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The War of the World and the Silence of the Saint (Genesis 14:1–12) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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We're taking a pretty sharp turn today.
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We're setting aside the quiet, pastoral life we've been seeing
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with Abram, and we're going to confront while a really jarring,
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violent pivot in the history of redemption, Our deep dive today
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is going to be focused squarely on Genesis 14, specifically
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verses 1 to 12. So when we last checked in with
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Abram, he was safe. He was resting among the oaks of
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memory. He'd settled his dispute with
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Lot. And most critically, he built an
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altar to the Lord. That calm is just completely
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shattered here. Genesis 14 crashes into the
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story with, I mean, with military force.
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It gives us the first appearance of that terrifying word war in
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all of Scripture. Now, I think for a lot of
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readers, this passage can feel like a bit of a distraction.
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You get this dry list of foreign kings, confusing geography.
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But that really couldn't be further from the truth.
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Our mission today is to figure out what Moses, who's our guide
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here, is teaching us about God's rule and his covenant promise
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when you know, the entire geopolitical world is just
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erupting in chaos. We need to see that the promised
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land isn't some sheltered sanctuary.
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It's actively contested territory.
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And the choices you make, I mean the choices you make about where
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you settle your life, have painful, very real consequences.
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OK. Let's impact this.
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That sudden shift in tone you mentioned, it's so essential.
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It sets the immediate context with such speed.
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This war is not random at all. It happens right after Abram
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gets this huge land promise back in Genesis 12, and then just
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after Lot makes his decisive choice in Genesis 13 to separate
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from his uncle. He chooses the Jordan plane,
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right? And that choice is based
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entirely on his appearance of economic prosperity, its
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location near Sodom. Right, it looked good.
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It looked good. And Genesis 14 delivers this
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really sobering, almost immediate lesson.
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Sodom's visible success, its strategic location, its
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political alliances, they provide absolutely no lasting
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security. You, the reader, you're yanked
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from the quiet of covenant faithfulness and just thrown
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into the noise and volatility of the world's politics.
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So this crisis, it's not just a local political squabble.
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Not at all. It's a covenantal 1.
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The stakes are raised for Abraham's nephew Lottie's
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family, and for the entire line of the Promise.
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We're going to be looking at why the supposed strength of worldly
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systems turns out to be so brittle, and how compromising
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your position by, you know, settling close to wickedness.
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It always comes at a steep, distressing cost.
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Let's start with the sheer scale of it all, the weight of the
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threat. Moses immediately widens the
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frame to the world of rulers, and we're forced to grapple with
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the reality of organized imperial might.
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The text doesn't gently introduce it, it just gives us 4
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powerful Eastern kings who have formed this unified bloc.
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Just think for a second of the logistics involved here.
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These kings are coordinating military campaigns across what
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must have been immense distances, all to suppress a
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rebellion in a pretty minor region.
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It's. A major projection of force.
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It is, and the roll call of Dominion is meant to be
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intimidating. Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of
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Elazar, Schader, lamer of Elam and title King of Goyam or
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nations. It's designed to make you feel
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small. But out of that list, Amraphel
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of Shinar should really make us pause.
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Shinar. That is the biblical designation
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for Babylon. It's the location of Nimrod's
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ancient rebellion and of course the Tower of Babel in Genesis
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11. That name is just loaded with
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theological significance, so why should a reader who knows the
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earlier chapters of Genesis hear the name Shinor and feel a
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specific kind of existential dread?
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That is such a key question. When the text name Shinar, it's
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doing more than just giving a geographic marker, it's
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providing a necessary theological link.
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Shinar functions as an alarm bell.
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It's reminding us of the spirit of Babel, that concentrated anti
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God human autonomy, that lust for dominion.
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It didn't just die when the tower construction stopped and
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the languages were. Considered just scattered.
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It scattered and then it reorganized and armed itself the
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human will to consolidate against God to create a
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self-sufficient world system. It just dispersed.
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The judgement of dispersion in Genesis 11 has now, you could
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say, mutated into the aggression of Genesis 14.
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We learned early on that the city of man, while it might be
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outwardly shattered by God, is inwardly persistent.
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It's constantly reasserting itself through sophisticated
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political ambition and, as we see here, overwhelming military
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force. And this small, vulnerable
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covenant line personified by Abram just living in tents.
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Has to survive right in the middle of it.
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Has to survive in this hostile, organized world, constantly
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under the shadow of these massive self asserting kingdoms.
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So these kingdoms aren't just random Raiders.
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They're the heirs to the spirit of Babel.
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Which brings us to the political context we get in verse 4.
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It explains the reason for this huge military expedition.
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We learned the five tings of the Jordan plain, Sodom, Gomorrah,
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and their neighbors. They had been subject to Cheddar
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Lamour, the Elamite ruler, for 12 years.
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The text says they served him, which means vassalage, paying
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burdensome tributes, submitting to an overlord's yoke.
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But in the 13th year, they rebelled.
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And this detail is so revealing. It lays bare the predictable
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pattern and really the deep instability that's inherent in
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the history of all fallen nations.
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What we're seeing is the inevitable cycle of tyranny,
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forced obedience, and then the resulting resentment and
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uprising. This is the constant cycle.
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It is political history, when it's driven entirely by
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competing wills infected by sin is inherently volatile.
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It's unstable. When any single worldly power
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achieves dominance, it inevitably extracts wealth and
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oppresses the dominated, and that always gives rise to the
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arrogance that leads to defiance and revolt.
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It's a messy struggle for who gets to be on top.
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A ceaseless, messy struggle. So if we think the city of Man
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can ever offer lasting peace or true security, we are just
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deceiving ourselves. It's very nature is defined by
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this continuous cycle of violence and rebellion.
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And you see that instability reflected immediately in the
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fragility of the alliances that are arrayed here.
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On one side, you've got the monolithic imperial block of the
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four Eastern kings. That's a coalition built
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entirely on shared ambition and demonstrated success, right?
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They're the winners. They're the winners.
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And on the other side you have the five city states of the
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Jordan plain who form a defensive front.
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But their union isn't some beautiful fellowship based on
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righteousness or shared principles.
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It's born strictly out of necessity and mutual fear.
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They have to unite or they'll be crushed.
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Coalition of the Scared. A coalition of the scared?
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Exactly. And Moses shows this union to be
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a thin, brittle shield. When the real crisis comes,
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these alliances are going to shatter instantly.
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The Kings of the Plain placed their faith in what they could
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see, their numbers, their tactical positions.
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But that confidence was placed on shifting sand.
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And this volatility gives us the first direct insight into Lot's
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big mistake. He's already made his decision
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back in Chapter 13. He's aligned his life and his
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household's fortunes to the economic and political orbit of
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these very unstable city states. He bet on the wrong horse.
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He bet on the wrong horse. Moses is preparing us to grasp
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that Lot's choice wasn't just about getting good pasture land.
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His decision to settle in that contested area, seeking earthly
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advantage, it guarantees he will inherit the massive instability
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and violence that characterizes the world of the kings.
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He settled right in the warpath. Smack in the middle of it, his
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choice for comfort and economic gain now guarantees he inherits
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the chaos. You just can't seek the peace
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and security of the Covenant altar while you're living in the
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intrinsic unrest of the wicked city.
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You can't. Have it both ways.
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You can't. The covenant.
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A promise involves risk, sure, but Lot traded that risk for the
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illusion of stability offered by Sodom, and he's about to pay the
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price. OK, let's move into verses 5
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through 7. This is where we get a true
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sense of the military precision of this Eastern expedition.
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The campaign list, all those names and places.
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Asharov, Karnam, El Peron. It's not just ancient geography
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for us to memorize. It functions as powerful
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narrative rhetoric. It's designed to make you feel
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the terrifying force of this approaching storm.
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It's an avalanche of calculated conquest.
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And that time marker in the 14th year is so critical.
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It shows that this is an accident.
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It's not a spontaneous skirmish. This is an organized, measured
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return by an overlord who intends to crush resistance, re
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establish tribute and send a message across the whole region.
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It's a show of force. A huge show of force.
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The narrator wants us to feel that defiance against
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centralized worldly authority brings swift, organized and
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devastating consequences. And the list itself, it creates
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this relentless cadence. Moses describes the systematic
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sweep of the coalition with this repetitive action.
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They struck the Refim. They struck the Zizim.
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They struck the Imim. It's like drum beat.
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It is. It builds momentum.
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The radius of their reach is massive.
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It extends all the way down the Transjordan Plateau to El Paran,
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which is right on the wilderness border.
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It just pushes our imagination to the very margins of habitable
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space. It shows these kings can impose
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their will wherever they want. They have an inexhaustible
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reach. But I have to pause here,
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because why the detour? The core of the rebellion is
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Sodom, yet the Eastern Coalition doesn't March straight there.
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They sweep down the Transjordan to attack these, well, obscure
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tribal groups first. Why spend all that time and
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energy attacking the Refenum and the Zuzim before you address the
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main problem? What's the strategic or
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theological purpose of this long detour?
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This is where the itinerary moves beyond simple map points,
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and it lets us connect the campaign route to the much
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deeper ongoing spiritual conflict of Scripture.
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This is where it gets really, really interesting.
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OK, these groups, they strike the MMM, the Zuzian, the
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Refenum, they're just random tribes.
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Deuteronomy 2 tells us that the Emin and Zuzim were great, many
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and tall as the Anarchy. They were regarded as refamim,
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the giant clans, the giant clans, the giant clans.
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The source material we have identifies them as terrifying
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remnants of a corrupted humanity.
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They are, in a sense, the Sentinels of the Serkent.
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Stationed by dark forces. These clans occupied the very
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land, the physical ground, that God had sworn He would give to
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Abram's seed. This points us straight back to
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the Great War of Genesis 3.15, the enmity between the seed of
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the woman and the seed of the serpent.
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The serpent, knowing the promise rests on the seed inheriting
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this territory, has consistently sought to Garrison the Holy Land
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with monstrous, intimidating forces.
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Forces that would terrify God's people.
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And block the advance of the coming Kingdom.
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Right. So what you're saying is that
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Cheater Lomer's campaign, which on the surface just looks like a
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regional trade war, is actually God's mechanism for fighting a
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much older war. But if these giants are the
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Sentinels of the circuit, why doesn't God send Abram the
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Covenant head to clear them out? Why use the enemies of the
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Covenant, these heirs of Babel, to weaken the enemies of the
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Promise? That is a critical question, and
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the answer reveals something astonishing about divine control
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over history. We as Reformed believers talk
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about this using the language of sovereign superintendents, the
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time for the covenant people to clear the land, the era of
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Joshua of David that's centuries away.
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The covenant people aren't strong enough yet, but the land
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has to be prepared. So God, in his absolute control,
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uses the ambition of Pagan warlords to do his prep work.
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He uncorks the wrath and ambition of Shooter Lomer to act
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as an unwitting temporary bulldozer.
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Cheeter Lomer is purging the land of these monstrous
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guardians. He's weakening the Satanic
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strongholds, clearing out the Refamine, the Horrites, the
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Amalekites, all before Abram's seed even draws a sword.
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The violence of Shinar is being used to judge the giants of the
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Transjordan. That's it.
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And that interpretation changes how we read history entirely.
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The war the world sees as a mere regional insurrection, the Eye
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of Faith has to interpret as an act of Providence.
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God's name is completely absent in these verses that detail the
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campaign, but we're supposed to grasp that he is entirely
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present, orchestrating the chaos.
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But how do we avoid the dangerous idea that God endorses
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the violence of the world if he is actively using these Pagan
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kings? That's a deep distinction we
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have to make. We are training ourselves to
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read history covenantly. God is not the author of the sin
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or the unjust ambition that's motivating Geetalomer.
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Man is still culpable for his sinful choices and violence.
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However, God is the author of history and the decree that
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governs it, and this is where the Westminster Confession gives
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us a helpful framework. God governs all events in such a
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way that the sinful ambitions of men are strictly bounded and
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directed to serve His righteous, redemptive ends.
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So cheater Lomer has his intention.
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Cheater Lomer intends to seize tribute.
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God intends to clear space for the promise The world's kingdoms
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rage, but their activity is subordinated to a higher
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purpose. This whole passage requires a
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mature faith. God's rule isn't measured by how
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often we see overt, visible miracles.
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It's measured by the certainty that no historical upheaval, no
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coalition of kings, no monstrous giant clan can annul his sworn
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word or obstruct His plan uses the wrath of men to prepare the
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way for the blessing of his people.
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The war is destructive, yes, but it's entirely a subplot in the
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greater story of God preparing the land for the Messiah.
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So once this feels some force has swept the Transjordan and
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strategically enclosed the Jordan plane, the action
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descends to the Valley of Sidim in verses 8 through 10.
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This is the moment when the grand organized rallying of the
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City of Man tries to deliver itself.
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Verse 8 records the counter offensive.
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The five kings of Sodom and their allies went out.
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This depicts A deliberate, centralized mobilization.
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It's the classic reliance on the visible machinery of city life,
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the calculation of alliances, and the certainty of human
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strength. They've declared war and now
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they have to rely on their own strategy to get them out.
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Of it and Moses immediately spotlights the misleading
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metrics that their confidence rests on.
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The text pauses to tally the sides again. 4 Kings against 5.
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Yeah, that detail always stood out to me.
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It's an explicit comparison that highlights the central
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temptation of the worldly mind to trust in what's visible, the
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sheer numbers, the resources, the relative strength of the
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coalition. Worldly confidence is built
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entirely on the wrong foundation.
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It's built on what can be counted and organized and
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leveraged. It's pragmatism.
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It is the essence of worldly pragmatism is this belief that
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if we can just gather enough consensus, secure enough
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partners, leverage enough earthly resources, our wealth,
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our alliances, our strategy, we can secure our own stability
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against any threat. The kings of the plain relied on
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the arm of flesh. They thought five against four
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gave them a tactical advantage to break that eastern yoke.
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They wanted to leverage their local advantage, their
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familiarity with the terrain, to deliver themselves.
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But that confidence is just instantly undercut by the
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peculiar, devastating geography of their chosen battlefield.
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The text gives us this critical detail in verse 10.
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Now the valley of Sidim was full of bitumen pits.
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And the Hebrew phrasing really emphasizes this.
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It's Borat Barachemar literally pits pits Abeduman, or wells
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upon wells of asphalt. The repetition signifies
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abundance. The land was just honeycomb with
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these treacherous sticky tar pits.
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And historically, this Bodiaman was a natural resource of
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incredible economic significance to Sodom, right?
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They used it for mortar, for sealing.
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It contributed to their wealth. It did, and militarily the
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choice of the valley of Sit in was certainly calculated.
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It was intended as a natural defensive barrier.
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The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah hoped that this hazardous
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terrain, the mire, the sticky tar, would ensnare the horses
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and Chariots of the faster invading Eastern cavalry.
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They tried to turn the very mud of the earth, a resource they
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controlled, into their shield. But the irony is just searing.
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It's devastating, the text says. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
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fled, and some fell into them. In the heat of the route.
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The very defense they owned, the land they trusted in, became
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their inescapable trap. The Hebrew verb nefal to fall
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suggests a violent, chaotic collapse.
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The leaders were driven not just by the enemy sword, but into the
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very slime they had claimed to own.
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They fell because the earth they loved swallowed them up.
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So their cleverness became their catastrophe.
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They chose the battlefield, trusting in their leverage, and
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it became their graveyard. The disaster exposes that
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Sodom's perceived security wasn't just inadequate, it was
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illusory. The principal Moses is teaching
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us is that the wicked don't possess stable footing.
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Their strategy built on earthly calculations.
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It collapsed quickly because it was never as solid as it seemed.
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The city that was supposed to offer Lot refuge turned out to
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be a trap for everyone who trusted in it.
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OK, so that was the physical trap, But what is Moses teaching
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us about the, let's say, the spiritual structure of the city
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of man? What are the modern equivalents
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of that natural resource turning into a liability?
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Where do we find contemporary batumen pits?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, this passage functions
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as a clear warning for us today. The bitumen pits of our modern
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age are the man made structures we build and trust in apart from
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God. We accumulate wealth thinking
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that financial accumulation provides lasting security
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against uncertainty. We rely on sophisticated
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political platforms and systems, thinking the right voting bloc
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or the right policy will protect the church and our families, or
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technology or technology. We looked at technological
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advancement to save us from the curse of limitation, suffering
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and decay. These are the glues we use to
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hold our lives together. They are, and the problem is
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that Genesis 14 shouts a warning when the true test arrives,
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whether that's a global financial crisis, political
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upheaval, or the finality of death itself.
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These earthly glues do not save us.
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They trap us. The person who builds their life
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on the sticky, shifting substance of this world will
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find himself mired in it, sinking into it, when the fires
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of judgement or crisis come. I think we can illustrate this
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pretty clearly. You take the person whose sense
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of worth and security is tied entirely to a rising stock
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market or a successful business. When the recession hits, he
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doesn't just lose his money, he loses his footing.
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He runs straight into his own financial bitumen pit.
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Or consider a church or a denomination that throws its
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full weight behind a specific political party, believing that
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political control is the only way to safeguard its future.
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Right when that party is defeated or collapses under
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scandal, that church doesn't just lose influence, it loses
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its spiritual equilibrium. It realizes too late that it
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confused the Kingdom of this world with the Kingdom of God.
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That's the tragic lesson. No amount of earthly
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preparation, no political calculus, can withstand the
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sovereign decree of God when he determines judgement must fall.
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Sodom's failure was total. Their strategy failed.
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Their alliances failed. Their city was abandoned.
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A plunder for the believer, this is a clear call to flee trust in
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the Chariots and horses of this world and run to the only safe
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ground. The higher ground.
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The higher ground of faith separated under the loving God.
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OK, so the narrative now pivots quickly from the chaos of war to
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the cold, dehumanizing logic of plunder, and the focus zooms in
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dramatically. Verse 11 details the inventory
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of loss. The victors took all the goods
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of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions.
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The goods Rakush. The very wealth that had tempted
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Lot to choose the valley in the 1st place, proved entirely
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portable and, well, unkeepable. The city that promised economic
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advantage couldn't even preserve its daily bread.
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Its provisions were instantly carried off.
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This is the quick, devastating lesson of the City of Man.
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It cannot protect what it promises.
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The veneer of wealth and comfort.
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It vanished in a single sentence, exposed as weightless
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and easily seized. But verse 12 delivers the
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narrative climax, the single devastating sentence that makes
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this whole passage personal and covenantal.
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The victors took the goods, they took the provisions.
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And then, with deliberate crushing weight, they also took
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Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who is dwelling inside him,
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that. One little word also.
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That word carries the weight of the entire disaster.
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Lot is reduced to movable property.
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He's an item listed in the inventory of conquest.
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The Hebrew verb lacod means to capture, to seize.
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Lot, who had previously asserted his own independent will by
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choosing the plane for himself, is now completely stripped of
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all agency. He's no longer the subject of
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his own actions. He's the object of a Pagan
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King's conquest. It's.
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Just another piece of plunder. He's packaged up right alongside
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the grain and the gold. It confirms the cold logic of
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Imperial rule that reduces the image bearer to a commodity.
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It's chilling how quickly comfort turns into captivity.
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You choose the place for the wreckish the goods, and suddenly
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you become the goods. The sharpest spiritual
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indictment, though, I think rests entirely on that
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circumstantial clause. Who is dwelling in Sodom?
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Help us trace the spiritual geography of lots Compromise
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here. In Genesis 13, he just pitched
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his tent toward Sodom. What's the difference between
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pitching a tent toward a place and dwelling in a place?
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That difference is massive. It details the momentum of sin.
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Sin is never static. It's a spiritual gravity that
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pulls downward. When Lott pitched his tent
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toward Sodom, he was maybe near the city limits.
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He was looking at its advantages, flirting with the
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edge. He was still physically
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separate, still maintaining some identity as a sojourner.
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The tent symbolizes his temporary status.
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Right, he's just passing through.
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Or so he thinks. Or so he thinks.
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But by Genesis 14 that tent is gone.
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The use of the Hebrew participle yoshev indicates a settled,
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continuous residence. He's no longer a sojourner
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looking at the city, he's a citizen sitting in it,
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integrated into his municipal life and systems.
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So it's a progression. The clear progression.
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It details the trajectory of the compromised believer, the one
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who thinks he can walk the line between the altar of God and the
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self-serving appetites of the world without being consumed.
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The drift toward wickedness rarely announces itself as a
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sudden catastrophic fall. It advances by small, logical,
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seemingly reasonable steps. Better schools, better
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prospects, greater comfort. Until one day you wake up and
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you realize you are settled in the very center of its
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depravity. And the irony here is just
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tragic. A lot moved to Sodom seeking
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goods, economic advantage, security.
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But the text explicitly notes they took a lot.
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And his goods. He lost the very thing he
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compromised his soul to gain. He sought the friendship of the
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world, and in doing so he became an enemy of the Covenant's
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peace. He was swept up in the judgement
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that fell upon the wicked city. That just shatters the illusion
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of the safe compromise. When judgement fell on Sodom,
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Lot was swept away with it because he had integrated his
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life suit deeply into its systems.
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The invading army didn't stop to ask for his covenant
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credentials. No, no, when you live like Sodom
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and rely on Sodom's defenses, you will be carried away in
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Sodom's captivity. And this raises a really
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sobering question about the nature of compromise.
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Lot is described as a righteous man later in Scripture, right?
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But he's tormented by the lawless deeds he sees and hears
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in the city, But he still refuses to leave.
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He was a righteous man, rendered completely useless and mute by
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his assimilation. So this passage is a warning.
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It's a huge warning that there is no neutrality.
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You're either with Abram separated onto God on the high
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ground, or you're with Lot in the gates of Sodom, vulnerable
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to the kings of the East. His silence in this verse is
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just crushing. He has no prayer, no protest, no
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inner strength to break free. He is a captive who desperately
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needs an outside savior to descend to break his chains.
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So we draw the curtain on this first section of Genesis 14 with
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a scene of absolute devastation, total despair.
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The City of Man has failed entirely.
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Its strategy is routed, Its leaders are trapped in their own
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sticky mire. And the compromise Believer lot
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is bound in chains, helpless, silent.
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The world has successfully swallowed those who sought
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security in its systems. And that silence creates this
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massive narrative vacuum that just screams for a Savior.
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Lot is the perfect illustration of every Sinner bound by sin,
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captive to the systems of this world, unable to break the yoke
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of sin and death. He can't save himself.
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He can't fight for his freedom. He can't buy his freedom, he
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can't run. The kings of the earth only
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offer slavery. This darkness, though, is a
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necessary element of the story because it prepares our hearts
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for the light of covenant deliverance.
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That's about to break in when Abram hears the news.
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And this scene of Lot's captivity, it immediately places
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his fate within the grand, recurring arc of covenant
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history, this motif of the righteous being taken captive by
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hostile worldly forces, only to be delivered by divine
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intervention. That's one of the key rhythms of
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the whole Old Testament. It really is.
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Genesis 14 establishes this rhythm early and clearly.
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Lot is taken. Rescue becomes an absolute
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necessity. This exact motif is fully
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realized in the Exodus, where Israel's bondage in Egypt
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demands God's intervention through Moses.
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And in judges. Repeatedly in Judges oppression
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crying out, a deliverer is raised up, and then later the
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Babylonian exile where God's people are captured and God in
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covenant faithfulness brings them back.
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So lots capture. Seen through this wider
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Canonical lens, it's a consequence of his choices.
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But you're saying it's also a kind of painful mercy?
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Paradoxically, yes, it's both. Because he is taken out of
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Sodom, it necessitates God pulling him out of the Doom
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City's grasp entirely through Abraham's action.
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If he had remained comfortable in Sodom, he almost certainly
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would have perished when the fire fell Later.
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His painful capture is the catalyst for his temporary
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salvation. And this trajectory points us
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directly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Abraham's role as the coming deliverer of his endangered
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kinsman is the physical pattern, but it finds it's complete
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realism in Christ, the greater son of Abraham.
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This is where we see the final eternal significance Abram will
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pursue the captors and recover what was taken, the goods and
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the people. But Christ confronts the much
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deeper captors, sin, death and the devil, and he liberates his
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people with finality. He.
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Descends into the chaos. He does.
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The Lord did not remain in the high places of heaven security.
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He descended into the chaos of our war.
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He entered the strong man's house to bind the enemy and
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recover his people. Christ is the greater warrior
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who pursues the true captors and recovers the lost.
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He secures A deliverance that isn't just the temporary
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recovery of material goods, but the eternal deliverance of our
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very persons and souls. Colossians 2.15.
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Right, the New Testament writers tell us Christ disarmed rulers
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and authorities. He led captivity captive, as
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Ephesians says, thereby securing a freedom that Lot could only
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receive temporarily. The final rescue depends not on
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Sodom's failed strength or Lot's lost strength, but entirely on
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the Redeemer's sovereign strength.
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We have covered so much ground here, analyzing the geopolitical
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chaos and connecting it to the spiritual war waged against the
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Covenant people. We've seen that the nation's
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rage, but the Most High governs their movements.
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The world's Kingdom is loud. It's calculated.
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It's often terrifying, but it's ultimately brittle.
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It fails the people who rely on it.
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The true Kingdom offers lasting, unshakable security.
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The lesson of Genesis 14.112 for us is clear and direct.
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If you seek your peace and your security in Sodom, if you
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integrate your life into its economic or political systems as
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your source of hope, you will be swept away by Sodom's wars.
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The only secure ground is not the valley of human resource,
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which is full of deadly pits. It's the high ground of faith in
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the living Gods separated unto His covenant promise.
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We have to feed that canonical warning that proximity to
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wickedness draws us well, inexorably into its
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consequences. And that warning sets the stage
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perfectly for the rest of Genesis 14.
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The very next scene will present Abram with the defining choice
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between 2 kings, the defeated, newly rescued King of Sodom, and
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the mysterious King of Salem, Melchizedek, who is a priest of
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the Most High God. The war we just discussed
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stripped Sodom of all its promises and exposed its total
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weakness. So this leaves us with the final
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thought to consider. When the world's systems fail
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and its promises evaporate, do we trust the gifts offered by
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the city that just failed? Or do we receive the blessing
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mediated by the priest King whose righteousness lasts?
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That choice, when crisis comes, determines where we find our
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peace. A truly sobering question to
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leave with you. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive. Until next time.