In that light, we are going to leave divorce and remarriage and go back to Genesis 14, where we have an example of Abraham and tithing. This circumstance here was Abraham's return from the war that he had with his men against the kings. He returned with a great deal of booty that was taken.
The speaker there was Melchisedek, and the "he" who gave Him tithes refers to Abraham, as Hebrews 7 very clearly states. What is the time element here? At the very least, it is somewhere around 430 years prior to the making of the Old Covenant. Tithing is not stated here as a law but is introduced into the flow of the story of the Bible as an already ongoing practice, which Abram (Abraham) already knew. How did Abraham know to give ten percent? Why not eight percent or one percent? Why did not he say, "I earned it. We risked our lives. It is mine!" Abraham seems to have had none of those thoughts. He willingly gave ten percent of all.
For us to be instructed by this, I think, at least in part it has to be seen in the light of who Abraham is and what position he occupies in the purpose of God. First of all, Abraham is the father of the faithful. He is a type of God the Father; Isaac was a type of the Son, Jesus Christ. Humanly, he is the head of the family—of those who are loved by God, who love God, and are obedient to Him.
Abraham is the patriarch. He is the leader. He is the elder. He is the primary example among men. If we have to put it that way, considering the way God speaks about him, there has been nobody on earth as great as Abraham, except for Jesus Christ. What an example we have here!
If we are Christ's, we are Abraham's seed. Not Moses'. Not Daniel's. Not Noah's. Not Isaac's. Not Jacob's. We are Abraham's kids. Because we are Abraham's children, then we are heirs according to the promise. The Jews recognize some of this. That is why they said to Jesus, "We be Abraham's seed. And we have never been slaves to anybody." In a sense, they knew that name carried a great deal of influence with God. Their ideas were wrong, even though the principle was right.
In Abraham, we are looking at one of the prime examples in all of mankind. The promise is repeated to Isaac, and then in Genesis 26 God says to him:
That just about covers everything, does it not? "My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Just kind of keep that thought and we are going to turn back to Genesis 18. This is God speaking:
How did Abraham know God's laws since they were not formally written until 430 years later? By God's own testimony, Abraham kept them, and he was faithful in doing what he did. There are two possible answers to this. I will give you a sequence of scriptures. In James 2:23, Abraham is called "the friend of God." That indicates a pretty close relationship. To the best of my knowledge, he is the only one in the Book who is called God's friend. That does not mean others are not God's friends, but he is the only one, as far as I know, so named.
In John 15:14, Jesus said to the apostles, "You are My friends. And, do you know what? Because you are My friends, I am going to tell you what I am going to do." Are you beginning to get the picture?
How did Abraham know God's law? God told him! It says in this verse that we just read in Genesis 25, "Because that Abraham obeyed My voice." How did he know about tithing? God told him about it. It is as clear as anything. Abraham was God's friend, and God wanted Abraham to do the right things. Because He did not want his life to be a mess, He instructed him in His way, His laws, His commandments, His statutes—the whole shmear!
There is another aspect, and I think this one is also true: God told Adam and Eve. God was their Father. He created them. What kind of Parent would He be if He sent them out into life without instruction? That is a parent's responsibility. I just cannot see God doing that. He must have instructed them. In fact, I know He did. Do you know how I … . . .
Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek has this war as its backdrop, and this is a very interesting lesson for those of faith today contained in this. Now in passing I think it is interesting to note that tithing is introduced into the Bible as an ongoing practice, something that is already established, rather than something new and needing a legal basis. A legal basis is never provided previously, and we do not see tithing presented in a legal basis until we get to the book of Leviticus, 400 and some years later. And then, it established not that one should tithe, but rather to whom one should tithe. So it appears very strong that tithing was an ongoing practice from the very beginning, and it is something that is also required today. It is the way that God finances His work here on this earth.
Another thing. There are those who will argue that the introduction of bread and wine in this sequence of events here, with the presence of Melchizedek, indicates a forerunner, a type, a symbol of the Lord’s supper. Now if it does, I am convinced it is not the primary reason that it is put in here. It was merely a meal. I will tell you why I believe this in just a bit.
Remember, the warfare is a backlash. This event occurred immediately after Abraham’s return to the area after the defeat of the four kings. Now what does warfare do to a person? At the very least it is going to very severely enervate someone. You can see right in story here, in this case, why Abraham and his 318 men underwent a forced march. They got their troops together in a hurry and they took off and they went north as fast as their legs and horses and camels and whatever else they had would take them. Apparently they arrived at night, and they attacked at night and surprised the enemy and routed them out of there, and chased them all the way to Damascus, which is quite a hike up the road, and then when they felt it was useless to chase them any further, they apparently turned around and came back down again.
Now warfare under normal circumstances is something that enervates a person very greatly, and there is need of a great deal of refreshment because after all, we are just human. War is not easy. It is demanding, it is stressful, it is enervating because of the mental and physical forces that are unleashed by it. Tremendous tensions are created by fears and by hatred. When the battle is over, a period of R & R is in order.
Now when Abraham returned, he is met by Melchizedek. But Melchizedek is not the only one present and that sets up a very interesting by-play. It is important to a person of faith.
Abraham successfully defeated the Babylonish Assyrians, only to be tempted into a fellowship with the irreligious Sodomites. (I did not read that verse, I stopped just short of it.) Would it not seem the natural thing to do, to go into a truce, an agreement, a covenant with these people who assisted you in this warfare? You could become a team, “Hey, we work well together, don’t we? We could put our heads together and really have a thing going here.” They might have said something to Abraham like, “You could be the leader. You have already proven yourself of great leadership capacity. Let’s put our forces together and we could do a great deal.”
Abraham might have been tempted, but you see that is one reason why I stopped reading when I did because that was the exact point that God showed, that through Melchizedek He intervened to stop what Abraham might have been very tempted to enter into.
Remember, these things are symbols. These physical examples that Abraham went through are to teach you and me spiritual lessons. Now the lesson is this: That we do become enervated by the spiritual warfare in which we are involved, and there are times when are so tempted to let go, you see when the bowstring becomes wound so tight and your are twanging all over the place, you are about to make a compromise and make a deal with the world.
In Genesis 14, we have the story of Abram's brother's son, Lot, who had been captured by a king. This king, Chedorlaomer, and a group of kings had conquered Sodom and Gomorrah and took Lot and his family captive. Abram heard of this, quickly armed his three-hundred-plus servants, and went to chase after these kings. Abram was probably thinking of Lot and his family, remembering, perhaps, the times he would dandle his grand-nephews and nieces upon his knee. He must have been very concerned to say the least.
Here we see that this Melchizedek knew that it was God who had delivered Abram's enemies into his hand. I think that Abram knew this, as well.
Regarding the word spoils, the Expositor's Commentary says that this word literally means "the top of the heap" and is used of the choicest spoils of war. In other words, from these spoils, Abraham gave one-tenth—the very best—to Melchizedek. I do not know how the spoils were laid out. Were all of the linens piled together and the jewels piled all together and the armaments on their heap? Whatever the case, Abraham knew that his victory came from God; and he knew it down to the soles and the toes of his feet! He wanted to give God the very best that he had. He gave God the choicest spoils of the war.
There is an attitude in giving here that we must see and understand. Why was Abraham called the "father of the faithful"? David is called a "man after God's own heart." Abraham, too, was a man after God's own heart, but he was also the father of the faithful.
The attitude of Abraham is an example for us as we give to God. We should wholeheartedly imitate his faithfulness as we, too, pay our tithes and give our offerings. God wants us to give a perfect offering to Him. This is really important! This is not just something that we do and tell ourselves, "Here, it is done," like any bill to be paid.
We must remember this part of it: Those with whom God was working were receiving instructions from Him through Melchisedec. We are going to see, later on, that God instructed the heads of the families, and they, in turn, instructed the rest of the family.
No doubt, this Melchisedec was Jesus Christ.
Paul taught that Abraham—the father of the faithful, held in high esteem by the Jews—tithed to Melchisedec.
The Levites received tithes, but all these physical priests eventually died. However, these tithes were still received, in a sense, by Melchisedec.
Please turn with me to Genesis 14, verse 17. The most ancient record of anyone giving a tithe of anything is found in Genesis 14, about four centuries before Moses. In a battle between various kings and armies of that day, Abraham's nephew Lot was taken captive. (And as you know, Abram's name was not yet changed at this point to Abraham.) Abram set out to rescue Lot with the help of a small army and was successful. And along with his nephew, Abram brought back many spoils from the campaign and there was great rejoicing.
Hebrews 7:4 says that tithes were given on the spoils of the battle, including non-agricultural products.
So Melchizedek was the priest of God Most High, and Abram was of God Most High, and God Most High is possessor of heaven and earth. Tithing, in this context, was a direct acknowledgement of God's sovereignty and lordship over the earth. God reveals in Haggai 2:8 that, "The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine," representing that He owns all that is on the earth. Giving God back one-tenth of what is entirely His anyway, was a way of acknowledging God's ownership of every kind of wealth.
The account indicates that the spoils belong to Abraham by right of conquest. And Abraham gave the tithes to Melchizedek before discussing their further distribution with the king of Sodom. He considered the tithe first.
Genesis 14 succinctly reveals several principles of tithing. First, the tithe goes to God through His representative, the priest. Second, the Bible repeats that it is one-tenth. Third, this law was in effect long before God commanded it through Moses. And fourth, Abraham, blessed for his faithfulness to God, gave tithes in recognition of God's rulership and providence.
Abraham is called the father of the faithful in Romans 4 and he lived an honorable life. His faith was a prototype of all believers and Christians. God recorded Abram's act of tithing for a reason: to provide us with an example from the life of righteous Abraham. Speaking of the events of the Old Testament, Paul tells us,
So the faith and obedience of Abraham shows that tithing should be imitated or followed as a Christian practice.
We will look at some background on the origins of Jerusalem. It is very probable that the biblical origins of Jerusalem traced back to the ancient Canaanite site of Salem, the city of the priestly king Melchizedek.
It is interesting that right from the beginning, a tithe is mentioned as being associated with Salem. One of the major problems that the city of Jerusalem and the Israelites had, throughout their history, was not giving back to God His wealth.
The King of Salem, by name, is the King of righteousness, and by office, is the King of peace.
Hebrews 7:1-2 says "King of Salem" means "King of peace"—referring to Jesus Christ. You are all very familiar with that.
The etymology of the name "Jerusalem" is not certain, at least not in the world's eyes. It is apparently of Semitic origin. An Egyptian notice from the third quarter of the 19th century BC mentions Urusalimum. The Tell el Amarna correspondence of the 14th century BC refers to the town of Urusalim. The Assyrians called it Ursalimmu. You see the similarities in the pronunciation, or at least the transliteration, of the names that the city had.
As we go through this portion of chapter 14, and then through to chapter 15, verse 17, I want you to notice the progression of time as we move from event to event. As we do this, I want you to mentally compare this sequence both with Christ's observance of Passover preceding His crucifixion and burial, as well as the flow of events as the Israelites progressed through Exodus 12. You are going to see that there are a great number of parallels between the two, tying them together.
We begin with something that we have already read. In Genesis 14:18, bread and wine are brought forth by Melchizedek (Christ). Did not Christ bring forth bread and wine to be taken by His disciples? The answer to that question is obvious.
We can see that there is a relationship between these two, and this begins the scenario that leads into Chapter 15.
One of the things I find intriguing is that the events of Exodus 12 and 13 took place on Abib 14 and 15, and that the story of this event, which took place 430 years earlier, somehow or another are linked in Genesis 14 and Genesis 15. Is that a coincidence or what? How far ahead was God thinking? It does not mean a thing really but it is just so interesting.
It took his labor to go pursue these men for many hundreds of miles, fight the battle, and bring it all back. That was quite a labor really of love for Lot that he did these things, but he labored nonetheless. When he brought it all back, he tithed on it. He gave the rest back to the king of Sodom. But Abraham tithed on his labors of war.
