Power, a Priest, and a Promise

Genesis 14-15

            Today’s reading begins with a little historical nugget about politics in Abram’s day: a coalition of kings make war against another coalition; the latter rebel and are defeated (again); and Abram saves the day.

            Speculation abounds about why the number of Abram’s “trained men” is so specifically 318, and I honestly don’t know. Some of the explanation may be reasonable (for example, it may be a surreptitious reference to Eliezer, Abram’s servant and heir apparent (15:2), whose name when converted to numerical values add up to 318). Probably the most obvious and certain thing to observe about 318 is that it’s an indication of just how wealthy and well-off Abram is: he has enough armed men to chase and defeat four armed chieftains. The Lord has certainly blessed Abram!

            The odd question of the 318 is followed immediately by the odd person, Melchizedek. Melchizedek, whose name means something along the lines of “king of righteousness” or “my king is righteous” is priest in Salem, short for Jerusalem and a play on the Hebrew word for “peace.” He is said to be the priest of El Elyon, God Most High, whom Abram identifies with Yahweh, the Lord’s personal name. So, Melchizedek, apparently, worships the same God that called Abram from Harran to the promise land. So, again apparently, other peoples worship the true God in this era besides just Abram. (By the time that Israel conquers the promised land under Joshua, some 600-700 years later, Jerusalem has become a source of pagan opposition to God’s people.) Melchizedek will come up again in Psalm 110 and again in Hebrews (chapters 5-7); we’ll have to revisit him later. Right now, we see Abram honoring the Lord as the one who provided victory by visiting this odd, barely known man.

            Finally, we see Abram in a bit of a crisis of faith. It’s been a while now since the Lord promised Abram a son, and his only heir is Eliezer, his servant. The incident with Lot and the four kings is probably on Abram’s mind, too. You can imagine him thinking, “I don’t have a son of my own, and even my adopted heir will inherit my estate in a precarious, dangerous place.” The Lord reiterates his promise and tells Abram that he will have descendants like the stars and that he will inherit the land.

            Then follows a difficult scene. The Lord renews His covenant with Abram. Cutting creatures in half seems strange to us, but it is the usual ways these things happened. The Hebrew phrase for “make a covenant” is actually “cut a covenant.” The odder thing is the smoking firepot and the blazing torch that pass between the halves of the animals. Again, part of the custom of making a covenant was that the promising party would walk between the slain animals. At the very least, the pot and torch are meant to symbolize the Lord sealing the covenant. Why a pot and a torch? Probably just a typical representation of the Lord, like for example the pillar of cloud and fire during the Exodus. More than that would be speculative.

            In this whole scene, probably the most important dynamic is that the Lord repeated His promises, and Abram believed Him. Specifically, “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.” In Romans 4 and Galatians 3, Paul is going to make a big deal out of that, when he makes the case that we saved not by our works but by faith in Jesus. And faith is not a work, either; faith is simply hearing the promise of God and recognizing, “That’s for me.” Faith is nothing more than trust.