“But Abraham said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, “I have made Abram rich.” What a powerful statement that Abraham makes here. The King of Sodom, who is offering him all kinds of riches, and Abraham rejects Him powerfully.
– Genesis 14:22–23
And in the process says, “I am not depending on human kings on gifts they might give in order to become a great nation and acquire a great name. I am depending on God alone”. What a picture in a world where it is so easy to look to people in positions of power, to give us this or that, to look to the things of this world to exalt us, to deliberately say, “No. I trust in my God. I will in no way do anything that will take any credit away from Him alone, as the one who is my helper, as the one who is my strength, as the one who is my provider, as the one who gives me all that I need.”
God’s Perfect Provision
Now, obviously, there are ways in which God uses all kinds of people or things in this world as evidence of His provision. But Abraham notices right here that if He takes these gifts from this king, that this king will have said, “I did this to make Abraham great.” And Abraham wants it to be clear, “Only God has been my provider, not the king of Sodom.” And Abraham is not lured by the promises of wealth and power that come from a worldly king. I say that one more time, Abraham is not lured. He refuses to be lured by promises of power and wealth and anything else from any king other than God.
Genesis 14:22–23 Calls for Trust in God
So, God, we pray today before you are king. And we say, “We trust in you.” Some trust in chariots, some in horses, some in worldly kings and leaders. We do not. We trust in the name of the Lord, our God alone. Oh, we trust in the name of Jesus alone. He alone is our King. Jesus alone is our Provider, our Ruler, our Helper, our Lord. He alone is Lord and we will not give allegiance to any other. And we will not look to anyone or anything in this world, for what you alone provide for us. God, we praise you for your faithfulness as our Provider.
We pray that you would forgive us, for when we do look to people in certain positions, when we looked to anything in this world, for that which comes from you alone. God, we pray that you would forgive us for the times when we seek satisfaction from, we seek power from, we seek a claim from people and things in this world. Please God forgive us for that. God forgive us for seeking that which we only need from you.
Genesis 14:22–23 Thanks God for His Promise of Provision
And we praise you for your promise to bless us. Your promise to provide for us. Your promise to give us everything we needed in Philippians 4:19 way, you’ve promised to supply all our needs according to the glorious riches that we have in Christ Jesus. Why would we look to any leader, anything in this world when we have Jesus? We love you, Jesus. We praise you Jesus. Jesus, we exalt you alone as our Lord, and we pray that you’d help us to live day-by-day in total dependence on you as our Lord and King, and to proclaim you as the only Lord and the only King who is worthy of all trust to every single person around us. May it be so, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
