Today, Rick Shaffer continues his series on Genesis 12 and 13. You can read last week’s post here.
Last week we looked at Genesis chapter 12 and the beginning of Abraham’s life.
To briefly recap, God calls upon Abram and tells him to leave everything he knows and go to the place that the Lord will show. Abram does so and receives a great blessing and promise from the Lord. Shortly thereafter, he takes his household to Egypt in hopes of escaping the famine in Canaan. Abram lies to Pharaoh about his wife, and God strikes Pharaoh’s house hold until he gives back Sarai and kicks Abram out of Egypt.
So here we find Abram booted from Egypt with no where to go but the place he had come from in the beginning; the place where God had told him to go. That’s where the story picks up.
Abram’s actions in verses 3 and 4 give us a great model to follow when we lose our way from God and want to turn back to him. Verse 3: ‘he went on his journeys from the Negev as afar as Bethel, to where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai.’
Remember in Genesis 12:7-8 it is at Bethel that Abram first pitches his tent in the land that God has promised him. So, after losing his way, he returns to the place where he first connected and worshipped God in this new land.
I think many times when we lose our way and wander from God, we need to return to our own beginning place, the place where we first experienced God for who He is or the place where we turned off the road and began to wander in the spiritual wilderness. That place can be so many different things, but I think the key is that we return to where God is the focus and all else is stripped away. Pastor Mark has previously talked about making altars in our own lives to remember what God has done. It is these places where we can return to and find our way again.
The text continues and specifies where Abram went and what he did in verse 4: ‘to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.’
Why is this important? Because that place of altar was significant to Abram and allowed him to enter into a context of worship. He then does the most important thing he could do, calling on the name of the Lord.
Above all other things when we are lost and are looking for direction from God, He wants us to call on His name. We know from His word that when we do this, He will be faithful to answer us.
So Abram has found his way again and is right with the Lord. The change that takes place in his life is evident right away as a dispute among his servants and Lot’s servants arises. As we look at this, Abram’s restored faith in God is clearly evident.
Verses 5-13 tell the story of this dispute that causes the households of Abram and Lot to go their separate ways. In an amazing act of humility, Abram forgoes his right as head of the family and allows Lot to pick where he wants to go and Abram says he will go the opposite of wherever Lot chooses to go. Lot chooses the most visually appealing area east of the Jordan, not knowing that it is an unsafe place full of wicked and warring people.
After Lot leaves, God reaffirms His promise to Abram in verses 14-18, telling him that his descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! But what is so significant about Abram’s choice here?
Abram’s faith and trust in God are demonstrated clearly here and if we were to read on in Genesis, we see that God truly does bless Abraham, protecting him from the many problems Lot had to face. After calling upon the name of the Lord at Bethel, Abram is restored and is able to relinquish the decision to pick which land to settle.
Through this, he relinquishes his will and trusts his fate to the God that called him out of the land of Haran. God then leads him to a safer land, sparing him from the strife that Lot faces in chapter 14 and when he is forced to flee Sodom. It is a testament to God’s work in his life that a man of Abram’s stature (according to those days) would give up the pick of the land and place his fate so to speak in another’s hands. Just as Abram let God direct his steps, which led to safety and prosperity, so God wants to do with us if we follow Abram’s example.
The greatest lesson we can learn from this is that when we relinquish our will to God and trust Him with our lives and all we possess, He will protect us and bless us beyond what we could imagine. Now that’s good news!
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