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In this chapter, Abraham’s brother Lot gets caught in the middle of a large fight and gets carried off as a hostage. At this point Abram is not there, so one of the people who saw what happened went to alert Abram on the situation. It is important to remember that Abram and Lot had not been getting along when they parted. However, since the actual parting of ways went well, there was no fear from Lot’s messanger about the reception he would recieve.
Abraham decided to honor his relationship with Lot and take his resources and launch a rescue mission. He was going to battle a force that it would appear was much larger than his.
It is documented that he gathered his 300+ fighting men and headed after Lot’s captors. Imagine what would have happened if Abraham would have attacked the force head on. He would have been easily overwhelmed by the superior numbers. Instead, Abraham planned ahead and split his troops up to attack on two sides. He also decided to attack when it was dark to further confuse his enemies. It would have been easy for Abram to look at the size of his foe and decide that there was not way he could win. Instead, he got creative and found ways to use his smaller force to his advantage.
Abraham was able to win the battle and save his brother. He returned Lot to King Mechizeldeck. The king blessed Abraham and tried to give him his share of the spoils of the battle. Abraham, however, remembered the promise he made to God, and refused his portion of the spoils, knowing that, due to his covenent, they were not his to take. This is a key Leadership lesson.....DON”T BE GREEDY. If you agree to do, or not do something, don’t change the terms because something may unexpectedly go your way. Abram went on this mission to save his nephew. He did not enter into the battle to gain anything for himself. If the messenger had not found him, he would have never chosen to engage any of these people in battle. He was also in a territory that he had agreed to walk away from. It would have been wrong to take advantage of the situation just because he was there at a time when they were vulnerable.
This does not mean that you should not take advantage of opportunity. The point is that if you go into a situation with a goal in mind, (in this case, rescuing his nephew) and things happen to present themselves in a way that could be viewed as taking advantage of a situation, you should resist the temptation. Abram had already been promised many things from God, there was no need to take additional resources from King Mechizeldeck. It would be like getting paid to do a job by someone, and then accepting additional money from someone else for doing the same job.
The partnerships that you can forge by NOT taking advantage of a situation will pay off over the long run.
