"You Take the High Road"

So, someone offers you land to settle on, and they give you a choice of two places: a rocky, mountainous, desert place, or a wonderful, lush valley lowland. Where would you go? Do I go for the view or deep for the water? I don't know which I would choose. Tough choice.

Well, you might be surprised to find out today that in that choice, the better choice is not what you think. Today here. On more than eight.

Well, welcome. This is More Than Inc. There's Dorothy. And here's Jim. We're sitting across the dining room table from each other.

No fancy studios for us. No, of course it's right here at our table. But we are dealing with the incredible riches of the Bible, and we're in Genesis, which is not just foundational to the world, it's foundational to almost everything you're going to read in the Bible. And most people sort of overlook Genesis when they study the Bible, but. Here we are.

We're still in Genesis. I was going to say, everybody knows little fragments of the stories of Genesis, but in terms of a cohesive whole, not very many people have the. Slog to get all the way through it. The stage is set.

Well, in fact, we ran across this some weeks ago when we looked at the fact that if you look in the Bible and you want to see what Jesus has to say about marriage, the only place he references is Genesis. Genesis.

So, I mean, it's like super important. We need Genesis. And those things come back quite a lot.

So, Genesis is the backbone to the Bible, and so that's why we're here.

So, last time we were together, we're following the life of Abram and his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and his family. And so, why don't you catch us up on what we did last time?

Well, they all went down to Egypt because it was a famine.

So, they stepped outside of the land that God had promised and went somewhere that had food and water. And down there, Abram did some Uh, less than ethical things and wound up nearly losing his wife into Pharaoh's harem. But God rescued her and was so angry, Pharaoh was so angry, he sent them out and didn't ask the bride price back. He sent them out rich. Get out.

So that's where we pick up the story. They turn around and they're heading out of Egypt.

So that's where we are today as we begin chapter 13.

So they leave a land, Egypt, that's not in the plan of God, and they come back to the land of God. The land of promise, the land that God had told Abram, this is the land I'm going to give you.

So today we return to that from that little detour in Egypt. Yeah, and the idea of returning is actually quite prominent in the beginning of this chapter. Yeah.

So shall we start reading?

So follow with us. We're in chapter 13, verse 1. Verse 1.

Okay, so here we go. Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

So that's the name of the desert between Egypt and Israel. Verse 2.

Now, Abram was very. Very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Baal to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Baidal, we yeshua, to the place where he had made an altar at first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

Okay, so that's a. That's a repentance story. Totally repentance story. That is a return. Back to where we started.

Back to the place where he stepped off the rails in the first place. Right, right, right.

So, this is coming back from the detour. But it's interesting that he's coming back so wealthy. Yeah.

And we talked about this last time: that this is a little bit of foreshadowing of 400 years from now, Israel will come out of Egypt also very wealthy to enter the land of promise. Yeah.

So they're back carrying probably the riches of Egypt. Right. Because Pharaoh. Silver and gold and animals from Egypt. Pharaoh had a confrontation with God that really scared him to death and sent him out of the country and said, Take this stuff and don't come back.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so now you pronounce Bethel. If you look at the page, it says Bethel. But Beit El is the best way, because Beit means. House. House.

And El means God. God.

So it's the house of God.

So this is, and this is smack dab, almost in the geocentric center of present-day Israel. It's right in the middle of the country. Yeah.

And it's not in Jerusalem, by the way, which you would think of as the center of the country. But it's interesting, it says he goes back to where he had been at the beginning. To the place where he'd made an altar at first and called upon the name of the Lord.

So it really emphasizes going back. I'm back. Going back to what God had said and who is God? Where is He active? Right.

What does He intend? Right. But some time seems to have elapsed because He's very rich in livestock. I mean, it makes it sound like even more than what He gained in the whole detour in Egypt. His own livestock would have been reproducing.

Right. And lots. But in silver and gold. See down in all that nice grassy Nile Delta area. Yeah.

So he's a rich man. Big rich. Yeah.

Yeah.

And Lot, verse 5, who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. And at that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

So there's a lot of pressure on the land to support. All of these thousands and thousands of herds, right? And the Canaanites and Perizzites preceded Abram and Lot and their families.

So they're seen as interlokers in a sense. They're coming in and they're, you know, they've got these burdensome kind of wealthy herds and they got to do something. You can probably see them coming for miles. Yeah.

Raising dust. And there's and there's so much conflict between the herdsmen that they start fighting each other. And so, you know, just not just for the sake of grazing land for your flocks, but just to keep the herdsmen walking. For water for water, also. Who are trying to take care of the animals?

So conflict, conflict in the promised land. Conflict in the promised land. Which raises an interesting question. I proposed last time that there was conflict in the Promised Land because of the famine, and that led him to color outside the lines and leave the Promised Land to Egypt. Here we have conflict again.

Are they going to try and Color outside the lines again, or are they going to stay inside the promised line?

Well, that's interesting. We're going to see how that develops. Let's see how it works out.

So Abram, this is an interesting move by Abram. Verse 8. Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we're kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me.

If you take the left hand, I'll go to the right. Or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.

So, this is a hugely generous giving away land he doesn't even technically own yet. And because technically, Abram could have ordered Lot to do what he had. Because he was the senior guy. He's the senior guy. Right.

So, he could have done that and said, Lot, I see we have problems here, so this is what I've decided.

So, why was he so gracious? That's an excellent question. I suspect it's because he was beginning to believe that God was going to be faithful to the promise that he had made. And so, Abram knows God has promised him that he will be. Prosperous and wealthy and have children and become great.

Right. And, you know, anyone who's getting kind of grabby with the gifts from God would wonder: I wonder if there's enough land here for me and Lot. Right. I need to protect my stake in the promise. I need to make Lot go someplace else, right?

Right. And that would be unfaithful in terms of what God's promise was. Right. God promised the land to Abram and his descendants.

So he's not, Abram has realized, at least at this point, he needs to be faithful because he's really not endangering God's promises. He doesn't have to be grabby. And the land is big enough. And he's figured that out. Right.

So I trust God. I can be generous here and it's not a threat to my future. Yes. See, that's a faithfulness kind of move on his part.

So that's really kind of a cool thing.

Well, okay, so that's a little bit of a shift in Abram, right? Abram. Because just a few weeks earlier in Egypt, he was feeling like his whole future could be threatened if Sarai was. Yeah, and he also could have gotten kind of hard-nosed about the fact he could have said, I mean, listen to this: Abram could have said to Lotus, look, God promised me and my descendants, you technically are not my descendant. Right.

So, I'm going to send you off to Egypt or I'm going to send you off to who knows where, because technically you don't belong in the promise. But it's an interesting thing because God also had told Abram that he was going to be a blessing to everybody on earth. Everyone on earth.

So, in a sense, he is actually living out that part of the promise as well. He's becoming a promise to someone who's not going to, he's not his descendant, right? And in fact, we know the future of what goes with this other nation. And so, but he's being generous in a way he doesn't need to because he knows the promises of God are sufficient.

Okay, so he says to Lot, you choose. You choose. You choose. And I will go the other direction.

So, verse 10. Fascinating. And here's where the plot thickens a little. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere. Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar.

Oh, huh. This is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Lot chose for himself. All the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east, thus, they separated from each other. Isn't it interesting that Lot chose for himself? Chose for himself something that looks like the grasslands of Egypt. Yes.

And if you've been to Israel and you go to where Baedel is, you're on a pretty desolate, rocky ridge. And you look out to the east and it's not green and beautiful. Not anymore. But in this time, you could. You know, you could look down the Jordan River Valley.

The Jordan River was the dominant river in the whole region. And it brought fresh water down from what we know as the Sea of Galilee from the north. To this very day, the nation of Jordan, which butts up from the east side onto the Jordan River, that's where 90% of all the produce in Jordan is grown in that valley. And today it's sparse. But during this time, Lot looks out and says, Well, I see green down there.

I'm going to where the green is. You know, that's probably why the writer inserts that little statement. And this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It used to be lush and green before the cataclysm. Yeah, something switched.

And so it's interesting, too. What Lot does is he chooses selfishly. I mean, he's choosing in a sense that he's, isn't he disadvantaging Abram? Isn't he saying, I see good, I see Rocky, and I see green. I'm going for the green.

Neen or neen are too bad for you.

Well, but he's choosing on the basis of what he can see, not on the basis of the promise. Not on the basis of the promise.

So he's not exercising faith because he sort of doesn't need to because God didn't promise him. Right. But he could have by faith said, no, Abram, I'm going to go with God's promise he's made to you. I'm going to stick with wherever you go, I'm going to go with you, like the Ruth promise. But he doesn't.

He takes. This area that he's heading down to is technically on the edge of the outside land of Canaan, right? The Jordan River is the boundary, is it not? Yep, yep.

So, well, not quite, because Israel later on settles some on the east of the Jordan. Yeah.

But it's close. But yeah, he's looking out for something else, and he says, well, that looks good to me, better than anything I can see from here. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we mentioned this last time, but there's a, there's a. Uh, explanation God gives in Deuteronomy 11 about rain and water and stuff, and I brought it up here because God says in Deuteronomy 11, you know.

Well, no, I'll start at verse 10, 11:10. The land that you're entering to take possession of, it's not like the land of Egypt from which you've come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables. But the land that you're going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys.

Now, we're talking about the higher parts of the ridges, hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven and a land that the Lord your God cares for. Right. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

So, you know, the choice should be: where is God going to bless the land? According to Deuteronomy 11, now this is Moses. Right. So again, 400 years later. 400 years later.

So God determines that when he brings him out of Egypt 400 years later and the dependence on the Nile River, he's going to say, no, that's not how it's going to work here. No, you're going to depend on me. You're going to depend on me to bring rain and dew.

So when Lot chooses, he looks down, he sees a green valley like the Nile and says, I'm going down there. Right. So, So at the end of verse 11 back in Genesis, thus they separated from each other. And listen to the contrast here. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. There's some foreshadowing. Lot looks out and chooses what's well watered but wicked. Right. And he chooses cities.

And you have to remember, they both came out of Ur, which was a very city place. Right. You know, think hanging gardens of Babylon, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

So a lot of the attraction for a lot is that there's cities here. There's civilization here. Civilization. We're not out in the middle of nowhere. And the promise that maybe I don't have to live in a tent anymore.

Right. Which we find out later, he's not living in a tent. No, he's not. Right in the city.

So he's gone back to mankind and civilization here. And Abram is willing to say, well, I'll stay up here on this rocky ridge where Beitel is. And there's no real cities there. I mean, they're just villages. That's about it.

Yeah.

So after Lot leaves, the conversation comes back with the Lord, right? Verse 14: The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him. He doesn't say after Abram had separated from Lot. He says, After Lot had left him. Lot separated him.

Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can also be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.

So twice he says, I'm going to give this to you, everything you can see from here. Yep, yep.

Verse 18: So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. Yeah, yeah. Good move.

Well, it's interesting because there's that parallel statement. You know, Lot goes and settles among the cities and moved his tent even as far as Sodom. And in response to the Lord, Abram moves his tent. More into the center of the land, center of the promised land, settles at the oaks near Hebron. Yeah, yeah.

Hebron has a distinction too. You know, when David becomes king, it's the first center, and then by direction, God moves him up to Jerusalem to the Jebusites. But Hebron's the beginning of that. Hebron's also interesting. I had never known this until I looked up this time.

Hebron means confederacy.

So it kind of hints about the fact that there were already many clans there, which is kind of an interesting thing. And it's also geographically, it's the highest elevation in the entire ridge that we know where Jerusalem is and going further north that runs north-south.

So it's the highest spot.

So in a sense, it's the high ground. And in ancient times, the high places were considered the more holy places because they're closer to heaven.

So it's as though he's going to, where there's a lot of people, turns out, maybe not a lot, but some because of the Confederacy. But he's going to a high place that seems like the place where God might be. He's not building his own tower like Babel. No. And he's building an altar to the Lord.

And he builds an altar. He's in the highest place. Right. And he says, this is where I will settle. Yeah.

Because I can see the whole land from here. Yeah, exactly. To this very day, if you visit Israel, if you want to go to Abraham's tomb, it's in Hebron. Yeah, I have not been there. We were not able to go to Hebron.

I was there once and had stones thrown at me by people that are there. But yeah, to this very day, that's the place is Hebron. Very tightly connected with Abraham and principally, first of all, here.

So I was talking about, I think it was last time I was talking about legal claims on property. If you see back in verse 14, he says, lift up your eyes.

So you see it first. Right. And then you go down to 17, arise and walk for the length of walk on it.

So that's kind of the claiming process. You see it, and then you claim it by walking on it. And, you know, it made me think too, I don't know where this goes, but you remember before Moses dies, God takes him up to a high place and says, okay, now I'm going to give you a view. I think it's in Deuteronomy. It's at the very end of Deuteronomy, 34.

Yeah, 34, yeah.

So he says, you know, take a look, but you're not going in. You're not going in. You're not going to set foot in it. Right. So it's kind of an interesting distinction.

But here, for his descendants, God says, look and walk it.

So his descendants after that could always say, God gave our ancestor this land. He saw it. He walked it. God made a promise. Look north, south, east, west.

Everything you can see, that's what God gave to our people through Abraham. Yeah.

And it's interesting, too, that he says your descendants are going to be as many as the offspring or the dust of the earth. He says that twice. And he's going to give Abram two more pictures in the next couple of chapters, right? Your offspring will be as many as the dust of the earth. They'll be as many as the stars in the heavens.

They'll be as many as the sand on the seashore. Sand on the seashore. You know, these uncountable, impossibly uncountable things. Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is an amazing thing because Abram's just got Sarai and no kids. No kids still.

So, how is this going to be? And God reinforces it here and says, Look, there's plenty of space here, enough space that your descendants are going to be so numerous that you won't even be able to count them, but this will still be enough space. Yeah.

Which is a which was an interesting contrast from when they're in the south and they said, We don't have enough space for our flocks and our herdsmen. But God says, What you see will be enough for so many that you won't even be able to number them. People, not flocks and herds. People, yeah, yeah.

So, so it's God stating, My promise is bigger than you can even imagine. Yeah, yeah, based on what you said. What I love about this also is that the description of Lot going and settling near the cities. But Abram believing God and settling here under the oak trees, that right in the middle of the place that God has promised, but he's not looking for a city. And that's actually what the writer of Hebrews praises.

About him in chapter 11 of Hebrews. He says he went out to sojourn in the land of promise because he was looking for a city that had foundations, a city built by God. Built by God. That's the distinction. That's the distinction.

And he'd come out of Ur, which was a city built by God. Built by man. And we see here Lot being kind of seduced by the fact that he saw cities down in Sodom. Right. And he's attracted to that civilization in the midst of the wild place here.

No more living in tents. But Abram was willing to live in tents until he found a city built by God himself. And that's an amazing whole statement from Hebrews has always just struck me really deeply because Abram wanted to go someplace that God was going to build, not he was going to build. And not only was God, was Abram not going to build his descendants, God was going to build his descendants. And he's here in this place where he has no kids.

So clearly, the future hope is 100% in the promise. It's in the promise. And is Abram willing to stay in the center of the promise? Even though there's no magnificent cities where I am and there are no children.

So will God surmount what I see as insurmountable problems?

Well, you'll have to wait as we read. We'll find out as we read on. Or you can read ahead. Or you can read ahead. But to Abram's credit, he doesn't seem to whine right here.

And he doesn't go to God after a lot makes his choice and say, well, God, he took the green stuff. And there's people that have cities down there, and it's just not fair. And I'm going to be stuck up here on this ridge that you visit today. It's dry and rocky. It's dry and rocky.

He doesn't whine at all. He seems to be quite. content. To just let Lot go, to let Lot separate from him. And then, and then, instead of whining at that point, I love the drama.

This God says, okay, now that he's gone. Look in every direction. Every direction. Lot chose down there, but I am giving you everything you can see. It's the difference between taking and receiving in terms of God's promises.

Lot was a taker. Abram was a generous giver, but But he is a very contented receiver of the promise. And God reinforces that at this point and says, Don't worry. It's all on the plane. And the distinction between faith and sight is also a theme that runs all the way through the scriptures, right?

Lot chose on the basis of what he could see. See Abraham. Abram at this point chose on the basis of what he could not yet see, but believed. But he believed. That's probably, for me, it's the most important distinction of this whole section right here: faith versus sight.

Choosing to believe the word of God and what he promises by faith that he's going to carry it out, or do I choose based on what I can see? what I can confirm. And of course, God's going to be good to His promise all the way through this. God's promise is always good. And our sight is often flawed.

And so that's a theme that even Paul picks up. And it starts right here in Genesis 13 with Abram and Lot making their choices. It's just a remarkable theme that goes all throughout. You know, and we also brought this up as well. It's a great theme here of.

of generosity and peacemaking. You know, and and uh some some of Abram's motivation is to bring peace to the the herdsmen that are fighting, right, and offers to generously give away What could have threatened his own future, but he knew that God was sufficient to provide for Abram, so it wasn't a threat, really, even though it's the greenest thing you can see.

So, there's this wonderful generosity and peacemaking you see coming from Abram, and it's really all couched in his. Trust that God's promise is solid, even if I give some away, if I let Lot take some away, that God's promise is still solid. And then God comes back and reinforces it and says, Absolutely, because look, you look in every direction, I'm giving you all the land you see.

So Of course there's enough, because it's my promise. Yeah.

Uh So the whole thing feels peaceful at this point. You can imagine that Abram kind of breathed a sigh of relief when he no longer had to go slogging out to settle disputes between the varying herdsmen. Right. Right. Hmm.

Yeah.

And we're going to find him in this same place. 25 years later, this is the scene. He stays here. He stays here. You know, this made me think not too long ago, we were studying Ezra and Nehemiah, and Nehemiah recounts this.

in a public presentation he does. And as he's praying to God out loud, Nehemiah says, You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven. You brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

So the descendants went in, possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, gave them into their hand with their kings and their peoples and their land, that you might do with them as they would. And then he goes on and talks about how faithful God was in terms of actually Following through with his promise. Here we are, hundreds of years.

Well, the time of Ezra, we're talking almost a thousand years after that. Exactly, a long time. And so it's great that Nehemiah is saying, this is what you promised. Multiply them as the stars of heaven, and you've done it. And here we are looking at the fulfillment of that promise.

It's just such a great thing to see it here, pronounced in the promise. And then for Nehemiah, so many, so many centuries later, to say it happened. And here we are, we're standing in the middle of it. Yeah, it's a great deal.

Well next time Lot's going to find himself in a fix because although he's living down there in that lush land down there in Sodom and Gomorrah, it's not the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Another cataclysm happens before that. And he needs his uncle to come and bail him out.

So we're going to see that the next time we come back to this, and we'll see what kind of thing Lot gets into. How bad can it get?

Well, it's not his fault. No, it's not his fault. It's not his fault. And you would think that even though here in verse 7, in verse 14, it says that Lot separated from him when he got in trouble. He came back.

Abram was faithful, faithful and responded. Who acts? Yeah.

So, yeah, so read ahead because this is a story I didn't learn as a child. Oh, you didn't? My Bible studies, Bible stories as a child. I didn't learn in Sunday school about this rescue that Abram makes of his nephew. I was much older when I learned that.

So, read ahead. Maybe you've never read it either. And it also leads us on a wonderful path in the story when he comes back from rescuing them, meeting a fascinating fellow that we'll talk about forever after the end of this rescue.

So, come back next time. We'll look into this rescue. We'll look into this fix that Lot finds himself in. We'll look at the graciousness of Abram, even though he has separated from Lot to save him. and this wonderful mystery character.

So we'll see you here next time on More The Me. More than me. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note. Wow, what a contrast between Lot and Abram, right?

Lot chooses for himself on the basis of what he can see, and Abram waits for God to give it. Yep, a taker and a receiver. What a great contrast to with Abram and his nephew. Come back next time. Yeah, bye.

This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.