ABRAHAMıS FAITH About God providing To Know: ³Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) (Gen. 13:10) Abram and Lot were very different men. The strife between their herdsmen became the occasion that exposed an estrangement much deeper than grazing rights and water rights. Whether Abram meant to or not, by offering his nephew to choose first where he would settle, the father of the faithful and the friend of God got to see what was in the heart of his brotherıs son. What he saw was a ³me first² spirit. Lot did what a ³me first² mindset does, he chose what was best for himself. And he chose based on how things appeared to him. He chose for himself and he chose by sight. Abram, on the other hand, willingly took the left-overs. In Genesis 12, we saw that Abram was humbled in Egypt. We have no evidence that Abram should have fled to Egypt in the first place. God led him to the promised land where he pitched his tent between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. Famine, not God, led him to go for help to Egypt. That decision was nothing but trouble for Abram and the Egyptians both. When we flee because of the famines in our lives, the remedy is to go back to where the Lord directed us to go. In Genesis 13, Abram is back ³to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There (he) called on the name of the Lord.² (13:3,4) When we walk with the Lord, it must be by the light of his word. Things are simply not as they appear. It appeared to Lot that heading in the direction of Sodom was a wise choice. At the end, he and his were saved by the skin of their teeth. Presently, the government is making every effort to play God in our lives. It is only an appearance. God has promised to provide. ³God will provide,² was the confidence of Abraham. (See Gen. 22:8,14) God provided his Son on the very mountain where Abraham went expecting to sacrifice Isaac. It did not appear that a crucified peasant could give eternal life but those who have chosen him know that he does. 011310$-011310 <{{{{{{>< Other posts: |