Author: Charlie Garrett

Genesis 14:17-24
Melchizedek
(Greater than Levi)

Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of every biblical picture and figure which looks forward to the coming Messiah. All the way back to the time of Eusebius who lived during the second and third century, the three-fold office of Christ is noted – that of being the prophet, priest, and king.

And this concept is believed to have been built on even earlier Jewish sources. But in the end, it’s the Bible that reveals this for those who study it and peer into the beautiful gemstones which look forward to this coming Messiah.

In Deuteronomy, the great Prophet is predicted who would come in the manner of Moses –

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’” 18:15, 16

In Jeremiah, a great King is anticipated who is God incarnate –

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS Jeremiah 23:5, 6

And also in Jeremiah is the anticipation of a new High Priest –

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:31, 32

A New Covenant implies a change in priesthood. Many other times the uniting of the offices of prophet, priest, and king into one is alluded to in the Old Testament. Isaiah speaks of these three offices belonging to the LORD. Because they are fulfilled in Jesus, Isaiah’s words are a veiled reference to the deity of Jesus Christ –

(For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us). Isaiah 33:22

Interestingly, this same concept of a judge, lawgiver, and king was used in the three-fold division of our own government. The king is replaced with a president because the true King of our nation is the Creator to whom our leaders were recognized as subordinate.

In the New Testament, we see the three-fold concept realized in the Person of Jesus. If we were to look for a first picture of this though, we don’t need to even leave Genesis. Today we’ll see a person show up in only three verses and yet these three verses are so important that the author of Hebrews will spend three entire chapters speaking about them.

Introduction: Our enigmatic figure is Melchizedek and he is mentioned 11 times in the Bible. All but two of these are in the book of Hebrews. The other two are once in Genesis and once by David in the psalms.

If you ever want to enter into the truly goofy, you can read all kinds of crazy stuff about Melchizedek, just like the crazy things people make up about the Nephilim in Genesis chapter 6.

But what we have recorded about Melchizedek is very clear and there’s no need to make up a crazy theories when the Bible’s purpose in introducing him is to simply prefigure our true Prophet, Priest, and King – Jesus.

Text Verse: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ Zechariah 6:12, 13

Yes, because of Jesus, there is peace between the offices of the King and the Priest. And also because of Jesus, we have the full revelation of God’s word as is prophetically breathed out by the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus fills these wonderful roles for us… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Introducing and Explaining Melchizedek

¹⁷ And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.

Our last sermon covered the battle which occurred between the four kings from the east and the five kings who lived in the area of Sodom. When the battle was over, Abram’s nephew Lot was captured and taken captive, but Abram marshaled together his troops, went off in pursuit of Lot and safely returned him with all the other captives, and their goods.

Now we see the victorious Abram being met by the king of Sodom in the Valley of Shaveh. This king is named Bera who was introduced in Genesis 14:2 and he’s the same king who fled from the battle in 14:10. But now he comes forward to meet Abram and receive from him what he had lost.

The valley of Shaveh is where they met, which is also called the King’s Valley. Shaveh means “level” and it’s possible that the idiom that we use today “Meet me on the level” comes from this very phrase.

As Abram was returning from the slaughter of Chedolaomer and the other three kings, he may have sent a messenger to Bera with a note, “meet me at Shaveh” or as we would translate “meet me on the level.” Anyway, this same “King’s Valley is also the valley mentioned in 2 Samuel 18:18 and tells us the story of a sad figure in the Bible, Absalom the son of King David –

“Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King’s Valley. For he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.”

If you go to Israel today, you can see a large monument called “Absalom’s Monument” off to the side of the Temple Mount. It’s definitely not the same monument mentioned in the Bible, but because it was given this name, its face is all marred up from people throwing rocks at it. If you know the story of Absalom, you’d understand why. He was the son who attempted to overthrow Israel’s great king – his own father David.

 ¹⁸ Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. ¹⁹ And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
²⁰ And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
And he gave him a tithe of all.

This is all that’s recorded about Melchizedek. So why is it that he is mentioned again by David in the psalms and is referred to for three chapters in Hebrews? There’s obviously a lot more in these three verses than may be apparent at first.

Because the entire point of these three verses is to introduce what is explained in Hebrews, I’m going to read you David’s comment about Melchizedek from the psalms and then read you Hebrews 5-7 and attempt to explain them as we go. This may take a while, but hopefully you’ll see why this account is mentioned.

Before we do though, I’ll tell you that even in antiquity this great priest of God brought out and gave a blessing over bread and wine. This is something we do to this day and it prefigures the body and blood of the coming Messiah, Jesus.

Here is what David says about Melchizedek in Psalm 110 –

⁴ The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

This may not seem very instructive, but it’s based on the introduction to the psalm recorded in verse 1 –

The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
² The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

Jesus used this very verse to explain something about the coming Messiah that the scribes of His day had missed –

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”

They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
⁴³ He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
⁴⁴ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?

⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. Matthew 22:43-45

Well, now let’s read Hebrews 5-7 and discover why Melchizedek is mentioned in these three verses in Genesis, but before I do I’ll tell you that if you want to witness to a Jewish person from the New Testament, the two best places to do it in my opinion are from the book of Matthew or the book of Hebrews (EXPLAIN) –

(5) For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. ³ Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. ⁴ And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.”
⁶ As He also says in another place:
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek”;
⁷ who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰ called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” ¹¹ of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. ¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
(6) Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do if God permits.
⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
⁷ For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; ⁸ but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
⁹ But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. ¹¹ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. ¹⁷ Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
¹⁹ This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰ where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
(7) For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³ without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
⁴ Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. ⁵ And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; ⁶ but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. ⁷ Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. ⁸ Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. ⁹ Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, ¹⁰ for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
¹¹ Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? ¹² For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. ¹³ For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.
¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. ¹⁵ And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest ¹⁶ who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. ¹⁷ For He testifies:
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, ¹⁹ for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
²⁰ And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath ²¹ (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him:
“The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
‘You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek’”),
²² by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
²³ Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. ²⁴ But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
²⁶ For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; ²⁷ who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

II. Abram’s Wisdom

Although we’ve covered a lot of ground, but there’s a few more verses in Chapter 14 before we’re finished. They demonstrate the wisdom displayed by Abram in dealing with the king of Sodom.

²¹ Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.”

The king of Sodom acknowledges Abram’s right to all of the booty recovered in the war and only asks for his people back. This is an ancient tradition and is, until recently, the inviolable rule of war. Any land or possessions won in war become the property of the victors.

Occasionally but very infrequently, a nation will give up that right. America, for example has defeated enemies around the globe, but has graciously granted freedom to the vanquished. They have been allowed to retain their own societies, cultures, religions, monetary systems, languages, etc. This is the exception, not the rule.

There is one other exception to this rule which is being forced on the victors by the nations of the world – the Land of Israel. The Jewish people defeated their enemies in war and gained right to Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, etc. In this case, and only in this case, are the nations of the world up in arms about the results of the battle.

What was rightfully won, is being slowly but surely stolen away from Israel and for this reason the nations will come under God’s judgment. But that is for the future to handle. In Abram’s time, the war booty was acknowledged as his.

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, ²³ that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’— ²⁴ except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

Instead of exercising his right to the spoils of war, Abram made a vow to “the Possessor of heaven and earth,” meaning the One true Creator God, that he wouldn’t accept anything personally from the king of Sodom.

By using the same term about God that Melchizedek used – the Possessor of heaven and earth – he was acknowledging in front of the king of Sodom that the same God whom Melchizedek was loyal to was the God that he also was loyal too.

In his vow – which he made by an uplifted hand – Abram said he wouldn’t accept anything, from a thread to a sandal strap. The Hebrew word for thread – khut – was something women used to tie up their hair.  A sandal strap was used by men to secure their sandals. He was saying he wouldn’t take even the smallest thing that belonged to a man or woman, from their head to their feet.

The only thing that would he would accept is what his soldiers had eaten along the way to, during, and coming back from the battle. Along with that, there were three Amorites who went with him to defeat the enemies and Abram allowed them to decide to take whatever they wanted.

There are probably three good reasons why he didn’t accept anything for his efforts. First is that Sodom was notoriously wicked and he didn’t want to have anything of theirs simply because of the principle of “guilt by association.”

Secondly, he received his nephew back alive and he was surely grateful to God for that. And thirdly, he had received Melchizedek’s blessing. This was something of far greater value than any earthly goods.

If you look at what Abram did here, it should be a life lesson to us all, especially Abram’s – “guilt by association” and the perception others would draw from it.

If you’re looking to get into a business deal or accept anything from someone else, it’s always important to have the highest moral ethics, especially when you bear the name of Christ Jesus.

As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6 – “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

And when speaking to Titus about giving instructions to church members he said this, “Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, ⁷ in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorrupt-tibility, ⁸ sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.”

Despite the way the media portrays Christians, throughout the Bible – Old Testament and New – we are shown that living lives of integrity and holiness are the hallmarks of being faithful and obedient children of God.

And that brings me to the point where I’d like to share with you the way of becoming a child of God. Let me take a couple minutes and explain to you why Jesus came and why it’s important to you.

Abram’s Meeting with Melchizedek

The king of Sodom went out to the valley of Shaveh
To meet Abram after his return from the defeat of the eastern kings
And there Melchizedek over bread and wine, a blessing he did say
In the name of God Most High he accomplished priestly things

And Melchizedek blessed Abram, and this he said
Blessed be Abram of God Most High
Possessor of heaven and earth, our heavenly Head
Yes, he is the Creator of the earth and sky

And blessed be God Most High too
Who has delivered your enemies into the hand of you

And Abram gave him a tithe of all the spoil
All gained in war through the battle’s toil

Now the king of Sodom to Abram said
Just give me my people and all the spoil you shall keep
But Abram declined as he shook his head
He knew his integrity was worth more than goats and sheep

I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High
Yes my hand to the Possessor of heaven and earth
I will take nothing from you be it low or be it high
Nothing here to me contains that much worth

You will never be able to say to a friend or to your brother
I have made Abram rich, yes, it was me and not another

Just what the young men have eaten
And the portion of the men who were with me too
All my gain comes from God’s blessing and not from a’cheatin’
But let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre have what they wish from you

Let us remember Abram’s example and trust in God, not in man
For the many blessings we receive each and every day
Let us praise Him for these blessings as oft as we can
And from our mouths, let us continually say

“Great and awesome God
In Your light I will trod
Thank you for all good things
To You my heart forever sings”

Above all I thank You for my Lord Jesus
Whose precious life He gave for us
And so in His glorious name I say
All of my praises to You, each and every day

Hallelujah and Amen…

Instruction from Hebrews concerning Melchizedek –

Hebrews 6:4 – This verse is actually one sentence when combined with verses 5 and 6, but we’ll take them one at a time and wrap them up as one in verse 6. Today we learn that some things are impossible. This is not some minor description as if to say, this is impossible “unless.” Rather, what will be relayed in this sentence is something that God has spoken about in the absolute sense. So I ask you to pay close attention to what the three verses are going to state. Those “who have once been enlightened” are those who have heard the message of salvation which comes through Jesus. The message of Jesus is enlightening because it is the path which God has chosen to reveal Himself and direct us back to fellowship with Him. “Those who have tasted the heavenly gift” are those who have understood the message which they heard. They have in their mind all the knowledge sufficient to be saved through the work of Jesus Christ. Theirs is no longer a problem with comprehending the message, but their heart hasn’t been touched – something which must occur.  Those “who have shared in the Holy Spirit” are those who have seen the effective power of God displayed in the lives of the converted. They may have personally witnessed the miracles and power of Jesus and/or the apostles, or they may have seen the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in the conversion of another – they “have shared in” this experience. This cannot mean that these people have received the Holy Spirit personally as we will see at the completion of the thought. For today, understand that what is to be said about being enlightened, tasting the gift, and sharing in the Holy Spirit is of utmost importance for the person to whom the thought is being directed…so if it pertains to you, don’t miss the final explanation of what’s going to be said in verse 6 – it is an eternity-making decision.

Heb 6:5 – Remember that today’s verse is actually part of one sentence in combination with yesterday and tomorrow. Yesterday the author mentioned those “who have once been enlightened,” those “who have tasted the heavenly gift,” and those “who have shared in the Holy Spirit.” Today he mentions 1) those “who have tasted the goodness of the word of God.” Remember that the author is writing to first century Jews who were considering returning to the sacrificial system of temple worship. These people had both the Old Testament and any word which was then in circulation – either orally or written – which confirmed Jesus’ ministry and spoke of how the Old was fulfilled in the New. By hearing and understanding this word, they could taste and understand its goodness. 2) The “powers of the coming age” indicate the promised time when Jesus will return to rule the nations and “He will rule them with an iron scepter…” (Revelation 2:27) However, these people had seen or heard of this power demonstrated in the resurrection – the very proof that Jesus is God. These points would have been made known to those who received this letter – that Jesus both fulfilled the role of Messiah and would return again in that capacity at some point in the future. To have an understanding of these wonderful tenets and then to reject them for an inferior system would not only make no sense, it would show a complete lack of faith in God’s provision which was provided in the Person and work of Jesus. Tomorrow we’ll see what the result of such a rejection of these glorious points would lead to. The same is true with us today – if we hear the message and understand it and then reject it, there will obviously be repercussions.

Heb 6:6 It is the stand of this devotional that a person can never lose their salvation; once a person is sealed with the Holy Spirit, they are eternally saved. This is made clear in many verses and by Jesus’ own words. Therefore, today’s verse cannot be used as a basis for the loss of salvation. Unfortunately, many have taken it to indicate that possibility, but the past two days have demonstrated that the context has been in opposition to this view. The author was writing specifically to first century Jews who had heard, understood, and seen the power of the gospel and who had in fact tasted the words of this gospel and seen its power – both present and that promised at a future date – and decided for whatever reason that they were going back to participate in the temple rites. In essence, the perceived security of what they knew in temple worship was what they chose rather than accepting the gospel of Jesus’ ministry. By doing this, there was no sacrifice sufficient to bring them back to the truth. The entire Old Testament ministry prefigured the work of Christ. In other words, Christ is the fulfillment of the ages of temple worship; the cross ended their need. There is no possibility that these sacrifices could ever be effective again. By returning and relying on what was less than the greatness of God’s completed plan, these people had rejected salvation. The very nature of this turning away proclaims, “We trust in our deeds to reconcile our sin.” But the ultimate deed has come in Jesus…so they are, in effect, re-crucifying Him all over again. The Bible is clear that Christ Jesus died once for the sins of man. It is only by looking to His cross that true atonement can be made. No other sacrifice is acceptable and to re-crucify Him can only lead to condemnation.

 

 

Genesis 14:1-16
Abram the Hebrew

Introduction: One of the things that I’ve noticed that really affects people – to the point that they never accept Jesus, or that unevenly affects their walk with Him to the point where they are always questioning His goodness and His love, are things like war, death, famine, suffering, etc.

These are also used by people who hate God, like self-proclaimed atheists, as an unwise basis for rejecting Him. I cannot tell you how many discussions or posts on the internet I’ve been in where people use these things to attack the very God that allows them to make their attacks against Him.

Think about it… I mean think it through. It is so stupid and so childish to blame God for the world’s troubles and then expect you have every right to speak badly of Him, call Him names, or claim He must not exist. It is, really, the height of hypocrisy.

Anyway, I’m saying this now because today we’re going to see the first war recorded in the Bible. And of course, along with war comes suffering, death, plague, pain, sorrow, etc.

The people who want to dismiss the God of the Bible will use these things in order to show how cruel He is or how incompetent He is because He allows these things to happen.

But then they turn around and exercise their free will by sleeping with someone’s wife – something that will cause its own little war. Or they will do one of a million other things that will cause anger and division in another person or people without ever considering that God simply allowed them to work out their own life.

And if God did stop them, they’d say He was being unfair. Just keep thinking it through this week and you’ll see that how things make much more sense when you’re dealing with people who have free will. If not, then there would be no possibility of loving God either. Any love would be forced, which is no love at all.

Keep these things in mind and don’t get sidetracked by people who are atheists or God haters who think they have a good argument against the God they claim they don’t believe in. They don’t.

Text Verse: He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore. Micah 4:3

We look forward to the day when Christ reigns on earth and war is ended forever, but until that day we should accept that God is in control and that war – past, present, and future – happens, not because God desires it, but because He allows it. And so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name every be praised.

I. The Warring of the Nations 

And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations, ² that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ³ All these joined together in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). ⁴ Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

There are times when you’re reading the Bible and you may wonder to yourself “Why is all this recorded here? A good example of this is the account of the sailing journey of Paul which included a storm and a shipwreck in Acts 27 and 28.

It’s a nice story, but why would God include it in there, especially when it takes up such a large portion of the book? These are the times we need to dig into the accounts and ask, verse by verse, “What are you trying to tell me Lord?”

The account today is like that. There are minute details of a battle. The details include the names of people, the countries they come from, and who they are fighting against, but when you’re done, other than saying, “Ok,” you may not have really come to any big conclusions about why the story is even given.

There have been billions of skirmishes and wars in history. Why did God tell us about this one? We note here that this is the first war recorded in the Bible, but not the first war in history.

I say this because these verses tell us that the rebelling nations served Chedorlaomer for twelve years before they rebelled. The logical assumption is that he waged war with them in the past and then subjected them to paying tribute. This battle is recorded because it affects God’s people who have now entered the picture.

Any other wars happen as wars have happened throughout history. People want, people take, people die. God has allowed us to destroy each other and to exercise our free will. When we do and we are the victors, then we boast about our strength and how great our achievements are, but when we lose, we blame God… “How could he allow this to happen?”

Nobody ever questions why God allowed them to win the battle, nor do they question why He allowed their poor enemies to die. It’s only when things go wrong that we question God. I’m bringing this up now so that you know it is the weaker in faith who question God’s ways when things go bad.

He is sovereign over His creation. We are man and are a part of His creation. In the end, we have no right to hold our fist in God’s face and tell Him how things should be done.

I’m not saying we don’t all do it, but the stronger the faith, the less the complaining when tragedy strikes – just read the book of Job. Keep this in mind as things go well and as things get tough. Give God the credit for the victories and give God praise when you lose. If you do, you will be living the life of a faithful Christian.

We all have free will, just as the nations which war against each other. When things go bad, it’s normally because of a bad decision – let’s do our best to not blame God at these times, but to see His hand in the lesson we learn.

Another thing we see these verses is the beginning of a particular type of conflict which continues even to this day. These nations aligned with each other even though they were nations which were scattered during the time of the Tower of Babel.

In the conduct of nations, alliances are made and people who may not really like each other still work together for a commonly shared goal. As the world’s superpower, America has alliances with many nations. We had a treaty with Kuwait in the 1990s.

When Iraq attacked them, it was a test of our faithfulness to our treaty. Was it worth the paper it was printed on? If not, then all the other nations we’d signed treaties with would know they couldn’t trust us either. We may or may not have agreed with the president, but he did the right thing by standing up for Kuwait.

This is the way of the world we live in and often people who are innocent will get caught in the crossfire. One of them in today’s story is named Lot.

There are four overall points to be seen in this chapter. We won’t finish it today, but we can break it down in anticipation of what’s ahead. First, there is a war involving the king of Sodom and four other kings who rebel against their oppressors.

The second is that Lot, Abram’s nephew is taken captive during the battle. The third is that Abram will rescue him from his captivity during a battle he wages over the conquering forces.

And the fourth item to note is Abram’s return and his encounters with the king of Salem and the king of Sodom. This chapter will be the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram that He would make his name great.

This battle is waged in the area of Siddim which is now where the Dead Sea is located. Siddim means “fields” or “ploughed lands” and to stand there today and look at the area, ploughed lands are the very last thing you could imagine.

The land is a barren waste and it drops down to the lowest spot on the face of the earth, 1388 feet below sea level. There are some plantations by the Dead Sea now, but they are either desert crops like date palms or things that are watered by modern irrigation.

But the Bible records that at the time of Abram, the land was a fertile valley and it was known for its ploughed fields. It’s almost impossible to think that there was ever anything there the way the Bible describes. That only 4000 years ago, but this is what the Bible says and when it was written, people didn’t dispute it.

⁵ In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him came and attacked the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, ⁶ and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wilderness. ⁷ Then they turned back and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and attacked all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon Tamar.

So, these people had paid tribute for 12 years and finally got sick of it and rebelled in the thirteenth year. When they realized they weren’t getting any benefit from them in the 13^th year, the four kings from the east gathered together in the fourteenth year and headed to Canaan to reestablish their authority over the people.

This scenario is played out time and again in the Bible. A nation will conquer another nation and tribute will be paid for a while until either the conquering nation gets soft or until the conquered nation grows strong enough to revolt or it makes an alliance with another nation so that together they can conquer the conquerors.

And this has been happening ever since biblical times as well. The Roman Empire overthrew nations as far north as England, but eventually it simply faded away under its own weight and because of the constant revolts which occurred and weakened the empire.

The same thing happened with England. At one time the saying was true, “The sun never sets on the British empire.” Eventually because of mismanagement, a lack of discipline, and over-extension, they too faded off the scene as a world empire.

America is heading in the same direction and the world is being lined up for the end times where Israel will again be the head of the nations. Isaiah looked forward to this glorious time 2700 years ago and His words march ever closer to their fulfillment –

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
³ Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:2-4

As faithful believers in Jesus Christ, we’re waiting for that wondrous day when He returns and sits on the throne of David, ruling in righteousness and judging among the nations.

Going back to our verses, it said that on the way to deal with the rebels in the land of Canaan they attacked the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, and the Horites. After this, they turned back and attacked all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites.

These kings didn’t just come after the rebels. They attacked other nations as well. They probably did this for a few reasons. First, they were showing their strength to the surrounding nations as a warning not to make alliances with the nations they’d conquered.

They also probably wanted to increase the number of nations that would pay them tribute and keep them so busy so that they wouldn’t even think of making other alliances. And a third reason is to plunder the people enough to keep their war campaign going.

This is a lot like what Hitler did in Germany. Sometimes he did it with false alliances like the agreement he made with hugely naïve Neville Chamberlain. Sometimes he did it with blitzkrieg raids like in Poland. And sometimes he did it with longer battles like his attacks against Russia. As he conquered nations, he used their resources for feeding his own military.

And believe it or not, this type of thing occurs in politics as well. The left has been waging all out war on the right. Anyone who disagrees with them or their policies is fair game in their attacks.

What they can’t win through the vote, they win through their troops lined up in the media, the unions, and the courts by litigation. War never affects just the people directly under attack. It affects those who stand idly and blindly by and naively hope that things will turn out for the best.

By the time these kings had gotten to their main targets of attack, many other people groups had been affected by their cunning. May we in America be more willing to stand and defend our rights now, before they are gone.

⁸ And the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and joined together in battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹ against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five.

The Bible returns to the account of the main forces lined up for battle which was mentioned in verses 1 and 2. But this time, the rebels are mentioned first and the attackers are mentioned last.

In other words, when you read both accounts, it is first from the vantage point of the four kings of the east – “we will attack.” Then the second time they’re mentioned, it is from the vantage point of the five kings of Canaan – “we will defend.”

The four kings from the east say –

We will subdue you as we did 14 years ago
You will be beaten and to us tribute you will pay
When we are finished then you will surely know
You shouldn’t have revolted; this is what you’ll say

And the five kings of Canaan replied –

We will stand and defend our land
This is the thing that we will do
Many of you will die by our hand
And we will be the victors over you

Who will win the battle and what will be the result?

¹⁰ Now the Valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits;

If you want to learn the Indonesian or Malaysian language, both of which are very similar, one of the things you’ll notice right away is that instead of using a plural marker on a word the way we do when we add an “s” – such as in star in the singular or stars in the plural, they will often simply say the word twice to make a plural.

So to say “I see a star” you would say “Aku melihat bintang.”
To say “I see stars” you would say “Aku melihat bintang-bintang”

The verse we just read does this in the Hebrew – v’emek ha’sideem b’erot b’erot emar

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits. Or “And the valley of the fields was pits pits tar.

So why am I bringing this up… so what, right? This verse, which is talking about tar pits, along with several other verses found in the Old Testament, have pointed to the great possibility of there being immense reserves of oil in the land of Israel.

One key indicator that oil is normally present is when asphalt is seen bubbling up from the ground. Another possible indication of this is the fact that the Dead Sea is there now, but there once was a fertile valley with ploughed fields as Genesis tells us.

What could cause trillions of tons of rock to be moved in order to make such a large rift in the earth?

Some people believe that an underground cavern of gas or oil exploded when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. This is as reasonable as any other explanation and very well may be what happened. And this verse is the first indication of the oil there.

If you want to track the oil and gas finds in Israel, there are a few sites which keep up to date on these things and some of the testing and drilling has been in the Dead Sea area.

There are also indications of large amounts of oil and gas in other areas of Israel leading some to believe that Israel could at some point become a major source of both oil and natural gas.

If this wouldn’t get Israel’s enemies up in arms, I can’t think of what else would. This very well could be the impetus for the great battle of Gog and Magog which is recorded in Ezekiel 38 and which may soon be leading to another great Mideast war near you.

^{10 (con’t)}  and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; some fell there, and the remainder fled to the mountains.

Any place full of asphalt pits wasn’t the smartest choice for the five kings to line up for battle. They probably went there thinking that if things went bad, they could flee to the mountains, which is exactly what happened as the battle turned against them.

Unfortunately for them, some of the people fell into the tar pits as they fled. Kind of a goopy way to die…

¹¹ Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. ¹² They also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Exactly what the people of Sodom had hoped to avoid by going away from the city to fight is what ended up happening. As the men of the armies fled, the people who remained in the city, and all of their goods, were taken captive. Unfortunately for the conquerors, they took Lot, Abram’s nephew too. This would cost them in the end.

II. Abram the Hebrew

¹³ Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were allies with Abram.

This verse marks the first time the term Hebrew is mentioned in the Bible. It is tying Abram in with Lot and is showing a designation of what Abram is, just like the designation of Mamre when he is called an Amorite.

The term “Hebrew” is tied directly to Abram’s great-great-great-great grandfather Eber in both Genesis 10 and 11. Eber means “he who crossed over” and it is signifying that he and his family are the ones who crossed over the Euphrates and away from Babel.

The term is used here for the first time to make the distinction between Abram and the attacking armies who came from the other side of the Euphrates and also from the people whom he was allied with – the Amorites.

He is of the chosen people and he is the center of focus in the Bible at this time. He is the one who will lead to the Messiah. The refugee from the battle knew that Abram was related to Lot and so he came to tell him about what had happened, probably hoping to get Abram to go after him, not only to rescue Lot, but to get back his own things which had been taken by the raiders.

¹⁴ Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Abram took no time in responding. As soon as he heard what had happened, it says that he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his house and took off in pursuit. This shows how large of a company he must have had.

He had 318 men who were ready for battle, but he would have had many others who would stay behind to keep the camp from attack. And these are only the trained men. He would have also had women and children and young and old.

His company probably reached into the thousands. But the number 318 is very specific and the rule of the Bible is that every name, every number, and in fact every word is important. The question is, why is this curious number used? The answer probably comes from the name of a person who will be introduced in chapter 15.

He is the chief servant of Abram named Eliezer, whose name means “God is help.” Because Abram has no children, the next in line to inherit all he has is this servant Eliezer. If his name is turned into numbers, a science known as gematria, they equal 318.

As the chief of the servants and the heir apparent of the household, 318 fighting men are chosen from the same group within Abram’s home based on Eliezer’s name. It is a way of saying, “In this battle, God is my help. He is my right hand.”

And so off they go – Abram and only 318 men against many thousands of people who had just destroyed numerous kingdoms as they stormed through the land. The chances seem slim, but with many or few, the battle belongs to the Lord.

David knew and understood this when he went out as a young shepherd boy to fight the mighty Philistine named Goliath –

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

¹⁵ He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.

When America engages in a war, it is almost always begun in the darkest moments of the night, just before dawn. It is the time when the enemy is least ready to counterattack and the majority of them are asleep. Abram knew this 4000 years ago when he divided up the forces under him and attacked the armies at night.

This is something you will see happen again in the Bible on several occasions. Night attacks allow insignificant numbers to overwhelm opposing forces of great size. Gideon, the Judge of Israel, took 300 men into battle against 135,000 Midianites and with the Lord’s help, he prevailed.

After attacking the armies, Abram didn’t just stop and revel in his win, but he continued to chase the enemies and destroy them even farther north than Damascus in Syria. This was the wise thing to do because it depleted their numbers and gave them notice that they’d get more of the same if they tried to come back in the future.

Despite being criticized for pummeling the withdrawing Iraqis as they left from Kuwait, President Bush saved many American lives in future battles by continuing to crush them on the highway of death which lead from Kuwait all the way north deep into Iraq.

Countries or political parties which aren’t willing to fight until the battle is won only show weakness to the enemy and cause more harm and damage to themselves. We need to remember this and not listen to doves in our government harp about the wars we fight.

In the end, they only set themselves up for much worse. By following the Bible in all matters, even the conduct of war, we will keep ourselves from many harms and troubles.

¹⁶ So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.

Victorious, Abram returns home. Just imagine the clan applauding and rejoicing over the return of him and his men. And in a note of the true completion of the task before him, Lot is mentioned by name. Abram had been faithful to his nephew and thus to his family name.

In the New Testament, Paul explains the importance of taking care of one’s family – But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8

We are to take care of those who are in trouble, unable to help themselves, sick, afflicted, or simply less well off than we are.

In Sodom, Lot certainly had many friends, but he found out the importance of family when he was carried away. As the Proverb says – “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Each of us probably has many friends as well, but they tend to fade out of the scene as our life unfolds. Even brothers and sisters can get on our nerves. And despite the idea of marriage being a life-long commitment, that doesn’t always work out.

But the Bible says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. That someone is Jesus and I’d like to take a few minutes and tell you about Him and His love for you…

Abram the Hebrew

In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar
He along with three other kings went out to war

It was in the Valley of Siddim which is now the Salt Sea
That four kings faced off against another five
The five had rebelled and the four couldn’t let that be
And so to the Land of Canaan they made their warlike drive

But before these forces met in this great battle
The four kings of the east fought against many other clans
And defeating each they gained stocks of war chattel
Everything was going well, according to their plans

After all their victories, before the rebels they stood
And looked across the plowed fields, yes life was pretty good

It was the five kings who faced off against the attacking four
But only one side could claim the victory, such is the way of war

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits
And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah took off and they fled
Some fell into the tar and probably died in terrible fits
While others headed to the mountains, as the dying bled

The conquerors took from Sodom all the spoils they could find
Also they took along Lot, Abram’s nephew too
He was relaxing in Sodom, he wasn’t the warring kind
And so off to captivity he went wishing he knew kung fu

And one of the fugitives came and told Abram the Hebrew
He was certain that this great man would know just what to do

Abram was allied with the Amorites at that time
And when he heard about Lot and that he was taken captive
He got together 318 of his men and they took off on a dime
Abram was a man who was really quite adaptive

He went with his servants having counted every man
And they went off in pursuit even as far as Dan

He divided his forces against them by night
They attacked them hip and thigh, probably a bloody sight

Abram pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus
And he brought back all the goods along with his nephew Lot
And all of Lot’s stuff was safe even his little abacus
All the women and the people Abram back home brought

Are you also willing to step up for the fight
When lost souls are being carried off to hell
With you is the Lord infinite in power and might
And of His great works others you need to tell

Stand up and proclaim the good news to those who come your way
Please don’t forget Jesus is coming soon, maybe even today

Without Him in their lives there remains no hope
Because all the world lies within the devil’s scope

Be brave Christian warrior and proclaim the work of Jesus
Tell those you meet each and every day
Jesus came to purge our sins and from the devil rescue us
So please tell the world, He is the only way

Hallelujah and Amen…

 

 

 

Genesis 13:1-18
This Land I Give to You

Introduction: What does “being rich” mean to you? Today one of the points I’ll talk about is just that. If you walk from where we are right now to the public restrooms by the road, you’ll see those nice tropical looking picnic tables with the palm roofs by the lagoon.

On the last one, right where the view of the lagoon is best is where a guy named Wally lives. He’s lived there for years. You might have even noticed him at one time or another. He rides a tricycle around Siesta Key every day and enjoys life to the fullest.

He has almost no possessions and yet he’s one of the coolest cats in town. He’d tell you that he’s perfectly content with life. He has a place right on the water, takes a shower at public expense every day, gets a paycheck from the military and so always has enough for a steak, and he even has a grill that he can use for free.

There are hundreds of people within ¼ of a mile of us who have paid millions of dollars to live here and many of them are as miserable as they can be. Wally doesn’t pay a penny and he’s as happy as a lark. Which are the poor ones and which is wealthy?

Text Verse: (Luke 1:68-75) “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
⁶⁹ And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
⁷⁰ As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
⁷¹ That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
⁷² To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
⁷³ The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
⁷⁴ To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
⁷⁵ In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Returning to the Promised Land

¹Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South.

As a reminder, last week we saw Abram’s journey to Egypt which occurred because of a famine in the land of Canaan. While they were there, Abram had told his wife to tell anyone they met that she was his sister.

He did this in order to protect his own life in case someone wanted to kill him so that they could have her because she was an extremely beautiful lady. While in Egypt, Pharaoh’s house eventually took her in so that she could become Pharaoh’s wife.

But in the process of this, God afflicted them with plagues to keep her from being taken as his wife. When Pharaoh found out what happened, it says this –

And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” ²⁰ So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

And so in this first verse today we see the fulfillment of Pharaoh’s demand. Abram and all who were with him headed northeast out of Egypt and back to the land of Canaan. The verse says they went up from Egypt to the South, but that doesn’t mean they headed south.

Instead, they travelled to the South of the Land of Canaan which is an area known as the Negev, which means “south.” This would be like saying we travelled from Sarasota to the Deep South, which is actually north from where we are because Sarasota, Florida is technically not a part of the Deep South.

Because of this, different translations of the Bible will translate this differently – they will either say the South or the Negev. It is a place and not a direction.

 ² Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Even before he had gone to Egypt, Abram was already wealthy and had servants and goods, but while he was in Egypt his wealth increased even more when Pharaoh took his wife Sarai. When he did, he treated Abram well and gave him a great deal.

The Hebrew term for “very rich” is kaved meod, and the words indicate heaviness. In other words, he was heavy in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

As people, we generally look at others who have a lot of stuff or expensive things as more important than people who don’t have as much. We want to be associated with rich or important people more than those who are less so. If we ever meet someone famous, we want to tell others about it – even years later.

But the Bible doesn’t teach this. If a person is rich or famous, it isn’t always an indication of divine favor. And if a person is poor it is no indication of divine disfavor. A good job that earns a lot of money or fame doesn’t guarantee happiness, and more often than not it brings about just the opposite.

Sports stars and movie stars make millions of dollars and yet they’re the ones who are continuously going through divorce after divorce or who put guns in their mouth because life is so crummy.

The heaviness of wealth, such as Abram had, is something that requires great care or it becomes a burden too heavy to manage and the blessing can easily become a curse. Solomon, the richest man ever to live, gives this thought on wealth –

He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
¹¹ When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
¹² The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
Whether he eats little or much;
But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

Any of you who know me well enough know that I love to sleep. Outside of Jesus and my family, it is my favorite thing. If being rich will deprive me of my sleep, I’d rather not ever be wealthy.

And in Luke 16, it says this about the possessions we prize so highly, like big houses, fast cars, or expensive watches –

“Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Some of the people I hold in the highest regard are the people who live rather simple lives and who spend a lot of their time doing things for others, both nice things for friends and charity work for others. One of them is here right now and she’s surely not wealthy by the world’s standards.

But I’m sure that the life she lives is far more rewarding than if she were weighed down with wealth and status. I don’t know if she thinks so or not, but she is blessed because she is a blessing. What more could one want at the end of their life than to know that God was pleased with how they lived?

Something that will never impress me is how much money you have or how big the house is that you live in. I clean toilets in a mall and take out the garbage there every morning of the week except Sunday and I’m neither ashamed of it, nor do I mind a bit.

It pays the bills and helps meet our needs. What more should I ask for? Abram was blessed with a great deal and maybe someday you or I will be that way too, but what God favors is our faith, not stuff.

³ And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, ⁴ to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

These verses take us back to Chapter 12, to the place where he had built an altar sometime soon after first coming into the Promised Land. If you remember, I said then that Bethel means “House of God” which is a picture of heaven and Ai means “Heap of Ruins” which would be a picture of hell.

Abram is living between these, both physically and spiritually, and for a second time he calls on the name of the LORD. While living on earth, between the only two possible destinations of the after- life, Abram sets his eyes and his affections on the Lord.

Despite being a man of great wealth and power, his eyes are right where they should be – focused on Him. If we can just learn from faithful people like this, then our lives will be so much better off. All the money, fame, and power in the world aren’t worth doodly squat when we come to the end of our lives.

And so if you think about it, it doesn’t hold any real importance now either. If honoring the Lord is all that matters at the end of our lives, and we don’t know what moment will be the end of our life, then honoring Him is all that matters throughout our lives.

Think it through… any one of us could die as we leave here today. If the only thing of true value is our walk with the Lord at that moment, then it is the only thing of true value at any moment, because any moment could be our last moment. It’s so simple to see, but most people never really see it.

II. If You go Right, I will go Left

When I was young, I heard about a town that had only two cars in it. This was when automobiles were just invented and there were no established road signs of any kind and even roads didn’t really exist. Wherever the wagons went is where cars went. Despite having the entire town to drive in with only one other car on the road, the two cars had a head-on accident.

It seems funny now, but it’s kind of the same things as walking down the sidewalk and getting into a “which way do I go” when running into someone else. You step right and he steps left and you’re both still in each other’s way. Then you step left and he steps right and the same thing happens again.

Another funny example is something I saw on TV just a couple weeks ago. I was watching a news story about the delivery people in New York who ride their bikes making local deliveries. Kevin Bacon did a movie about them called Quicksilver back in the 80s.

The guy in the story said that when he’s going by a crosswalk, if a person starts doing what he called “the dance” he knew they would have an accident. If the person would just stop until he passed, things would go ok, but if not, then there would be trouble.

Abram and his nephew Lot are going to face “the dance” in the next few verses and we’ll see how it turns out –

⁵ Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶ Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.  ⁷ And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

Abram isn’t the only one who has flocks, servants, and property. Lot has also been blessed with a lot too. In fact, together they’ve got so much between the two of them that living together isn’t an option anymore. Depending on the time of the year and where they are living, there simply isn’t enough grass to feed all the animals.

And so the dance begins. Lot and Abram are probably close to home and enjoying life, but their servants are out in the field. There’s no real division of property and so whoever gets to a nice spot first gets the claim. And if they come to the same field from different directions, they will both claim they got there first.

As unlikely as this story may seem, especially considering that more than 6 million people live there today, it’s not that tough to imagine. First, whatever lands a person moves into need to be cleared and they need to be maintained.

And also, it says that the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land too. Any land they’d cleared would be land they claimed and Abram and Lot would do their best to not interfere with them. These people moved there before they did and would have established communities and more people than them.

And so they face the dance. The question is, will they both stand still, will one dance and the other hold fast, or will there be more trouble. Because they are relatives, we can only hope they get along and don’t side with their own servants…

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. ⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Abram graciously stands fast and calms the situation deferring to his nephew Lot. He is the head of the clan because he is the son of Terah. But this is a good indication of something I said a few sermons ago.

Lot was probably older than Abram. Abram’s older brother Haran was 60 years older than he was and Lot was probably born even before Abram. So even though he’s Lot’s uncle, he’s probably younger than him.

And so despite being the head of the clan he shows respect to the elder family member by offering the choice of resolving the matter. If Lot goes to the left, Abram will go right, and if Lot takes the right, Abram will go left.

In these verses we can apply a few things to our own lives. The first is that there is an order in deferring to others in every culture and we need to learn that order and pay heed to it.

In the Bible we’re taught to show respect in a variety of ways. We’re to respect our parents, we’re to respect those who are older than us, we’re to respect those who are in positions of authority, and in fact in Philippians Paul says –

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

And how did Jesus Himself say it? “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Abram may have been the head of the family because of his birth position, but he understood that sometimes deferring to another is the wisest choice and the one which brings about peace.

Another thing we can learn from these verses is what Abram said, “We are kinsmen.” If you look over your dealings with others in this light, then in fact everyone on earth is your kinsman because we all have one father in Adam.

When we lift ourselves above another person, we are really only showing contempt for God who created each of us. And this is certainly why Paul told us to act in lowliness of mind and esteem others as better than ourselves. It’s not easy, but it is right.

And finally, we can look back to what God already promised to Abram – that his descendants would posses the land. So why should he worry about the decision Lot made, whatever he decided wouldn’t affect what God had already determined. And this is true for each of us.

God has already promised eternal life to anyone who has called on Jesus… it’s done. He’s already given us the sealing of the Spirit and the Lord is already building us a home that we can rest in.

Just as Abram knew that the land would be his, every one of us who has accepted Jesus has a better promise – one of glory that will never fade away. So why should we strive about temporary things that have no true importance? But strive we do…

¹⁰ And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.

Lot probably didn’t take long in making his decision. He looked toward the plain of the Jordan where the land was lush and well-watered. Unlike the other areas of the land which were highly dependent on the rain cycle, the plain of the Jordan received water and nutrients from the Jordan as it flowed south.

This would be especially true during the flooding season just like the Nile in Egypt, which Lot would have seen when they were there. Instead of worrying about famines, which sent them to Egypt in the first place, there would be a much better chance of having grass and crops even when there was no rain.

Kind of an interesting thought about this verse and one which I am pretty certain is correct, some scholars have taken the words “like the Garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt” ke-gan Yehovah ke-eretz Mizrayim” not as two comparisons, but one. In other words, this is the spot where the Garden of the Lord was and the land of Egypt is being compared to it.

Having a Hebrew scholar on our staff at Church on the Beach, I checked with him and he verified that this is a possible translation based on other precedents set in the Bible.

Let’s stand back and think about it. Adam was created and then was placed in the Garden of Eden. When he disobeyed, he was sent east of Eden and Cain went further east, to the land of Nod. After the flood, the same area that Cain went to is where Nimrod went.

But God called Abram back to the place where the Garden of Eden was and this is the same land where God’s presence dwelt in the Temple and where Jesus walked. And it is the same place which will look very similar to this period again in the millennial reign of Christ according to Ezekiel chapter 47.

Let’s take a minute and read those verses –

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. ² He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.³ And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. ⁴ Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. ⁵ Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. ⁶ He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.⁷ When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. ⁸ Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. ⁹ And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. ¹⁰ It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. ¹¹ But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. ¹² Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

The Land of Israel is where all things started and it is the place where all things will find their completion. No wonder the whole world has and will continue to covet this land and to come against it. It is where the Lord dwells and where His favored people live.

¹² Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. ¹³ But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.

Back to our story –

Unfortunately for Lot, he didn’t pay attention to the lessons of the past. Mixing with the ungodly is what brought about the Flood of Noah, and the world didn’t yet have the words of Paul that said, “Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”

In the chapters ahead, we’re going to see where Lot’s wrong choice of moving into the land of Sodom would leave him in very sad straits and which would even cost him the life of his wife.

Again, we have a valuable lesson in these verses for each of us. We’re told by James, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Lot moved to Sodom and dwelt among those who worked in wickedness. He may have maintained his own righteousness, but it affected his life and his family in the same negative way that living like this will affect your own life and family. In the end, he thought he would find paradise, but instead he found hell.

We all have choices to like this to make and ultimately, the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in is more than usually brought on by our own bad decisions.

III. Read Your Bible More than Once

This is our final thought for the day and I’m going to tie in to it your responsibility as a Christian in a way which will, I hope, convict you of the thing you need to do in order to keep from making the same mistakes as Lot and so many others in the Bible.

You may know that I traveled around the country in 2010 and I preached at every capital in the US. When I did, I made a challenge to anyone following me to read their Bible for 30 minutes a day. God gives you a similar challenge as well, and we can see it in the following verses –

¹⁴ And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. 

In chapter 12, we read this – “Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

God has now twice promised the land to Abram. The Lord is repeating His word to him to remind him about what he had already been told.

Let me ask you, who here has read the book of Philippians at least once? Has anyone read it more than once? Now, can anyone here quote Philippians 4:6, 7? Let me give you the first four words of it – Be anxious for nothing. Can you quote the rest? Let me just quote it for you…

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Why did God remind Abram of the promise? Because he wanted him to remember it! Why should we read the Bible more than once, more than twice, even every day of our life? Because God wants us to know it and remember it!

In fact, long before Jesus came, when the people had only the Law of Moses, only the first five books of the Bible, God said this to the people of Israel –

““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

At the time when there were only 5 books in the Bible, God asked them to meditate on it day and night and during every activity that they were engaged in. How much more should we be meditating on the same word now that we have 61 more books than they had!

The Bible tells us of Jesus and Jesus reveals the Father to us. I could say this a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough. The only way to know God intimately is through His word. If you’re relying on the Holy Spirit to reveal God to you, guess what – He has. He breathed out the Bible through His prophets… for you.

¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. ¹⁷ Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

There are two things going on in this promise to Abram. The first is that the land is being given to him and his descendants and the second is that his descendants will be like the dust of the earth in number. These two promises are connected, but they are different.

The promise of the land to his descendants is a physical promise, not a spiritual one. It is a promise to the physical descendants of Abraham – not to the church. This has become evident, not only from the Bible, but in history too. And the history confirms the precept. When Israel was exiled, the land laid fallow. Only when the people of Israel returned has the land again become usable.

The land promise which is made to Abraham is reiterated to his son Isaac and then his son Jacob. We are not physical descendants of Isaac or Jacob. On the other hand, the promise of a multitude of descendants is a promise concerning all people of faith in the work of Jesus. It is not a physical right, but a spiritual one.

The Bible confirms the precept in both the book of Romans and the book of Galatians. It is through faith that one becomes Abraham’s seed. In Romans, Paul says, “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

To be an heir of the land, one is born physically into the people of Israel, but to be an heir of the promises of God which lead to eternal life, one must be born spiritually through faith and the imputed righteousness of God through Christ Jesus.

¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.

This brings us to the last verse of chapter 13. Abram walked throughout the length and breadth of the land and eventually pitched his tent by the terebinth trees of Mamre at the ancient city of Hebron. Hebron exists even to this day and it’s the spot where Abraham’s tomb is located.

In this area, he built an altar. This “altar” in Hebrew is a place of sacrifice. Abram is the patriarch of the family and so the responsibility for sacrificing belongs to him. This will continue up until the time of Moses when corporate sacrifices for the people of Israel are instituted under the clan of the Levites.

As God directs the nations and the people of the earth, His purposes are being worked out for all of us. Abram sacrificed to the Lord in anticipation of the coming Redeemer. Since Christ came, the sacrifices are done. We now have His cross as our point of meeting with the Creator. Let me explain how Jesus’ life and death are significant to you…

The Lord’s Promise to Abram

Abram went up from Egypt with all that he had
And his nephew Lot was with him too
From the land of Egypt many goods they did add
And they came to the South and kept on passing through

And he journeyed to Bethel where his tent had been before
To the place of the altar between Bethel and Ai
And there he called on the Lord, a duty he wouldn’t ignore
Abram was a man of faith, and he was a faithful guy

Lot was with him and he had flocks, herds, and tents
And the land couldn’t support them both they had so much stuff
And so fighting resulted, some very trying events
They realized the land where they were just wasn’t enough

The Canaanites and Perizzties, they dwelt in the land
Abram had to tread carefully to avoid their fighting hand

Then Abram said to Lot, let us not live in strife
And between our herdsmen, let there be peace
For we are brethren, let us protect each other’s life
Let us separate so that this fighting will cease

The whole land is before you, is it not?
Please separate from me, my handsome nephew Lot

If you take the left, why then I’ll go to the right
If you take the right, then to the left I will go
Come nephew, let this not result in a fight
Let us part amicably, let it be so

Lot lifted his eyes and favored the Jordan’s plain
The beautiful spot, the Garden of the Lord
It was like the land of Egypt, that didn’t need the rain
It was watered from the river, when he saw it he was floored

And so they separated from each other, to the east went Lot
And Abram dwelt in Canaan, he really loved the spot
And the Lord said to Abram after Lot separated from him
Lift now your eyes north, south, east, and west
This land I give you forever, you will fill it to the brim
As the dust of the earth they will be, see how you are blessed

If a man could number the earth’s dust
Then your descendants could also be counted too
This is a sure promise, one you can trust
It is a vow from your Creator to you

Arise and walk through the land, up and down and side to side
I’m giving to you everything that you have eyed

And so Abram moved his tent to the place of Mamre’s trees
They are in Hebron which is still there today
And he built an altar to the Lord, an offering to please
And there in Hebron is where he did stay

Hallelujah and amen…

Genesis 12:10-20
Outside the Land of Promise

Introduction: Today we’re going to continue through, and finish up, Genesis 12. In these verses are some things that seem foreign to our current idea about how to do things and Abraham, the great man of faith, is often called weak, lacking faith, or even sinful in what occurred. But I’ve never looked at these verses this way.

What we need to do when reading the Bible, is put aside our own thoughts which come from a modern world view and try to insert ourselves into the times, locations, cultures, situations that we read about. If we don’t do this, we can find ourselves making unfounded judgments about the way things were done.

This isn’t always easy, because some of the things that happen are so foreign to us, that we simply can’t process how these things could be. When we come to passages like this, we need to continually ask ourselves, “What is God trying to tell me here?”

If we do this, then we will be far better off than throwing unfounded accusations at biblical figures. When the Bible condemns an action, we should too. But when it doesn’t, it usually means that we should accept it at face value and not insert our own condemnations, but instead attempt to learn from them.

Text Verse: Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17, 18

May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Going Where God Leads

In the first half of Genesis 12, God had made the great promise and proclamation to Abram –

“Get out of your country, From your family And from your Father’s house, To a land that I will show you. ² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

In obedience to this, he departed just as the Lord had spoken to him, taking along his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran.

As he passed through the land, the Lord appeared to him and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” It would be good to note that it says “to your descendants I will give this land.” It doesn’t say that Abram would receive it.

After building an altar to the Lord at that place he moved two more times. First to the mountain east of Bethel and then further south, into the Negev desert.

This is where we start today’s passage –

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

The famine, like all natural events on earth, was directed by God. Abram would have no doubt about this as he already had a relationship with the Lord, had heard His promises, and had believed them and offered offerings to Him.

Many commentaries barbecue Abram for leaving the Promised Land and heading to Egypt, stating he lacked faith in the move. I don’t see that here at all. The land promise was made at this time to his descendents, not to him.

He received the promise and believed it, confirming that belief by building an altar and offering on it. And then after that he moved further south. Maybe he was sightseeing and checking out the land. We have nothing else to go on. But eventually a famine comes.

Famines are used throughout the Bible for the correction of the people of the land. Abram was living among the Canaanites and certainly saw their lifestyle and may have even preached to them, who knows… A famine comes along at some point and there’s no reason to think that Abram didn’t realize it was to correct the very people he was dwelling with – the Canaanites.

A good example of this kind of correction from God due to disobedience is found when King David took an unauthorized census of the people of Israel. Famine was one of the choices David was given as punishment in 2 Samuel 24 –

“So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, ‘Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.’”

David chose wisely because he understood God’s great mercy, even to the disobedient –

“And David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.’”

And of course, this led to David’s purchase of the land which became the TempleMount in Jerusalem. Even in disobedience and punishment, God’s purposes always work out to fulfill His plan.

The Promised Land is mountainous and it is completely dependent on two seasons of rain in order to grow its crops and provide water. Apart from correcting the Canaanites, the famine may have had a secondary purpose of teaching Abram that everything comes from the Lord and so he was completely dependent on Him. He would also learn that direction and deliverance is found in Him alone.

And so the natural thing to do would be to go where the Lord was providing food and water, to Egypt. I can’t personally find any fault in Abram’s decision. It’s logical and it’s what any right thinking person would do.

What would be less right thinking would be to stay put in a land with no hope of providing anything to eat or drink. But we too often get stuck in our rut and become unwilling to move, even though it’s the right thing to do.

We can look at famines in America in the past and around the world even now and see people who won’t simply get up and move when it’s time to do so. Whose fault is that? In some cases, it’s because of national borders or war, but in many, it’s simply a resistance to move on.

And in the same way, how often do we get spiritually dried up in a church that has nothing to offer, like a barren desert, but we stay because we feel at home with the people around us… as if they are the reason for staying. In cases like this, we hint that God is only a side issue and a secondary priority in our spiritual life.

Clinging to a spiritually dead church because it’s our home would be like Abram staying in Canaan when there was nothing to eat. We need to follow the Lord and His provision, not sit idly and become so malnourished, either physically or spiritually, that we are no longer of any use to Him or to those dependent on us.

And so off to Egypt he goes. The Hebrew name for Egypt is Mizraim. This name came from one of the sons of Ham, a brother of Canaan. The English name for Egypt comes from the Greek.

One possibility is that it goes back to a king named Aegyptus, but what is more probable is that it comes from the color of the soil around the Nile which the Greeks called aegyptios and also from a vulture which has the same dark color which is called aegyps.

¹¹ And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Believe it or not, Sarai is probably somewhere around 65 years old at this time. What a silver-tongue Abram must have been to call a lady of this age “a woman of beautiful countenance.” Oh, but she really was as we’ll see in a moment. He wasn’t just being nice, but Sarai was a woman of true beauty.

I don’t want to tread on any thin ice here, but if I can think of a modern parallel to Sarai that everyone has seen, I’d propose Raquel Welch. I didn’t say “I’d propose TO Raquel Welch.” I was merely suggesting that she is one such as Sarai.

Raquel Welch was born in Chicago on 5 September 1940 and that would make her as of today 71 years, 8 months, and 29 days old or 3743 weeks old, or 26,204 days old, or 628,896 hours old, or 37,733,760 minutes old, or 2,264,025,600 seconds old.

And just to check and make sure she didn’t suddenly wrinkle up and blow away since her last movie, I did an image search on Google and yes, she still looks lovely.

So if Raquel looks good at this age, then there is no reason to assume that a woman younger than her couldn’t be just as lovely in Abram’s time as well. And as a second reason to believe this, Sarai lived to 127 years of age and so she was really only in her middle ages at this time. Although the ages of people continue to decrease throughout Genesis, at this time, 65 really isn’t that old.

¹² Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Abram was so convinced of her beauty that he actually feared for his life. I do this a lot when I’m out with my own wife. She is so incredibly beautiful and such a pleasant soul, that I’m continuously in fear around her. I know exactly how Abram felt.

¹³ Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”

In Genesis 11:31, we saw that Sarai was Abram’s sister because she was a daughter of Terah his father. Later, in Genesis 20, we’ll see that she was actually Abram’s half sister, meaning she came from a different mother. This is what that account says –

And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. ¹² But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³ And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

So Abram isn’t lying, nor is he asking Sarai to lie. They simply aren’t telling the whole story. I think every commentary I’ve ever read which addresses this issue says that what Abram did was wrong, lacking faith, and/or sinful – every one of them.

And yet, I’ve read this story probably 50 times and I’ve never felt this way about it. The logic of these commentaries is that he was willing to sacrifice his wife for his own safety and that he was lacking in faith toward God in asking her to say this.

That’s really inserting a personal opinion and a personal worldview into the story. Here’s an example of a typical commentary on this story. This one is from Matthew Henry –

“The grace Abram was most eminent for was faith, and yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the divine Providence, even after God had appeared to him twice. Alas, what will become of the willows, when the cedars are thus shaken.”

How do we know that this very action of Abram wasn’t an action based on faith, not lacking it? Let’s read it again –

¹³ Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”

He’d been given a promise by God that his descendants would be given the land. Nothing was said about Sarai – and to this point, she’s barren. There is nothing to suggest that Abram was required to have only one wife and we’ll see that after her death he will have another wife named Keturah, and concubines to boot.

He has no idea that Sarai will ever have children, only later will come God’s promise that the child will come through Sarai. All he’s doing here is ensuring that he won’t be killed because he’s her husband. Does this in any way negate his belief in God’s promise?

So why should we assume Abram was either lacking faith or sinning. One thing is for sure, if Abram were killed because of Sarai, her life would certainly be in jeopardy. With him out of the picture, she would be at the whims of whoever got to her first.

We’re going to see in just a few chapters that when Abram’s nephew Lot is abducted, he goes after the entire army who took him, fights against them, and brings Lot and the others back safely. Why don’t we assume at this point that he wouldn’t do the same for her when the opportunity arose?

In other words, he may see Sarai as the very instrument which saves him in the first place and keeps him alive. God has made a promise to him and she is a part of that plan. I have no problem at all with what he’s done here. The very thing that makes him a faithful man is that his actions were based on faith.

If God were to come to one of you and promise that you’d be wealthy someday, would you assume that a pot of gold was going to fall out of the sky at your feet? Or would you assume that He would use your circumstances to get you to the point He promised?

I think any reasonable consideration would say that both you and your surroundings are involved in the process. You’re simply exercising your faith through hard work and the opportunities that God places in your path as you go. Abram is doing the same.

II. I Will Bless You

¹⁴ So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.

Abram was born 352 years after the flood and this about 75 years later or about 430 years after the flood. There probably wasn’t much difference in the complexions of the world’s people by then.

Although changes certainly occurred as people moved away from Babel and started breeding among family groups, they would start to have more and more differences between them.

The Chinese would look more and more Chinese the further east they moved and the Scandinavians would look more and more Scandninavianish the further north they moved, but these changes would be gradual.

If you look at the people in paintings from 500 years ago, they look pretty much like their offspring 500 years later. So the beauty of Sarai isn’t so much a beauty of difference and novelty, but a real beauty which would be recognizable in any society.

¹⁵ The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh.

Archaeology apparently shows that by this time there was already a monarchy established in the area. This was about 430 years after the flood and about 330 years after the Tower of Babel, but the people had moved as far as Egypt and established a large society.

According to Jewish and Arabic writers, it was at the time of Reu the son of Peleg that Egypt was established and this is actually right in line with the Bible, so we can be confident it’s correct.

And that’s really not hard to imagine when we see what kind of a society America grew to in much less time. After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we went from 13 rural colonies with a few larger cities to 50 states filled with industry, agriculture, and a large society.

The main seat of government when Abram moved to Egypt was in the delta region which is in the northernmost part of the land and very close to where Abram probably arrived. The people under Pharaoh would have immediately noticed Abram and his large company arriving from outside of their region.

None of this is improbable and in fact, it’s more than likely, especially considering God’s hand in it all.

^{15 (con’t)} And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.

Regardless of what Abram thought when he asked Sarai to say she was his sister, this couldn’t have been easy on him. This doesn’t mean his faith had to be weakened at all, but being taken in by Pharaoh isn’t the same as being taken in by some lesser person.

He may have planned to rescue her otherwise, but it would be a lot less likely under Pharaoh. However, Abram is described throughout the Bible as a man of faith and he certainly exercised his faith in prayers to God for his wife.

Once again, I just don’t see things the way other commentators do. I don’t see anything sinful or lacking faith in his actions and if you look at how things do turn out, there’s no reason to think they aren’t a response to prayers of faith, offered by a faithful man. As James says it in the New Testament –

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Prayer really does work.

¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

In the process of handing over Sarai, Abram is actually blessed just as God promised. He received all kinds of gifts because of her and these are the wealth of nomads. If you travel around the Middle East, you’ll see the nomadic families with all of their livestock and possessions. The more of these, the higher status they are.

So concerning both the blessings promised by God and the safety of Sarai, we need to remember that not everything that happens is recorded in the Bible. Only the things that are relevant to the story are given to us.

Abraham will do this same thing again in Genesis 20. He will tell Abimelech the King of Gerar that Sarah is his sister. After Abimelech finds out that she is his wife, God will speak to him and say this:

“Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

We’re often not given all the information in the biblical account to allow us to reason out what happened based on other passages in the Bible. Abram was a prophet and so why can’t we assume that every step he’s taking is taken by faith. He understood that everything will work out according to God’s plan.

Speaking of Abraham and his line, right down to Israel, we read this in the 105^th Psalm –

When they went from one nation to another, From one kingdom to another people, ¹⁴ He permitted no one to do them wrong; Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes, ¹⁵ Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.”

Did Abram know this? There’s no reason to assume he didn’t. God had given him a promise and so why should he think that things wouldn’t apply in this situation too?

I don’t mean to belabor the point about what he did with his wife, but nowhere else does the Bible say that what Abram did was wrong or that he lacked faith and so I think we need to avoid that line of thinking and see God’s hand in everything that’s occurred.

And in our own lives, we need to do the same. I don’t care how bad a situation is or how frustrating it is, or how much we may lose – financially, personally, or interpersonally. Whatever happens, we need to understand that it happened because God allowed it and so it’s a part of what He ordained for us.

If we can see that in everything that happens, then we really are living by faith in a world which would otherwise seem scary, overwhelming, or maybe even pointless.

But the psalmist said we can have confidence in what happens when we trust in the Lord –

You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
⁵⁸ I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
⁵⁹ I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
⁶⁰ I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
⁶¹ The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
⁶² At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
⁶³ I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
⁶⁴ The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.

One last thing about Abram’s time in Egypt – ancient tradition recorded by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus says that it was he who delivered arithmetic and astronomy to the Egyptians. These were sciences which came from the Chaldeans of Babylon where Abram came from.

If this is true, then all of the wisdom for the great achievements of Egypt like the building of the pyramids came from Abraham. Only when they had been given insights from him were they able to combine them with the great physical construction which is found throughout the land.

III. The Wife is Restored

¹⁷ But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

The first time God’s chosen people enter Egypt, which was 430 years after the Flood, it results in plagues on Pharaoh’s house. And then 430 years after that, the chosen line of Israel will again be in Egypt, enslaved by the Egyptians under Pharaoh’s rule and it will again result in plagues.

As it says in Ecclesiastes and as we will learn is O so true, both in the Bible and in history –

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.

The patterns of the Bible are rich, complex, and astonishing. How wonderful it is when we think about how God has woven everything together in this great drama we’re participating in.

God shows that He is in complete control of the situation. The psalm I read earlier said, “He permitted no one to do them wrong; Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes…” Even when it may seem that things had turned out for the worse for Abram, the Lord had a handle all of it each step of the way.

And it is no different in our own lives. He made a promise to Abram and Abram believed it. He has made a similar promise to us and we need to hold fast to it, even when things seem beyond our control… what is it? Romans 8:28 –

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Should we have any less faith in whatever our trial is than Abram did? This is exactly what he is commended for in Hebrews 11, the great Hall of Faith of the Bible, and it is what God will commend us for when we stand in front of him.

¹⁸ And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”

Regardless of whether Abram acted in faith or faithlessly, he gets rebuked by Pharaoh. God’s hand of judgment for having this prophet’s wife in his home must have been heavy on him. This is so evident to him that instead of killing him, which you’d think he’d do, he realizes that would be an even greater mistake.

So instead, he rebukes Abram and ensures him that he hadn’t yet done anything to her. “I might have taken her as my wife” means that to that point she hadn’t been violated by him.

Before we finish up this verse, let’s look at the similarity in terminology between this account and that of the Exodus, 430 years later, when Pharaoh speaks to Moses –

Pharaoh says to Abram, “Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”

Pharaoh says to Moses, “Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, ‘Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. ³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.’”

Two Pharaohs – 430 years apart – both bid the prophet of God to be gone.

²⁰ So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

And so Abram left having journeyed to Egypt, gained more wealth, and was also delivered from the famine of the land of Canaan. God had protected him and blessed him in his pilgrimage and he would continue to do so all the days of his life.

In a spiritual application of what we’ve seen here today, I’d like to remind you from the sermon two weeks ago that Abram pitched his tent between Bethel, the House of God (a picture of heaven), and Ai, the heap of ruins (a picture of hell). After that, he headed south and then into Egypt.

In the same way, Jesus came and dwelt among us as a human being, living on earth between heaven and hell. From there, he journeyed into the land of chaos, pictured by Egypt.

You see, like Sarai who belonged to Abram, but was taken to the house of Pharaoh, we were all created by God, but we strayed into the land of chaos and sin. From that place though, we have been delivered by Jesus, our rightful husband.

By faith in Him and what He has done, we can be rejoined to God and He will safely take us back to the Land of Promise. Abram means “Exalted Father” and Sarai means “Princess”

To our great and exalted heavenly Father, we are a princess and a treasure worth seeking out. And so He stepped out of His eternal home of heaven and walked among us. He keeps us safe – even when at times we might think we are left unattended.

This is why I believe Abram had faith during the entire episode. It’s because his life and his actions only look forward to the greater salvation found in Jesus. May we never forget the great deeds God has accomplished on our behalf in the Person and work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Abram in Egypt

Now there was a famine in the land
And so Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there
The famine was severe which came from God’s hand
And so to a more fertile land, his journey he did prepare

And it came to pass as they closed in on their destination
Outside of Egypt, Abram told Sarai his wife
You really are a beauty, almost beyond imagination
And for a beauty like you, other people will want to take my life

Please my lovely bride; say that you are my sister
That it may be well with me for your sake
And that I may live, and not killed by another mister
Yes, for you certainly my life they will take

So it was when Abram came into Egypt finally
That the Egyptians saw the woman, she was very beautiful
And the princes of Pharaoh told him of her immense beauty
And so she went to his home, to Abram she was so dutiful

And Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake
He gave him sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and servants too
What a trade it was, so much did Abram make
Why Abram could have started his own little zoo

But the Lord plagued Pharaoh with great plagues because of Abram’s wife
So much so that Pharaoh feared even for his own life.

And so Pharaoh called Abram and asked him quite plainly
What is this thing which you have done, even to me

Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?
Why did you say she was your sister instead?
I could have taken her and then lost my own life
Yes, because of you, right now I could be dead

Now therefore, here is your wife – take her and go your way
I don’t want to see you any more, not another day

So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him
And they sent him away with his wife and all he had
Yes, they sent him away before things got too grim
And when Abram left, they were surely very glad

Now in the story of Abram there certainly is a lesson
For each of us to remember as we live out our days
We need to be sure of our convictions, not just a’guessin’
That God is in control and He deserves all our praise

Live your life with faith like Abram had
And in the end, you’ll see that life ain’t that bad

Hallelujah and amen…

 

 

The Fourth Dispensation – God’s Promise
Genesis 12:1-9

Today we’re staring chapter 12 of Genesis and it is the beginning of the fourth “dispensation” or way of working in human history. So far we’ve seen three dispensations. The first was Innocence, which covered man’s very short time in the Garden of Eden.

After that came the second dispensation, Conscience. This went from the time of being expelled from the garden until the time of the Flood of Noah. And the third was Government, which went from the time after the Flood right up until where we are now. The fourth dispensation is a time of promise to the sons of God.

We’ve seen God’s Funnel at work ever since the time of Adam. God chose one of his Adam’s, Seth, to establish His line which will lead to Jesus. From Seth, one son has been selected from each of the subsequent generations – all the way down to Abraham.

And now, throughout this Dispensation of Promise, we will see God validate a covenant that He made to Abraham in his son Isaac and then in his son Jacob, who is Israel.

Introduction: What kind of a God do we serve? Is He changing? Vindictive? Does he promise and then renege? Or is God the faithful and covenant keeping God who truly is unchanging, all knowing, and the sovereign ruler of the universe? We had better hope for the second option, or our faith is in vain!

Text Verse: You will give truth to Jacob
And mercy to Abraham,
Which You have sworn to our fathers
From days of old. Micah 7:20

We all have choices to make and how immensely important is the choice, “Shall I take God at His word?” When we do, it leads to life. When we don’t there is only sadness and condemnation awaiting us and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Divine Directions

¹ Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.

This is known as the call of Abraham and it actually occurred when he was living in Ur by the EuphratesRiver and so goes back to that time. We know this because Stephen confirms it in Acts chapter 7. From Acts 7 we read –

“Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. Acts 7:2-4

In this call, Abraham or Abram, is asked to cut three specific ties. The first is to his country. It would be like God asking one of us to leave America, renounce our citizenship, and go to a place that He will show us. Until recently no one on earth would have wanted to leave this greatest nation on God’s green earth.

And even now, despite our current woes, it is still the place of our widest range of affections and the place we are so comfortable in – because of language, because of familiarity, because of ties and heartstrings, and for a host of other reasons.

The second tie he’s asked to cut is his place of family. This certainly means more than just the people in his house. It includes all of the people of his culture. You never know how much your surrounding culture is ingrained in you until you go to another one.

When I went to live in Malaysia, there were things there that were so foreign that even when I left 3 years later, I couldn’t get used to them. Thinking about them today still drives me insane. **Talk about dinner time.**

The third tie he is called to cut is his father’s house. This really is his home and family. This included his cousins and those he grew up with. It included the smells that came when passing through the front door, and the place where he automatically left his shoes without even thinking about it after working in the field.

Maybe it included the tree that he planted at six and then watched grow for so many years of his life. Abram is being called to cut all these ties and to move to a place that he has never seen and without even being told why. All God said is that it would be “…a land that I will show you.”

We don’t know how old he was when he received this call, but in the last chapter we looked at it said his father Terah, was 70 years old when he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran. So it has been more than 290 years since God spoke directly to man.

The last time He did was after the flood in the year 1657AM. This was in chapter 9 verse 17 when God made a covenant with the people of the world – “And God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.’”

Like bookends on the time where God was silent, He closed His mouth after making a covenant with Noah and then He opens it again to direct Abram to go to the covenant land He will give him. The sign of the covenant will come later, but God now speaks and His word is a covenant in and of itself… and here is the promise –

² I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.

Abram’s gonna be rewarded and receive restoration for everything he’s giving up. He was told to leave his country and in place of it he will be made into a great nation. He was told to leave his family and in place of this he is promised to be blessed. And he was told to leave his father’s house and in place of it he’s promised that his name will be made great.

If you look at what Abram gave up and what he received, the difference is immense. He gave up a land of idolatry to inherit the covenant land of God. He left his family and he would become the father of many nations. And he left his father’s house and he became the man of faith, renown throughout history.

This is the way God works in the life of those who are obedient to Him. What we give up for the sake of Christ is to be counted as rubbish in comparison to the glories which He will bestow upon us by simply calling out to Him in faith. Nothing which is left behind can compare to the beauty of what lies ahead.

Jesus Himself said – “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

³ I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;

God has spoken and made a promise to Abram. The only thing that we could call a condition on this promise is that he leaves his country, family, and father’s house and go to the land he’d be shown. If he does this, then the promise stands and it must be otherwise unconditional because nothing else is added.

If not, then this isn’t the Creator God and Abram would have wasted his life pursuing that which is less than God. Like so many who had gone before him and so many who have come since, misdirected faith is wasted faith….

Either Jesus is Lord or He isn’t. Either we are saved by grace through faith alone or by grace through faith but with works being necessary. Either Christianity is true and islam is false, or islam is true and Christianity is false, or they are both false.

Either Ellen G. White of the 7^th Day Adventists was a prophet or she was a false prophet. Either Mormonism is true and Christianity is false or Momonism is false. Either Jesus is a created being as claimed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Jesus is the uncreated God.

Where is your faith directed? It is the most important question in the world because if your faith is misdirected, then you are still in your sins and only hell awaits. You see, in the book of Numbers we are told this:

“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Numbers 23:19

Abram was asked to leave home and go off to a place that God would show him. And in exchange God made a promise – an otherwise unconditional promise – to him. And because it’s written in what we believe is God’s word, then we are asked and expected to believe it just as it was spoken and just as it is recorded.

This is especially important because this promise of a blessing is passed from Abram to his son Isaac and then from Isaac to Jacob who is Israel. The promise to Isaac is in Genesis chapter 26 –

² Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. ⁴ And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ⁵ because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

And from Isaac, the promise was passed down to his second son, Jacob, who is Israel, in Genesis chapter 28 –

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

The reason why I’m quoting these verses is because Paul brings them up in Romans chapter 9 through 11 and says they still and always will apply to the people of Israel. In chapter 11 he says –

Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

What is Paul saying here? Well, who is he speaking about? He is speaking about unbelieving Jewish people – in general, the nation of Israel. And what does he say? They are enemies of the church because of the gospel. That’s pretty clear.

An unbelieving Jew is no different than any other unbeliever. If they don’t hold to the gospel, they are the gospel’s enemies and are thus enemies of those who hold to the gospel. One plus one is two.  But Paul didn’t stop there like so many scholars seem to believe.

Replacement theology says that the church replaced Israel; that Israel is out and so for them it’s end of story baby. But how someone can come to that conclusion when reading Romans is more than mystifying. What else does Paul say? “Concerning election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”

Who are the fathers? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons of Israel and even David is called a patriarch in the book of Acts. Israel is beloved because of the promises made to these people. They are the elect of God. If they are elect, then they cannot be cast off as a corporate body, only individually when they reject Christ.

And so God still must, and does, have a plan and a purpose for them. Why? Again, just as before, Paul explains it in the same verse. It’s because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Anybody who has read and studied chapters 9 through 11 in Romans and cannot see this clearly has been blinded. Either they were blinded by God, during Israel’s time of punishment, or they are blinded by one of two other things.

The first possibility is a hatred of the Jewish people – anti-Semitism. And this is more prevalent in Christianity than you may realize. The second would be an unwillingness to open their eyes to what God has done because they would rather hold to what they have been taught rather than what God has revealed.

God has never rejected Israel and this is so obvious and so clear in our world today. All of the prophecies which predicted Israel’s return were fulfilled in 1948, proving God’s faithfulness to this unfaithful nation. This book, called the Holy Bible, is based on the covenant promises of God to His people.

The only time that a covenant like this can be broken is when it is conditional, and this covenant, after Abram’s getting up and going, ain’t conditional. But people know better than Paul and they know better than God too.

Or, they think they do. And so they insert the church into the picture where it doesn’t belong and they remove Israel from where it does belong.

Let us remember this, especially in this nation today, where we are so close to turning our blessing upon the people of Israel into a curse. The nation who fights against God’s elect is the nation that will disappear in fire and destruction.

God has chosen to plant the people of Israel once again in the Land of Israel. Who would we be fighting against if we decide they aren’t worth fighting for? …God!

^3(con’t) And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

This half of verse three is fulfilled in two ways – first, through the line of Abram which became the Jewish people. Through this line have come the very oracles of God, the Holy Bible. With only a few exceptions, every book in the Bible came from and was saved for posterity by Jewish hands.

And also from the Jewish people have come wonderful blessings which have graced all the people of the world. Although they are only 2% of 1% of the population of the world, they have made up about 20% of the Nobel laureates in the past century.

And the areas where they have lagged in these awards are subjective areas where ungodly people make ungodly choices about ungodly things – such as giving algore a Nobel Peace Prize for something that is based on an outright lie or giving barak obama a Nobel Peace Prize which covered the period of his presidency when he had accomplished… actually nothing.

When put side by side in real human achievement though, the Jewish people have excelled in literature, chemistry, medicine, physics, economics, etc.

Apart from the Jewish people as a whole though, but still as a part of the Jewish people, this blessing given by God to Abraham finds its ultimate fulfillment in the greatest Jewish Person, Jesus Christ –

the Messiah of the world who came from Abraham and in whom truly, all of the families of the earth are blessed.

Jesus took on humanity through the line of Abraham and He tasted God’s wrath and human death for everyone. It is through Him that all people, tribes, tongues, and nations are reconciled to God.

II. Obedience to the Word

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him. He is being obedient to the word which he was given. It’s probably good to note that the word of the LORD to Abram is the same as the word of the LORD today.

The only difference is that instead of it coming in dreams, visions, or prophetic utterances, it now comes in the page of the Bible – and I personally believe only in this way.

Do you know that the Bible has rules about the conduct of a church? For example, in the book of 1 Corinthians there are specific rules about speaking in tongues in a church. And do you know that they are almost never obeyed?

If the Bible has been breathed out by the Holy Spirit as the Bible states, and the Holy Spirit gives the guidance for speaking in tongues, then you can know – 100% you can be certain – that if a church which isn’t obeying the rules given about tongues, then the tongues have not come from the Holy Spirit.

Don’t be led astray in your thinking by people who would rather make a show than learn their Bible.

It isn’t complicated. Abram was given a word from the Lord and he obeyed. We have, likewise, been given the word of the Lord and we disobey it at our on loss.

If we can’t get such simple things straight, then what do we expect about the weightier matters which affect our souls? Pay attention to the call of the Lord and don’t lose out over pride or ego. If you want to be remembered by God as a person of faith, then obey the word of the Lord, just as our father Abraham did.

^4(con’t) And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Abram was born in the year 2009AM and his father died in the year 2084AM when Abram was 75 years old. Once his father was dead, Abram left Haran and headed to the Promised Land.

⁵ Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

Abram is now the leader of the family. He leads the way in this new adventure. Their father Terah died, O so close to the Promised Land, but he never entered it. And how many people start their journey of faith, but never finish it.

They study about Jesus, hear what they need to do, and they never make the final leap of faith into His protective care. And so they remain forever outside of the grace of God.

But Abram and his wife, and Lot and everything they had, including human servants, picked up and departed to Canaan – the land of servants. And the Bible says they safely arrived too.

When I lived in Malaysia, there was a pretty sizeable portion of Indians who lived there, 8% of the population. When Malaysia was being colonized by the British, some of the wealthy landowners in India picked up to move there.

When they did, they took along their Indian servants. The Brits eventually left, but the Indians, who worked in the tea plantations and as house servants, stayed. This is one way the people of the world get around – some by choice and some by force.

⁶Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

After entering Canaan, Abram went as far as Shechem. This location is key to the Bible in both testaments. It’s between MountGerizzim and MountEbal. Here, God will meet with Abram. It is the spot where Israel’s daughter Dinah will be raped and Israel’s sons Simeon and Levi kill all the men of the town.

It’s the spot where Joseph’s bones would be buried after Israel returns from Egypt and it became a town which belonged to the Levites. After the Israel divided and became two countries, it would become the capital of the northern 10 tribes of Israel.

It is also the same town known in the New Testament as Sychar where Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in John 4. The history of the place is rich and goes back through the ages to Abram and the place where God first met him in the Promised Land.

There in Shechem, Abram stopped at Alon Moreh, or the terebinth of Moreh. Some translators say “oak” and some say “plain of Moreh.” The word Moreh means “teacher” and in a moment we will see where the name came from and who the Teacher is.

III. A Promised Possession

⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.”

This verse is one of the most important to know and understand of any you will come across in the Bible. By it, you can continue dating history. By it, you can understand how long the people of Israel were in Egypt, by it you can understand the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith apart from the law.

So much is tied up in this one verse, that if we were to take it as a stand alone for a Bible study, we could spend hours on it. The Lord “appeared to Abram” What does this exactly mean? It is the first time this phrase occurs in the Bible and I believe that this is a divine visitation by the Master of time and space, Jesus.

Numerous times in the Old Testament, the Lord appears in human form to people. It will happen to Abraham, to Joshua, to the parents of Samson, to Gideon and to others. This is the eternal Christ who is coming to meet Abram.

Yes, I believe Jesus appears in His own past and directed human history leading to Himself. When He came to Abram, he made an unconditional promise, “To your descendants I will give this land.”

There is nothing tied up in the promise and it is God’s land to parcel out. We will see how this promise will be made true throughout the rest of the Bible. This verse is so important that Paul cites it Galatians 3 and he uses it to say that it points to the work of Christ. Here is what he says –

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. ¹⁷ And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

^{7 (con’t)}And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

After receiving the promise, Abram built an altar to the Lord there. The spot where the Lord stood is hallowed by His presence and he acknowledges this in the building of the altar.

In building this altar, he is making an open profession of his belief in Jehovah, thus establishing worship of the true God on the soil of the Promised Land, and he is also declaring faith in the promise he has just been given. We could equate this altar with our accepting baptism – it is an open profession of our faith.

Here at the Terebinth of the Teacher, Abram met the great Teacher who would be recognized as such over 40 times in the New Testament gospels.

⁸ And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east;

After leaving the shade of the Terebinth of the Teacher, Abram moved to a mountain east of Bethel and west of Ai. Bethel means “House of God” and it will become a very important place throughout the Bible. It is where Jacob saw the ladder reaching to heaven which Jesus claimed in the book of John was Him.

Ai means “heap of ruins.” The spot where he is now is a picture of life on earth. The house of God, Bethel, is a picture of heaven and the heap of ruins, Ai, is a picture of hell. Abram is between them – having “pitched his tent.” Pitching one’s tent means you are a temporary pilgrim on your way to somewhere else.

Abram then is a picture of us. We are pilgrims in the land of servants and we are between heaven and hell. Will we be a servant of the Lord and take the ladder, which is Jesus, to heaven, or will we be a servant of sin and be destroyed in the heap of ruins?

All of us have a choice to make while we are here before we move on. Abram made the right choice.

^{8 (con’t)} there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

Abram knew that the only house where divine protection can be realized is the house where the proper worship of God is established – a lesson for each of us – particularly when children are involved.  And so Abram built an altar and called on, or invoked, the name of the Lord.

By invoking the name of the Lord, he is acknowledging that the Lord is the Mediator between him and God. This is why the Lord appeared to him at the Terebinth of the Teacher. Jesus is our one and only Mediator and somehow, Abram knew this too.

⁹ So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

We finish up today with this verse. Abram was a pilgrim in the land of servants and after meeting with the great Teacher, he heads toward the South.

I hope you’ve seen how rich and deep these passages about Abram are and the beautiful pictures and symbols they contain. They all point to Jesus Christ and His work in time and history as He carefully works out the great plan of redemption for mankind.

He has given us pictures of paradise and pictures of hell and he has shown us the way to obtain the former and avoid the latter. In the end, what He asks for is very simple – faith.

Jesus asks us to believe that He is who He said He is and He did what He said He has done. If we can just believe, He promises that He will safely carry us to the home which He has prepared for us.

Abram built an altar where the Lord had been and he continued to worship the Lord as he traveled. For some of us, the Lord has already tread upon our hearts and so we need to consecrate our hearts to Him as an altar worthy of His greatness.

Some of us may not yet have received Christ. Let me take just a minute and explain how you can…

If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are eternally saved. The Bible says that even now you are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. I would pray that you would dedicate your life to acknowledging that fact by placing Him properly in the altar of your own heart. To the glory of God who saved you.

The Call of Abraham

Now the LORD had said to Abram, “A directive I have for you”
Get out of your country and from your family too

And depart from your father’s house, my son
Yes, leave everything behind
I want you to leave because you are the one
You are a great part of the plan I have designed

Off to a land that I will show you
There I will make you a great nation
I will bless you, this is what I’ll do
But you must first start on this great migration

I will make your name great, my promise is true
And you shall be a blessing
I will curse him who curses you
There will be no second guessing

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed
So Abram departed, and for the journey he was dressed

He departed as the Lord had spoken, taking along no doubt
And Lot went with him as did his wife and others too
He was seventy-five years old when they headed out
So to the place called Haran, the company bid “Adieu”

Off to the land of Canaan, Abram did head away
And they arrived in that land – the land of promise
They passed through to Shechem and there they did stay
Abram was of faith and not a doubting Thomas

There at the Terebinth of Moreh, with Canaanites all around
The Lord appeared to him saying, To your descendants I give this piece of ground

So he built an Altar to the Lord whom he met there
Yes, he built the altar on that very spot
He acknowledged his Mediator, the one who handles prayer
And so should we do the same, with contemplative thought

Abram then moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel
And there he pitched his tent, Bethel on the west
And to the east was Ai, a picture of the place called hell
Abram was a pilgrim on the earth, but he passed the test

There he called on the name of the Lord
And clung faithfully to God’s holy word

So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south
And surely as he went the praise of the Lord was in his mouth

We remember Abram this man whose faith was great
And each of us should surely follow in his path
Let us love the Lord with all our heart and let us patiently wait
For the coming of Jesus, who keeps us from God’s wrath

Yes, let us love our Lord and give Him all our praise
Let us serve the King and glorify Him all of our days

Hallelujah and Amen…

The Jew
(Author Unknown)

*Scattered by God’s avenging hand,
Afflicted and forlorn,
Sad wanderers from their pleasant land,
Do Judah’s children mourn;

*And e’en in Christian countries, few
Breathe thoughts of pity for the Jew.

*Yet listen, Gentile, do you love
The Bible’s precious page?
Then let your hearts with kindness move
To Israel’s’ heritage:

*Who traced those lines of love for you –
Each scared writer was a Jew.

*And then as years and ages passed,
And nations rose and fell,
Though clouds and darkness oft were cast
O’er captive Israel,
*The oracles of God for you
Were kept in safety by the Jew.

*And when the great Redeemer came
For guilty man to bleed,
He did not take an angel’s name
No – Born of Abraham’s seed
*Jesus, who gave His life for you,
The gentle Savior was a Jew.

*And though His own received Him not
And turned in pride away,
Whence is the Gentile’s happier lot?
Are you more just than they?
*No: God in pity turned to you –
Have you no pity for the Jew?

*Go, then, and bend your knee to pray
For Israel’s ancient race;
Ask the dear Savior every day
To call them by His grace;
*Go, for a debt of love is due
From Christian Gentiles to the Jew.