God’s Kingdom and the Triumph of Faith | Genesis 14
Brian Hedges | June 9, 2019
This week was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when over 100,000 Allied troops invaded the 50-mile stretch of fortified beaches in Normandy, France. There were over 5,000 ships and over 13,000 aircraft supporting that endeavor, and over 9,000 American soldiers died in that first wave of the invasion, but it was the turning point of World War II.
It’s been fresh on my mind this week because I went to see Steven Spielberg’s film Saving Private Ryan on Wednesday evening. Now, that film is not for the faint-of-heart, so don’t take this as an unqualified recommendation. But if you can handle the violence and if you can turn a deaf ear to the profanity, I think it is the greatest cinematic portrayal of the realities of war, and especially of that particular even in war, the invasion of Normandy.
I can’t see a film like that and think about the realities of war without feeling both gratitude and grief. I feel gratitude for the sacrifices that many people have made in order to give us the kinds of freedoms that we enjoy today, and gratitude at the profound courage and bravery that was exemplified on those beaches. But when I look at the carnage of war as it was depicted in that film and know that the reality for those who actually experienced it was even worse, I feel grief. I feel grief that we live in a world that is so etched with evil and with wickedness and with sin that wars are a part of our reality. I feel shocked at the horrors and the inhumanity of war, and feel a longing for God’s kingdom to come in peace and in righteousness, so that the end of all wars and of all human conflict will finally be with us.
Well, this morning we are looking at the very first of the wars that’s recorded in Scripture. Now, if you’ve read your Bible you know that there are a lot of battles in the Bible. There’s a lot of war, there’s a lot of warfare; but the very first one is found in Genesis 14. This is one of those chapters that tends to be neglected. This is not one of the favorite stories of Abraham that preachers like to run to. We enjoy preaching on Genesis 12 and God’s promise to Abram, we enjoy Genesis 15 and God’s covenant with Abram, and Genesis 22 and the famous Abraham and Isaac story. This is the one that usually gets passed over. But we care about the Bible here, we don’t want to pass over Scripture; this is your one chance, perhaps, to get to hear what Genesis 14 is all about, so we’re going to dig into it this morning, Genesis 14.
We’re going to do so with our eyes broadly on God’s kingdom and the triumph of faith, but as we work through it we’re going to notice three particular characters in the story. We could call these characters the mighty warrior, the worldly king, and the mysterious priest. As we understand each one of these characters and the role they play in the story it will, I think, give us a broader view of God’s kingdom and his purposes.
1. The Mighty Warrior
So, Genesis 14, and we begin with Abram, the mighty warrior. Now again, this is not something you usually think about when you think of Abram. After all, we sing, “Father Abraham had many sons,” right, not, “Captain Abraham had many troops.” But when you look at this story, you actually see that Abram was a mighty warrior.
There are lots of details we don’t need to cover in verses 1 through 10, but let me just hit the more important points, beginning with the first three verses. “In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).”
So, right there you have a long list of names, right? You have five kings versus four in this battle of kings, and it all begins with Amraphel the king of Shinar. Now, that’s just important to note, because it links backward in the book of Genesis to an important verse in Genesis 10:10, where we read about Nimrod and the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom, which was "Babel, in the land of Shinar." So there’s a connection here between Shinar and Babel, the tower of Babel, as you remember in Genesis 11. It’s the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom.
Again, if you know your Bibles you will know that there is a conflict between God’s people and Babylon that runs all the way through the Bible. You find the high water mark in the story of the histories of Israel and the prophets of Israel, when finally God’s people, because of their sin and their disobedience, are invaded by Nebuchadnezzar and by the Babylonian armies in 586, 587 B.C., and then endure 70 years of exile. You see that, for example, in 2 Kings 24-25 and in the book of Daniel.
But then, when you get to the New Testament, Babylon shows up again. Do you know where Babylon shows up? In the book of Revelation, where Babylon stands for the empires of the world that are arrayed against the kingdom of God, and there is this ongoing conflict between God’s people, the church, and between Babylon, until finally, in Revelation 18, the city of Babylon and it is declared that Babylon has fallen.
I just say all of that to remind us that the conflict that runs through scripture between God’s people and the kingdoms of this world is not merely a political conflict. It is not only in the Bible a record of historical battles (although this is history), but it’s also typology. It’s also pointing us to a deeper spiritual reality. It’s pointing us between an ongoing conflict, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, as prophesied in Genesis 3:15.
So there is a cosmic spiritual warfare between light and darkness that is going on in all of these battles in Scripture. We need to keep that in mind so that we can draw the appropriate connections to our own lives today.
Verse 4 gives us the reason behind this particular war. It says, “Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.” So here were several kingdoms, they were really city-states led by kings over these cities; there were five of them, and for 12 years they had served as vassals to this one king, Chedorlaomer. In the 13th year they rebel, and in the 14th year Chedorlaomer comes after them with a posse of three other kings and armies, and they go to war. Perhaps they were saying something like, “No taxation without representation.” They didn’t want to pay tribute anymore, right? They didn’t want to serve this king any longer, so they rebel, and it results in a war.
That war is described in verses 5 through 10; we don’t have to read that, but do read verse 11, where you have the end of the war. “So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way.” So the reason for the war was the refusal to pay tribute; the result of the war is these cities are plundered.
Now, on the face of it, that’s just a fairly prosaic account of an ancient battle, right? That’s how wars go. Someone wins, someone loses, the people who lose end up suffering the most. But I do just want to note something that the Puritan commentator Matthew Henry said. I think it’s a very apt comment. He says, “Note, pride, covetousness, and ambition are the lusts from which wars and fightings come. To these insatiable idols the blood of thousands has been sacrificed.”
Well, that was certainly the case here, and I think Matthew Henry was right. The reason behind wars is the sin of human beings. It’s the sin of those who are in power. Now, sometimes there are good people who are trying to fight the sins of those who are craving and hungry for more power and for more wealth, and so sometimes there are such things as just wars, when those who care about freedom and justice and righteousness rise up to fight those who are wicked. But we must always remember this, that in all of the complexities of a Christian perspective of war, the first thing we have to recognize is that we live in a fallen world, and that war is a result of sin, it’s a result of the fall.
So the question then is, how did Abram get involved in this particular war? He’s nowhere to be found in the first 11 verses of this chapter. It doesn’t even seem like it fits in Genesis when you first read it, until you read verse 12. In verse 12 we read, “They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.”
Poor Lot, right? We ran into Lot last week, and as we saw last week, Lot is the case study of a worldly Christian, he is the case study of someone who’s walking by sight rather than walking by faith. You remember what we saw last week in Genesis 13; when Lot and Abram separate, Lot lifts up his eyes, he tries to look for the most prosperous place possible to settle, and he moves towards Sodom, this wicked city of Sodom. Well, Sodom happens to be one of the cities, one of the kingdoms that’s involved in this ancient conflict, and Lot ends up a prisoner of war. That’s why Abram gets involved. Abram comes to the rescue for his nephew, Lot.
Once again, I think we just see a picture here, where Lot is something like we are. We’re going after the things of this world and we find ourselves in bondage, and we need a rescuer. We need a mighty warrior to come to the rescue. That’s what Abram does, and that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.
Well, Abram is on the scene in verses 13 through 16. This is Abram’s part in the conflict. It says, “Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. When Abram heard this his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in this house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.”
So here’s Abram, the mighty warrior, and he seems to be a wonderful strategist as well. He evidently flanks the enemy armies, coming at them unexpectedly in the night, a surprise invasion, minimal casualties, probably, and he’s able to recover Lot and recover the prisoners of war and the plunder that have been taken by these enemies.
He does it with only 318 men! It kind of reminds us of another story that will happen later, right, in the book of Judges (Judges 6-7), where Gideon, with only 300 men, a small army that God has whittled down to a size where he can work through them and show his power, show his greatness, and they overcome the Midianites. This story is just one of many in Scripture that shows us that God works through weak instruments, that God works on behalf of this people, even when they are outnumbered.
We know that the Lord is the one who helped Abram defeat his enemies, because in verse 20 we read, “Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” This reminds us of an important truth in Scripture, perhaps best expressed in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Brothers and sisters, we do not need to fear the problems, the trials, even wars and rumors of war, in this world if we know that we’re trusting in the Lord, if we know the Lord is on our side. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
So, Abram the mighty warrior. That’s the first 16 verses of this chapter. But really, those first 16 verses are just background to the real action in the chapter, which happens in verses 17 through 24, where we’re introduced to two more characters, and those characters are a worldly king and a mysterious priest. We’re going to look at the worldly king first.
2. The Worldly King
What you have here is Abram and his encounter with two men, the king of Sodom, this worldly king, and then this mysterious priest named Melchizedek. Look at verses 17 and 18. It says, “After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)”
So Abram meets these two people, the king of Sodom, named Bera, as we saw in verse 2, and Melchizedek, the king of Salem. The way these stories are kind of sandwiched together - you have the king of Salem coming first, and then right in the middle you have the encounter with Melchizedek, and then the end of the chapter, verses 21 through 24, records the rest of Abram’s encounter with the king of Sodom. So Melchizedek is sandwiched between the two mentions of the king of Sodom.
The way that is woven together, from the literary standpoint, it’s called a chiasm, and it’s meant to show us that there is a contrast. There’s an intended contrast between these two characters, the king of Sodom and Melchizedek.
Here’s how the contrast works. The king of Sodom is a wicked king. We can assume that safely because Genesis 13:13 said that “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.” Here’s the king of that wicked city coming to Abraham.
Melchizedek is clearly a godly man. He is the king of Salem, and he is a worshipper (in fact, he is a priest) of God Most High, El El-Yon, God Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth. He’s a mysterious figure, but he seems to be a worshipper of the true God.
The king of Sodom is a worldly king. He is what you might call a deal-maker. In fact, what he does when he encounters Abram is he comes on the scene offering Abram a deal. He wants to barter, he wants to make a trade. He essentially says, “Listen, let me have the people and you can have the spoils of war.”
Well, Melchizedek doesn’t come to make a deal. Melchizedek comes with bread and wine, and he comes with a blessing for Abram. He comes blessing Abram, not trying to take advantage of Abram.
So it seems to me that these two kings represent diametrically opposed kingdoms, two ways, God’s way and the world’s way. Two kingdoms, the kingdom of Sodom with its prosperity and its wickedness and its eventual destruction versus the kingdom of God represented by Melchizedek. Here is the climax of the story. Abram is confronted by these two kings, and the question is, which king will he align himself with?
You see, there’s not only a physical battle that Abram had to fight; now there’s a spiritual battle. I want you to see how he responds to the king of Sodom. Look at verse 21.
“The king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.’” Okay, so that’s the deal he’s offering. Look at Abram’s response, verse 22. “But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have lifted up my hand to the Lord’” (that was probably a way of making a vow to the Lord). “‘I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth...’” He’s using the same language that Melchizedek uses a few verses before. He says in verse 23, “‘...that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours.’” Don’t you love that? He’s not going to compromise even in the least! Not a thread or a sandal strap! But why won’t he take it? Look at verse 23. “‘...lest you should say, “I have made Abram rich.”’” He says in verse 24, “‘I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who were with me. Let Aner, Eschol, and Mamre take their share.’” But Abram himself is determined that he will not benefit from the king of Sodom. He has gone to war, but he is not going to profit from the war.
Why is that? Why is Abram refusing to profit from the spoils of war? Here’s why: because he knew that the source of his wealth, the source of his blessing, was the promise of God, so he is trusting in God rather than in the kingdoms of this world.
I think we learn an important lesson here about faith. Abram’s faith did not just help him triumph over his enemies in physical battle, but it helped him to overcome in the battle for his soul.
The reality is that most of us, although I know there are a few exceptions, but most of us will never be in war. Most of us have not been in war, most of us will probably never be in a war. There are a few exceptions, we’re grateful for those who have served. But most of us are not going to find ourselves in a physical war, but here’s what we will find: we will find ourselves every day in a moral war, in a spiritual war. We will find ourselves every day being assaulted by the kingdoms of this world that are seeking our compromise! The only way we can overcome in those battles is the same way Abram overcame. That’s by faith in the superior promises of God.
How will you fight? How will you fight when the world comes to you with advertisements and with this offer, “If you will give me your time, if you will give me your affection, if you will give me your heart, I will make you happy”? It’s what every advertisement you ever see is trying to say to you. How do we fight? We fight by faith in the promises of God. We fight by believing that we have a better and abiding possession in God Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth; that God is the source of true happiness, of true wealth, of true blessing.
As we read in 1 John, “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world…” What? "Our faith" (1 John 5:4). Faith. Faith is the victory! The way we overcome worldliness is through faith in the promises of God.
3. The Mysterious Priest
So we’ve seen Abram the mighty warrior; Bera, the king of Sodom, the worldly king; and then, thirdly, this mysterious priest, Melchizedek. Look at verses 18 through 20.
It says, “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
So essentially there are two questions to ask here: who is this, and what is he doing here?
(1) Who is this? Who is Melchizedek? There’s a reason I call him the mysterious priest, because there’s a lot of mystery surrounding this guy. When you read the history of interpretation, there have been all kinds of theories about him.
Josephus tells us that Melchizedek was the founder of Jerusalem, and indeed, he’s called here the king of Salem, and Salem seems to be an ancient name for Jerusalem, which means the city of peace. “Salem” is the Hebrew word for peace. So perhaps he was the first king of Jerusalem, the first priest of Jerusalem. This is the first time in Scripture that you have a priest even mentioned, the word priest even used, and Melchizedek is this priest.
The Jewish Targums on the Pentateuch believe that this was Shem, the son of Noah, maybe seeing a connection between Melchizedek’s words here in chapter 14 and the blessing that Noah pronounced on Shem, when he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.” That was also the view of Luther. I don’t think it’s right, because Hebrews 7 tells us that he had no father or mother, no genealogy. That doesn’t mean he just spontaneously was born out of nowhere, but it means that there’s no record of his genealogy, which would not be the case if he was indeed the descendent of Noah.
Some people believe that he was an angelic figure rather than a man, and still others, including some of the church fathers such as Origen believe that he is a preincarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ.
Now, I think all of those perspectives are probably off the mark, and the safest thing to say is this, that he was a Canaanite priest who yet worshipped the true God. He’s a mysterious figure who prefigures for us, who foreshadows for us, the priestly work and ministry of Jesus Christ. I don’t think he is actually an incarnation of Christ, but he is a type of Christ, someone who points us to Jesus Christ.
We see this in Hebrews 7. It would be worth our time, and someday when we get into Hebrews and work through that book we’ll get into this in detail - it would be worth looking at Hebrews 5 through 7 and everything it says about Melchizedek. I just want to read four verses, Hebrews 7:1-4, where you can see some of the typology, some of the parallels.
It says, “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!” (Hebrews 7:1-4)
So the writer to the Hebrews clearly sees a connection here that Melchizedek is a type of Christ, and he’s a type of Christ in these ways.
He combines the offices of priest and king. In the Old Testament Scriptures, those offices were usually separated. The kings and the priests were separate offices, separate roles in the nation of Israel, but Psalm 110 previews a time where there will be a king who is also a priest, a priest likened to Melchizedek; and that priest king is Jesus Christ. He is both our Priest and our King.
He is also like Melchizedek in that he is not a Levitical priest. This is the point of Hebrews, to argue for the superiority and the supremacy of Jesus Christ, our High Priest, over the entire priesthood of the old covenant, the Levitical priesthood. The author to the Hebrews does that by saying Christ’s priesthood is like the priesthood of Melchizedek.
Then, he is superior to Abram himself, because Abram paid tithes to Melchizedek. The writer to the Hebrews goes to great lengths to show that the inferior is the one who pays tithes to the superior, so Melchizedek was superior to Abraham, and surely then Christ is also superior to Abraham.
Then there’s one more connection here that I think is important, and it’s in the names. Melchizedek means “king of righteousness,” and Jerusalem means “city of peace.” So Melchizedek is this king of peace and righteousness. It foreshadows for us Jesus Christ, who is the true king of peace and righteousness, the one in whom these two things meet together.
Remember those wonderful words from Psalm 85:10? “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” Righteousness and peace kiss each other! Where do they do that? They do that in the person of Jesus Christ, and they do that - listen! - supremely in the cross of Jesus Christ, because there on the cross our Priest King offered himself as a sacrifice for God, and as he did it he was fulfilling all righteousness, he was dying in the place of the unrighteous so as to win righteousness for us so that we could be clothed in righteousness, so that we could be declared righteous in the sight of God, so that God could be righteous and the one who declares those righteous who put their faith in Jesus. Righteousness is vindicated, the justice of God is seen in the cross of Jesus Christ, and Jesus wins peace for us. Remember how Paul in Colossians talks about peace through the blood of the cross. Righteousness and peace; they kiss each other in Jesus Christ, and supremely in the cross of Jesus Christ.
This figure, this mysterious priest, Melchizedek, is an Old Testament type pointing us to Jesus Christ.
(2) That’s who he was; now what did he do? Well, he did two things for Abram: he came and he brought him a meal, bread and wine; and he came and blessed him. As we already saw in verses 19 and 20, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.” It’s connecting us back to this blessing that God had already pronounced on Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, and part of the blessing was a blessing on all who would bless Abraham. So it’s connecting to that.
It is showing us the role of this priest in assisting Abram, in supporting him, in refreshing him, in strengthening him after his battle. Again, it’s a picture for us of what the Lord Jesus Christ does on our behalf.
I want to end by just giving you a quotation from Spurgeon. It was almost the last thing I did yesterday. I was working on this message last night, and I’d read most of the new commentaries, you know, the critical commentaries and that kind of thing, and that’s helpful, helping with the geography, helping with the politics, helping me understand what’s going on here. But when I really want the meet of the passage, I want to get to Jesus, Spurgeon’s the guy I turn to.
So, I don’t know, it was probably 11:30 last night. I read this sermon from Spurgeon called “Jesus Meets His Warriors.” The whole point of the sermon is that we’re all in a battle, and he talked about the battle, drawing parallels between Abram’s battle and our spiritual battle. Then Jesus comes and meets us after the battle to refresh us and to strengthen us and to help us. When I read Spurgeon, I feel like I’ve never preached a sermon in my life! This guy is just amazing to me.
But I want to share this little tidbit with you, because I found it encouraging to me, and I hope it will comfort you and encourage you in your battle this week. The battles you have to face, the spiritual warfare that you’re engaged in — what is your hope? What is your strength? What is your encouragement? It’s in Jesus Christ, who meets his warriors in their battles. Listen to what Spurgeon said.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, while he teaches us to use the sword, takes care to edify and build us up in the faith at the same time. He understands that warriors require strengthening meat, and that especially when they are under stern conflict they need extraordinary comfort, that their souls may be stayed and refreshed. Why does Jesus Christ, as set forth here under the type of Melchizedek, appear unto his children in times of conflict? Answer - he comes to them because they are weary. Since there is a vital union between Christ and every member, there is also an undying sympathy, and whenever, brother, thou contendest for the faith till thou growest weary, Jesus Christ will be sure to give thee some proof of his close communion with me. Spend your strength for God, brother, for when fainting seems inevitable, then shall come such a sweet renewing of your strength that, like an eagle, you shall stretch your wings and mount aloft to commune with God in solitary joys. Christ, your Melchizedek, will meet you in your conflicts if he never did before.”
To that I just say, praise God!
Have you experienced that? Have you experienced seasons in your life where the warfare is so intense, you’re feeling it in your family, you’re feeling it with your kids, you’re feeling it with your health, you’re feeling it in your ministry? Maybe you have resolved some new endeavor to serve the Lord. Maybe it’s a new endeavor in generosity, you want to give more generously than you’ve ever given before. Or maybe you want to share your faith and win people to Christ, or maybe you want to begin in prayer, you want to labor with God in prayer, you want to get into the word and know your Bible! As soon as you do it, the enemy comes, doesn’t he? He comes, and you have car breakdowns, and you have sick kids, and you have temptations, and you have temptations like you haven’t had before! You know what that’s like. When you’re in the heat of the battle, what do you do?
Here’s the temptation: the temptation is to compromise with the world. The temptation is to listen to the king of Sodom in that moment and to give just a little bit, right? Escapism. However that works out for you personally, that’s the temptation. Like Abram, we need to say in those moments, “Not a thread, not a shoelace will I give to you, but my all I give to Jesus Christ,” and we need to find in the communion, in the presence, the fellowship with Jesus Christ, we find the strength we need for the battle.
In that sermon, Spurgeon said — this is amazing; after an amazing description of Jesus Christ, he says — “If you’ve just had ten minutes of real fellowship with Jesus Christ, my painting of him in this message will just seem like daubing paint. My description will fail.” [paraphrased]
That’s true. That’s true. That’s certainly true of my sermons. The best I can do is very little compared to what Jesus Christ himself can do, but my heart this morning for you, my desire this morning for you, is that you will see Jesus and that you will be compelled in the thick of the battle to seek out real fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be strengthened and refreshed and encouraged and helped for the battles that I know that you’re in.
So, brothers and sisters, look to Christ this morning. He is your Priest, he has been tempted in every point as you are yet without sin, and he is able to sympathize and to help you when you are tempted. Look to Christ, and you will find strength in him. Let’s pray.
Lord, my words are certainly inadequate to portray the great glories of our priestly King, Jesus Christ. But your Spirit is more than sufficient to press these realities home to our hearts, so I pray that you would in these moments, as we continue in worship, as we sing, as we come to the table, as we take the bread and wine, the elements of the sacramental meal, as we take these, that we would come with our hearts hungry for Jesus himself.
Lord, I pray that you would work in us the same kind of faith that Abraham had that is willing and able and ready to say no to the temptations of sin and the snares of the world, and instead to make our feasting-place the table of the Lord Jesus, to find our joy in the presence of our Savior, to find our strength in your Spirit and in your word. Lord, that’s a miracle for our hearts to be transformed that way, but it’s the miracle that we need and it’s the grace that you promise, the grace that you give. So we ask you for it this morning. Would you draw near to us in great mercy as we sing about coming to Jesus to find our rest and our strength, as we come to the table? Would you meet with us in these moments? We need you, Lord, and we pray this in Jesus’ name and for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
