Now what did Melchizedek do? He intervened at just the right moment when this temptation was being put before Abraham to enter into a fellowship with the Sodomites with whom he had been allied to some degree in fighting this war, and, in a way, for whom he went to battle in behalf of. So Melchizedek intervened and re-focused Abraham’s attention on whom it was that gave him strength and the victory, and Abraham was enabled to make the right choice. You see what Melchizedek did, he said “Blessed be Abram of God Most High.” He refocused Abraham’s attention on God. “Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” These Sodomites and Abraham did not do a thing. It was God who gave you the victory.
Abraham wanted to make sure that he was living by faith, and that God only was going to be the blessing of Abraham, and Abraham would know it. No man would be able to brag that they helped Abram along the way. No, it had been God and God only. Abram had not only recognized the gift that God had given, but he in turn then, becomes a giver. He gave tithes as the Lord commanded to Melchizedek. So Abraham makes a public declaration that he will trust the Lord God to supply him.
Now, I want you to notice this, because there is another biblical principle that derives from this example, and that is that Abraham does not require of others what he requires of himself. Each person has to live according to the measure of their faith. Abraham’s faith was in God, but these other people’s faith was not in God, at least to the degree that Abraham’s was. So Abraham’s example was there but it could not be copied without the power to do so. Did they have the Spirit of God? I do not think so.
So each person has to be true, according to the measure of their faith, rather than falsely pretending to what they have not attained to. There is a whole chapter on this back in the New Testament, anybody know where it is? It is in Romans 14. It is the chapter that ends with, “For whatever is not from faith is sin.” It is where Paul says, “don’t offend people by trying to force things on them. Even your brother in the church.”
The lesson that we have to learn from this is that the King of Salem still lives. He is on the right hand of the throne of God, and He will still feed us in our time of need, and He does it over and over and over again.
