Genesis 13:1-12

In this section Abram and Lot have left Egypt and gone back towards Canaan. By now God has blessed their hard work and they are wealthy with a lot of cattle, silver and gold.

They returned to the place between Bethel and Ai where Abram had built his first altar. There he stopped and prayed to God.

All this abundance was causing trouble between Abram and Lot. They had too much livestock for the land they were travelling through to support. Their staff were competing with each other and there were many disagreements.

Abram made a wise choice. Did he make that choice because God directed him to? I suspect he did. After all, the Bible mentioned that he prayed at that altar.

Abram’s wise choice was for Lot and Abram to separate in order to preserve their relationship. Abram as the leader could have told Lot which way to go and chosen the better way for himself. But he didn’t. Instead he gave Lot the choice of which way to go. 

Lot looked out and saw what he perceived as the better way and chose it. It was certainly the easier way. Flat land with ample water. An easy life and apparently easy way to wealth and a good life.

It is interesting to note the mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the area Lot had chosen. It means nothing at this point in the Bible, but of course its significance will come.

I often wonder if the mention of Sodom and Gomorrah was an indication of how good the land was. There was good grazing and water for livestock. People became wealthy and their thoughts turned to the pleasures of life rather than God.

Abram turned instead towards the land of Canaan. By letting his nephew choose first he had unwittingly settled in the land God had told him would be his.

The choices of the two men will have ramifications neither could have predicted.

Abram accepted what seemed to be the inferior land. He demonstrated his greatness by allowing his nephew first choice. And he demonstrated his greatness by trusting that God would guide him and bless him wherever he went.

I wonder if we had the choice whether we would choose what seemed easy or choose instead to trust God.

Genesis 12:10-20

This section of Genesis has always troubled me and there have been much discussion by biblical scholars both Christian and Jewish about this section.

There is a severe famine in Canaan and Abram takes his group to Egypt to live there until the famine passes.

Depending on which biblical scholar you read, he either did this without God’s instruction or he was instructed by God to do this.

Those who believe God instructed him to go to Egypt consider God told him to tell people Sarai was his sister. He wasn’t wrong in saying this because she was his father’s daughter, but in this he omitted to tell people she was also his wife.

Despite being around the age of 90, Sarai was beautiful. It has been suggested this was because God had kept her body young to allow her to conceive the promised child.

Some scholars also mention the confusion in Egyptian language where there was a word “sone” that meant both sister and wife. They say that if Abraham used that word to describe Sarai then he used an ambiguous term that could be interpreted as Sarai being his sister.

It has always puzzled me however, because I believe God could have protected Sarai, as He actually did, and there was no need for any deception. If God was okay with that protection then this suggests God is less able to intervene in human matters than we have been taught.

Another commentary suggests that there was a custom where a man could adopt his wife as his sister, which gave her property and inheritance rights. It has been suggested that maybe that is what Abram did. He just omitted to tell people that Sarai was his wife.

Another commentary suggests this is a literary approach to introduce the concept of deceit. It suggests that the history of Abram’s descendants is one of deceit. There is a pattern running through his descendants where each generation practices deceit. Notable deceits are Isaac passing Rebekah off as his sister (Genesis 26), Jacob deceiving Isaac into thinking he is Esau (Genesis 27), Joseph’s brothers deceiving Jacob by telling him that Joseph has been killed when instead he was sold to slave traders (Genesis 37), and Joseph deceiving his brothers when they visit Egypt (Genesis 42-43)

Whatever the reason, Abram passed Sarai off as his sister and Pharaoh took her into his harem. 

As a result of this Abram was treated well in Egypt and acquired yet more livestock and servants.

As a result of Sarai being taken into the harem terrible diseases break out in Pharoah’s household. Pharaoh finds out Sarai if Abrams wife and returns her to him, giving him many more gifts in addition to the ones Abram had already received. He is then sent away with instructions to not harm him or anyone/anything in his party.

The main information given in this section is that Abram went to Egypt where he gained great wealth and yet more servants. He passed Sarai off as his sister because he was afraid. This may or may not have demonstrated a lack of trust in God.

It is interesting to note that there is no record of Abram establishing any altars to praise God in Egypt. He only appeared to feel free to establish altars in Canaan.

All God’s heroes of the Old Testament were men with many faults. Maybe this passage is showing us that Abraham was not perfect. He was human. The only one who lived on this earth and was perfect was Jesus. 

Maybe ultimately that is the message of this passage. We are not gods. We are human and we have all the imperfections of humans. We 
will make many mistakes and frequently fail to do what God wants, even when our life is seen as being one of great righteousness.

Abram was considered righteous, but he was still human and still flawed. We can draw comfort from that. God accepts our frailties and our inability to be perfect and loves us anyway.

I thought I had posted last week's blog but I can't see it on the website so I am posting last week's and this week's blog together.

Genesis 11:10 to 12:4

Today I am starting a blog series on Abram.

Abram was descended from Noah through his son Shem. Abram was the oldest of three brothers of Terah. His nephew Lot was the son of his youngest brother. They lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. Lot’s father died and Abram and his other brother both married. Abram married Sarai. At that point in time they had no children. 

Terah took his son Abram, Sarai and lot to set out for Canaan. On the way they arrived in Harran and settled there.

This is related in Genesis 11.

In Genesis 12 we have the important first three verses when Abram is called.

God told Abram to leave his country, his people and his father’s household and go to the land God would show him. 

God promised he would make him into a great nation and would bless him.

He promised that Abram’s name would be great and he would be a blessing to others.

God also promised He would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed Abram.

Finally He told Abram something astounding. He told him that all people on earth would be blessed through him.

These verses are vitally important verses for our understanding of God’s plan for humankind.

When I was studying my theology certificate, I had to learn these three verses and commit them to memory. 

It says a lot about Abram that he did as God instructed. He left with his Sarai, Lot, their possessions and their servants.

In Romans 4 v 3 we read that Abraham believed God and did as he was instructed. And this was credited to him as righteousness. This is a quote from Genesis 15:6 which states that Abram believed God and God credited it to Him as righteousness. 

What God asked Abram to do was a major ask. It was not customary for people to move away from their home. Yes Abram had moved from Ur to Harran with his father with the intention to go to Canaan, but Harran was where they had settled. Life was safe and predictable.

To be asked to leave all this - the security of family, the security of food, the security of a comfortable existence – to go somewhere he had never been required a great leap of faith.

At this time Abram was 75, not an age when we customarily willingly leave our comfortable home to become nomads and travel to unknown lands. 

His act was one of deep faith. Not only did he follow God as instructed, but he also went with the knowledge that God intended him, a man with no children, to be the patriarch of a great nation.

I have always wondered if I would be so willing to obey God if instructed to take such a large leap of faith. 

No wonder Abraham appeared with Moses at the transfiguration. He was a man who walked very close to God.

Maybe you and I will never be called to follow that close, but I would like to think we would be willing to go if we were called.

Genesis 12:5-9

Abram, at the great age of 75, left his father’s household. 

As I mentioned last week, it was a major undertaking. In those far distant times, living in a traditional culture, moving to a new area was not a decision taken lightly. It was a very risky thing to do. He was in danger of losing everything. Yet his commitment to God was so great that he undertook the journey.

He took his nephew Lot and his wife Sarai. 

It was a fairly complex trip. He took everything he owned and all the people who worked for him. They set out for Canaan and arrived there.

This wasn’t just a small group of travellers who moved quickly and lightly. This was a massive group of people with stock and a lot of possessions. Everywhere they went was a massive undertaking. 

Abram travelled through Canaan without settling anywhere for long. This massive undertaking went on for some time. This was a deep commitment and a way of life that would have kept Abram very busy.

First he is said to have travelled to Shechem where a mighty Oak tree known as the Oak of Moreh stood. This area was occupied by Canaanites. 

It must have seemed strange when God appeared to Abram and told him that his descendants would be given this land. But he accepted that and build an altar there to God.

After this he travelled to the area of Bethel and built an altar there where he is recorded as calling on the name of God.

It is not reported if he travelled to these places and stopped there because God told him to or whether God came to him where he had stopped. I suspect God guided him to the places where he stopped.

He did not settle in any of these places. Instead he kept travelling south and headed towards the Negev desert. 

No one saw his presence as a threat despite the immense size of his travelling group. In fact the people regarded him highly and were accepting of his presence.

All this travel was conducted in faith. Everywhere Abram stopped he established an altar to God. He believed God and he considered serving Him to be more important than any family ties or concerns about safety. Abram stepped out 
into the unknown. His faith in God sustained him through all his travels. Sometimes he saw God, and other times he chose to worship Him without seeing Him.

In the busyness of his life, Abram took time out to be with God, to worship Him and to establish altars to God. His time would have been heavily occupied with keeping track of all his possessions, flocks, the people with him and ensuring everyone’s safety. Yet he still found time to be with God.

We think our lives today are busy, but I suspect they are no busier than Abram’s life was. 

If he could find time to be with God, then so can we.

May we never stop taking that time to sit at God’s feet and listen.