Spedcial Op's

Special Ops

Genesis 14 (NLT)

Intro: On June 27, 1976, A terrorist group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boarded an Air France jetliner in Athens with 250 people onboard. They took control of the plane and made the pilot fly them to Uganda. They landed at the Entebbe Airport there in Uganda. Many of you may remember this. Idi Amin was the president of Uganda at the time and he went to the airport and praised the highjackers. They were there in control of the plane for seven days. I’m sure they were confident that they were in control. They released many of the passengers because they were not Israeli. Ninety one of the passengers were from Israel and they kept them as hostages. Singled out for their religion and ethnicity. They had the president of the country and his army giving them aid and everything was going according to plan. Little did they know what was coming.

. 2500 miles away in Tel Aviv, three Israeli C-130 Hercules transports were secretly being boarded by Israeli commandos. They flew into Kenya and under the cover of darkness they attacked the Entebbe airport. In less than 60 minutes they They took control of the airport, killing many of the Ugandan guards and the highjackers. They rescued 110 of the 113 hostages that were on the plane.

. The raid was heralded as a great success and a major blow to the terrorist group.

. The Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said this after the successful rescue.

“This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition”

. A brilliant military move by the Israeli government.

. Maybe not as brilliant as we think. Maybe they had done this before and all they had to do is look at their history and repeat what their ancestors had done.

. Our scripture this morning may possibly be the first recorded special ops mission.

. Genesis 14 tells us of a rescue much like the raid on Entebbe.

. Its the story of Abrams rescue of Lot.

. Chapter 14 of Genesis covers this story and the aftermath of the victory. We are not going to read the entire chapter so I will share much of the operation with you.

. The region along the Dead sea from Dan in the north to Sodom, Gomorrah, down into the Siddim Valley in the south.

. We would call it the West Bank and Jerusalem today, sound familiar.

. Well the Kings form the north banded together and started moving south. They conquered everything in their path on the west side of the Dead Sea. Then they turned their sights east to the other side of the Dead Sea. Seems like things never change do they. They had defeated everyone in their path yet they wanted more.

. Scripture tells us here in chapter 14 that the eastern cities knew they were coming and they prepared themselves. Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the four cities that were ready to defend themselves when the northern kings came. They had joined forces with two other cities and were ready for battle.

. They were routed. Their fighting forces were no match for the northern armies.

. If you will remember back several weeks ago when we looked at chapter 13, Lot had separated from Abram. He had taken the best land and as scripture says, he pitched his tent near Sodom.

. Sometime between moving near Sodom and this battle, Lot had moved into the city of Sodom. Sodom was defeated and plundered and they made a mistake, they took Abram’s nephew Lot as a hostage.

. Lets look at verses 13-16 of Genesis 14.

. 13But one of Lot’s men escaped and reported everything to Abram the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies.

14When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household. Then he pursued Kedorlaomer’s army until he caught up with them at Dan.

15There he divided his men and attacked during the night. Kedorlaomer’s army fled, but Abram chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

16Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives.

. Abram got the report and gathered his troops. Not just any troops. He got seal team six or the Army Rangers or the Green Beret.

. Look at verse 14 again:

. 14When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household.