The Possessor of Heaven & Earth
Genesis 14:19-15:1
And he [Melchizedek]
blessed him [Abram],
and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor
of heaven and earth:
And blessed be the
most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And he [Abram]
gave him [Melchizedek] tithes
of all.
And the king of Sodom
said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
And Abram said to
the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
That I will not take
from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing
that is thine, lest thou shoudest say, I have made Abram rich:
Save only that which
the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me,
Aner, Eschol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
After these things
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram:
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Abram had pursued the enemy who had attacked Sodom and taken his
brother Lot, the people of Sodom, and their goods. He conquered the
enemy and brought back all the people and the spoils that had been taken.
In response to God's blessing delivered by Melchizedek, Abram acknowledged
God as the possessor of heaven and earth by giving a tenth (tithe)
of all the goods. The king of Sodom offered all of the goods to Abram,
but he refused. Abram put God first by giving a tithe to acknowledge
God and returned the rest to the king of Sodom. He refused to even
take a thread of the goods. For Abram, God was the source of all
supply and he was not about to let some man claim to be the one who provided
for him. When Abram made this declaration and put God first as possessor
of heaven and earth, God responded by telling Abram that He [God] was Abram's
protection (shield) and supplier (exceeding great reward). When we
put God first and acknowledge Him as the one who "owns it all",
God promises to supply our every need.
Deuteronomy 10:12-14
And now, Israel,
what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God,
to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
To keep the commandments
of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
Behold, the
heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth
also, with all that therein is.
What does God require? That we love Him.
Put Him first. Walk with Him. Keep His word. When we
do, all that we could ever desire is supplied because He is the possessor
of heaven and earth. He is the source of all supply.
Psalm 50:7-15
Hear, O my people,
and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am
God, even thy God.
I will not reprove
thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually
before me.
I will take no bullock
out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
For every
beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand
hills.
I know all the fowls
of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
If I were hungry,
I would not tell thee: for the world is
mine, and the fulness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh
of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving;
and pay thy vows unto the most High:
And call upon me
in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify
me.
God deserves to be glorified. He is God!
He is our God! He does not want religious actions. He wants
to be loved. The sacrifice of bulls & goats for God was not what
God wanted. God does not need these things. God owns it all!
"Every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills."
God wants our love. Our thanks. He wants us to call upon Him
when we have a need. When we put Him first and love Him, He will
supply all of our need because He is the possessor of heaven and earth.
Psalm 37:4
Delight thyself also
in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Delight thyself also in the Lord! Put
Him first. Look to Him. Love Him. When you do, all your
heart's desire is available from God. He is the possessor of heaven
and earth and He will supply our every desire.
Luke 10:1-4
After these things
the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before
his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Therefore said he
unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are
few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send
forth labourers into his harvest.
Go your ways: behold
I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
Carry neither purse,
nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
Jesus Christ sent these 70 believers out to
speak God's word. He told them to rely upon God as they put Him first
and held forth His word. They were not to carry a purse. God
would supply the funds. They were not to carry a scrip. A scrip
was a leather pouch for food carried by travelers. Some scholars
believe the scrip refers to a bed roll for sleeping. Either way,
God would supply their food and God would supply the place to sleep.
They were to rely upon God. They were not to take extra shoes.
God would supply the clothing. They were not to salute any man along
the way. By salute, Jesus Christ meant solicit.
He was not telling them not to greet others. They were being sent
to speak the word! He told them not to solicit or beg. God
was going to be their source of supply. Their needs would be met
as they went forth totally relying upon God.
This record reminds me of a story from a book
called "God's Smuggler." In this book, a believer named Andrew
was attending a school in Scotland called "Worldwide Evangelization Crusade"
(WEC) where believers were taught to trust and rely upon God. Following
is a section from that book:
The weeks passed
so fast that soon it came time for me to head out on the first of several
training trips in evangelism. "You're going to like this, Andy,"
said Mr. Dinnen. "It's an exercise in trust. The rules are
simple. Each student on your team is given a one-pound banknote.
With that you go on a missionary tour through Scotland. You're expected
to pay your own transportation, your own lodging, your food, any advertising
you want to do, the renting of halls, providing refreshments ----"
"All on a one-pound
note?"
"Worse than that.
When you get back to school after four weeks, you're expected to pay back
the pound!"
I laughed. "Sounds
like we'll be passing the hat all the time."
"Oh, you're not allowed
to take up collections! Never. You're not to mention money at your
meetings. All of your needs have got to be provided without any manipulation
on your part--or the experiment is a failure."
I was a member of
a team of five boys. Later when I tried to reconstruct where our
funds came from during those four weeks, it was hard to. It seemed
that what we needed was always just there. Sometimes a letter would
arrive from one of the boys' parents with a little money. Sometimes
we would get a check in the mail from a church we had visited days or weeks
earlier. The notes that came with these gifts were always interesting.
"I know you don't need money or you would have mentioned it," someone would
write. "But God just wouldn't let me get to sleep tonight until I
had put this in an envelope for you."
Contributions frequently
came in the form of produce. In one little town in the highlands
of Scotland we were given six hundred eggs. We had eggs for breakfast,
eggs for lunch, eggs as hor d'oeuvres before a dinner of eggs with an egg-white
meringue dessert. It was weeks before we could look a chicken in
the eye.
But money or produce,
we stuck fast to two rules: we never mentioned a need aloud, and we gave
away a tithe of whatever came to us as soon as we got it -- within twenty-four
hours if possible.
Another team that
set out from school at the same time we did, was not so strict about tithing.
They set aside their ten percent all right, but they didn't give it away
immediately, "in case we run into an emergency." Of course they had
emergencies! So did we, every day. But they ended their month
owing money to hotels, lecture halls, and markets all over Scotland, while
we came back to school almost ten pounds ahead. Fast as we could
give money away, God was always swifter, and we ended with money to send
to the WEC work overseas.
There were times
before the end of the tour, however, when it looked as though the experiment
was failing. One weekend we were holding meetings in Edinburgh.
We had attracted a large group of young people the first day and were casting
about for a way to get them to come back the next. Suddenly, without
consulting anyone, one of the team members stood up and made an announcement.
"Before the meeting
tomorrow evening," he said, "we'd like you all to have tea with us here.
Four o'clock. How many think they can make it?"
A couple dozen hands
went up, and we were committed. At first, instead of being delighted,
the rest of us were horrified. All of us knew that we had no tea,
no cake, no bread and butter, and exactly five cups. Nor did we have
money to buy these things: our last penny had gone to rent the hall.
This was going to be a real test of God's care.
And for a while it
looked as though He was going to provide everything through the young people
themselves. After the meeting several of them came forward and said
they would like to help. One offered milk; another, half a pound
of tea; another sugar. One girl even offered to bring dishes. Our
tea was rapidly taking shape. But there was one thing still missing---the
cake. Without cake, these Scottish boys and girls wouldn't consider
tea tea.
So that night in
our evening prayer time, we put the matter before God. "Lord, we've
got ourselves into a spot. From somewhere we've got to get a cake.
Will You help us?"
That night as we
rolled up in our blankets on the floor of the hall, we played guessing
games: How was God going to give us that cake? Among the five
of us, we guessed everything imaginable---or so we thought.
Morning arrived.
We half expected a heavenly messenger to come to our door bearing a cake.
But no one came. The morning mail arrived. We ripped open the
two letters, hoping for money. There was none. A woman from
a nearby church came by to see if she could help. "Cake" was on the
tip of all our tongues, but we swallowed the word and shook our heads.
"Everything," we
assured her, "is in God's hands."
The tea had been
announced for four o'clock in the afternoon. At three the tables
were set, but still we had no cake. Three-thirty came. We put
on water to boil. Three-forty-five.
And then the doorbell
rang.
All of us together
ran to the big front entrance, and there was the postman. In his
hand was a large box.
"Hello, lads," said
the postman. "Got something for you that feels like a food package."
He handed the box to one of the boys. "The delivery day is over, actually,"
he said, "but I hate to leave a perishable package overnight."
We thanked him profusely,
and the minute he closed the door the boy solemnly handed me the box.
"It's for you, Andrew. From Mrs. William Hopkins in London."
I took the package
and carefully unwrapped it. Off came the twine. Off came the
brown outside paper. Inside, there was no note---only a large white
box. Deep in my soul I knew that I could afford the drama of lifting
the lid slowly. As I did, there, in perfect condition, to be admired
by five sets of wondering eyes, was an enormous, glistening, moist, chocolate
cake.
Quoted from: "God's Smuggler"
by Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill; Guideposts Associates,
Inc. Carmel, New York - 1967
Just as the 70 (and Brother Andrew) went forth
relying upon God to meet their needs, we too can learn to put God first
in our lives and trust Him to supply our needs. Click on the following
link to view and print out five
blank checks from God's word. Whatsoever we ask we receive of
Him when we trust Him and put Him first in our lives.
June, 1998
URL http://www.cortright.org/godowns.htm
Michael Cortright