No Compromise with the Enemy

Today, I got to jump into the story of one of my favorite Old Testament people: Abram (later called Abraham). Yesterday's reading left me with just a hint of him as the genealogy wound down to where he lived in Harran with his wife Sarai, nephew Lot, and a few other less-important-to-the-story people. This morning, I picked back up in Genesis 12 and read through chapter 14. 

Not to make light of the content, but a lot happens in three chapters; I may need to slow my reading pace. Abram traveled to Canaan, pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai, and looked around. The Lord promised to give Abram all the land he saw. Abram moved in, so to speak.

Then a famine came, so Abram packed up and traveled to Egypt, lied to the Pharoah of Egypt, nearly got his wife Sarai taken away from him because of his dishonesty, and was roundly chastised for his prevarication. 

He set back out to return to Canaan, the land of God's promise to him. He got back to the same hill he'd pitched his tent on (between Bethel and Ai) when God had promised the land to him, and he had a chat with his nephew Lot. Because both of them had enormous flocks and herds, neither of them had the space to graze them all, so they decided to split up.

Abram went to trees of Mamre near Hebron to live for awhile, but Lot... well... Lot "pitched his tents toward Sodom."

There's a whole lot in that sentence that I don't have time to unpack, but again, summarization is my friend. We see here the beginning of Lot's slow movement toward a city that was destroyed for its wickedness, the slow assimilation into a culture and practice that was displeasing to God. Here, Lot took the first in a series of steps that eventually led to his living in Sodom, not only living in it, but "sitting at its gate" with the city's leaders, denoting that he had likely become a leader himself.

How often do we compromise our convictions like Lot? Like a frog sitting in a cool pot of water, we don't realize that the temperature of our surroundings has reached a boiling point until it's far too late.

But I haven't gotten to Lot's redemption yet; I'm still back in Abram's story. 

I'll just set that story thread down and return to where I was: Lot and Abram parted ways. They were supposedly still on good terms, just physically separated. About this time, there was a battle between a whole lot of kings with a whole lot of big names that took me way too long to pronounce, but because I'm a geek of the first order, I did try.

In the brouhaha, Lot (and a lot of other people and things) got kidnapped and carried off from his new digs. When Abram heard about it, he gathered up his men and pursued the kings, fought them... and won. All in a day's work, right? He returned, victorious.

When he did, two guys came out to meet him in the middle of a valley. Both of these guys hold a really, really interesting symbolic place in the much larger story of God's ultimate tapestry. 

The first man to meet with Abram was the king of Salem, a man named Melchizedek. Melchizedek was both the king and a priest. He was both the ruler of his land and a person who held the role of the spiritual go-between for his people and God. The book of Hebrews mentions this same man and places him as a symbolic precursor for the role of Jesus the King, Jesus the Priest, who, by His death, ripped the veil of the Holy of holies in two, and lives today, yes, even today, October 29, 2020, making intercession for us! Hallelujah!

Back to the story. Melchizedek brought communion supplies. He produced bread and wine, and he and Abram held the Bible's first mention of communion - where the bread was broken and the wine was drunk as a symbol of God's meeting place, God's fellowship, God's feast, so to speak, with His creation, with mankind. 

The other man who came out to meet Abram was, drumroll please... the king of Sodom. Anyone familiar with the name Sodom? Mm-hmm. Thought so. I can't help but contrast the two men: 

The King-Priest of a city whose name means "Peace"... and...
The King of the Wicked City that God Later Destroys With Fire and Brimstone.

Here's an interesting thing: The king of Sodom asked Abram to give him the people Abram had rescued, and the king would let Abram keep the goods, the spoils of war, for himself.

This is what Abram said in response: "With raised hand, I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.'"

The spoils of war were supposed to be a gift from the king; Abram could have taken what was offered and not even have felt guilty. It was not unusual to return victorious and claim the benefits of war. Such actions are seen repeatedly throughout the Old Testament in story after story.

But here, with raised hand, Abram took an oath to the Lord that he would accept nothing from the king of Sodom, so that the king of Sodom would never be able to place even the slightest claim on Abram.

Why do you think the Lord asked this of Abram?

Here's what I think: The Lord could see the big picture. The Lord knew that in just a few short years, He would have another conversation with Abram, soon to be called Abraham, where He would reveal His decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He knew that He would open up judgment on a city that had become so wicked, He would rain fire on it.

In no way should Abram be indebted to the king of that city. And all of this took place in the presence of the king-priest, who had just taken communion with Abram.

My mind is struggling with the layers of this story; there is so much here. I think the key takeaway is this:

Jesus is our King; He is the King of all kings. He is also our High Priest; He sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us. We are to take nothing from the enemy, though he offers us all the temptation our hearts could desire, because he offers it in the name of compromise with the world.

Here's the picture the Lord gave me as I was praying over our country and the fraught tensions of next week's election: There was a black mesh blanket that covered the country - a distinct heavy layer that completely shrouded the entire land mass, all the way to every border. But since it was mesh, it was see-through, and beneath the mesh, there were points of light all over.

As I looked closer, I realized the points of light were various kinds of fruit. Interesting, that. 

I heard: "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law."

And I realized what those fruits represented: the Spirit at work in believers. The fruit began to glow brighter and hotter, and the mesh blanket couldn't handle the heat; the threads lit up with fire and began to burn away, melting back from the fruit.

Make no mistake: we are in a dark battle, blanketed by the forces of evil, but the Lord has already orchestrated the big picture. He has already set His events into motion, and we His people need only to be faithful to what He has given us to do:

To be loving, to be full of joy, to allow His peace to penetrate our hearts, to show patience, to be kind, to do good works, to be faithful to the Lord and His calling, to display gentleness, and to control ourselves according to the Lord's work in our hearts.

These are the things the Enemy cannot stand, and this is where our victory lies. 

Fill us, Lord, with Your Holy Spirit, so that these fruits are evident in increasing measure in our lives. Burn through the darkness around us with Your light. You are working to bring about Your plans; help us to walk in lockstep with Your Spirit. Thank You for the gorgeous, breath-taking picture You are painting. I can't wait to see the finished product.