Sealed With a Strap
“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed 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 Abram, "Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself." But Abram 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 that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich- except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion." Genesis 14:17-24(NKJV)
As I was going over my Tabernacle workbook I came across this passage in Scripture. I got this idea to go and take a peek at my wife’s notes from the same study. She has gone through this before me and has been a great “bounce back” for me as I work out what I am discovering in God’s Word.
After I looked at Kathy’s notes I noticed that she had some other verses that tied in something very interesting. So after we talked about how these other verses tied in I got to digging in. So here it goes…
We all know this as the moment where Abram meets Melchizedek. They met in the valley of Shaveh and this where the king of Salem brings Abram wine and bread and blesses him and his God. If we look into the Book of Hebrews we see that Jesus is compared to Melchizedek and what is going on here can be looked at as the, if you will, first communion with “El-Elyon” or God Most High. What gets shared here has an everlasting value. There is acknowledgement that God has given Abram victory and that He will be his Procter. AMEN.
But we have the part of the king of Sodom to look at now. He wants to deal with the spoils and the people or as in some translations “the souls”. The part here about the souls almost sounds like this king might as well be the Prince of the power of the air, huh? And Abram rebukes this king by stating quite simply, “I have raised my hand to the Lord” and then he says something that I want to dig into a little further. The part where he says, “that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap”. I will be going to Ruth 4:7 for this nugget. “Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel.”
When you look at this from “Deuteronomical” viewpoint, the removing of sandal was seen as a legal transaction in ancient Israel. In one sense to give up a sandal was like surrendering the keys to your house. I think Abram was letting the king of Sodom know he didn’t need the keys to his house. Not to even want the sandal strap? Which leads me to this in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry? He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Are you looking at your sandals a little differently? I don’t wear them)
As my study on the Tabernacle continues on, I am blown away about how much there was going on with what those tribes were being directed to do by God. It seems as if everything leads to Jesus Christ and the Cross. Well, alright…everything God does in our lives leads to Jesus Christ and the Cross. God made a promise back there in Genesis 3:15 and in the 14th chapter of the same book the King of Kings show up to give us an example of worship. And God also shows us that we don’t need the sandal strap of the unrighteous. This morning say AMEN to “EL-ELYON”!! -- Chris Huhges is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter
Digging Deeper: Proverbs 10; Deuteronomy 10-12; Mark 12:1-27
Dig This Quote: “We ought, therefore, daily to practice this article, impress it upon our mind, and to remember it in all that meets our eyes, and in all good that falls to our lot, and wherever we escape from calamity or danger, that it is God who gives and does all these things, that therein we sense and see His paternal heart and His transcendent love toward us. Thereby the heart would be warmed and kindled to be thankful, and to employ all such good things to the honor and praise of God.” Luther's Larger Catechism-Article One-Of the Creed Martin Luther
Determined Digging: Level 1 -- Psalm 37:32; Level 2 -- Psalm 40:1-5
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