I would like to read some Scriptures in Hebrews 7.
If you go to Hebrews 7, we are going to read the verses right before it starts. So, in Hebrews 6:18, kind of midway through, he says:
“We might have strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us; which we have as an anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and entering into that within the veil, where Jesus is entered as a forerunner for us, become forever a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Then, in Hebrews 7, you can go on to verse 23. Hebrews 7:23 says:
“And they have been many priests, on account of being hindered from continuing by death. But He, because of His continuing forever, has the priesthood unchangeable. Wherefore also He is able to save completely those who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them.
For such a high priest became us: holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens.”
Just read that one verse one more time, in Hebrews 7:25:
“Wherefore also He is able to save completely those who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them.”
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we come to You as the One who prays for us. We want to agree with You and trust this time to You, that we can have fellowship in Your word, that we can be enlightened, that we can see You, and that we can be encouraged. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This morning, I would like to share on Melchizedek. It is a story in Genesis that I skipped so many times. When you read the story of Abraham, there is a little section where Melchizedek shows up, and I do not know if you all have done the same thing, but I think the first ten times I read Genesis, I did not even notice the battle of the four kings versus the five kings. I definitely could not pronounce any of their names, and I did not notice this Melchizedek character.
What got me interested in him is that, when you read the book of Hebrews, you have to notice him, because so many chapters are dedicated to sharing about our Lord Jesus, who is a priest—a kingly priest—in the order of Melchizedek.
In the book of Hebrews, he elaborates a lot on the priesthood style of Melchizedek: the way Melchizedek is a priest, versus the priesthood of Aaron and the family from the Levites with the Israelites. So that got me interested in him, but it has always been a big question.
One time I was in college and sharing at a youth camp. I was given the task to share about Jesus the Person. We were in a room with a group of speakers, and they asked me, “So, how are you going to share about Jesus as the Person?” I said, “I’m going to share on Melchizedek.”
All of these pastors frowned. All of them looked at me puzzled. All of them were bothered. They were like, “Why don’t you talk about how Jesus—” You know, they started to say things because they knew my assignment.
Anyway, by God’s grace, by the time we finished the actual sharing, they were okay with it—to see Jesus as the Melchizedek. It ended up being okay.
I am encouraged by the concept of our priesthood as Christians: that we are all called to be priests and kings. This is a concept in the New Testament.
When praying for the saints recently, especially people that I have never really had dinner with or never really talked with much, this kept coming up when I was praying: this concept of being active and participating in the priesthood. This burden came with Melchizedek’s ministry.
We first receive from our Lord His ministry to us, like the verse we just read: how He always lives to pray for us, how He is alive forever, and how He is interceding for us. We are encouraged by that, but we also participate in that. We step into the priestly ministry, but in the style of Melchizedek—not exactly as we read with the priests of the Israelites.
It is a little bit different. He is a King, and He is a Priest.
Because the story is a little unfamiliar, I hope it is okay to read the chapter together in Genesis. Turn back to Genesis 14. I normally would just reference things, and I will do that a bunch today with things we are familiar with. But I think in this chapter there are some details that, if we do not read it, you may not trust me—let me think I am making it up.
In Genesis 14, it says:
“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 Goiim, that they 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 (the same is Zoar).
All these joined together in the vale of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea). Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness.
And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar. 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 king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings with the five.
And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot and his goods, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and departed.”
Now here is somebody we are familiar with: Lot, Abram’s brother’s son. This is Abram, also known as Abraham. Lot is his brother’s son, which in America we would call his nephew.
The passage continues:
“And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were Abram’s allies. And Abram heard that his brother was taken captive; and he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan. And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of 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.”
Then:
“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, at the vale of Shaveh (the same is the King’s Vale). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him, and said,
‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be God Most High, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.’And he gave him a tenth of all.”
Notice this phrase: God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. This is the first time the phrase “Most High God” is used. Melchizedek coined it: possessor of heaven and earth.
The passage continues:
“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 lifted up my hand unto the Lord, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor aught 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 that went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.’”
Then one verse in Genesis 15:
“After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.’”
You can see it is an interesting story, and the names are very interesting. The names are so interesting. I spent some time looking into all their meanings. All of these kings, their names mean really bad stuff. They are all bad guys.
The area where the four kings are from is kind of the area where Abraham the Hebrew is from. He is called the Hebrew because he crossed over a big river, the Euphrates. Spiritually speaking, it is a big deal to cross over that river. So he is called Abraham the Hebrew, even in this passage that we read.
These guys are from the area where the Tower of Babel was built. They are from the area where Babylon is and the surrounding areas. If you know where the Euphrates River is in your geography mind of a map, there is the Euphrates, and then there is the Tigris—or “Tigris,” however you say it. If you watch Winnie the Pooh, there is a Tigger. There is a Tigris River.
These two make a very nice land between the rivers: Mesopotamia. It is very good for growing things, and it was a nice place to live, especially back in the day, for all kinds of reasons.
This is also the area between these two rivers and two other rivers where paradise was. At the beginning of Genesis, when we have the Garden of Eden, there were four rivers, and these are two of those rivers: the Euphrates and the Tigris. There is another river they think they found because they found gold at the end of it, like it says, and there is another one I think people are still looking for. These are dried-up rivers, but the two big ones are still there.
This area is very wealthy, but it has another problem. Across the side of the Euphrates River, there is a spiritual force happening. We have to go back in our history and in our minds to what we already know from Sunday school teachings and general knowledge of the Tower of Babel.
If you remember, after the flood Noah had the rainbow shown, because now rain had happened. The rainbow shows up, and it is a covenant promise with mankind. In this covenant with Noah, which is still current for mankind everywhere, God started a new thing.
One of the things He started was government. The concept of government was not there before the flood, and we see where that got everybody. Everybody could do whatever they wanted. If you killed somebody, it was not that there was a law saying you needed to go to jail. There was no jail. You did whatever you wanted to do.
Things were wild. Morality was lost, and God sent judgment to the earth. All was destroyed by the flood.
In God’s mercy, to preserve mankind from corruption—now that morality in man was fully lost, the flesh was flesh, man had become flesh, and the soul of man was morally dead at this point after the flood—God’s mercy was to give government.
The concept of government and authority originally comes from God. The principles of government are from God. He set this up, and He said things like, “If someone kills another, then they should be killed.” There is an action and a reaction for your actions. If you do something wrong, you should be stopped, so that people can live together. If you are hurting other people, you will get stopped. That is the general concept.
Satan’s reaction to this was to create a new attack on mankind. Satan created what we call the world system. This is when it began: the Tower of Babel.
Before then, sin had entered mankind, and basically all the attack that was needed was to allow sin to corrupt mankind. The flesh was developing the corruption of the soul in mankind. Satan could almost be hands-off during that time, even though lots of evil was happening.
But at this point, with government coming in to preserve people from evil against each other, Satan started a new force on the earth: the world, as we call it.
This is not the world in the sense of the people, as in, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” That is the humans. It is not the earth-world. It is the world in the sense of 1 John 2, where he says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” If you love the world, or this world system, the love of the Father is not in you. It talks about the temptations of the world: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
At the Tower of Babel, there is the man who rose up: Nimrod, the mighty warrior, the mighty hunter. He is a mighty man. Actually, he has the term “mighty man.”
This man Nimrod built the area of Babylon and the surrounding areas, like Nineveh and these other towns. He started this whole area, and he rose up as the one man who could lead all people.
All the people agreed with him to build this tower that could reach the sky and beyond. They could reach heaven; they could go beyond the sky-heaven; and they could do without God. They would not obey the covenant God made with Noah.
Remember, at this time, if you look at your timeline of who is alive, Noah is actually still alive. This is not old knowledge. Nobody wonders what the rainbow means. Everybody knows. Just a couple hundred-plus years later, the Tower of Babel is rising up, and they are rebelling.
God told Noah, just as He had told Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply. I want you to scatter on the earth and take the whole earth. When you have more kids, spread out. Do not clump together.”
Nimrod had a different idea. Backed by the force coming from Satan—this world concept—he wanted to gather everyone together. They made a building in a new way. They used bricks, the man-made way.
With bricks, you can do your own thing. With stones, it is almost God-designed. You try to build a wall—some people have walls in their front yard with stones—and it is really neat to see how you piece them together. A stone wall, I think, is beautiful.
Stone houses are kind of the only way you can build them in Jerusalem. You have to use Jerusalem stone. Some of those stones are really large. It is really neat. You cut them just to fit.
But with bricks, you can go faster and you can do more. They could throw this tower up and go higher and higher and higher. The weight of them is small. It says they burned bricks—burned them a lot—and built this tower reaching up and reaching up.
Of course, most of us know it is called the Tower of Babel because people started to babble. They started to talk strange. God’s reaction to this attack on His command to spread out was to give everyone different languages.
They started to hear each other talking as they were putting a brick in place. The person starts saying, “Bible, Bible, Bible.” “What did you say?” The whole tower got called the Tower of Babel. It is the tower of confusion. We cannot understand each other anymore.
So they had to find the other people who spoke their same language, and they went to live together. Then you have nations, clusters, and families of people spreading out into certain areas. They talk the same language and understand each other.
This was God’s mercy. This was God’s move at the Tower of Babel, stopping what Satan would eventually try to gain: to take over the whole world and bring it under one man.
Nimrod is a picture, or a type, of the Antichrist. He is really the first antichrist. As the apostle John said, there are many antichrists. Many people rise up wanting an empire.
The heart of the world is to bring one man who can bring the world together: the Antichrist. Nimrod is that man, and when the Antichrist comes, he will be a little bit like Nimrod.
The extra-biblical stuff on Nimrod is really bad. But just from what we have in the Bible, we know Nimrod tried to bring all the people together, tried to build the Tower of Babel, and God worked and stopped it.
In God’s mercy, this stopped. A little while later, people are spread out, the world is starting to get covered by mankind, and then comes the time of Abraham.
In God’s next step, He begins with Abraham. This is God’s move among humanity. Now that people are scattered out, now that there are tribes and families, the Lord says, “I will take one person and make a tribe or family as it ought to be. I will make a nation the way it should be—one that is under God, one that has relationship with Me, a family nation built as God designed it.”
He calls out Abraham. He calls him from the same area where all this corruption happened.
By Abraham’s time, even the extra-biblical diggings, findings, and writings outside the Bible agree with the Bible that it was a wealthy area. It was a place like we would think of with Babylon. The area was very nice.
But when Abraham is called out, the history is that his dad was good at money-making with idolatry, making idols, and trafficking. Abraham was growing up in this, and Abraham was called out from where he was.
The Lord calls him out. He does not tell him everything about where to go, but He calls him out across the river. Abraham did not make it across the river at first. For fifteen years, he made it up kind of to the top, where his dad finally died.
After fifteen years, his dad died. Then he crossed the river and got delivered from what was beyond the Euphrates River.
What is beyond the Euphrates River is not just towns and places where people are wealthy and trading. What he was delivered from was the center of the world’s power, spiritually speaking.
Babylon shows up throughout the Scriptures. We remember the history of the Israelites, when Babylon took Jerusalem and brought them across the Euphrates River to this area and gave them a comfortable life.
The world, even from Babylon, crept in in a deceitful way, which is always how the world works. They did not even have to stop being Jews, and they did not have to stop worshiping God. But by making it very easy, synagogues came up, many easy things came up, and even when God made a way for the Israelites to be delivered and return to rebuild the temple and worship God as He wanted them to worship, most everybody said, “We are very comfortable where we are. This is a good land.” They stayed in Babylon.
Throughout the ages, there has been a battle between Babylon and, basically, Jerusalem. At the very end of Revelation—there is a lot in Revelation—but in Revelation 16, the Euphrates River is dried up to make way for kings to travel on the king’s highway and come through for the last battle of Armageddon.
Revelation has a whole chapter-plus dedicated to Babylon the Great and the destruction of Babylon, and it has two chapters dedicated to the New Jerusalem. You see these two cities in Scripture, but behind these two physical cities is a spiritual battle raging.
Back to the geography of things: if you are looking north, where the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are, in Babylon and those areas, you travel over to where Abraham went. Then, kind of above Damascus, you start to go down from there, and you arrive at the Promised Land.
You hit the Jordan River, and the Jordan River ends at the Salt Sea, or the Dead Sea, because nothing lives there. To the west—never eat shredded wheat—to the west of the Dead Sea and Jordan is Jerusalem and the main portion of the Promised Land.
To the east is a highway, starting kind of up in Damascus, called the King’s Highway. It travels down. It is a known thing outside the Bible, and it is in the Bible a few times as well. If you look at maps, you will see the King’s Highway. If you go there today, you can drive on part of it. When the Romans built roads, they included parts of the King’s Highway as well.
The King’s Highway goes from where these people near the Euphrates would travel, leading all the way through and beyond the Promised Land, through a desert-ish place, to Egypt. It was very good for trafficking, merchandising, and selling things to other people.
Especially with Egypt—another great land to live in, another empire force, and another picture of the world—there was traffic between these two realms. It was called the King’s Highway.
These four kings had come down before Abraham got to the Promised Land, just about fifteen years before—a little less. If Abraham had obeyed God originally, he would have been there when these kings came and conquered the five kings. Maybe some of the sorrow would have been stopped. Maybe God was calling him at that time to preserve that area where He wanted him.
But Abraham delayed. The four kings came and made the five kings their servants. They probably taxed them, and they were under them.
Eventually, after thirteen years, these five kings—including Sodom and Gomorrah, the famous ones we know—got tired of being slaves. They got tired of being cities under the big cities across the Euphrates River. They wanted not to be bound by the other side of the Euphrates, so they shook them off.
They probably stopped sending the taxes. That is most likely how Chedorlaomer knew. They stopped sending the things, or however he found out. A year later, he came back through.
It is interesting: the way he came back through was the King’s Highway, all the way down. Most likely, he and the other four kings were doing more than just taking back these five towns. They were gaining the King’s Highway for their own.
Every place that is mentioned, besides the five kings they conquered, is along this path. You wonder, “Why do they beat these guys up? Why do they fight them?” It is all along this path. It also shows us something about the fierceness of these kings.
There is really cool stuff outside the Bible about these kings that people have found and think. One of them is thought to be like the god of war from stories at the same time. But just from the Bible, we see how fierce these kings were in battle.
I think they were not only warriors in physical battle, but remember that they were coming from the spiritual force and foundation of Babylon. They had the backing of the dark side. They had the backing of the evil realm of the world force, wanting to connect the King’s Highway so the world system could grow larger and more people could be included in this one empire.
They came through and fought the Rephaim. Remember, the Rephaim were giants. It is the same place where giants show up later. Over four hundred years later, remember King Og of Bashan? That is the same spot. He was there as a giant and had to be fought with Joshua.
They fought the Zuzim, or the Zamzummim, another section of giants. These are the half-man, half-angel breed of huge warriors, mighty men. Then they fought the Emim, another name for giants.
It specifically mentions these people, I think, to show us that these were fierce people. They defeated giants right there. Whatever power was behind them, they were nothing to be messed with lightly.
Then the five kings rose up. After the four kings had gone through their whole battle and gained ground almost close to Egypt—or at least in that wilderness—they came back through and took these cities. These cities were at the bottom of the Dead Sea in a pretty good land, which is why Lot chose to live there in Sodom.
They came back through and battled with them. There was a place, as there is today, with slimy pits. Unfortunately, even though the Sodomites and Gomorrahites—I do not know how you say it—were from that area, a lot of them were defeated by their own land.
They were no match for these four kings. The four kings versus the five kings: the five kings lost, and Lot lost out.
See the experience happening with the force—probably, spiritually speaking—of the world. We know that whenever empire battles are happening, more is happening in the spiritual realm than is happening on the land.
We know this from the book of Daniel. Other empires would rise up. Eventually, the Babylonian Empire would rise up. But when these empires would switch, as you read in Daniel, there would be a fight in the spiritual realm between principalities.
You have the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece. You have these beings fighting each other in the spiritual realm, which is why Daniel’s twenty-one days of prayer were twenty-one days: Gabriel was delayed in the air, caught up in a battle between these principalities.
The empires were trying to switch, so there was a spiritual battle happening in the air. I think at this time, with these four kings trying to gain the King’s Highway and regain the world, the foundation of Babel was still there. The Nimrod style was still there. They were trying to get the empire back and bring the world system to control mankind.
As they were doing this, I think something was happening in the spiritual realm. In all that time, what was happening with God’s people? We have one person: Melchizedek.
Melchizedek was standing there as a testimony in Salem. This place, Salem, means peace. Later on, it was called Jerusalem. Jerusalem is even called Salem one time in a psalm—I think Psalm 76.
Jerusalem means the foundations are Salem. The foundation was Salem, the foundation of peace. This was a name from the Jebusites. When David came to take the city, the Jebusites had taken it over a thousand years later. When David finally took the city, they were calling it Jerusalem, but even corrupt people could say that the foundation of this place was Salem.
There was a king in this city: Melchizedek. His name, or title, is king of righteousness. The word for righteousness is zedek, and the word for king is melek, so you have Melchizedek: king of righteousness. But he is also king of Salem, so he is king of peace.
In Hebrews, it plays on this on purpose. I think the Holy Spirit shows us this double-sidedness of our Lord Jesus. He is the King of righteousness—the very Person Himself—but the realm of His kingdom is the kingdom of peace.
This man stood there as a testimony. The four kings never tried to take over Salem, as far as we know. We do not know hardly anything of the story except what we read.
But I would like to imagine for a second, based on other parts of Scripture, what might have been happening spiritually. If Melchizedek was the priest of God Most High, what would he be doing during this time? Knowing what was happening, he must have heard. His city was not too far off.
We have to imagine that, as a priest, he prayed. As one who was a high priest, like our Lord Jesus, the Melchizedek, he was praying for God’s interests. He cared about what God cared about.
Most likely, God set him there as a foundational testimony, saying, “There is Babylon, but I have Jerusalem, and I will take My stand right here.”
Soon after the Tower of Babel, I do not know when Melchizedek got there, or when Salem became a city of peace ruled by a kingly priest of God Most High. But at this point, it was a city that defied Babylon. It was the opposite of Babylon. It was the city as it should be, God’s foundationally right way to have a city.
This king could even have been a title, as though all the kings were called Melchizedek. Later, with the Jebusites, their king was called Adoni-zedek, meaning lord of righteousness. You have king of righteousness and lord of righteousness.
The Egyptian kings were all called Pharaoh, even though they had other names. There was Abimelech, like the father-king. Sometimes these names are titles. But either way, it would be cool if it were his name or cool if it were his title. It means the same thing: he is Melchizedek.
He was standing there as a testimony, most likely praying for what was going on. As all this capturing was happening, hope against hope, imagine Melchizedek still there, praying and interceding for the Lord’s interests.
I do not know if he knew what would happen with the Promised Land, but probably in his spiritual sensing he knew to pray for this to stop—for the dominion from Babylon’s area not to lay hold of this area, for the people across the Euphrates River not to own the people in this area.
As he was praying, maybe he knew about Abraham, who had just shown up within a year or so. But he was praying and standing. A lot of times, as a priest, your work is to pray.
Remember Daniel praying for twenty-one days. His prayers mattered because there was a battle going on in the spiritual realm. Prayer matters first in these battles, especially because these kinds of people are not going to be beaten just by sword skills or bow-and-arrow skills. There is something behind them.
If they only had sword skills, they would have been beaten by the giants most likely. They would not have made it through. But they had another power backing them up.
The prayer life of Melchizedek behind this was a main fight happening. It was like when Joshua fought the Amalekites and Moses stood with his hands lifted in the air, praying. When he was praying, that was when the battle was winning. When his hands got tired, that was when Joshua started to lose.
This is the picture of what is really happening, because the spiritual fight matters first.
The other man of God in the area, the friend of God, was Abraham. Abraham got a message from Lot. One of Lot’s people escaped from the battle, came through, and told Abraham the Hebrew what had happened.
Abraham had a mere three hundred and eighteen trained warriors in his household. I think it is a small number, but it depends on your training, and it depends on whether you are with Abraham or not. Abraham was a friend of God, so this was a big deal.
They also had Melchizedek praying. They headed out to battle almost without blinking, it seems, almost without thinking of Abraham’s own life. He went for it.
For days, he traveled north and found them as far as Dan, at the top of the northern part of the Promised Land, where the tribe of Dan would later inherit. He found them and attacked by night. Pretty smart.
Most likely, the four kings were enjoying their spoils, maybe organizing them—color-coding them, I do not know. They had probably been partying. But it was nighttime; people were asleep. Abraham and his ninjas attacked at night.
They defeated these four kings with so much power. The battle is described in Genesis 14 as though there was hardly a battle. It is not that Abraham had many losses. It is as though they just beat them, the kings started to run, and Abraham chased them.
If they only had three hundred and eighteen people, that is not many. They had some of Abraham’s friends around, people living near him, but it does not seem like they were that big a group either.
They chased the kings as far as Damascus in the north. Then they left off the chase and started to run back. They not only gained the people; they gained all the spoils of war. They got everything. They probably got more than the spoils. They probably got the spoils of those warriors. They probably took their shoes and everything.
Abraham was coming back. He was at the northern part and had to come all the way down to the bottom of the Dead Sea to drop Lot off. On the way, you pass through Jerusalem.
There is a place on the other side of Jerusalem called the King’s Valley. This is the place where our Lord Jesus, the King of kings, prayed on the night when He was about to be crucified. He prayed, “Not My will, but Your will be done.” This is the King’s Valley.
This is the same valley where, when the Lord returns, He will cross through to enter the city of Jerusalem. This is the King’s Valley.
Probably it was called the King’s Valley because it was Melchizedek’s valley. As Abraham crossed through this spot, the king of Sodom came up from the south. He was coming to thank him and tempt him, probably accidentally. Sodom was so corrupt.
There is the famous story of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by fire. Sodom even means the flaming place, the fireplace. It is fitting that their destruction was by fire.
The king of Sodom came up. He was not a righteous king like Melchizedek. He was about to meet Abraham in the King’s Valley.
Right then, it does not say anything about Melchizedek traveling. It just says Melchizedek stepped forward. Melchizedek came and met Abraham. If Melchizedek was in Jerusalem, that would be easy because that was his city. He just walked out his door, and Abraham was right there.
He met Abraham at a crucial time. Not only had he probably been praying, but now he was about to help Abraham in a major way.
With Melchizedek’s prayer, you wonder how he was praying. We can base it a little on the experiences not only of our Lord Jesus but also of Abraham and his style of praying. I wonder whether Abraham learned some of this kingly-priestly ministry from his experience with Melchizedek.
Remember the other circumstance with Sodom: not when Sodom was trapped, but when Sodom was about to be burned with fire. Abraham, the friend of God, was standing there. Three angels came and met with him, and then one stayed behind.
This is one of those theophanies. It was probably an appearance of the Lord before He came physically as a human, because suddenly the angel’s name is the Lord. Suddenly, when Abraham is talking to the angel, he is actually talking to the Lord.
The Lord was talking with Abraham and thinking, “Should I tell My friend what is going to happen?” This is God’s way. I think Melchizedek was probably God’s friend as well. But with Abraham, He asked, “Should I tell My friend?” And He told Abraham.
He told Abraham for a reason: because He knew Abraham would do the priestly ministry. God was praying for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was not on the Lord’s heart simply to burn them up in destruction. His way is mercy.
He had mercy for so long. He even had mercy in letting them be taken captive by the four kings and then delivered. He gave them a second chance to realize that their corruption was no good and led only to destruction. But they would not repent.
So He told Abraham that He was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knew God’s heart. He was a friend of God, and he was a kingly priest with his own nation there.
Remember, Abraham made altars wherever he went, sacrificing and worshiping God. He was a real priest. Abraham prayed, “If there are some righteous there…” He went down in numbers all the way to ten.
“What if there are ten people? Do not be mad at me for asking for more.” He kept going down and down: “Lord, if it is permitted, do not be angry, but I just want to ask for more.” Of course, the Lord was not angry. He was just saying, “Keep going.”
He went down to ten and stopped there. “If there are ten righteous in Sodom, do not destroy it.” God said, “I will not destroy it for ten righteous.”
There happened to be only one righteous person: Lot. Lot is actually called righteous in the New Testament. It says righteous Lot was deeply bothered by all the corruption in Sodom.
Lot represents a Christian, but a Christian living in Sodom. Later in Scripture, Sodom is used as the picture of ultimate moral corruption. Sodom is the original picture used throughout the rest of Scripture.
Abraham prayed. God heard the heart of his prayer, and He rescued Lot. Maybe Melchizedek prayed in the same way: “Lord, are there any righteous among these five kings and among the spoils that were taken?” The Lord found Lot, delivered Lot, and sent the message to Abraham.
Now Abraham was at the King’s Valley. The king of Sodom was coming to meet him, all happy and smiley. Just before he got to Abraham, out stepped Melchizedek.
He shared bread and wine with Abraham and refreshed him. He blessed him:
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.”
At least at this time, the Lord had a testimony on earth: Melchizedek’s city. Abraham was wandering and traveling. In a way, wherever Abraham was, the Lord possessed the earth; but definitely there was Jerusalem.
Melchizedek called Him the possessor of heaven and earth. He broke bread with Abraham, blessed him, blessed the Lord, and praised the Lord for the victory God gave.
Something happened during this experience. When the king of Sodom came up to Abraham, he said, “I will just take the people. Thank you for delivering them. Keep all the spoils. Keep all the good stuff. Keep all the money. This is a lot of money. Keep everything else.”
Abraham answered properly. He quoted from Melchizedek. He said, “I have given myself over to God Most High.” Something happened when he met Melchizedek—something that preserved him.
He gave a tenth, a tithe, to Melchizedek. This tenth especially represents all stuff. It represents one hundred percent. “I give my all to the Lord, to God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.”
Melchizedek was a priest, and you would give tithes to him. Abraham gave himself to the Lord, and he said, “I have given myself to God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.”
Think about that title: He owns it all. He owns things beyond the sky, and He owns things on the earth. He possesses it. Whatever jewels the king of Sodom could offer from the spoils were nothing. Everything is owned by God Most High.
Abraham was willingly owned by Him as well. He was Abraham’s King, Abraham’s Lord. Abraham was under God, under God Most High. “I gave it all to Him. He is the possessor of heaven and earth.”
He said, “Far be it from me to take anything. Otherwise, you would say that you made me rich.” But it would be the Lord who made him rich, so he did not take anything.
Of course, the warriors in his group had eaten some food, so they could not throw it up. They could have the food they ate, and the people with him could do their thing. But Abraham had his testimony. This is a big deal.
Right afterwards, probably Abraham was afraid. Right after a victory, this usually happens. Abraham was there in Genesis 15, just after the first verse we read.
The Lord spoke directly to him and said, “Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. I am your shield. I am the One protecting you.”
Those fierce four kings across the Euphrates River—it was shocking that Abraham had ever beaten them. Abraham knew afterwards, although at the time the anointing was probably on him and he just did it, without thinking about himself or his trained warriors.
But after it was all done, he was like, “What have I done? I know what they are like. I used to live over there. I know what these kings are like. This is where I came from, Ur of the Chaldeans. This is where my family is from. They will destroy me.”
The Lord said, “I am your protection, and I am your reward.”
Probably Abraham was sorrowful slightly, or the temptation was lingering in his heart. The thought was there: “Why did you give up all those spoils from Sodom? It is the normal thing to do. You won the battle. They should at least pay something. It is natural. It is the ways of the land.”
But the ways of God are, “I am your reward.”
After that, in Genesis 15, the Lord showed Abraham his descendants through the stars and the sand. Abraham finally talked back to the Lord about His promise. Before, he was just like, “All right, I am with it. You are going to give me lots of kids.” Now he was saying, “All I have right now is this servant, my steward. Am I going to give everything to my steward?”
The Lord said, “No, it is actually going to be from your body. You are going to have a baby, and through your seed I am going to bless all the nations.”
This is the chapter in Genesis 15 where we get the phrase:
“And he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him for righteousness.”
Basically, this is when Abraham definitely was saved, if we look at it from a Christian perspective. This phrase is used three times in the New Testament, speaking about belief and when we are made righteous. It is by faith.
Before anything happened, before Abraham sacrificed Isaac and proved his faith, before he had a baby—everything—it was by faith that Abraham was saved.
Here are the experiences from the story of Melchizedek, the king and priest. But what can we learn from it for ourselves? Where are we in this story? Who do you think you are?
I think some of us have been Lot. Maybe some of us right now are Lot. I really believe Lot represents a Christian—a Christian who is not walking as he should.
Lot gave up the right path when he selfishly wanted his own kingdom. His servants and his wealth were too big to hang out with Abraham. They did not have enough room. The Lord let him go his way. He chose his path and went into Sodom.
He lost all his stuff. There is no value in trying to gain the world for a believer. For an unbeliever, even in this time period, you may be able to gain a little happiness, although it all leads to destruction. But especially for a believer trying to live in Sodom, it just tortures him.
The New Testament says his righteous soul was in agony there. He was not happy. He was bothered all the time. He could not find husbands for his daughters. The men were not even interested in girls. Everything was corrupt. Everything was bad in Sodom, and he lived there.
He was not accepted. When he tried to tell them, “Do not hurt these angels,” they said, “Who are you to tell us anything? Are you going to take charge of us?” They did not respect him.
Have you ever found yourself in that circumstance, where you are distant from the Lord and have been taken captive? It feels as though you cannot get free. The four kings have captured you. The power of the world has gripped you. There is no way you can escape.
It is true: there is no way you can escape, except that there is a Melchizedek praying. There is Someone alive right now, interceding for you.
Even in the time when you are so trapped in the world, Someone is praying for you. I would say that more than just the Lord Jesus is praying for you, but have you ever realized that Christ is alive and He is praying for you right now?
In the time when you are away from the Lord, He prays for you. In the time when you are trapped and it looks like all hope is gone—when you are all the way north of the Promised Land and about to be brought over the Euphrates River, when escape seems impossible—Someone is praying for you against all hope.
There was one time Lot was delivered from Sodom when the fire came. The prayers of Abraham, and the prayers of the Lord, who was really praying for him, delivered him.
But Lot had no action. Even when the angels came to deliver Lot, they could not get him out of the house. They could not talk him into it. He said, “No, stay.” Then he wanted to pack up all his stuff, maybe. I do not know what he was doing, but he would not leave.
Eventually, it got so close to the time, and all these people were trying to come into the house to grab the angels. The angels blinded those people and just grabbed Lot’s hand.
It is really touching. It is as if the Lord had to grab Lot’s hand. This was probably a massive, muscular angel, and Lot probably had a potbelly by that time. But picture this angel grabbing Lot’s hand.
When grown men grab each other’s hands in America, it is awkward. But I think at that time it was not weird. It was just like, “Yes, please pull me out of here. This is all I can do but slip out of Your hand-grip.”
Lot got pulled out. His daughters came, and his wife came. Sometimes, when you are a Lot and you are trapped, because of the prayers going on, you just get pulled out.
There is no explaining it. Sometimes you just snap out of it. Something weird will happen. It may be a sign on the street. It may be nothing that we would think would help you. You may have a dream and wake up, and everything is different. You may sneeze and suddenly think, “I am a Christian, aren’t I?”
It is weird, but when the Lord delivers you as a Lot trapped in a place about to be destroyed by fire, it is as if He grabs your hand and pulls you out. That happens sometimes.
But if you wait for that, it does not always work. Something helpful, if you find yourself in that circumstance, is to send a message to Abraham.
How many of us, when we are in our Lot mode and trapped by the four kings, want someone to help us deep down? But there is a problem on our side: we never send the messenger to let the Abrahams know.
Abraham does not know everything. A messenger came from Lot: “I am trapped. Help me.”
I want to encourage you: if you are in that spot, if you are in the spot of a sick sheep, cry out. If you are hurt and wounded and need help, if you need someone to pray with you or talk to you, do not just wait for someone to grab you and say, “I had an idea,” or “I had a dream about you.” Let somebody know.
Even people who seem to be neglecting everyone else, once you let them know, suddenly there are three hundred and eighteen trained men in their household. Suddenly, they do not think anything of themselves.
They may be busy with all of life, their cattle, and their stuff, but when somebody cries out like Lot, suddenly all the Abrahams in the room will rise up. Forgetting everything, they will travel for days and fight during the night, losing their sleep.
I think there are many Abrahams in the room who would be willing to rescue the Lots if they just got the message.
I want to encourage you: if you are a Lot, do not hold it all in. Be willing to say—you do not even have to give the details—but be willing to cry out to somebody, “Help me. I am trapped.”
If you will do this, the Lord will send Abraham. The Lord will embolden Abraham with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, send him forth, and rescue you in an amazing way.
It is the Lord who will deliver you, but He loves to use His people. He loves to use His people to minister to each other. He loves to use the body of Christ.
It is true that we may have a lack of someone checking up on another. I think it is because Abraham has so many cattle, so many sheep, and so much stuff. The cares of life mean that, even though you may be praying for someone, you may not know what is going on.
But I believe that if you let someone know, they will travel, they will help, they will lose their time, and they will spend and be spent for a fellow believer.
What if you are Abraham, though? I think sometimes we might be Abrahams. Thank God, by His grace, the Lord might use you to help another person. You are in the race, walking by faith, trying to possess the land, trying to follow in the right way.
But you will fail if you do not realize that we have Someone praying for us. We have a high priest ever living to intercede for us.
You may not realize that when you fought that battle and helped that person, Someone was praying for you. You were strengthened because the Lord Jesus was praying for you.
When temptation comes, when the king of Sodom comes at you tempting you with the world, your way through is that the Lord will step down in that King’s Valley and refresh you.
Right as the temptation comes—it always happens—He has been praying for you. This priestly ministry of Melchizedek happens right before temptation. He strengthens you. He blesses you. He refreshes you and breaks bread with you.
At the breaking of bread, all things are remembered. At the breaking of bread, you see the vision of the High Priest.
At this point, Abraham sees the foundations of the city that has God’s foundations. He sees the New Jerusalem. Maybe this is when Abraham had that vision, what the New Testament talks about. Maybe this was when Abraham saw something of eternal value, something of what God was going to do.
He was not just looking at a physical place. He saw something at the breaking of bread.
This is not merely an experience that happens when we are together, though I think it really does happen when we are together. It is also an experience in your own time, where the Lord comes.
The Lord’s ministry right now, based on the ministry He did at the cross and the work He finished there, is to minister to us, pray for us, and strengthen us to overcome temptation.
He comes and brings you back to sight, so you can see: you are not in this alone. We have Someone praying for us right now. We really have Someone who is praying for us.
I was going through my notes and read a note from one of my prayers, written one night when I really felt the king of Sodom coming at me. I read that note this morning. It said, “Lord, are You praying for me right now?”
I remember that experience. It was as if the Lord was speaking to me about this ministry, and I realized, “Are You praying for me right now? Because I feel like I will give in. I feel like I am going to fail. Are You praying for me right now?”
The Lord gave me this word in Hebrews 7: He is always interceding for you, and He is praying right now. It is at the time when you are the weakest that the Lord is praying for you. It is at that time that He will meet you.
In 1 John 2, he says he is writing these things about walking in the light and confessing your sins, so that you will not sin. But if you mess up, do not forget that we have One, an Advocate with the Father, standing there alive.
He is the provision for your sins: Jesus Christ the Righteous One, the King of righteousness, the King of peace.
That night, I said, “Lord, You are praying for me. How do I do this?” I saw: “You give your tithe.”
What was Abraham’s experience? His reaction was that he realized the Lord sent Melchizedek right then, just in time. What is your reaction to experiencing the ministry of the King of righteousness and the King of peace?
How do you get into His realm, domain, and kingdom? How do you enter into the New Jerusalem area? How do you experience it? You give your ten percent. You consecrate your all to the Lord.
You can do this without the feeling of it. You just say, “Lord, I cannot overcome, but I give myself to You, who are praying for me.”
At that point, you enter in experience into the realm of the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. You enter into the realm of Melchizedek’s city, which has the foundation of peace.
Suddenly, everything is peaceful and in order. Suddenly, you are where you should be. You are in the place you ought to be. You are not disturbed and bothered.
When the king of Sodom comes, when temptation comes, when the failure that is about to happen comes, you just know. You say, “I have given myself over to the King of kings, to the King of righteousness, to the King of peace. I have given myself over to God Most High.”
This is your testimony and your stance. You say, “He is the possessor of heaven and earth. What does the world have for me?”
You can say some of this out loud. You can quote Scriptures. But behind it is, “I gave my ten percent. I was refreshed by the Lord.” With that strengthening, you say, “I will not have a bit of the world’s goods. I will not have any of it. The Lord will give me everything, and the Lord is my portion.”
Even after the temptation, even after everything, He comes to us and reminds us, “I am your protection.” It is not what you can do, and it is not your three hundred and eighteen trained men.
They have been trained. You have materials. You have had a history. You know some things. You even know how to overcome. You know some stuff. But it is because of Me, alive and praying right now, that you can do it.
There is no way you can do it. The most mature Christian cannot overcome without our Melchizedek praying for us right now, without our Melchizedek meeting us in the valley—in the King’s Valley.
This is where He meets us constantly. We need to see Him: the vision of Christ as the kingly priest praying for us.
The way we especially enjoy the benefits of His prayers is to give our ten percent. I am not talking merely about physical aspects of giving ten percent. I am talking about what it means: you give your all to the Lord.
Like the song we sang before we started:
“I dare not be defeated,
Just at the set of sun,
When Jesus waits to whisper,
‘Well done, beloved, well done.’”
This is the heart cry of an Abraham who has been helped by Melchizedek—the priestly ministry of our Lord Jesus right now.
Deep down, we all feel this: “I do not want to be defeated. While He is praying for me right now, I want His prayers to be answered. I want to respond and be active in allowing the Lord’s priestly ministry to be upon me, praying for me and strengthening me.”
This morning, I just want to encourage us: someone is praying for you.
Not only is the Lord praying for you; there are people praying for you. You would not believe who is praying for you. People you think do not like you probably pray for you, because they ought to pray for their enemies.
We heard on Friday night in our Bible study from our brother Enoch about his Sunday school teacher when he was young in Shanghai. She would always come bother him at his house and make him pray with her before she would leave, and he was not saved at the time.
She was put into prison under the communists in China, and she prayed for him the whole time. He moved away, went on his path, and eventually got saved.
She got out of prison, found his mom, and the first thing she asked was, “Did Enoch get saved?” When he shared, it was very touching because he realized, “She was praying for me all that time. I had no idea.”
I think that is going on with a lot of us. You do not know who is praying for you.
Be encouraged. Even though you may feel neglected sometimes, and you may feel like a Lot with no hope—you are captured, and no one is coming to help you—send forth a message. Ask someone to help you. Be encouraged, because people are praying, and the Lord is praying for you.
Let’s pray.
Lord, it is so wonderful, just the revelation that You pray for us right now and that You are with us. You do not leave us alone. You meet us right in the time before temptation and in the time when we are doubting everything.
There is no temptation that You do not strengthen us for. Lord, we just worship You. We give our ten percent to You. We really give ourselves to God Most High, the One who owns all in heaven and all on earth.
Lord, we confess You as our Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.