Genesis
14 - There is a war in the region between the kings
of Shinar (Amraphel), Ellasar (Arioch), Elam (Chedorlaomer) and Goiim (Tidal)
and the kings of Sodom , Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela.
The first league of kings is victorious and in
seizing the possession and food supplies of Sodom and Gomorrah, they sweep up
Abram’s nephew Lot and all he owns.
Abram then goes and with 318 of his retainers, he recaptures Lot and his
possessions and brings them back.
When he returns, not only does the king of
Sodom greet him, but a King by the name of Melchizedek,
King of Salem (Jerusalem), greets him as well. Melchizedek is a priest of “the
Most High God,” (our God, the God of Abram) and he gives Abram offerings of
bread and wine (14:18-20). In return Abram givens him a tenth of all “he had
recovered” (14:21). The king of
Sodom offers to let Abram keep all the possessions of his he recaptured, but
Abram refuses, not wanting to be beholden to him. He accepts “only what my young
warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fair share of the
goods to my allies” (14:24).
Here is a link to a map that plots the route
Abram and his family took from Ur to Canaan:
Genesis
15 – God’s word comes to Abram again and takes him
out to see the stars of the sky.
And God promises in words similar to those later given to Moses—“’I am
YHWH who brought you out of [Ur] to give you this land . . . (15:7), and I will
make [your] Abram’s descendants as many as the stars’” (15:5). That Abram has faith (or trusts) in
God’s promises is “credited . . .to him as an act of righteousness” (15:6).
Then God repeats the covenant, and solemnizes
the occasion by having Abram offer a heifer, a she-goat, a ram (all age 3), a
turtle-dove and a pigeon. Each of
the first three is split in two and Abram guards them all day. In the evening, Abraham falls into a
trance and “a deep, terrifying darkness envelope[s] him” (15:12). God reveals
to Abram that his descendants shall suffer a period of slavery before He
delivers them.
When
it is dark, a “smoking brazier and a flaming torch” (15:17) pass between the severed
pieces of animal and the covenant is concluded
with respect to the lands God intends to confer on Abram’s line.
It is important to remember here that Abram still has not even one
blood descendant. How could he
have trusted this God? But his stubborn and resilient trust (faith plus
reliance) “justifies” him in God’s eyes.
First Epistle of Clement of Rome to the
Corinthians (96 AD)
Section 56 – Let us “plead for those who
have fallen from grace, that they may be given the unselfishness and the
humility to surrender themselves, not indeed to us, but to the will of God”
(45). The formal leaders of the church,
the consecrated, do not seek authority to inflate themselves but rather that
the will of God may be more faithfully transmitted to his flock.
“O my friends, do let us accept correction; it is
something nobody ought to resent. Mutual admonition is wholly good and
beneficial, for it leads us into conformity with the will of God” (46). Everyone must learn to accept correction – the men at the top, the
critics of the men at the top – everyone.
“Reject not the admonitions of the Almighty, for though he inflicts
pain, yet afterwards he makes whole again; he wounds, but his hands bring
healing” (46).
Section 57 – “Those of you, then, who
were at the root of these disorders, pray mow make your submission to the
clergy. Bend the knees of your hearts and accept correction, so that it may
bring you to a better frame of mind. Lean to subordinate yourselves; curb those
loud and overbearing speeches. It will be better for you to be lowly but
respected members of Christ’s flock, than to be apparently enjoying positions
of eminence but in fact to be cast out from every hope of Him” (46).
He quotes from the book of
Proverbs or Wisdom: See now, I am going
to put before you the utterance of my Spirit, and teach you my word. Because I
called you and you would not listen, because I uttered my words and you would not
attend, but made light of my counsels and refused to heed my reproofs,
therefore I will smile at your destruction” (46).
Section 58 – Let us be obedient to “His
all-holy and glorious Name” and “dwell in trustful reliance on the most sacred
Name of His majesty” (47). “As surely as God lives, as Jesus Christ lives, and
the Holy Ghost also (on whom are set the faith and hope of God’s elect), so
surely the man who keeps the divinely appointed decrees and statues with
humility and an unfailing consideration for others, and never looks back, will
be enrolled in honor among the number of those who are saved through Jesus
Christ, by whom is God glorified for ever” (47).
Section 59 – “But if there are any who
refuse to heed the declarations He has made through our lips, let them not
doubt the gravity of the guilt and the peril in which they involve themselves”
(47).
“For our part . . .we will
entreat the Creator of all things with heartfelt prayer and supplication that
the full sum of His elect, as it has been numbered throughout the world, may
ever be preserved intact through His beloved Son Jesus Christ, by whom He has
called us out of darkness to light, and from ignorance to the clear knowledge
of the glory of His name” (47).
“[Teach us, O Lord] . . .
to hope in thy Name, which us the source and fount of all creation. Open the
eyes of our hearts to know thee, who alone art Highest amid the highest, and
ever abidest Holy amidst the holy. Thou does bring down the haughtiness of the
proud, and scatterest the devices of the people . . .” (47-48).
Section 60 – “Lord, by thine operations
didst [thou] bring to light the everlasting fabric of the universe” (48).
“Wisely has thou created,
prudently hast thou established, all things that are. To look around is to see
thy goodness; to trust in thee is to know thy loving kindness. O most Merciful,
O most Pitiful, absolve us from our sins and offences, from our errors and our
shortcomings” (48).
“Deliver us from such as
hate us without a cause; to us and all mankind grant peace and concord, even as
thou didst to our forefathers when they called devoutly upon thee in faith and
truth; and make us to be obedient both to thine own almighty and glorious Name
and to all who have the rule and governance over us upon earth” (48).
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