Today again we see that Abraham realizes his family is of tremendous importance. When Lot, who has already taken the best of the land away from Abraham, is captured and is being carried away (probably into slavery), Abraham with some of his household, pursues the forces which captured Lot, takes them in a night raid, and rescues Lot.
We should expect that the original military action was not particularly aimed at Lot. Lot was probably simply one of many people who were involved in the action. He was apparently not under intense guard as a king would be, since Abraham captured him back with only about three hundred people. Yet we can easily imagine a baggage train with a number of prisoners, a night raid, a release of some prisoners, and a situation where the baggage train would not risk all to recover the prisoners.
In this action Abraham would have been able to capture significant amounts of plunder. See his meeting with Melchizedek, who serves, according to Hebrews, as a type of Christ. See how Abraham, the one who would be assumed to be greater, gave riches to Melchizedek, who would culturally have been the lesser. Abraham was recognizing the glory of God in this man. He was consciously pointing to the idea that all riches come from the Lord. He was testifying to the recovery of Lot as adequate riches.
Are we content? Do we realize that all our riches lie in Christ? Do we trust in the care of the one who laid down his life for us, rescued us from bondage, delivered us safely to our eternal home? Let us look to God as Abraham did.
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