Man of War

This morning I was struck by the fact that Abraham was a man of war. A fighting man, with trained men in his own house. How about that? I have never thought of him as a fighting man, I have always thought of him as a wandering man of faith. Now David... that was a man of war!

Anyway, in Gen 13 Lot and Abe part ways. Abe is confident enough to tell Lot, you have the first pick of the land and like we would all do in our carnal minds, he picked the Jordan plain because it was well watered and looked like Eden. Abraham had enough confidence in God to know that even though in the natural his land did not seem to be the most productive, he knew that because of the blessing of God on his life, success was inevitable regardless.

Lot goes to live in Sodom and war breaks out and he is captured. You have to be careful where you are, you can literally be in the wrong place at the wrong time like Lot was. Anyway... he gets captured and taken off by some King. A guy who manages to escape runs to inform Abe about the fact that his nephew has been captured, so he in turn rallies an army to rescue his nephew. Out of his own household, he gets 318 men and then mobilizes his neighbors to help him out. They go after these five kings and route them completely. They not only rescue Lot, but all the other people along with all their goods and cattle. On their way back, the King of Sodom comes out to meet them along with the King Salem, Melchizedek who is also a priest of God Most High. Melchizedek blesses Abraham and he in turn gives a tenth of everything to him. This is the first place where a tithe is mentioned. If our father Abraham tithed, then we too MUST tithe.

The King of Sodom is so grateful to Abe that he offers him all the goods and cattle they had brought back. All he wants for himself are the people. Check out the Rock's answer:

Gen 14:22-23 "But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich'"

He refused to take anything that would be percieved as the help of man for his enrichment as opposed to the help of God. You must be discerning. If you discern the person offering you their help just wants to do it so they can take the glory away from God, you have the right to say "my God will help me some other way" There are also people who lend you money and tell the world that they lent you the money to start the business that made you rich, therefore if it were not for them you would be a pauper. That devil is a liar! Stay away from such people. Our God is well able to give you material riches and true riches as well. Talk about a cut above the rest!

So Abe goes home after all the excitement has died down and God shows up and says to him "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." It's as if he is saying don't you worry about all that wealth you let go of, I am your very great reward. What I can give you even they can't come close. Abe answers God in a very broken way, he says "... O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless..." Everyone has that one great desire, that even if you had the whole earth, and not that one thing, you still remain unsatisfied. For Abe it was a child. He wanted one so desperately. Remember he is getting on in years, God called him out of UR at the age of 75, and if you read his geneology in ch 11 you will notice that majority of the people were having children in their 30's.

He addresses God as "Sovereign Lord" Sovereign acknolwedges that God does whatever her pleases and sees fit. So even though he is asking God for a child, he still recognizes that the decision for him to have one is still up to God himself. He is sovereign. How many times do we forget that in this name and claim it world we live in! Whatever the desire of your heart is, it is still up to God. Then he calls him Lord, which shows that he is submitted and in subjection to God. He is saying "You are my Master, and even if you choose not to give me a son because you are Sovereign I am still subject to you"

And because of that the Lord tells him that a son of his own body will be his heir and promises that out of him will come a great nation, more than the stars of the sky. God cuts a covenant with him and promises to give the land of canaan to his descendants forever.

The relationship between Abe and God is amazing. I love that God is so involved with him and talks to him so practically, getting him to walk out and look at the stars and then cutting covenant with him according the his own traditions. God knows all our traditions and is not necessarily advers to them. In fact he will work in the contxt of them sometimes just to bless your little heart.

A quick example. I am a Kikuyu woman. In my traditions as a Kikuyu a man that is not circumcised is a boy and a total disgrace in the community. It would just about kill me to marry a man that was not circumcised. Now I know that it doesn't make a difference in God, but my traditions are in place here. God, just to indulge me, will give me a husband that is circumcised because the truth of the matter is that I would not be able to hold my head up if he wasn't. To others, even Kikuyu's it doesn't matter, and hey, that works for them. But for me it would be the ultimate disgrace. God and I have already had that discussion.

Now some of you are looking at me funny. There are men who will not marry a woman who was slightly overweight, now to God it doesn't make a difference, but God will honor that.

I love that God comes down and speaks to us even in our own cultures, tribes and traditions. So next time God speaks to you in your mother tongue don't be shocked. He is multi-lingual.