13¶ And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the
Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and
brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. 14 And when Abram heard that
his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house,
three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. 15 And he divided himself
against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them
unto Hobah, which is
on the left hand of Damascus. 16 And he brought back all
the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women
also, and the people.
The first mention of Hebrew is
here, which Strong’s dictionary said means, “one from beyond,” indicating
Abram’s status as an immigrant from outside of Canaan. Other scholars have
tried to link an ancient word for brigand or robbers, fringe desert dwellers on
the borders of society, the hapiru or habiru, with the Hebrew but that idea is discredited by reputable scholarship
today.(42)
Abram, an influential and wealthy
man, maybe not only had his armed servants to call on but allies among the
inhabitants of the land, his confederates.
Confederate is defined in the following verse as allies agreeing in a
cause. Notice that the phrase after the colon defines the phrase before it and
vice versa throughout the Bible.
Psalm 83:5 For they have consulted together with one
consent: they are confederate against thee:
Referring to Lot as Abram’s brother simply
means that Lot and Abram were alike, closely related, of the same kind. Notice
in the following verse from earlier in Genesis how brother is used even more expansively, not just referring to
another son of one’s mother.
Genesis 9:5 And surely your blood of your lives will I
require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man;
at the hand of every man’s brother
will I require the life of man.
And here, see how brother is used
to link people alike in habit.
Proverbs 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
It is also used as a definition of one’s neighbour, which we spell neighbor,
in the following verse. Think of the sentiment expressed by some throughout
history that, “all men are brothers.”
Jeremiah 23:35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered?
and, What hath the LORD spoken?
This surprise attack at night against a relatively small invading expedition
made by 318 armed and trained servants and Abram’s confederates among the
locals whose number we do not know, perhaps eager for revenge against a foreign
conqueror’s coalition, was successful. The invaders were bloated with the
spoils of various cities they had robbed and probably filled with the pride of
success at how little this expedition had cost them, until now. Although we
know that nothing happens without God’s permissive will or His directive will
so He was involved in that He permitted Abram to win this is not specifically the
kind of supernatural deliverance of Gideon with tactics directed by God, but a
simple shock attack against an unsuspecting and arrogant force in the middle of
the night.
This presents a very important point about reality that is the subject of
the Book of Job. All that happens is a manifestation of God’s will, even when
men commit horrible evil which He permits for a reason we may never know in
this life and which in its brutality and seeming randomness makes no sense to us,
but there are times when God’s involvement is obvious and apparent, as in
Gideon. But, all victory or defeat, whether of good guys or bad, points to His
will, either by permission or direction. It is up to us to understand that we
may never know why in this life and that we are to trust Him, as He has
everything under control and knows what He is doing. We must fight evil, as
Abram has done, but not be mistaken in thinking that the outcome is in our
hands or that it will even by necessity because we are fighting for God be a
good outcome. Many preachers make the mistake of thinking that if they do
something in God’s name He must bless it because of their intention. This is
not true. God will bless what He will bless if it is to His purpose but you do
not determine that.
We assume we will know the “whys” when we stand before Christ but how
ashamed we will be if we do find out that our lack of faith was an impediment
to great blessings in this life we can only imagine. I can picture that our
works will be sorted out. What was done for our flesh or out of fear of man or
desire for approval of man even though we said it was for God and what was done
out of faith in God or desire for His approval will be treated differently I
suspect regardless of whether the outcomes were worldly success or martyrdom.
(42)Daniel Snell, Life in the Ancient
Near East (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 68.
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