In middle of a bloody world war when five empires allied together to defeat the stronger group of four nations who were allied together, one man gets kidnapped. That man happened to have an uncle, whose name was Avraham. The פסוק tells us that one of the refugees of the war was the one who came to his uncle and told him that his nephew had been taken prisoner. The מדרש tells us that when the פסוק says ויבא הפליט, that this refugee came, it is referring to עוג, who was a ‘refugee’ of the world from before the flood. And he said to himself, let me tell Avraham about this war, he’ll go to try and rescue Lot, he’ll get killed and then I will be able to marry Sarah.
The question begs, what in the world was he thinking? Avraham is a man who preaches to the world about a connection to the God who created the heavens and earth. He is not a warrior and he doesn’t have an army. I can understand that he cares about his nephew, but this is a suicide mission. Why would he go enter a war that he is most likely to lose?
If you look at who these kings heading the war were, it may give us an insight into why Avraham went to fight the war, and how Og knew that in fact he would.
The main king involved was Nimrod, about whom the Torah tells us that his whole purpose was to gather people in and have them rebel against his creator. We think Avraham was the first one to find Hashem, but Chazal tell us about Nimrod that he knew his creator and he rebelled against him. He was Avraham’s arch enemy so to speak. Nimrod stood for “might equals right” and he exercised his power freely. Avraham was on the other side completely, he was teaching moral standards and rules to the world. He was getting people to embrace and love Hashem.
It was for this reason that Og knew that Avraham would go to war with these kings. Yes, he wanted to save his nephew Lot, but he also needed to fight the battle of Hashem. And it is no surprise that the person he took with him was named Eliezer, which literally means, my God is my savior. Avraham’s mentality was to trust and believe in Hashem that he will be protected. The מדרש tells us exactly what Avraham’s mindset was, when it says that he went to war, faced the kings he was fighting against and he said “let me go after them and die על קידוש השם. Avraham was fighting a war with nothing to hold him back. He had no fear going into this war, he was there to fight for Hashem, and if he loses his life al Kiddush Hashem that’s even better.
It is interesting that when Og comes to Avraham, the language is ויבא הפליט ויגד לאברהם העברי. And Rashi tells us that he was called by that name because the whole world stood on one side of the river and he stood on the opposite river bank. This is what Avraham stood for and that is the secret to be able to break down barriers and live for Hashem.