Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AND LOT 14: 17-24
To sum up with Lange (CDHCG, 405): “As Abram
declares his iatiiiaate coi?zmmioiz with Melchizedek, and in-
troduces it into the very forms of expression of his religion,
so he utterly refuses aiiy coin,iizuizity of goods with the
King of Sodom. He reserves only what his servants had
already consumed in the necessities of war, and that part
of the spoil which fell to his three confederates, Aner,
Eshcol, and Mamre (Nuni. 3 1 :26, 1 Sam. 30:26) .” In
view of the foregoing array of facts, how utterly stupid
becomes the critical claim that v. 20, in which we are
told that Abram gave to Melchizedek a tithe of the re-
captured booty, contradicts v. 23, in which it is said that
Abram returned to the King of Sodom all the recaptured
booty, refusing to retain even a shoe-latchet for himself.
8. Reliability of the Narrative
It is repeatedly charged by the critics that the content
of chapter 14 is “an intrusive section within the patriarchal
framework,” and because (as they say) it cannot be identi-
fied with J, E or P, it must be ascribed to an isolated
source. To this critique we are bound to reply that-to
any unbiased person-the content of this chapter is defi-
nitely related to Old Testament history (1) in the fact that
it traces the ultimate destiny of Lot and his progeny (the
Moabites and Ammonites), as we shall see later (Gen.
19:30-38; Deut. 2:9, 19; Psa. 83:8) ; (2) in the fact that
it justifies the canonization of the book of Ruth, in which
the Messianic genealogy is carried forward through Ruth, a
Moabite maiden, to Obed, to Jesse, and then to David
(Ruth 1:4, 4:17; 1 Chron. 2:9-16, Matt. 1:1, Luke 3:32).
It is commonplace of Old Testament prophecy that Messiah
should be of the royal lineage of David (Matt. 1:l; Isa.
9:7, 16:5; Psa. 1lO:l; Matt. 22:41-41, Mark 12:35-37,
Luke 20:41-44, John 7:42, Acts 2:34-35, Rom. 1:3, 2 Tim,
2:8, Heb. 1: 13; Rev. 5: 1, 22: 16). Moreover, the content
of Genesis 14 is inseparably linked with explanatory pas-
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