his son, the Messiah, all the prophets, etc. Paul reveals to us that Melchizedek had no beginning or end, just like Y'shua, that Melchizedek and Abram had bread and wine, pointing to communion or the Lord Supper and Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God, modeling that a future Y'shua would fulfilled the Levitical priest-hood and established a renewed and everlasting covenant.

Finally, I love the last thing Melchizedek says, "And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand." This is a promise that you and I can take to the bank and deposit it for future assurances. Regardless of what happens in our lives, God will ultimately deliver our enemies into our hands.

Now, where Melchizedek, blessed the Most High God for the victory, in the following verse, we have the King of Sodom, try to pay homage to Abram. Notice Abram's response. He is basically saying, "Talk to the hand." :-)

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 the LORD, 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.

Abram makes a proclamation that as for Abram, and his descendants, it is by God that we are made rich, not by this world. Amen!

Genesis 14:13-16 You Just Don't Mess With The Big Dog On The Block!

And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.

First of all, Abram means Glorious Father and even though he has not been renamed by God as Abraham, which means Father of Many, Abram was indeed, at the present time, the Father or leader of a very large family.

He was widely known as a Hebrew, which means, One from Beyond. He dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which means, Place of Fatness, Abundance or, most importantly, Strength.

Surviving the previous battle, came an Amorite to Abram. Amorites were the people of east Canaan and beyond the Jordan. He was a brother of Eshcol, a leader of the people around Hebron, and  brother of Aner, the chief of the Amorites. Both the Amorites and the people around Hebron were in allegiance with Abraham. They had a treaty that held each other responsible for the protection of each other.

Let's now take a step back and see what Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations has step into. Even though they had been taxing or extorting Sodom and the surrounding area for years, they failed to see that if they got into a fight with them, they would be taking on the whole surrounding region, including the one that is blessed by the Most High God, Yahweh. Ooops!

And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

What is not widely known, is the fact that, that since he left the Ur of the Chaldees, Abram's family had grown into a pretty large contingent, especially since he could easily muster up 318 trained servants. Notice that Abram and his army pursued the enemy, not his neighbors.

Another thing strikes me as I read this. Abram had an armory where he stored and easily access enough weapons to arm his people. At least I was always under the illusion that Abram and his family was a small wandering group of people just trying to survive. In fact, Abram's family was indeed very large. Some estimates are around 1000 to 5000 people at this time. Most military experts state that a standing army of .1% of the population is needed for national security. This would put Abram's family at approximately 3180 people.

They pursued the invading army that took Lot, Abram's nephew, to Dan. The problem with this is the fact that a city, named Dan, did not exist at this time. Dan is the contemporary name for the ancient city of Laish. Dan appearing here in Genesis 14 have prompted some scholars to question the authorship of Genesis. However, Y'shua validated Moses as the author of Genesis many places in the B'rit Hadashah, the New Covenant or New Testament. Most likely the reason Dan appears here is that there was a scribe attempting to to make the passage more clear because Laish was not known to his contemporary readers of the Torah.

And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

I love this. Not only did Abram have an good sized army, they were quite versed in strategic warfare with a hint of gorilla warfare.  He divided his army and attacked the enemy from two fronts, at night, without night vision equipment. Talk about training. No run of the mill, ragtag, assembly of servants could do this efficiently.

They attacked them at Dan, Laish. The enemy attempted to retreat towards Damacus and Abram and pursued them to Hobah, just east of Damascus and dealt them a significant blow. Either Abram's army killed them all or delivered a major heavy blow because they never came back. Locations of this battle can be seen in the maps below. The first map shows the cities involved in this battle. The second is a local topological map of Dan, Hobah and Damascus.

And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Abram got back everything that was important. Nothing was lost in the battle. That's how   G-d works. Even though we have scars from our daily battles, nothing important is lost.

Genesis 14:8-12 A Good Old Fashion Butt Whoopin'

And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;

With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five.

Here we have the four ruling Mesopotamian kings coming down to meet the five rebellious kings of the Jordanian plain, in the battle of the Valley of Siddim. The valley of Siddim is the valley in which the Dead Sea resides and by the text, the battle most likely occurred on the southwest side of the Dead Sea.

And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.

Soon after the battle began, it was obvious that the Jordanian kings were overmatched. The Mesopotamian kings outsmarted the ring leaders of the rebellion and cause the armies of Sodom and Gomorrah to retreat into the slimepits of the area, while the others were allow to flee to the mountains. This was a great feat since this was the home turf of the Jordanians.

And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

As spoils of war and their rightful reward, the Kings of Mesopotamia, took the riches and the food stores of Sodom and Gomorrah. I also believe that if they took only what was rightfully theirs, we probably wouldn't have heard anything about this battle. However....

And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

... they took Lot, the nephew of Abram. In the next blog entry, we will discuss how this is a great example of  "You Don't mess with the Big Dog on the Block."

Genesis 14:5-7 More Giants in the Land

And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness. And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.

If you remember back in Genesis 6, just before the flood, we saw the Sons of God come down to the Daughters of Man and have Nephylim, Giants as their offspring. In Genesis 4, it says, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that..."

Here in Genesis 14, we have giants again, trying to make a revival. It doesn't say it here, but I feel that G-d used Chedorlaomer to cut that revival down before it gets too far along.

In our last post, we saw that Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar were rebelling against Chedorlaomer and he was about to put down that rebellion. Here in Genesis 14:5-7, we have Chedorlaomer, and the kings loyal to him, head down to Sodom, Gomorrah and friends. However, they make a pitstop in order to smite or kill the Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims. The normal reader would make their normal attempt to pronounce the Samarian name here  and travel unto the more familiar pages of the story of Abraham and Lot.

Being inquisitive reader, we know that anything that appears as wierd, in the Scriptures, normally holds a revelation or insight. This is no different. The first thing, that got my attention, was, "Why did Chedorlaomer stop to kill off the Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims when it was the Sodomites, Gomorrahim, Admahim, Zeboiim, and Zoarim that were rebelling, not the Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims.

My next thought was maybe they smelted them for practice before they came to the others. But, if we dig into the Hebrew, an interesting picture materializes. The Samarian names of Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims reveal who they were.

Rephaims = Giants. Nephylim and Anakim are alternate names used in the Scriptures.
Zuzims = Roving Creatures
Emims = Terrors

Were the Sons of God up to their shenanigans again? Were the Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims the aberrational offspring similiar what was occuring when God destroyed the world by flood in Genesis 6? If so, I can see God using Chedorlaomer and his loyal subject to cut them down. This type of thing continued to occur, even after this. Remember the Giants in the land when Joshua and Caleb spied the promise land and we can't forget Goliath, the giant brought down by David.

I leave you with these questions. Could this be going on today? What did Y'shua mean when he said, about the end times, "...as in the days of Noah? Could the end of days see these giants come back?

What do you think?

Genesis 14:1-4 A Message From God concerning Satan and his Antichrist?

"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled "

Here we have a strange story injected by the Holy Spirit into the account of Abram. For twelve years, the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar had served Chederloamer, the king of Elam. Obviously, they had enough and rebelled and met for war in the valley near the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. This is an actual story involving a well known figure, Hammurabi.

Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, one of the first written codes of law in recorded history. These laws were inscribed on stone tablets standing over eight feet tall. They were found in Persia in 1901. Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, his depiction can be found in governmental buildings world wide.

However, what intrigues me is the possible message found in these passages. If we take the names of the kings and their kingdoms and find their meaning, we find the following:

Amraphel = "fall of the sayer of darkness"
Shinar = "Babylon"
Arioch = "one who is fierce, savage and vicious"
Ellasar = "God will chasten"
Chedorlaomer = "to bound after the harvest"
Elam = "for eternity"
Tidal = "the great son"
Goyim = "nations"
Bera = "son of evil"
Sodom = "will burn forever"
Birsha = "iniquity"
Gomorrah = "will be submersed"
Shinab = "For the Glory of the father"
Admah = "man of the earth"
Shemeber = "lifted high in arrogance, flight"
Zeboim or Zeboiim = "swift"
Bela = "destruction"
Zoar = "be no more"

Putting them in sentence form, do we find the punishment for Satan and/or the Anti-Christ?

The fall of the Sayer of Darkness, Babylon, one who is fierce and vicious will be chastened by God, to be bound after the harvest for eternity.

The Great Son of the Nations, the Son of Evil, will burn forever, because of his iniquity.

By the splendor of the Father, the man of the earth, who will is lifted up in arrogance will fly swiftly into destruction and be no more.

 In Proverbs 25:2, it is written, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter."

What do you think?

Shalom