Old Testament - Genesis 12 and 13 - February 7, 2022

 2/7/2022 – Genesis 12 and 13

Genesis 12: We know that Abraham had a difficult life. We know that he was saved by an angle when his own father had given him to the priests to be a sacrifice to false gods, and that the Lord “said unto Abram. Get thee out of thy country and from thy Kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation…and thou shalt be a blessing. (v’s1-2) Abraham immediately responded to the Lord’s directions, taking his wife Sarai and his brother’s son, Lot, and “their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran” and their journey ended in Canaan, where the Lord had directed them to go. (v 5) 

The Lord told him where to stop traveling, for “the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land” (v7) Then first thing Abram did was to build an alter unto the Lord who had appeared unto him. 

The Bible Dictionary states that an altar was “used for sacrifices and offerings and for sacred ordinances of the gospel….At the four corners were four horns; on these, the loftiest points of the altar, the blood of the sin offerings was put, that the atonement be brought nearer to God. At times these horns were also a place of refuge for fugitives.”

There was a famine in the land where the Lord had first directed Abraham, and because of this Abraham went to Egypt. As they came near to their destination, Abraham told Sarai that because she was “a fair woman to look upon” (v 11), and if the Egyptians knew she was Abraham’s wife, they would kill him and take Sarai for a wife. So it was told that Sarai was Abraham’s sister. Evidently the Egyptian pharaohs had a strong aversion to committing adultery with another man’s wife, but they had no qualms about murdering the husband to free his spouse for remarriage. 

Interestingly, in the Bible the Hebrew words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ are often used for other blood relatives. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, is called ‘his brother’. And because Abraham and Haran, Sarah’s father, were brothers, Sarah was Abraham’s niece and could be called his ‘sister’.

When they arrived the people of Pharaoh’s house saw Sarai and told Pharoah of her beauty, and “the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.” The Pharoah now showered Abraham with gifts: sheep, oxen, asses, men-servants and maidservants and asses and camels. (v 16)

V 17 tells of the plagues that the Lord immediately put on Pharoah’s house. Pharoah was angry, he sent Sarai back to Abraham and commanded that Abraham and Sarai and all the people that were with him, and all that they had, be sent far away.

Genesis 13: V 2 tells us that Abram “was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” He took all of his people and all of their possessions back to the place where he had built the altar to God, and there “Abram called on the name of the Lord.” (v 4). 

Lot also had flocks and herds and tents. “And the land was not able to bear them…for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. (6) There was strife between the herdmen of Lot’s cattle and Abram’s cattle. So Abram came to Lot saying: “let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen, for we be brethren.” (v8) Abram then asked Lot to look over the lands that the Lord had given to them, and to pick the area that he wanted to live in. “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere…” v 10) That’s the part of the land that Lot chose.

The two groups separated with no ill will between them—Lot in Jordan, and Abram in Canaan. And then we learn that “…Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.”  Sodom, as we know, was not a place that regarded the Lord’s commandments: “…. the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” (v14)

“…Abram removed his tent. and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre…and built there an altar unto the Lord.” (v 18) 

I find it interesting that as the Lord spoke of the land He gave to Abraham now, He told Abram of the blessing He would give to his land, and to his posterity, and then the Lord told Abram: “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it: for I will give it unto thee.” (v 17). This indicated to me, that the Lord wants us to be aware of the blessings he gives to us, and to protect them and treasure them and give thanks for them. To do this, we must work to be aware of those blessings…the amazing blessings that we remember for a lifetime, as well as the small blessings that touch us in soft and simple ways—for those brighten our days. Gratitude is a simple thing we cannot neglect—with our friends, and especially as we kneel down to speak with our Father at the end of the day.