I'll explain what happened yesterday in a moment. Perfect. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. I'm so glad to be with you this morning. You know yesterday we're talking devotions
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There we go. Computer was talking back to me. Yesterday I was sitting right here ready to do coffee and devotions with you and my computer died. What was about to die gave me the plugin soon warning and of course, my little laptop cord was at the house in the basement, near the children's bedroom, where they were sleeping. So I did not want to wake them up in the day got busy. So I'm sorry, I wasn't able to get on here yesterday, but we'll make that up. It's okay. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get in the Lord's word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to come to your word. The blessing it is to worship you. The blessing it is to have your word in a language we can understand. Father, we pray that as we read it, that you would work in our hearts that we might understand it. And that it would not just be knowledge in our minds, but it would change the way we live and our eternal reality. In Jesus's name we pray, Amen. So we are at Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14, and we're at verse 18. was kind of an interesting story a little bit cryptic, maybe but also very helpful for what's going on in the rest of Scripture. And even what's going on in heaven known so why don't we go ahead and get into the passage. By the way, I was thinking this morning. Do you know who made glasses? I was watching something with the kids. The other day and they said that Ben Franklin was the one who made bifocals, but I thought that thinking I don't know who made the first classes, maybe, maybe, you know, let me know in the comments if you know that. Okay, here we go. Genesis chapter 14, beginning at verse 18. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine, he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, bless it be Abraham, of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth and bless it be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand, and he gave him a tithe of all. Now the king of Sodom said to Abraham, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. But Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand to the Lord God most high the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap, and I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say I have made Abram rich won't accept only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me and they're as whole and memory, let them take their portion. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this and see what are we called to do in response? So first, a What's this about? Well remember, in the last story, and the last part of this, Abraham has gone and he's fought against the different armies, who are warring against each other and they've captured lot. And he goes and he wins. He defeats the armies of Chedorlaomer and his allies. And as he is returning home with the spoils, he's headed back south. He's going back where he's from. He goes through near Jerusalem, most likely. And here we find a interesting figure. He wasn't listed in the different kings. But now we have Melchizedek king of Salem come out and he meets with Abraham and he he lays out a royal fare for him. He actually brings to him bread and wine. This is shorthand for, for this, this hospitable, gracious meaning to him. And he acts as a priestly king. He comes to to a Brahmin, he actually brings to him bread and wine and he pronounces a blessing upon Abram. He says, Bless it be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God's most God Most High. Who has delivered your enemies into your hands. He's a priest of L L. Yan. He's a priest of God Most High. And this is just comes out of nowhere. We haven't met this guy. He wasn't listed in the in the different kings. It seems to have no genealogy he just shows up is Melchizedek He is King of Righteousness, mela sodic. And so, all sudden this guy comes out. He brings bread and wine. He blesses Abram and then he goes and he blesses God Most High. And Abram does something amazing. He gives him a 10th of all the spoils of war. He pays him the first ties. Now it's hard not to see things like the Lord's Supper in this as he gives him bread and wine, and as he blesses him, and then Abrams responds as he gives a 10th of everything. This is mysterious. I'm gonna pick this up back up in a second when we get into calling but then we see something else happen. Right? You have Melchizedek and then the scene dramatically shifts. All of a sudden there is the king of Sodom and verse 21. And he's demanding his people I give me the peep the persons and take the goods for yourself. He is bitter and mad, right? His forces have been beaten. And then Abram went, and he went and won the battle. And now he has all the people and the goods, the spoils of war from the battle. And he wants the people back. Now, it's an ancient Near Eastern terms. I'm not saying that this is right. But they were according to the culture at that time. All that stuff now belonged to Abraham because he was the one who does but Abraham, even though he's not required. It wasn't in this for the goods. It wasn't in this to acquire more people. He wasn't in this to somehow aggrandized himself he wanted to rescue law. So what does he do? He basically says, hey, look up, look at me, buddy. I ain't taking nothing from you. I am not taking a single thing from your hand. I will not make myself rich. I will not let other people say that this guy just got rich off the back of this wicked king, he says ain't going to happen. And he actually invokes a promise in verse 22. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand to Yaqui or to Yehovah. God most high just in case you thought that maybe Melchizedek was worshipping a different god or something here, Abrams clear that he knows that l e. L L Yan is specifically you'd have here your Hova or you go off way, who is the God of Abraham, the God of Adam, the God who know a pray to the God who enough walked before and so it is God, Creator of heaven and earth and he says, I've raised my hand, right? Well, that's my left hand, but I raised my hand. I've made a vow. I made a promise to the Lord. I won't take any of your stuff. The only thing I'm gonna take is a stuff that my guys ate the things that we needed to live. So that's what he brings up. So what's the best verse that summarizes? Well in my Bible, I have verse 1819, and 20 aligned, and also, verse 22, and 23, but that's a lot let me know what would you underline in your Bible. Last see calling what are we called to do? Well, it is the book of Hebrews. That points out to us that Jesus Christ is a priest forever in the order of not leave I know Aaron, but Melchizedek It is Jesus who, though he was born of the tribe of Judah. His priesthood is a better priesthood because it came before Levi was even born, before Aaron was even born. And in reality, it was Abram, the chief Patriarch who bowed before Melchizedek the priest of Yehovah L L. Yun, the Lord God Most High. And Jesus stands as a priest forever in that order. So the question is, is Jesus Christ, your high priest? Is Jesus Christ, the one who offered up Himself as a sacrifice for our sins?
Do we trust in Him? Do we love Him? Do we bow to him? Do we worship Him? Are we thankful to him knowing that he has come to us and has pronounced the same blessing? The blessing here? I believe is also on us. Bless it be Abraham, Abraham, God of God most high possessor of heaven and earth and bless it be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hands God has delivered you from your greatest enemies, sin and death. He's made a public spectacle of gnome on the cross. And in his resurrection, he's assured us of his victory. Do you trust in Christ? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you sent your one and only Son, to be our High Priest are king in our profit. Lord, we pray that you would please work in our hearts that we might know this and believe that in Lord we pray that we would bow before you worship you and love you in Jesus's name, Amen. Amen. Lord bless you today. You walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai