Refusing the Wealth

In Perek Yud Daled, Avraham joins 4 kings to try to save his nephew, Lot. The opposing 5 kings had captured Lot while looting Sadom, the city in which he lived after separating from Avraham. Of course, with G-d's help Avraham came out victorious and saved Lot. He also reconquered land for the other kings. After this, Avraham was offered a large amount of wealth (from the spoils). Avraham refused to take the money. He wouldn't even accept a shoelace of the wealth. The point of this was to show that he is dependant on G-d.

In class, this point confused me. I related it to a story that we have all heard countless times: One day a city was flooding. The water was getting higher and higher, and all the people were being evacuated. One man refused to leave because he believed that G-d would save him. People came to try to save him, men in a boat came, even people tried to save him by coming in a helicopter, but he still refused to leave, saying, "G-d will save me." The man died. In heaven he he became very angry because he had put all of his trust in G-d, and G-d had let him down. G-d said to him, "What are you talking about? I sent people, a boat, and a helicopter to save you!"

This story shows that not all of G-d's miracles are huge and miraculous like the sea splitting. He gives his blessings in all different ways. We can't just wait for Him to drop $1,000 from heaven, maybe instead He will help get you a job. Also, we need to do everything in our power to help ourselves, and not solely rely on G-d.

This idea was shown in this weeks Parsha. Before Yaakov's reunion with his evil brother, Eisav he does three things to prepare. He separates the camp (prepares for war). He sends gifts to Eisav, and last he davens to G-d. This shows that Yaakov did everything he could to help himself (and Bnei Yisrael) before he asked for G-d's help. So why did Avraham not want to take the wealth that was offered to him by the kings? He deserved it. He reconquered the land, therefore he deserves the spoils. This could have been G-d's plan to fulfill His promise of making Avraham wealthy.

Maybe G-d had told Avraham not to take it. Maybe Avraham didn't want money that was associated with battle/war. Maybe he already had enough and didn't feel right taking more. Maybe he thought it thought G-d would seem less great in the eyes of everyone if he took all the money and didn't act as if G-d would protect and provide for him.

Avraham says, "וְלֹא תֹאמַר אֲנִי הֶעֱשַׁרְתִּי אֶת אַבְרָם"-And you should not say, "I have made Avraham wealthy". Avraham probably didn't want anyone, but G-d to be the reason he is wealthy. Even though he did deserve the wealth, no human should be able to say that he fulfilled one of the promises G-d made him.