MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Reader: John Renfree
Scripture:Genesis 12:1-9; 13:1-18
Project map – https://bible-history.com/maps/abrahams-journeys
Here is, once again, the map we have looked at these past two Sundays. It shows the journey of Abraham – or Abram as he was then known – travelling with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and led by his father Terah to Harran. God had told Abram to go to Canaan, but Terah had interfered with the complete fulfillment of that journey by leading the family to Harran and having them settle there for scholars believe to have been a period of 15 years. In reviewing what God had told Abram in His calling of him, John Renfree will read for us from Genesis 12, but before he does, I will point out some places he will mention: Harran, Canaan, Shechem, Bethel, Ai, and the Negev.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
So, Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. (Genesis 12:1-9)
Abram didn’t know where in Canaan God would ultimately have him settle. Everywhere he went, Abram built altars of worship to YHWH: at Bethel, at Ai, and at the first place he stayed at: “the great tree of Moreh at Shechem”, a spot used by the Canaanites for the worship of their gods. In the presence of the Canaanites, those worshippers of other gods, we read that Abram “called on the name of YHWH”. He was a bold worshipper. Abram walked the entire length of the region, from north to south, and ended up in the Negev, a desert area in the far south. While there, a famine hit the land, and Abram decided to go to Egypt. Abram’s first mistake in obeying God’s command to go to Canaan had been letting his father Terah waylay him for 15 years in Harran, a city in which YHWH was not honoured, but where the moon god Sin was. Abram’s second mistake was leaving Canaan and going to Egypt, a place YHWH had not told him to go to. Instead of trusting YHWH to provide for him in Canaan, Abram put his trust in Egypt’s Pharaoh. We won’t read through that event today, for it is replicated in Genesis 20 and so we will study both events when we get to that chapter. However, in going to Egypt, Abram made a third mistake. YHWH spared his life and, with his tail between his legs, Abram returned to Canaan. Ok, on to a second map:
Project map – https://bible-history.com/maps/abrahams-world
The name places that John Renfree will mention in his next reading, from Genesis 13, will include Egypt, Zoar, the Negev, the fertile plains of the Jordan River valley, extending from the Sea of Galilee down to Sodom and Gomorrah at the southern end of the Dead Sea, the hill country of Canaan, and 3 of its towns: Bethel, Ai, and Hebron.
So, Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. So, Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole 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.” Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So, Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” So, Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord. (Genesis 13:1-18)
Lot had been as a son to Abram. Lot’s father, Abram’s brother, had died so Abram and Sarai took Lot as their own, into their home. Abram loved Lot, so when God promised Abram, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you”, he no doubt thought it would be through Lot, for Abram had no offspring of his own. But, after Lot and Abram had separated, YHWH again spoke to Abram, this time being more specific about the nation that would come through him. YHWH told Abram, “I will make your offspring” that nation, i.e. a son.
In his love for Lot, Abram let him choose where to dwell with his herds and flocks and herdsmen. Lot chose the more desirable location, that of the Jordan River Valley, but that, we will see, ended up being a choice that would bring him much grief. But Abram let Lot make his choice which meant that Abram had to settle in the undesirable hill county of Canaan, where he pitched his tent by “the great trees of Mamre at Hebron”. Chuck Swindoll explains, “The Canaanites had shrines in groves of oak trees”, and so the fact that the first place in Canaan Abram settled was by the “great tree of Moreh at Shechem” and then, the last place he settled was, “Near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron”, had significance. Remember that YHWH promised Abram would be a blessing to the world. Abram did this first by being a witness to the Canaanite worshipers of fertility gods who believed that large trees were evidence of the reproductive power associated with the area; they thought one could become more fertile by worshiping there. By building altars to YHWH in those spots of Canaanite shrines and the worship of other gods, Abram was showing the Canaanites that YHWH was the one true God whom they should be worshipping and trusting in for all things, including fertility. We read in Genesis 23 that the Canaanites ended up saying to Abraham as he was known by then, “You are a mighty prince among us.” Abram/Abraham standing was a witness to the Canaanites was the first way in which he would be a witness to the world. By doing so, Abram showed we who live in a similar world of idols and idolatry how to witness for the one true God.
Abram would be a blessing to the world in a second way, in that through his family line, the Messiah would come. This was a key moment in redemptive history as it showed that God had a firm plan now in place of a people set apart for him – the Hebrews, the Israelites, the Jews – through whom God would indeed bless all the people on earth. Salvation for all would start with the Jews but, eventually, God promised to bless all the people of the earth through Abram’s offspring, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, through. When YHWH told Abram, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted” he was referring to spiritual offspring, people of the saving faith that came to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.
“Love came down at Christmas”, we earlier heard sung. That love really began to take shape with Abram’s obedience to YHWH in going to Canaan and being a witness of Him there. With the fourth Advent candle, that of love, we focus on God’s love for us; a love shown to Abram and Sarai in the promise of an offspring through which all peoples on earth would be blessed; a love shown its greatest expression through God sending His son Jesus Christ, that “all who believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life.”
