The Book of Genesis, Chapter 14

Genesis 14:1-24

Summary

There's a huge war between two groups of kingdoms (nine kings in all), and poor old Lot gets caught in the crossfire and captured. Abram hears about it, gathers up his buddies, and takes a huge road trip out to recapture Lot and all the people and stuff he had with him. Abram kicks some serious butt, and it turns out he doesn't really want anything in return from the King of Sodom.

Commentary

So, I bet you didn't know Abram kicked some serious butt in his day. I didn't. I always pictured Abram as the ancient man with a crazy amount of kids. We'll get there, though, first we should talk about the huge war. At the time, the kings of Elam, Goiim, Shinar, and Ellasar had allied themselves against the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela in a great war.

It should be pointed out that the second group had been subordinate to the king of Elam for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year, they rebelled. It kind of fascinates me how matter-of-factly this war is mentioned. There's no description, but war in the ancient world was pretty ugly, and even though most kingdoms were pretty small (no more than what we would consider cities or towns today), when you have nine kingdoms clashing, people are going to die.

It's mostly interesting to me because this huge great war is just background; it's setting the scene for the story that's about to unfold. The war is only important because one of the kingdoms that gets crushed in this war is Sodom, and that's where Lot lives. The last couple chapters have been telling the story of Abram and his family, so this follows pretty directly on, but I have to admit I'm a little more intrigued by the war.

Regardless, one little interesting fact about this war is that after getting their asses handed to them by the other kings, the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah call a retreat, and while retreating, some of the people fall into bitumen pits. It's an odd little detail, but it does serve to be an example of the horrors of war.

For those not in the know (and I'll be honest, I had to look this up), bitumen is a naturally occurring, sticky, tar-like form of petroleum, which is described as being, at room temperature, much like cold molasses in terms of its viscosity. I can't imagine the horrors of drowning in one of those pits. It's kind of reminiscent, for me, of the stories of people dying between the trenches in World War I, not from the gunfire, but from taking a bullet in the leg, falling face-first into a puddle, and drowning. Long story short, war sucks.

In all this chaos, Lot, the people who are with him, and all of their stuff gets taken by the victorious armies (it's not personal, they take all the stuff in Sodom and Gomorrah). Fortunately for Lot, Abram is pretty badass, and when he hears about his nephew's plight, it's a little bit like Liam Neeson in Taken:

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." (Taken, 2008)

Pretty scary, huh?

Anyway, Abram and his trained three hundred and eighteen men (possibly a nod to the Spartans?), all of whom incidentally were born in his house, take off after the people who captured his nephew. They follow them all the way to Dan. No, stop laughing, Dan is not some random guy. It's a city, and it's the northernmost city in Israel (sort of), so you can imagine that hearing they got chased all the way to Dan is just another nod to how far they really went.

That night Abram divided his forces and went against the enemy and routed them. I hope most people reading this blog understand this, but a rout is a serious, serious victory. It's the kind of victory where you take your enemy and rub their face in the dirt. After this rout, they chased the broken enemy all the way to Hobah, a town north of Damascus (another very long trip), and recovered the stolen goods.

When Abram got back, the king of Sodom met with him, and the king of Salem met with them also. The king of Salem was also the priest of "God Most High" (Gen 14:18), and he brought a beautiful blessing for Abram, but much more interesting to me is that he brought bread and wine. To my knowledge, this is the first linking of bread and wine into the worship of God in the bible, and it happens in the fourteenth chapter.

I guess I always thought that was kind of a Jesus thing, but as I go, it's becoming more and more clear to me how very appropriate, right, and steeped in tradition was pretty much everything Jesus did. He comes forward very much, as he said, as the culmination of a tradition, not the destruction of it.

At the end of the chapter, Abram is offered a great deal of money, but he graciously declines because he does not wish to be in the debt of the king of Sodom. He does, however, name a few people who should receive their shares, and they do. It's a nice little testament that shows Abram's badassitude is tempered by his wisdom and generosity.