God's War Plan: Battle of SIDDIM

Scripture: Genesis 14

Other names: War of Nine Kings.

Place in Timeline: Noah – Abraham – Isaac

Geography: valley of Siddim; Dead Sea

Belligerents: Mesopotamian Kingdoms of the North invading the Jordan Kings of the South.

Forces an leaders:

Jordan River Plain, South:

King Birsta of Gomorrah

King Shemeber of Zeboiim

King Shinab of Admah

Lot (Abraham’s nephew)

King Melchizedek of Salem.

Part of the dispersion of civilizations resulting from the Tower of Babel episode were the peoples of Asia Minor and North Mesopotamia. These were the Semites, Horites and Indo-Iranians. They left their lands and converged on Canaan, forming a new civilization known as the Hyksos.

Abraham was part of this great movement of people during the 18^th Century BC. He had a revelation that there was one, single God. Due to the dispersion of humanity after the fall and indulgence in paganism this concept was once again new. So what God was doing was a sort of restoration of His contact with mankind.

Abram may have been an Amorite. His migration story from Ur to Haran (in Syria) and then to southern Palestine follows the general pattern of the Amorite expansion. This is ironic as the Amorites were 5 centuries later a fierce enemy of the Israelites.

By blessing Abraham's family God would bless the entire world.

Abraham left his home in Haran, city of Ur to Canaan, the future promised land, around 1855 BC.

With the flood God had eliminated the wicked from the world and left only 8 people. After the flood God said He would never eliminate mankind again. This meant He had to do something different to carry out His plan. So this is why now he would take the chosen ones from the wicked instead: by telling Abraham to move.

Abraham’s migration took him from Ur, the possible site of the garden of Eden to the area of Jerusalem, the future site of Jesus’ crucifixion. So Abraham went from the site where sin entered to world to the site of where sin left the world.

Around 2091 BC the situation in Canaan was bleak and Abraham went to Egypt. The Hebrews settled their later on as well. Egypt was a refuge for Israel but a refuge from the world. It was better to stick with God in times of weakness than to seek help there.

Back to Canaan, Abraham established his family, which was the seed of the future nation of Israel. There he was involved in military action to protect the grazing grounds for his livestock. The Canaanites were vassals of the Hyksos and consequently, Abraham, as a resident of the land had to fulfill obligations towards them in the form of military support. This was similar to the concept of phalanx which reached it’s height during the Macedonian Era later.

In the in the early Dynastic Period of the Third Millennium BC the city states in southern Mesopotamia did not exist coexist peacefully.

At this time in history, many pastoral and farming civilizations were already developed as organized states for 1000 years. The Amorites, for instance, were amongst the first civilizations to establish kingdoms in Mesopotamia. [1]

By the time of this conflict, the Mesopotamian kingdoms lead by Elam were in control of the southern tribes in the Jordan Valley for 13 years. 3 of these Northern kingdoms were probably vassals of Elam. King Chedorlaomerm of Elam embarked on a campaign to re-capture the cities of the Jordan Valley that had decided to rebel against them by refusing to pay tribute. To The 4 invading kingdoms of the North this had the purpose of keeping these cities under their control as well as assuring the trade routes in the West open to for the future. Accordingly, the army of the 4 Kings attacked towards the South.

Abraham had settled in the land that God had intended for him. This hill country was the best geographical place Abraham could be in. His Nephew Lot thought he knew better and decided to go live in another land that he chose on his own by the plains.

The tribes were nomadic in nature. This implied their self-reliance and autonomy in movement and weapon maintenance. They were well equipped and did not rely on a central point of command or capital at this point. All this gave them, soldier to soldier, a considerable advantage over more professional forces. This was conditioned to great discipline and strong leadership, which we know to be the case with Abraham.

It is reasonable to assume that Abraham was outnumbered at least 10 to 1. While the victorious Northern army formations were made up of divisions of horsemen, spearmen, swordsmen, archers and slingers, Abraham’s force was lightly armed.

The Southern Kings were pleased with Abraham’s incredible turning of the tide of war. King Melchizedek of Salem, a priest of God, blessed Abraham who offered him a tenth of the plunder. King Bera of Sodom, came to Abraham and, in gratitude, persuaded him to instead take home the plunder to which Abraham declined.

After the War of Nine Kings, God mad a covenant with Abraham at Beersheba and appointed him the father of a great nation (see Genesis 22). Abraham’s nephew, Lot, escaped from Sodom with his family and God used a hailstorm to destroy it, along with Gomorrah, due to the unrepentant sin existing there. One theory on the destruction is an air burst. This is when a comet disintegrates before hitting the Earth and what hits the city would have been a super heated shockwave which would have had the same effect as a nuclear explosion. This way there was total destruction with no trace of the cause. There would have been a huge mushroom cloud which is described as the dense smoke Abraham saw. The destruction of these cities of the Jordan Plain, the cities of the Jordan Plain may have resulted in the transformation of the area of Siddim into the salt sea known today as the Dead Sea.

In antiquity there have been other settlements that have seemed to disappear or be destroyed overnight. Teotihuacan, in the valley of Mexico, for instance, grew rapidly but then was destroyed. It is unknown if this was due to invasion or droughts or anything else but the end result is the same: an evil society was wiped out.

Scientific explanations for the destruction do not affect the premise that God had a hand in it. God uses he nature (and science) that He created for His own purpose.

Lot's committed incest with his daughters and out of that were born Moab and Ammon. These were the patriarchs of Israel’s future long life enemies the Moabites and Ammonites. Along with the Edomites these nations were located where the country of Jordan is today.

Moab: Jordan region east of the Dead Sea.

Ammon: Jordan; region around the capital Amman.

Edom: Jordan southern region south of the Dead Sea.

BACKING of GOD

The professional soldier was already well established at this time in history [2]. Abraham’s small force was distinguished from the opposing regular fighting men that had experience and were organized into any of the 9 kings’ armies. Also, Abraham and his elite force of 318 were not aligned with any of the 5 kings. He used his faith for his force was not only heavily outnumbered but not even regular soldiers. His force was an elite one only because he had God behind him.

NON-ALIGNMENT

Although the worldly issue was for the Cities of the Jordan plain to be freed from Mesopotamian rule, God’s agenda was for Abraham’s family with Lot to be rescued. So the fact that the t kings of the Jordan plain were victorious this was so because Abraham was fighting on their side, even though he and his 318 men were not under them. Abraham made a point that he was not under them when he refused to take plunder from the battle. This is an important post for two reasons, one worldly and one spiritual. He refused the plunder so that

(a) he could keep his reputation of independence and neutrality (as no one would say that one of the kings made him rich) and

(b) he was giving this tithe to God via the priest of God most high Melchizedek[3] king of Salem[4]. This was the first instance where tithing and the elements of communion are mentioned. This was before Jesus and even before the Law of Moses.

IGNORING the SPOILS

The plunder was from the cities of Sodom andGomorah, which were the places that God had forbade Abraham to settle in. The fact that Abraham refused this plunder showed:

(a) his obedience to God’s initial boundaries and

(b) his independence from pagan Kings and testament to reliance on God’s provision.

This surrender of power to God is also evident at the seige of Jericho (Joshua 5:13-15) where Joshua encounters an angel of the Lord and immediately put himself under his authority to command the troops.

The FIRST TITHE

The episode of the destruction of Sodom is also a great insight into how angels operate. Angels are on assignment and do not have permission to give them slack or forgiveness. Example is in Genesis 19, where Abraham intercedes for Sodom but once God has sent out the path of destruction the angels could not slow, accelerate or change it. Angels were there to protect Lot’s family as they left the city but when she chose to disobey they couldn't protect her anymore because she had chosen to wonder off the path.

The FIRST COVENANT

God had an unspoken covenant with Adam and Eve and a symbolic one with Noah. The covenant with Abraham was the first one actively initiated by both parties, as in a contract.

Abraham had to walk between the halves of animals to make the covenant with God. This ritual is also recorded in a Hittite text from Anatolia, dated after the mid-2nd millennium B.C.

The main differences between the Abrahamic covenant and that of other eastern cultures were:

(a) in the other nations the focus was on what the vassal state (here a parallel to Abraham) was promising their master. In Abraham's covenant the focus was on what God promised Him.

(b) For the other cultures the animals cut in half represented what would happen if you failed to keep your covenant. For the Hebrews, with the passing of the torch between the animals, it meant God would rather die before He broke the covenant.

INTERCESSION for SODOM

In Genesis 18 we see Abraham asking God to spare the wicked city of Sodom. Abraham pleads with God who promises not to destroy the city if 50 righteous people can be found there. Abraham continued asking mercy for the city and negotiates God down to 45, 40 and eventually 10 men.

Intercession is standing in the gap in place of another who have provoked judgement on themselves (and the actual execution of that judgement). It is prayer to hold back judgement.

It is especially powerful because we are partnering up with God in prayer and it moves things that would not be moved otherwise. In the New Covenant and Dispensation of Grace we live in (the Church Age), we pray in tongues and the Holy Spirit joins in with us. We’re not really interceding for ourselves but it is through us (by praying in tongues) that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us or others. The unction for this prayer must come from the Holy Spirit and not by one’s own will.

Prayers cannot make people change. They can just stack the shelves with answers but these have to be seen by those who have eyes (Matthew11:15). The choice is the person’s. God is a gentleman and does not violate a person’s will. If He did then He would have done it all around and everyone would be saved and not go to Hell.

OPEN HOUSE TOUR

Perhaps one of the reasons this battle spread from the very southern to the very northern confines of the future promised land was because God had commanded Abraham not to settle down in that land but to travel as a nomad throughout the land. God wanted Abraham to know his promise, to know the future land of his people, to know the promise before the promise had manifested.