Thru the Bible

Steve Sweets: It’s a great day to study God’s Word together. Welcome to Thru the Bible, where Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes us on an exciting ride on the Bible bus. Now, at this point in our journey, it feels a little like the Wild West. We'll hear about a kidnapping and how the good guys chase the bad guys through the wilderness.

Then we'll meet a stranger who comes out of nowhere, a stranger whom Jesus will be identified with hundreds of years later. Sounds crazy, but I think you're going to love it. So as you turn in your Bible to Genesis 14:12, Greg and I have some stories of fellow listeners who were flinging the seed of God’s Word in their neighborhoods and communities.

Greg: Oh, and we absolutely love to hear about this because we don't want this to be a one-way ministry where we're just playing Dr. McGee's teachings and you're just sitting there absorbing them. We want people to get out and minister.

So let's hear from Sandy in Mercer Island, Washington, who writes: "Please send 20 Bible bus passes. They are a great tool to give after witnessing about Jesus and the good news. My last six cards were given to Muslims. A man from Uzbekistan, after hearing me talk about the basic Old Testament stories of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and the Prophet Isaiah, asked me, 'How do you know all this?' I said, 'From the Bible.' He gladly took the card from me after receiving prayers for him and his family. Thank you for helping me share in the ministry of giving out the Word of God to the world. TTB is going to the world and the world is coming right to our backyard." Love that.

Steve Sweets: Amen. Next we've got a listener named Catherine who shares this: "I look forward to jumping on the Bible bus each day. I'm learning so much from listening to His Word and to Dr. J. Vernon McGee's comments, explanations, and exhortations to rejoice. At times, my cup overflows and I cannot contain my joy. In the evening, I curl up with my laptop, download the day's broadcast, and wait as the cat joins me.

When he hears the introductory bumper music, he snuggles closely, shuts his eyes, and visibly relaxes. I do too. As Texans, we find Dr. McGee's drawl soothing and safe. In addition, I find the lessons answer my long-held questions and then stimulate even more. I wait knowing God will answer these new questions, usually quickly and always clearly.

I have endless questions; God has perfect answers. My fellow Bible bus riders and the World Prayer Team emails inspire me as a college professor carefully navigating through this academic environment. I am learning how to fling the seed by simply being a role model for happiness and joy. It amazes me repeatedly how God sows and waters these seeds. Students find me semesters later to share their stories, professors too."

Greg: Wow. I mean, we often talk about people that we have listening to Thru the Bible or watching on TV in hostile environments, but we know academia is a very hostile environment to the gospel these days.

Steve Sweets: Yeah, absolutely. I love how she almost euphemistically says, "carefully navigating through this academic environment," where Christians are often not portrayed in the best light and you're limited on what you can say as a believer. But I love that she has that passion to fling the seed.

And also, we just want to make sure people know the Bible bus passes that were referred to by Sandy, who gave out 20 of them, are little business cards. They have a QR code and it leads you to not only the English app, but all of the other language apps that we have out there. So it's a great way to share with people that may or may not speak another language.

Greg: Yes, I always have two or three in my wallet.

Steve Sweets: Greg, let me pray for us as we begin. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the opportunity we have to listen to Your Word. I pray that You would speak to each one of us as we open it together with Thru the Bible. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now if you've found your place in the Bible at Genesis 14, we're putting in at verse 12 today. Now we saw last time the first war, and I found myself very hesitant because I did not know how far to go into it. Now I feel that we should not probably develop a section like that too much, but here is a very interesting sideline for somebody to follow through and you'll find it very absorbing and very interesting.

This is a historical document that tells of a war, the first war that's recorded. I do not know whether it was the first war that ever took place. I don't think that's the intention of the writer. The purpose here is because Lot is involved, the nephew of Abraham. But we find that the kings of the East defeat the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. And frankly, they evidently had fought before because they had them in subjection and they'd reached the place where they had rebelled.

Now the thing that had happened was that Lot lived in Sodom, and Lot was taken captive. And Abraham goes out and defeats the kings of the East and delivers Lot. And the question arises, how could he do it? Well, let's look at this. And as I suggested before, that when the kings of the East left the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, they moved north along the West Bank of the Dead Sea. And frankly, it's not too far from Hebron and Mamre where Abraham was dwelling.

You can stand where Abraham stood in that day and you can see any movement that takes place down toward the Dead Sea. And so when word was brought to Abraham, and it was brought to him, he immediately began to pursue the enemy as he moved north. Now will you notice this: "And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed." Now that's Genesis 14:12, and that's the reason this war is significant to the record here.

It reveals what Abraham is going to do in connection with his nephew. Now verse 13: "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." Now you see Abram has a group of men that are with him. Actually, they had to stand together in that day because of the pursuit of an enemy or the approach of an enemy, and there was safety in numbers, or they either had to hang together or hang separately.

Now the thing that's startling here to us is this, and it reveals something of the extent of Abraham's possessions. Verse 14 of Genesis 14: "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." Dan's up in the north. Now, three hundred and eighteen. That gives you some conception of the number of servants that Abraham had in his own household.

He could arm three hundred and eighteen. Well, how many did he have that he couldn't arm? For instance, women and children, the old folk. But he could arm three hundred and eighteen. Now he's carrying on quite a business in that area raising cattle and sheep and that type of thing. Now verse 15: "He divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left bank of Damascus."

Now you see he pursued them all the way north to Damascus. Now that's quite a stretch. What Abraham apparently did here, he divided his servants and one group would make an attack from the rear as they were pursuing them. The other group went around. And when the enemy turned to fight the first group, he'd come down upon them. And as a result, he was able to get a victory. At least he was able to scatter them so that they fled across the desert and left the people they had captured in the booty.

Now he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. You see, they were taking the women and the people as slaves. Now Abraham has done a tremendous thing, of course, and he did it because of his nephew Lot. That is it, very definitely, and that's the reason that all of this is mentioned here. I would say for this reason and another reason we'll see when we get into the next chapter, Abraham very definitely is not having a chapter put in here that's extraneous.

It's along with the life of Abraham and very important. Now it's very important for what follows. Notice: "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." The king of Sodom went out to meet him. Now someone else is going to come out and meet Abram, and it's a good thing that he did because the king of Sodom is putting him in grave danger—at least temptation.

Now will you notice verse 18: "And even 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." And I have several questions here, and I'm sure that you do. To begin with, my point is where in the world did this man Melchizedek come from?

He just walks out on the pages of scripture with bread and wine and he blesses Abraham, and he walks off of the pages of scripture, and that's it. And I wonder where he came from and I wonder where he's going and I wonder what his business is. And I find out he's king of Salem, but he's also priest of the most high God. Now I have another question: how did he find out about the most high God? Well, he found out somewhere. El Elyon, the most high God, the creator of heaven and earth.

In other words, the living God, the God of Genesis 1, the God of Noah, the God of Enoch. This is the one, not a local deity. And Lupold in his book on Genesis says this is strictly a monotheistic conception. And Dr. Zwemer in his origin of religion says this reveals there was monotheism before polytheism. In other words, all men had a knowledge of the living and true God. And Paul says, "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God."

And what did they do? They became vain and down they went and began to worship the creature more than the creator. But here is a man who is high priest, and he's high priest for the world of that day. Now he had a knowledge of the living and true God. He was a priest of the living and true God, and he comes out and he brings bread and wine to Abraham. And those are the elements of the Lord's Supper. And I wonder what he had in mind. How much did Melchizedek know?

Well Melchizedek is mentioned three times in scripture. We have him mentioned in the 110th Psalm; that's prophetic: "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Now when we get to Hebrews, he's mentioned several times, which means we'll dwell on him more when we get to Hebrews again. But let me just say this: that now I know why that nothing is said about his origin. Nothing is said about his papa and his mama, and that's strange because the book of Genesis is the book of families.

It tells about the beginnings of these families. And every time you have a man mentioned that's important here in the line as this man Melchizedek is, his papa and mama's mentioned. He's the son of so-and-so, or these are the generations of so-and-so. And we don't have the generations of Melchizedek. Why don't we? Well, the writer to the Hebrews makes that very clear. The reason is that he had no father or mother, beginning or ending of days, because later on the priesthood of Christ in its inception is after the order of Melchizedek.

But after the order of service, it follows the order of Aaron in what our Lord did in the service like the sacrifice of himself and entering the Holy of Holies which is heaven today. But in his person, our Lord had no beginning or end of days as far as creation is concerned. He is the eternal God who came out of heaven's glory. And the Word was made flesh and we beheld his glory, John said.

So what you have here is a marvelous picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and he brings forth bread and wine. I know now why he does it, because our Lord says, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show forth the Lord's death till he come." And Melchizedek is remembering the death of Christ here, and on that basis he blesses Abraham. "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, El Elohim, the creator."

And this man is the high priest in that day of the world, and the Lord Jesus is the great high priest for the world today. And the Lord Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek, not Aaron here. But Aaron was just for Israel and for just a tabernacle, and it gives us some marvelous picture. But in his person, he is after the order of Melchizedek. Now that is important to see. And we're told here, verse 20: "And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."

And Abraham paid tithes to him here at the very beginning. And why did he know about paying tithes? All right, we move on. "And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself." This is the temptation. According to the code of Hammurabi that day, this man Abram had a perfect right to the booty and even the persons. But the king of Sodom is clever. He says, "Give us the persons, you take the booty, it's yours." And that was a temptation to Abraham.

And forever after, the king of Sodom, when anybody'd say, "My, that man Abram is certainly a wealthy man, God has blessed him," and I think that the king of Sodom would say, "Bless him your foot. God didn't bless him. I gave it to him. I'm the one who made him rich." Abraham knew that. And listen to Abraham now: "Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth."

You see, he's still under the influence and the blessing of Melchizedek. And it's a good thing he met Melchizedek. God always prepares us for any temptation that comes to us. And he says he'll never let any come to us that we're not able to bear. And so he'd prepared Abraham for this. Listen to Abraham now: "That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, a shoe string, and that I'll not take anything that's thine, lest thou should say, I've made Abram rich."

You see Abraham, when he started out, he made a covenant with God. He said, "Oh God, I'm not entering this war in order to get booty. I'm not after possessions. I want to restore and recover my nephew Lot." And God permitted him. And now Abram tells the king of Sodom. This is a witness to the king. He said, "I worship the living and true God, and I've taken an oath. I wouldn't take anything and you can't make me rich. I won't even let you give me a shoe string or piece of thread, because even if you did that, you'd run around and say you made me rich. But you didn't. If I get rich, God'll have to do it, of course."

Now will you notice verse 24: "Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion." Now these others, they have a right to it, they can have it. But for me, you won't give me a thing. The young men that were with me, what they ate, they're not to restore that to you because actually that is their pay, their pay for serving you and for delivering you. But for me, you won't give me a thing.

Now we come to chapter 15, and chapter 15 just joins right on here. God reveals himself to Abraham more completely and reaffirms his promise. And we come to one of the high points of the Bible here in chapter 15, and another one will be in chapter 17. Listen to this and we'll get into it today just a little ways. "After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision." This now is the fourth time that God has appeared to Abram.

This is the fourth time, and now God is developing him, bringing him farther along. And God does well to appear to him now because you see, Abram has taken a tremendous step of faith when he went out and rescued Lot, when he turned down the booty that the king of Sodom offered him. Now God says to him, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." And friends, that's lovely. That's wonderful.

He says first of all, "I'm your shield." I do not know this, but let me suggest it to you. I think during the battle that Abraham got in real danger and he wondered whether he'd come out of it alive. And God just reminds him, "I'm your shield, Abram. I'm your shield." And "I'm thy exceeding great reward. You did well to turn down the booty. I'm your reward. I intend to reward you." Oh, when a man today's willing just to believe God and look to him, what God can do with him.

And Abram said—now wait just a minute. Now if you think Abram is one of these pious boys who gets his halo shined every morning, you're wrong. Abraham is very practical and he's going to get right down to the nitty-gritty now. And I think God likes us to do that. I wish we could get rid of this false piety and hypocritical attitude that so many of the fundamentalists assume today, and they don't seem real to me, some of them. They are just way out yonder, that's all.

Now will you notice this man Abraham, and this is quite wonderful. Abram said, "Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" What he's saying to God is this: he's saying, "I don't want more riches. I don't need that. The thing that's on my heart is, I'm childless and I want a son. You have promised to make me a father of nations and my offspring would be as numberless as the sand on the seashore, and I don't even have a child around anywhere."

And according to the law of that day, the Code of Hammurabi, Eliezer his steward, his head servant, he had an offspring and in time he would inherit if Abraham didn't have one. And Abram said, "Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." This boy's born in my house. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying—and God's practical when a man will be practical with him—"This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. I'm going to give you a son, Abraham. I'm going to give you a son."

Now God took him by the hand, brought him forth, and it was night. You say, "How do you know it's night?" Well, let me read verse 5 of Genesis 15: "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." This is remarkable, friends. God said to him first your offspring will be as numberless as the sand on the seashore.

And now he says as numberless as the stars in heaven, and it had to be night for Abraham to see the stars. Now this man Abraham actually has two seed. He has a physical seed, and that's the nation Israel. He has a spiritual seed, and that's the church. How do they become a spiritual seed? By faith. Paul told the Galatians, "Ye are the sons of Abraham." How? By faith in Jesus Christ. You're not in a natural line.

I had the privilege of speaking to a group of very fine young Jewish men many years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. I had known some of them before I was saved, had been very close friends of them, and they invited me to speak. I spoke to them on the glories of the Mosaic Law and that the fulfillment of it was in Christ. But I began by telling them I was glad to speak to them because I said, "I know you are sons of Abraham, but I'm a son of Abraham also."

And they looked in amazement one to another, and I told them how I was a son of Abraham. There are these two seed that we have before us. And this is a very wonderful thing. And now notice what it says here, verse 6: "He believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Now next time, I'm going to develop this. This is one of the greatest statements in the scripture. Abraham just believed God, that's all. And that was counted to him for righteousness.

Now Abraham does something that is quite interesting: "And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." And he said, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" In other words, Abraham's a very practical man again. He believes in dealing with reality, and I think we need to do it today. We need reality today in our lives, in our Christian life.

And if reality is not in your life, there's nothing there. Many people just play church today. Now will you notice what Abraham says. Abraham says, "How shall I know it?" And you know what God's going to tell him? "Abram, I'm glad you asked me, because I'm going to meet you down at the courthouse and I'll go before a notary public and I will make real this contract that I'm making with you, and you are going to have a son.

And I will make a contract with you, and so you meet me down there and I'll sign on the dotted line." Now somebody's going to say to me, or write me, and say, "Look here, Dr. McGee, I've been following you along in Genesis, and so far you've been sticking to the text, but you surely have departed here because it says nothing about God meeting him down at a courthouse and nothing about going through a notary public." Well friends, according to the law of that day, that's exactly what God said to Abram, and we're going to see that next time. Until next time, may God richly bless you.

Steve Sweets: Learn more about this fruitful ministry in our app or at ttb.org, or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Sweets, and I'll meet you back here as the Bible bus continues through the whole Word of God.