The Possessor of Heaven and Earth: the God who owns it all

The possessor of heaven and earth is a title for God that was first spoken over Abram on the road home from a war. It means that God is the owner of everything there is, from the sky to the ground under your feet. The words come from Genesis 14:19, where a priest-king named Melchizedek blessed Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. A few verses later, Abram used the same title to say no to a fortune.

A rescue, a priest and a tempting deal

The story starts with trouble. Four kings from the east raided the cities near the Dead Sea, including Sodom, and carried off people and goods. Abram's nephew Lot lived in Sodom, so Lot was taken too. When the news reached Abram, he gathered three hundred and eighteen trained men from his own household and chased the raiders all the way north to Dan (Genesis 14:14).

He attacked at night, won, and brought everything back: the goods, the women, the people and Lot himself (Genesis 14:16). On the way home, two kings came out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, also called the king's dale. They could not have been more different.

The first was Melchizedek, king of Salem. Most Bible readers through history have taken Salem to be an early name for the place that became Jerusalem. He brought bread and wine, and the Bible calls him the priest of the most high God. He blessed Abram, and Abram gave him a tenth of the goods.

And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Genesis 14:19-20

The second was the king of Sodom. He made what sounded like a generous offer: let me have my people back, and you keep the treasure.

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

Genesis 14:21

The king was offering Abram the goods he had won back. He had risked his life for them. But he had just heard a priest call God the owner of heaven and earth. If that was true, what could the king of Sodom give him that God did not already own?

Abram's answer used the same words

Abram did not invent a new speech. He picked up Melchizedek's title and turned it into his reply. He told the king that he had already lifted his hand to God, which was the way people made a solemn oath (a serious, binding promise).

And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

Genesis 14:22-23

A shoelatchet is the strap of a sandal. Abram meant he would not take a single string. He did let his allies, Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, take their fair share, and he let his young men keep the food they had eaten (Genesis 14:24). He was not being stubborn. He simply did not want anyone to say a king of Sodom had made him wealthy. Abram already had plenty. The Bible says earlier that he was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold (Genesis 13:2). The question was who would get the credit.

The Hebrew behind "possessor"

In Hebrew the title is qoneh shamayim va'arets. Here is each piece in plain words:

• Qoneh comes from the verb qanah. Lexicons (word dictionaries for the Hebrew Bible) give its meanings as to get, to acquire, to buy, to possess and also to create. The King James Bible most often translates it "buy."
• Shamayim is the Hebrew word for heaven or the heavens, the sky and everything above it.
• Va'arets means "and earth." Erets is the ordinary word for the earth or a land.

Because qanah can lean toward making or toward owning, Bible translations do not all agree here. The King James says "possessor." Some newer versions say "Creator" or "Maker" instead. Experts have argued for both. You do not really have to choose, though. Think of a woodworker who builds a table from her own lumber. She owns it because she made it. That is the idea packed into this name. God owns heaven and earth by right, since He is the One who brought them into being.

Qanah is an everyday buying-and-selling word. The Bible later uses it for the field Abraham paid for so he could bury Sarah (Genesis 25:10 looks back on The field which Abraham purchased). So when the same root is used for God, it sounds like a deed of ownership.

Verses that echo the Owner of everything

Genesis 14 is the only place this exact title appears, but the Bible keeps saying the same thing in other words. These King James verses sit well beside it:

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1

The "fulness thereof" means everything that fills the earth: its land, its water, its animals and its people. Notice that people are on the list. We belong to Him too.

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Psalm 50:10

Here God tells Israel that He does not need their animal sacrifices to make Him rich. Every animal already belongs to Him.

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

1 Chronicles 29:14

King David prayed this on the day Israel gave a huge offering to build the temple. He understood that every gift was God's own property coming home. Psalm 89:11 adds that The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine, and gives the reason: God founded them.

Living like a manager, not an owner

Most worry about money comes from one hidden idea: that everything depends on me. If I own it, I have to protect it, grow it and keep it from slipping away. This name breaks that idea gently. You are not the owner. You are more like a manager, or steward, someone trusted to take care of what belongs to another.

That does not make work or planning unimportant. Abram still fought, still kept herds and still paid his allies. But it changes how it feels. A manager can do the job well without carrying the full weight of ownership at night.

The story also gives you a simple test for any offer, whether it is a job, a deal, a friendship or a shortcut. Abram did not only ask whether it would pay. He asked who would get the credit and what strings came with it. A teen invited into something that seems fun but would pull them away from God can ask the same thing. So can an adult offered money from a source that would compromise them.

• Make a quick list of the things you call "mine," and say over each one, "This is on loan from God."
• Before a big decision, ask Abram's question: if I say yes, who will get the credit?
• Give something away this week as a way of saying the Owner is generous, so you can be too.

This is name 6 in the book. It grows straight out of the name before it, El Elyon, the Most High God, since Melchizedek spoke both titles in one breath. The next name moves from a battlefield to a desert spring: El Roi, the God who sees me. You can find the rest on the names of God in the Bible page.