Four different city kingdoms decided to ally themselves together to go to war against five other kingdom cities that had allied themselves together.
The story goes that all of these kingdoms were united under Chedorlaomer and paid tribute to him for about twelve years. In the thirteenth year, some of them rebelled, and they fought.
The biggest battle took place in the Vale of Siddim, which had a lot of slime pits. Sodom and Gomorrah fell there and the survivors fled into the mountains.
The victors of Chedorlaomer took everything and everyone in the cities, including Lot and his family.
One of the men got away and ran and told Abram what had happened.
Well, Abram was not in the war. He stayed out of it, until he got the news that his nephew was held captive.
That couldn't stand.
So he organized all of his trained servants and they went to rescue Lot.
He was victorious, and brought all of the people back, including his nephew and all of the city's belongings.
The kings met Abram on the way back and blessed him.
Melchizedech was a king that served God. He was a high priest. He took tithes from everyone and tried to give it to Abram for payment.
All the king of Sodom asked was that Abram give him back his people. He didn't care about the goods. He gave Abram all the goods that he had brought back.
Abram refused the goods, even. He said, "I don't want it to be said that YOU made me rich. I won't even take a shoe lace from you. All I ask for is that the young men who served with me in this war not be owing you for the food they ate, and that they can keep their portion of the pay."
Abram did not do what he did to be paid. He did it because Lot was family.
You shouldn't serve your country, or the Lord for that matter, because the pay is good. (Most of the time it is not). You should do it because it is the right thing to do. The Lord will bless you accordingly.
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