Friday, August 23, 2024

The Vision (8.23.24): Ten Admirable Qualities of Abraham (from Genesis 14)

 


Image: The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, engraving by Adriaen Collaert, 1584-1585, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 14.

Genesis 14:22 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, 23 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.

In last Sunday’s sermon from Genesis 14 I suggested at least ten spiritually admirable qualities of Abram (Abraham) which we might note and follow:

First: Unlike Lot, he did not “pitch his tent toward [align himself with] Sodom,” and so he was spared the temporal distress and humiliation which Lot endured (cf. Genesis 13:12; 14:1-12).

Who knows what pain we are spared by openly aligning with Christ rather than with the world?

Second: He had friends in the world but was not corrupted by them (v. 13).

See 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul told the Corinthians that if they had to stay away completely from worldlings they would need “go out of the world” (v. 10).

Third: He had compassion on Lot his kinsman in his distress (v. 14).

He might well have turned his back upon Lot. Matthew Henry made much of this, writing that Abram provides a model: “Though others have been wanting in their duty to us, yet we must not therefore deny our duty to them.”

Fourth: He used lawful means to defend himself by arming his servants (v. 14b).

What did his arming of his servant say about his relationship with them as their master?

Fifth: He used skill and cunning (marks of wisdom) to overcome a greater adversary and all with the Lord’s help (v. 15).

This recalls Christ’s sending forth of the apostles, telling them to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16)

Sixth: He communed with Melchizedek (v. 18).

This took place when the mysterious king and priest brought forth to him “bread and wine” (v. 18).

Seventh: He was blessed of God (v. 19).

Look at Psalm 1 and see a contrast between the “blessed” man (vv. 1-3) and the “ungodly” (vv. 4-6).

Eighth: He gave tithes to Melchizedek (v. 20b).

Abram was a proper steward of the things in his possession and gave the first and best to the cause of the Lord, embodied in Melchizedek.

Ninth: He was a man of his word and kept his pledge to God (v. 22):

The Lord Jesus himself would teach the importance of this in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:37). We need men and women who live with integrity, who keep their word, and fulfill their commitments to God and man.

Tenth: He kept himself unspotted from the world in his promise not to take one thread or shoelace from Sodom (v. 23).

He was committed to holiness, to being set apart from the world. He trust not in the world for material provision, but in God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

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