GENESIS 14
13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaksof Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people– Genesis 14:13-16
GENESIS 14 ABRAM BRINGS AN ARMY TO RESCUE LOT
A poem inspired by these verses by ILMA
When Abram heard of Lot’s captivity at Sodom from someone who escaped there
He didn’t waste any time but gathered all his trained servants 318 of them
Abram’s vast number of servants manifest God’s blessings on him
By training them in advance, Abram was always ready to fight and defend his flock.
Without fear, Abram divided his army of servants against these enemies
He pursued them relentlessly as far as Dan, Hobah which is north of Damascus
Then he was able to rescue his nephew Lot from his captivity
He restored all of Lot’s possessions and his women and people.
In this account, we see many different traits of Abram that we never heard spoken before. We knew that he was blessed by the Lord and was given a promise of many offspring coming from him. But in this account, we can deduce that he was also very wealthy. For someone to have three hundred eighteen trained servants to be good soldiers was astoundingly amazing. He was very rich but kept a humble attitude. We also see his wisdom and courage here. He was wise to invest in training his own servants so that when occasions like enemy invasions happen, he is not blindsided. We also see his love for his nephew Lot that he would do anything to get him back. He was in his old age by this time because he left Haran at seventy-five. What a blessed man of God is Abram!
REFLECTION
- What can we learn from Abram in this account when he rescued his nephew Lot?
