John Calvin Commentary Genesis 14:13

"And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew: now he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram." — Genesis 14:13 (ASV)

And there came one that had escaped. This is the second part of the chapter, in which Moses shows that when God showed regard for His servant Lot, He gave him Abram as his deliverer, to rescue him from the hands of the enemy. But here various questions arise, such as whether it was lawful for Abram, a private person, to arm his family against kings and to undertake a public war.

I do not, however, doubt that as he went to the war endowed with the power of the Spirit, he was also guarded by a heavenly command, so that he did not transgress the bounds of his vocation. And this should not be regarded as a new thing, but as his special calling, for he had already been created king of that land.

And although the possession of it was deferred to a future time, yet God would give some remarkable proof of the power which He had granted him, and which was until now unknown to men. We read of a similar prelude to what was to follow in the case of Moses, when he killed the Egyptian, before he openly presented himself as the avenger and deliverer of his nation.

And for this reason, this subject should be noted, so that those who wish to defend themselves by armed force whenever any force is used against them do not use this event to frame a rule for themselves. We will later see this same Abram bearing patiently and with a submissive mind injuries that were at least equally likely to provoke his spirit.

Moreover, it will shortly appear from the commendation of Melchizedek that Abram attempted nothing rashly, but rather that his design was approved by God. We may therefore conclude that this war was undertaken by him under the special direction of the Spirit.

If anyone should object that he went further than was lawful when he stripped the victors of their plunder and captives and restored them entirely to the men of Sodom, who had by no means been committed to his protection, I answer that since it appears that God was his Guide and Ruler in this affair—as we infer from His approval—it is not for us to dispute His secret judgment.

When their neighbors were ruined and destroyed, God had destined the inhabitants of Sodom to a still more severe judgment, because they themselves were the worst of all. Therefore, after they had been admonished by a sufficiently severe chastisement, He raised up His servant Abram to deliver them, so that they might be rendered all the more inexcusable.

Therefore, this unique prompting of the Holy Spirit should no more be taken as a precedent than the entire war that Abram had carried on.

Regarding the messenger who told Abram about the slaughter at Sodom, I do not accept what some suppose, that he was a pious man. We may rather conjecture that, as a fugitive from home who had been deprived of all his goods, he came to Abram to appeal to his compassion.

That Abram is called a Hebrew, I do not explain from his having crossed the river, as some believe, but from his being of the progeny of Eber, for it is a name of descent. And the Holy Spirit here again honorably announces that race as blessed by God.

And these were confederate with Abram. It appears that, in the course of time, Abram was freely allowed to enter into covenant and friendship with the princes of the land, for the man’s heroic virtues caused them to regard him as someone by no means to be despised.

Indeed, since he had such a large household, he might also have been counted among kings, if he had not been a stranger and a sojourner. But God intended in this way to provide for his peace by a covenant relating to temporal things, so that he might never be mixed with those nations.

Moreover, we may readily conjecture that this whole transaction was divinely ordered from the fact that his associates did not hesitate, at great risk, to attack four kings who (considering the conditions of those times) were sufficiently strong and were flushed with the confidence of victory. Surely they would hardly ever have been so favorable to a stranger, except by a secret prompting from God.