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Abram and Lot Seperate Genesis 13:1-18 Key Verse: 13:15 "All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever." We make many mistakes. When we focus on ourselves we cannot have hope. However, God choses a man and plant a promise of hope for his life. Today, we see two men. Both of them had many mistakes and weak points. However, one of them kept going on the way of faith, where God's promise was, while the other chose to go opposite. Abram and Lot had begun the life of faith together. Lot had gone with Abram when he answered God's call to leave his home country and go to Canaan. Lot learned the life of faith from Abram. But he is an example of a "worldly Christian." He wants to live the life of faith because he knows that it is the best life. But at the same time he wants to enjoy the simple and "harmless" pleasures of the world, too. A fulfilling of God's vision on one's life strongly depends on one's direction, not on smart calculation. May we learn Abram's direction keeping faith, and abandon Lot's calculating mind, through the message! 1. A new beginning (1-4) Last week, we learned how God called Abram and how Abram answered. It was a great calling for Abram and a great decision of Abram. However, in the remaining passage of chapter 12 we see something different. Abram went to Egypt, not based on God's promise, but based on a material problem--there was a famine in Canaan. In Egypt, he makes more mistakes. He was afraid of people there, and lied about his was Sarah, that she was not his wife, but his sister. Because of this mistake, both Sarah and Egypt were greatly endangered. However, In spite of his weakness and mistakes, God helped him, guided him to return to Canaan as a wealthy man. Now, the first thing Abram did was to go to the altar he had built beypt , the one between Bethel and Ai, and call on the name of the Lptd. (3,4) He repented anthe de a new start. He e de a decision to depend on God, not on himan.f Behis me hadthat he e de a new decision of faith to put his trust wholly in the Lord. 2. Lot's choice Lot had gone with him to Egypt, and Lot also returned with him. Lot also became wealthy. Lot was Abram's nephew, and Abram loved him like a son. However, Lot had his own idea. He and his flocks and herds moved about with Abram, but he kept his possessions separate, looking forward to the time when he would go out on his own. Soon, a practical problem arose. (Look at verse 7-8) It was a side-effect of God's abundant material blessing. The land would not support the herds and flocks of both Abram and Lot. There was not enough grazing land(목초지) and not enough water in one place for them both. So the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot began to quarrel over grazing land. To further complicate matters, the Canaanites were also living in the land. If Abram's and Lot's people quarreled and fought, they would be easy prey for hostile and greedy neighbors. Perhaps Abram would have liked it if Lot had made a commitment to live with him like his son, but he realized that the time had come for Lot to make a decision of his own. Abram did not want material things to come between them. In Egypt, he had lied about his wife so that the Egyptians would treat him well. He was too selfish to think about how much his wife would suffer. He had learned a bitter lesson. This time, he put people before material things. His treated relationship with Lot more preciousifethan material things. (Look at verse 8-9) He called Lot and said, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the ws we land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." So he gave Lot first choice of the land and opened the door for him to go out and be independent. He reminds us of the father in the parable of the prodigal son(탕자의 비유). Lot was selfish. He didn't think about stepping back and giving his old uncle first choice. He didn't even consider reducing his herds and flocks to stay with Abram. He looked up and saw the whole plain of the Jordan. He saw that it was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. Lot had some spiritual desire--he longed for the lost paradise, the garden of the Lord. But he also had some worldly desire. He liked the life in the culturally advanced country of Egypt. He longed to live in a city and enjoy the protection and privileges and cultural advantages of city life. The schools seemed better and there seemed to be better advantages for his daughters. He was ready to leave the simple and rough life of living in tents and moving from place to place. So he chose the plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east, toward Sodom. He thought he chose the best life place for his future. In human thinking, he made a best decision. But look at verse 10c. The author gives us a hint about what is to come by his parenthetical remark: "This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." Now, Abram and Lot seperated. Their separation seems like a small thing, but it set the direction of two lives. The author says, (12) "Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom." He whes on to say, (13) "Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord." Abram lived in the land of promise, the land of God's blessing. Lot did not whiinto Sodom aThe aut, but he moved closer and closer. He knew what he was doing. He thought that he could both enjoy the world and keep his faith, by living in Sodom. Lot surely did not intend to abandon his faith. He did not intend to become one of those who joi in the people of Sodom in sinning greatly against the Lord. He only wanted to enjoy some of the benefits of living near Sodom. However, later on, we see the tragicin siequences of Lot's decision to move erwanfrom Abram toward Sodom. We must realize that a man cannot serve both God and mamms o재물ay,A Christian cannot deliberately chose to live a compromised life ot liveblessed. R pitc, a Christian who tries to do so wilwheuffer dom imore than one who tot. R pbelongsthe direworld. We wilwheee the n siequences of his decision when we study chapter 19. 2. God's promise (14-18) Verse 14 begins, "The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him..." Lot's departure left a big hole in Abram's life. He missed Lot. He was lonely. Lot was like a son. He had not felt his childless problem as long as Lot was moving about with him. Now, his childlessness really hit him. Furthermore, he had given the best land to Lot, and Lot had taken it without a second thought. Abram must have had a sense of loss. So, just at this time the Lord came to him. The Lord gave him some physical exercise. He made Abram come out of his tent, climb a high hill and look out over the land. Then, he told him to take a long walk, to walk through the length and breadth of the land, and to walk with his head high, like the owner of the land. God promised to give him all the land his eyes could see--including the land he had just given to Lot. Not only this, God promised to give him offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth. Abram believed this promise. We know that he believed it because of what he did. He took a long walk south to Hebron, and he built an altar there to the Lord. He worshipped God. His act of worship was an act of faith. He gave his wounded heart to God. He no longer felt that he had lost something, because he now had a promise to the whole land. It was a promise made over to him by the Owner and Possessor of all things. Abram solved his material security problem by accepting God's word of promise. He would never again run from a famine or allow material things to dominate his heart and life. He believed God, and he believed God's blessing. This promise of God was not new; it was the same promise Abram had believed when he left Haran and came to Canaan. This promise was like his Bible. God would remind him of this promise at least 3 more times(times of crisis in his life). Each time, God helped Abram with his word of promise. God did not help him with any tangible thing. Stephen says of him, "He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." (Acts 7:5) Our choices are important. We must learn to make choices based on faith in God's promises, not on human calculations. And we must find our real security in God and in his promises. What is our land and what is our direction? It may vary according to our personal dream and vision. But before everything, we should check if our direction and aim are based on God's promise. We must follow the direction upon which God's promise is. If our dream is accordance with God's promise, that dream will be absolutely fulfilled by God. So, what is God's promise? It may also vary for each person. We can find many dreams or vision based on various words in Bible. But through out the whole bible, we extract a core promise that is common for all who believe. As for Abram, God also wants us to believe and become a blessing. This God's vision is realized through Jesus Christ. Anyone who believe Jesus can be blessed and be a blessing. Paul said in Act 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household as well" In this generation, only Gospel of Jesus can truly be a blessing for one's life. God is one who saves. He saves a man, he saves a nation, he saves a generation, through his servants. With human ambition, we can dream some success and preasure that are only for ourselves. But when God call a man, he saves people, a nation, even a generation through the man he chose. He saved Jacob's family and the whole region of Egypt from the great famine, through one person Joseph. He saved the whole people of Israel in Babylon through one servant Esther. When Abram had no promise of God, his one and only dream was to have one child. Even that one and only dream could not come true since his was Sarah was barren. However, when God - God who wanted to save the whole world, had a plan in Abram's life, and when Abram believed it, his life changed and he became a father of one nation. Then the nation gave birth to the Christ, who truly saved the whole world. Likewise, when one person dreams in God's promise, the fruit of it will be beyond our imagination. May we all have God's personal promise in our heart, and follow it by faith! Through the bible study, God gives us personal promise upon our life. When we study Abraham, God promises us to change our life as a blessing. When we study Issac, God promises to give each one of us the best and the most beautiful life-long coworker. God promise that we will be a leader of one nation as we study Joseph. Those promises truly make us be excited. However, just being excited and to keep it until it is fulfilled are different. Many are excited when they hear the promise of God. But in a real life, they face difficulties of following the promise. As time goes by, there seem to be many other ways that look better and more realistic. Lot could not bear this burden so he left. He decided to go a better-looking way in his human eyes. But the result was a tregedy as we will see in chapter 19. What made Abram different from Lot? The difference is this. Lot saw what his human eyes saw. But Abram saw what God showed. God showed Abram the whole land on which his discendents will dwell. God showed him numerous stars in the sky that will be like his discendants. What God showed Abram was not something that he can touch or something that was already fulfilled. It was just a vision. But those visions enabled Abram to keep his faith and follow God's direction to the end. God shows us his vision through various ways. We can see how our life will be, by learning the lives of faithful servants in the bible. God sometimes shows us vision by sending us to certain place or region to see it. Our shepherds or church leaders can be a channel that we see our vision. Most of all we can more and more clearify his vision when we pray and read the bible. Whatever the way is, God shows each one of us hen we l vision. God encourages us to keep our faith, by showing us his vision. The world show many things that attracts our human eyes. Many of them are reasonable according to our calculation. But only the life upon God's promise has true meaning. We must see what God shows. Today we learned two men's different decision. Although it looked similar at the beginning, the result was totally different. We must follow the way of Abram. We must hold the God's promise. We must see what God shows. We must go where God sends. May we all be awake and be encouraged to go the right way everyday! |
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