Day 30 Devotion – Lot’s Rescue

Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. Genesis 14:14-16

Picture: This map shows that Damascus is far northeast of the Sea of Galilee so Abraham pursued these forces quite a ways. Probably around 300 miles round trip.

Have you ever pictured Abraham as just an old man living in a tent with his wife Sarai by themselves? This is not the way the ancient people lived. Wealthy people had servants and the poor were the servants. A person’s wealth was determined by how many livestock and possessions and servants a man had. We see that Abraham traveled with a large group. Lot is captured by these invading kings and Abraham is able to muster up an army of 318 fighting men. If you add on men not able to fight and women and children, Abraham possibly had close to 1000 servants. This made him a very powerful man. Back in these days, an army of just a few hundred people was large because most people lived in city states. Abraham with a couple of allies is able to defeat these four kings and get people and possessions back including Lot. Damascus is far north of Israel so Abraham pursued them a few hundred miles round trip. Most people glance over this story as insignificant but it really tells us that Abraham was powerful and we can see later why the Canaanites feared him and tried to be allies with him because they viewed him as a serious threat.


Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High… And he gave him a tithe of all. Genesis 14:18,20b

Melchizedek was king of Salem, this is Jerusalem (Jeru-Salem). He is mysterious but was a true priest of God even though Jerusalem was not yet a Jewish city. Abraham gives him a ten percent tithe and many scholars think this was Christ.