Part 6 - Book of Genesis

 

 

 

Lot and Abram separate

13.1-13 Abram and family depart Egypt back toward where Abram has built an altar before. Lot is with Abram and he too has many cattle and possessions. Abram realizes the land cannot support both of them and he tells Lot to choose which land area he would like and then Abram says he will go in the opposite direction. Lot looks up and sees that the plain of Jordan is like the garden of God and like Egypt and chooses for himself the land to the east. Abram says OK and stays in the land of promise--Canaan. Lot leaves and pitches his tent in the area near Sodom were wicked pagans dwell.

Lot “chooses for himself” and goes to an area of wickedness. He did not ask the Lord for direction but choose an area that reminded him of the Nile area in Egypt. This is a great lesson in obedience and to ask the Lord for direction when making decisions. Abram stays in the promised land that God has given him and his descendants forever--Lot chooses for himself and follows the desire of the eyes and flesh as Adam and Eve did in the garden.

13.14-18 After Lot departs, the Lord appears to Abram and tells him that as far as he can see will be the land his offspring will inherit. God also tells him he will have descendants so numerous they will not be able to be counted. The Lord tells Abram to move about the entire land and understand how great this gift is. Abram moves and eventually comes to dwell at Hebron where he builds an altar to the Lord.

Abram building an altar to the Lord shows the process of him trusting in and obeying the Lord. His faith is growing as he obeys and walks accordingly--just as ours does when we seek the Lord and walk accordingly.

Abram’s heroic campaign

14.1-12 A war between four kings led by Chedorlaomer king of Elam against five kings including the kings of Sodom/Gomorrah results in Lot and his family and possessions being taken captive because Lot lived in that area.

14.13-16 Abram, the Hebrew, gets news of this and takes 318 trained servants and pursues these kings and rescues Lot and recovers all his family and possessions and those of the Sodomites. This is the first place that Abram is called a Hebrew. Is this in honor of his forefather Eber as discussed earlier?

14.17-20 When Abram returns from this victory the king of Sodom came out to meet him. King Melchizedek of Salem brought bread and wine, he was a priest of God Most High, and blessed Abram saying,“ Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils.


The king of Sodom came out, but King Melchizedek brought wine and bread and had a covenant meal with Abram. Then Melchizedek blessed Abram and was given 10 percent of the spoils. This Melchizedek is/was a priest forever, according to Heb 7.17. This is a type of Jesus who is a Melchizedek priest. In the millennium we will be kings and priests. The bread and wine indicate the two had a covenant meal with Abram recognizing that Melchizedek is perhaps God, tithes to him.

14.21-24 The king of Sodom tells Abram to keep the spoils and he will take back the men and women. Abram refuses to take any spoil. He doesn’t want it said that he became wealthy because of the king of Sodom. Abram gives glory to God for the victory. He has just covenanted with Melchizedek and has been in the presence of God. His faith is growing.


Abram promised an heir.

15.1-6 Some time later God visits Abram and tells him not to fear, for God is his shield. God tells Abram He is his great reward. Abram replies that he has no son to be his heir. The Lord tells him that his heir will be of his own issue. Then God tells Abram to look up at heaven and gaze at the multitude of stars. God tells him his descendants will out number the stars. Abram believed and it counted to him as righteousness.

In the Bible faith does not mean believing in spite of the evidence. It means trusting in God who has made promises to us.

15.7-16 God reminds Abram how He brought him out of the land of the Chaldeans and has promised this land to him. Abram asks, “ How will I know I am to possess it?” God tells him to prepare a sacrifice of a three year old heifer, she goat, ram, and a turtle dove and a young bird. Abram cuts them in two, except for the bird, presenting them as an offering to the Lord. Birds of prey try to eat the carcasses, but Abram drives them away. As the sun is setting Abram falls asleep. In sleep, God tells Abram that his descendants will be strangers in a land not theirs, and shall be enslaved for 400 years, but God will execute judgment on the nation that enslaves them and in the end they shall come free with great wealth. He also tells Abram he will die peacefully in his old age. Later his descendants will return here. For now the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

God was again, confirming His covenant with Abram and revealing His secrets to His prophet. The later bondage and exodus from Egypt was shown to Abram as he slept. The Israelites coming out and taking the land was also a judgment on the sinful pagan nations that were currently living in the land.

15.17-21 As Abram slept, God passed between the sacrificed animals with a torch of fire making a covenant with Abram and his offspring. God assigns the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonties, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and the Jebusites. All are going to be judged when Israel takes possession.

As Abram slept God made an everlasting covenant with Abram. God walking through the pieces of the sacrifice was God literally making a covenant with Himself for Abram. In other words God swore by Himself that He would keep all these promises with Abram forever.

The reference to the river of Egypt is a river or wadi that is between the Negev and Sinai Desert. This is why Menachem Begin gave the Sinai back to Egypt when he agreed to a peace treaty with Egypt. He understood that was the Biblical border and that the Sinai did not belong to Israel!


Next: Part 7