Wow, just...wow. My mind is a little bit of a blur with all the place names, nation names, victories and defeats here in Chapter 14, but I think I've got it all sorted. I needed, I admit, a lot of help on this one from Agape Bible Study, from Scott Hahn in his "Genesis to Jesus: A Journey Through The Bible" online study, and from Haydock's commentary, but now it overall makes sense. And God is following the action the whole time.
The scene of the rebellion and war, coming shortly on the heels of Lot's defection and attempts to mingle with the Canaanites, really gives the sense that the family, tribe, or nation one comes from is no longer a perfect indication of one's stance toward God. Also, a lot of prophecies made about Noah's sons are beginning to come to pass already. The various city-states of the land of Canaan rebel against their presumed overlords, the kings of the Great Civilization of the day, Sumeria, Elam (in Iran), both children of Ham, and the other Goyim, children of Japheth. This Evil Empire swoops down and conquers them in a battle in a valley now filled with salt water, the Dead Sea. We know the names and places of everything mostly as an effort to say "This is about real people in real places!" Suddenly, God's prophecy from Noah regarding Canaan being a slave to his brothers, the other descendents of Ham, starts to make perfect sense. Controlling the area makes perfect worldly sense as a way for these kings of Mesopotamia to enlarge their territory and the route from Egypt.
Lot's punishment for leaving God's providence behind and trusting himself to make his own success is swift. The conquering army takes him and all the worldly success and material possessions he's ever had, sweeping over him unexpectedly. That's happened to me too, as I'm sure it has happened to others. Trusting in the Lord can seem so difficult sometimes, but it reaps such rewards. What happens here reminds me of why I must be "storing up treasures in heaven" because who knows what might take away what I think I built for myself. Luckily for Lot, Abram defends his Promised Land and gets Lot back by sweeping away the Mesopotamian overlords with the help of Canaanites, branches of a wicked tree who somehow individually were far far more faithful than Lot, from a righteous tree.
The next part is one of the most Catholic parts of Genesis. Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness, king of Salem (Peace) ,who is also the priest of God, brings out bread and wine and blesses it, and accepts a tithe in return. He is traditionally believed to actually be Shem, Noah's son. Yes, he lived that long. Do the math. Anyway, in addition, he prefigures a whole lot of people in the covenants to come. First, King David, in that David was a priest-king "in the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110). Of course, King David himself was a type of, a prefigurement of his descendent Jesus Christ, who took bread and wine and blessed it, making it contain his body, blood, soul, and divinity. Shem being still alive to personally hand this on to Abram like a baton in a relay is just amazing. The generations of people and the stretch of time between these two men melts away as the flame of God's worship and sacrifice to him gets handed on one good man to the next. God will keep it alive, no matter how long He waits or no matter what miracles he must perform. Abram received priesthood and the baton of God's service directly from Shem, just like Fr. Mike at my parish received his priesthood from a bishop who received his bishopric from another bishop before him back to the Apostles, who got it from Jesus.
As a result of this new mission and blessing he gets from Melchizedek, Abram is empowered to be generous to those he fought with. His Canaanite friends are blessed through him, receiving booty, all kinds of riches. He himself recognizes now that these things are meaningless next to God's blessings. He was patient in waiting for God to make his name great.
Next thing you know, however, God's promise to make his name great begins to seem like it will never come true. Fine, says Abram, I can be generous with money and things, even turn down worldly titles and fame. But how great can a name be that ends with me? At this point, God does a rare and wonderful thing. He takes the sum of Abram's life so far and looks on his loyalty, his repentance when he does wrong, and his willingness to do anything for God. On doing so, he "credits this to him as righteousness" and makes a brand new covenant with Abram. God agrees to make out of a childless old man, who figured he'd have to leave his stuff to a servant, a huge, expansive tribe. No longer is God merely wedded to His Bride, his Church, no longer is He merely the head of his Household the Church, he is now the chief of his Chosen Tribe. God promised to make of him a great nation, and with the sacrifice of the animals here, this promise becomes a covenant, a sacred oath. God will do it. He will take the Chosen Tribe out of the slavery they will get themselves into, even after four hundred years. It won't go smoothly, but Abram's descendents will be a great nation. And we are. We Christians, our older brothers and sisters in faith the Rabbinic Jews...even our Muslim brothers and sisters in faith.
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