The fourteenth chapter of Genesis records the story of the defeat of four kings by Abraham and his servants. Five cities in the valley of Jordan, including Sodom and Gomorrah, had been conquered by these four kings. Lot and his possessions also had been taken. When Abraham heard about it, he went out with his trained servants to rescue Lot. After defeating the four kings, he brought back all the spoil they had taken, including Lot and his possessions. The events that followed are recorded in Genesis 14:17–20.
Then 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; now he was a priest of God Most High. (The book of Hebrews, chapters 5, 6, and 7, contains several references to Melchizedek.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he (Abraham) gave him a tenth of all.
You may have thought that tithing was part of the Mosaic Law, but remember that Abraham paid this tithe several hundred years before the Law was given. Later Jacob also paid a tithe (Genesis 28:22). They made covenants with God before the law of tithing had been established under the Levitical Law. Probably God was moving on men’s hearts with the tithing principle long before the Law was given. Cain and Abel each brought an offering to the Lord. Abel’s offering was accepted, but Cain’s was not. According to one translator, God said to him, “If thou hadst divided right, wouldst thou not have been accepted?” (Genesis 4:6–7.) Does this indicate that even from the days of the Garden of Eden, a certain percentage in giving, maybe a tithe, had been established?
In case you do not want to be a tither, remember that in the heart of God there is an inflexible prime interest rate of ten percent—no more, no less. Anything you give above that is given out of your heart to the Lord. I have been a tither from the days of my youth, and never have I found myself in want. Sometimes the provision was rather lean, but there was always enough to meet the need.
The king of Sodom offered Abraham a reward for defeating his enemies. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.” And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong” (today we would say “a shoelace”; the King James Version says “a shoelatchet”) “or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their share.” Genesis 14:21–24. Abraham was not opposed to someone else taking a reward, but he would not take it; and he had a special reason. He refused to take even a shoelace from the king, lest the king should say, “I am the one who made Abraham rich.”
Then God gave Abraham a wonderful promise. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” And Abram said, “O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:1–6.
Whenever God finds a man who believes Him, He is not too concerned about the weaknesses that man has, because his very faith will ultimately overcome those weaknesses. God says, in effect, “Here is a believer. I will mark him down as being righteous.” And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it” (literally, “inherit it”). Genesis 15:7.
When you have a broken shoelace, you experience a discomfort and a feeling of insecurity, because you are so accustomed to being mobile and able to walk around. Do you see the deeper significance of what Abraham was saying to the king? “I will not take from you the least little thing that could give me comfort and a sense of security. I will not take a shoelace unless God binds my feet with it. God will give me my shoelaces, my sense of comfort and security.” Abraham refused to accept a reward from the people around him for the miracle that God had worked through him. It is important that we remember this, especially in the days to come when there may be ways that we could cash in on the deliverances that God works through our hand.
From my youth, I have always tried to follow Abraham’s example concerning gifts that are offered to me. In fact, I have often offended a person by refusing to take the money he offers me after I have prayed for him and he has been healed. When he insists, “But everyone takes an offering,” I explain, “I will not. I am not a hireling. You cannot buy what I have. You cannot give me a reward for what I minister to you from the Lord.”
My feeling is that you should give the money to God. You can put all you want in the collection plate, even to the point of sacrifice, but you cannot hire me for my services in any way. You cannot reward me in any material way for what God works through me; otherwise, I will find myself doing something that God has cursed. In no way will I ever be classified as a hireling.
Not only did Abraham refuse a reward for the miracle that God had worked through him, but he even refused prominence in the land to which God had brought him. When he was invited to come into the city to live and be an important part of it, he refused, preferring to live in tents (Hebrews 11:9). He confessed that he had no abiding city, that he was a pilgrim and a stranger (Hebrews 11:13). He chose to be a stranger to the world. I think Abraham was one of the first men who lived according to the principles of the Kingdom of God. He said, in essence, “I am not going to be involved in this world system.” He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God (Hebrews 11:10). He refused to settle for less than God. He refused anything in the way of success or rewards or remuneration. He insisted that his riches would be appropriated from God.
Do you see how we are in that same place? We are coming into a spiritual level where we will not even accept as an answer the changing of circumstances or an ability in our own wisdom to work things out or find a solution to problems. We are not just praying, “Lord, bless our efforts.” We are coming to the Kingdom where we say, “This will be completely of God. We will walk with the Lord.”
This is how the Salvation Army began. But then thy began to minister to the poor and needy. The Salvation Army was an outgrowth of the Methodist movement at its peak. Its original teaching was the demand for personal salvation, for holiness, for entire sanctification. William Booth, its founder, preached the Word and gave his life for it. When he died, his funeral was held in one of the largest churches in England. As his body was being carried out, an old man was seen kneeling at the altar, praying audibly and forcefully, “Do it again, Lord. Do it again!” He realized that here was a man who had given himself completely for God. Today, we too are saying, “Do it again, Lord!” Booth said it and lived it. Abraham said it and he lived it.
We must have a pure motivation, realizing that we are not in this for our selfish interests. When leaders start grabbing for a fancy life-style that God has not set before us, or for an accumulation of material goods, turn away from them. If a leader fails to be a true steward, if you see that what God has laid in his hands is not used for the Kingdom of God, turn away from him (I Corinthians 4:2). We dare not touch the glory, and we dare not touch the gold (I Samuel 15). If we need anything (and we need many things), there will always be a provision. There is a need for basic, simple facilities to accomplish God’s will. That is different; in that case we are not talking about laying up an earthly treasure (Matthew 6:19). Our dedication is that we would rather be poor and appropriate God’s fullness than to be rich in a human sense and miss His will.
Abraham no doubt felt this. All that the king of Sodom could have given him would not have been enough. He was looking for more than that. We feel the same way. All that the world could give us would not be enough. Suppose the world gave you fame. Would that be enough? If they gave you a reputation that excelled everyone else’s, would that be enough for you? Would you settle for a few million dollars? Not unless you are deceived. Thirty pieces of silver was the price of betrayal (Matthew 26:15), but when the deception lifted, Judas threw the money down in the Temple and said, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” The vicious persecutors replied, “What is that to us? See thou to it.” And Judas went out and committed suicide (Matthew 27:3–5).
We must refuse any victory but the Lord’s. We must refuse any oneness except with the Lord and with His people. We must refuse any resolution or conclusion of this battle, except it be by His strength. We must refuse to have any situation in our lives solved by a negotiation or compromise with the enemy. We do not want it solved by human diplomacy. We do not want it solved by strategy that is born of the carnal mind. We have positioned ourselves in this place and God has helped us, that there will be no resolution of the battle but by His strength. In our hearts there is a brokenness and a weeping before the Lord.
Principally we are a spiritual army, and our foes are spiritual. Then how can we accept any victory except on that highest level? If we would accept something lesser, the enemy would lift the pressure that is on us. Satan wants you to compromise and accept something less than total spiritual victory. Often, after someone withdraws from a New Testament church, he says, “Since I left that church, I feel great. All my problems are over.” He is right; in a sense, they are. He is no longer under the heavy assault of the enemy. He has accepted a shoelace.
Our problems are all based in the spirit realm; therefore, our victories must be spiritual. They must not be the result of our working out our problems and circumstances. We will always be dissatisfied in our spirit with a solution that is not total victory in Jesus Christ. The victory must be achieved as we move up, into His victory. “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). “Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in every place” (II Corinthians 2:14). We bless you, Abraham, father of the faithful. We are beginning to appreciate what you said—that dedication of a shoelace.
When you turn away from seeking only after the blessing that comes from the Lord, you begin to look for many other things. And then no matter how much you obtain, it is never enough. We do not want anything that is not wholly from God. We must break through to the simplicity and the reality promised us in the Scriptures. We will not accept anything less.
When we are in a period of intercession and prayer, accepting God’s blessing and rejecting what the enemy brings, we sometimes experience the backlash of the enemy. There is a perfect example for this tactic of Satan, recorded in Matthew 14:13–33. After Jesus had fed the five thousand, He told the disciples to take a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and meet Him there. Meanwhile He went up to the mountain alone to pray. During the night a storm suddenly came up. Even though the disciples were fishermen who knew how to handle a boat in a storm, the waves battered the boat so hard that they thought it would capsize and they would be drowned. That is the way circumstances can come from Satan. They can come suddenly and be very fierce, but they are really an illusion. Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the sea. When He got into the boat, the wind stopped.
Another time Jesus was asleep in the boat with the disciples when a storm came up. They called to Him for help, and He rebuked the wind and it became quiet (Mark 4:36–39). When they reached land, they were in the country of the Gerasenes. There Jesus cast a legion of devils out of a man (Mark 5:1–13). Satan had anticipated his own defeat, and therefore he caused a storm that looked like utter disaster. He does the same today; yet even in that we say, “The Lord is our victory.” The enemy cannot defeat us, either by a storm that looks disastrous, or by a reward that is tempting. We will take only the Lord’s victory.
Blessed are the people who will take neither a shoelace from the hand of the devil, nor a bribe or reward for what God has wrought through them. That is a rather high level of discipleship, but we will walk in it. This is the way we will live. God will bless this pure dedication. It may be that when the Kingdom comes, millions of dollars will flow through our hands, but there may also be millions of dollars which we will refuse. When we see the many areas of need and the ongoing expenses in our various facilities and projects, we might be tempted to say, “I wish someone would endow us with $25,000 every month.” Do you realize how wrong we would be in making such a remark? It would mean that we are looking for some human support, some kind of crutch. We do not need that. The Lord says, “I will be your exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1). God is the only security we need.
We must learn that God is our security and our shield. He says, “I will be a shield to you, and your reward will be great.” But that reward will come from the Lord’s hand, not from the hand of the enemy. We are determined to accept neither a pseudo deliverance nor a pseudo blessing. Our deliverance and our blessing will be real, and they will be of God. We will walk in this.—*—This dedication delivers us from covetousness and greed, which are based upon insecurity. No matter how much a rich man obtains, he never has enough. When we trust God, we have enough. We have everything.