Melchizedek

When he split from Lot and allowed him to choose the best grazing land, God told Abraham that he would give the entire land of Canaan to his descents permanently (Gen 13:14-15). He told him to walk around it to claim it.

Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you (Gen 13:17).

By walking over the land, Abraham was claiming it for God, although he did not yet have authority over it.

A further step towards establishing God’s authority in the land occurred when Abraham met with Melchizedek, a priest of God who lived in Jerusalem. We are not told how this happened, but he must have established a relationship with God and begun offering sacrifices to him.

Five kings of southern Canaan were subordinate to Kedorlaomer of Elam. They would have had to pay tribute to him to retain their positions of power. While Abraham was living near Hebron, these five kings rebelled against Kedorlaomer, probably by refusing to pay the tribute that they owed (Gen 14:4). Kedorlaomer came down with three other loyal kings to put them back in their place, by defeating them in battle (Gen 14:10). The defeated kings fled and hid.

Lot had been living in Sodom, so Kedorlaomer captured him and all his property and took it back to their home further north. When Abraham heard what had happened to Lot, he gave chase with 318 men who were part of his household. When they caught up with the captives near Damascus, Abraham divided his forces and caught them off guard with a night attack. He rescued Lot, all the stolen property, and the women who had been captured from the defeated kingdoms.

When Abraham returned with Lot and the stolen property, several interesting things happened.

• The King of Sodom offered Abraham all the captured property, provided he returned the captured people. Abraham refused because he did not want the King of Sodom saying he had made him rich.

• The King of Salem (Melchizedek), the priest of the most high God, blessed Abraham in the name of the God of Heaven and Earth. He acknowledged that God had delivered the attackers into Abrahams's hand. Abraham paid a tithe of all the property to Melchizedek.

• Abraham ensured that Aner, Eshkol and Mamre, who had joined him in the fight, were compensated with their share.

I do not fully understand the significance of these happenings, but they had a spiritual impact, that seems to have begun an authority shift in Abraham’s favour.

• Melchizedek was king of Salem, so he had authority over the important Canaanite city of Jerusalem. When he blessed Abraham, some of his authority passed to Abraham. Abraham acknowledged the spiritual transfer, by giving a tithe to Melchizedek.

• By returning the King of Sodom’s stolen property and people, Abraham placed him in the situation of owing a debt to Abraham. This debt gave Abraham spiritual authority over Sodom. This is why Abraham later had authority to intercede for Sodom when God planned to destroy it.

• Aner, Eshkol and Mamre accepted property that Abraham had earned by defeating the raiding Kings. This indebted them to Abraham, which gave him some spiritual authority over them.

These transactions were the early steps in shifting authority over Canaan back to God. The process would be fully completed under Moses and Joshua.

I explain how this happened in Kingdom Authority.