Abraham
Father of Faith P-2
Genesis
11:26-28 And Terah lived seventy
years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these are the
generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and
Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the
land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Note here that Terah was aged
70 when Abram was born Terah lived until he was 205 we need
to be able to follow Terah by age to know how long he lived
in relation to what was going on in Abram’s life.
Genesis
11:29-30 And Abram and Nahor took them wives:
the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's
wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and
the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Abram
marries Sarai and finds that Sarai was barren. And even so Abram
loves her, he does not divorce her, or take unto himself a second
or third wife.
Genesis 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of
Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son
Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees,
to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and
dwelt there.
Terah is the family
Patriarch so the above verse is written with Terah leading the
family out of Ur of Chaldees. And we would not understand anything
else about this verse except for the fact that we are told something
different in Genesis 15:7.
Genesis 15:7 And God said unto Abram, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees,
to give thee this land to inherit it.
This verse of scripture fundamentally alters the meaning of
Genesis 11:32. So we now know that it was Abram’s call and visitation
of God while he was in Ur of Chaldees. (Note
here that Abram was “born in Babel.”This has end time significance.
We explore this in detail in a study about Zechariah’s prophecy
concerning the coming of Zerubbabel) It is Abram’s
call that precipitates Terah to lead Abram and Lot to the city
of Haran.
In reading a little further we find a fuller
explanation of what God commanded when he visited Abram in Ur
of Chaldees:
Genesis
12:1 “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed.
So Abram was called
to forsake his country, his
kindred, his father’s house and his lands and
was to go to a land that I will shew thee. And I will make thee a great nation.
First I want you
to consider that this is the same call that is later given to
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, the prophets, John
the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles and even to all
those who would be His disciples in this hour. (We
are to be wanderers, sojourners, strangers in this world, having
no certain address, being like the wind no one knowing where
we came from or where we go next as we seek that eternal city
not make with human hands, a city whose builder and maker is
God)
Hebrews
11:9-10 By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles (Tents)
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise: For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is
God.
Matthew 10:37 He
that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me.
Matthew
19:29 And
every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters,
or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my
name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life.
However we find in
this call that Abram is an extraordinary man in that he not
only loves his barren wife, and does not put her away or gather
to himself other wives, but now
we see that Abram has told his father Terah and his nephew Lot
of God’s visitation in his life and what God has spoken to him.
That he (Abram)
is to become a great nation. So Abram convinces his Father and
his nephew Lot to give up all their houses and lands as well
and to follow Abram in his calling to this promised land and
promised nation. And
the three leave their name, and reputations behind, to seek
this land, which God will show Abram.
As I have already
mentioned we see this same thing in the lives of Moses, David
and Christ, but I want to talk about Jesus Christ and His example
in this matter..
Philippians 2:7-8 But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Consider
now Christ’s own example. While
it is not widely preached in this corrupt day, we need to know
that before Jesus began His ministry He forsook all. He left
His earthly father, mother, brothers, sisters, and brethren.
But we need to ask, wasn’t Christ also the first born
in his family? Yes indeed He was. And that had great significance as to Jesus’ standing in the house
of Joseph of Nazareth.
Jesus
was entitled to not only the family name as the firstborn, but
He was entitled to the full family inheritance as well. – And
that would have consisted of 1) The family carpentry business,
2) The family home, 3) And whatever wealth and possessions Joseph
had accumulated over the last 30 or so years.
So
we see that Christ not only left His father, mother, brothers,
sisters, and brethren to follow God but He left houses and lands
and His entire family inheritance as well.
In other words in Jesus Christ we see demonstration of
what He taught, before He taught. This is direct contrast to
the Pharisees of who Christ testified that they were those that:
Taught commandments but did not do them themselves.
Jesus
walked in His own commandments long before He issued them to
His disciples. So we can say with some certainty here that Jesus
gave up everything that He owned or had rights to in this world.
And that in actuality according to the Gospels Jesus
during his entire ministry possessed only the sandals that He
wore, the one garment that He wore, and a cloak. (
I included a cloak because he let his disciples take a cloak)
Mark 6:3 Is not this (Jesus) the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother
of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his
sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. I have read in Justin Martyr’s writings in 160 AD that Jesus was
a carpenter of farm implements – more particularly Justin Martyr
tells us that Jesus had made ox yokes, and plows.
It
is an indisputable fact that Christ made Himself of no reputation
before He even began His ministry in Capernaum. So if Christ
lived and demonstrated what He preached, when then did Jesus
receive his hundred fold of houses, lands, mothers, and fathers,
sisters and brothers and 100 fold of His earthly inheritance
that he gave up?. The answer is in the Gospels Jesus said: Ye
are my brethren my mother and father if . . .
It
the New Testament we see that Jesus
was given houses and lands in only the most temporary sense,
when He and his disciples were fed and/or taken care of by others. In fact Christ did not own anything except the sandals that He wore,
the one garment that He wore every day for three and one half
years, and a cloak of some sort.
I
want you to firmly see that like Abram, Jesus willing gave up
all to become a sojourner in the land of Israel, and that like
Abram of old Christ too was seeking a kingdom that was not made
with hands.
With
that said, we need to see that Jesus Christ gave up more than
his earthly inheritance as the firstborn of Joseph of Nazereth.
For something far more powerful transpired during Christ’s
ministry in his seeking to make himself of no reputation. After Jesus gave up houses and lands and was
baptized by John the Baptist, the bible says Jesus went into
the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. –The
third temptation was when the devil showed Christ in a vision
all the kingdoms of the earth and said: “It is mine to give
to whom I will. If you
will bow before me I will give you all these kingdoms.
– To this Christ responded:
Thou shalt only worship the Lord your God. And then the bible records that the devil
left him for a season.
We
need to now see that during Christ’s ministry as the Messiah,
Jesus was the anointed heir apparent to the throne of David.
And from the point that the devil left him, the serpent then
sent in his surrogates. In other words from that day forth all
those around Jesus continually offered or asked Jesus to take
the throne of David. How
so? It was in His being called and recognized as the Messiah.
It was in Christ being called the Son of David. These names
had implicit rights that He could have assumed. And all that
were around him expected to assume those implicit rights.
It
was in the questions that Pontius Pilot asked Jesus. It was
in the rage of the Pharisees, and Priests. Do not think for
a minute that if Christ would have assumed the throne that these
men would have not bowed to their Savior. Their rage was that
Christ was not the warrior king that was to free them from the
yolk of Rome and put them in theocratic rule over all that had
originally been promised to Abram.
John 10:23-25 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews
round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and
ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they
bear witness of me.
Further
Jesus being the Messiah and the heir of the throne of David
was on the lips of all of Israel, so that when Jesus as Jesus
rode into Jerusalem on the donkey there was incredible pressure
exerted on Christ to take the throne that day. And we can say by the testimony of the Gospels
that these same words were continually on the lips of Christ’s
blind and carnal disciples.
We see them as they fought continually about their positions
in Christ’s earthly kingdom. And at what one might consider
the Holiest point of His ministry; during the last supper the
disciples fought among themselves as to who would be on the
left and right hand sides of Christ literal earthly throne.
And even after the resurrection the question came up once again
Wilt thou at this
time take your kingdom? To which Christ said: No.
John 6:15
When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
Why did Christ depart alone? Why did he not take the twelve
with him? It is because they desired the very same thing of
Him. So Christ left and hid Himself from His disciples and His
followers in a mountain alone until this foment to make Him
an earthly King cooled off.
For
over three decades I have heard preachers time and time again
proclaim that Christ at any time could have taken what was rightfully
His. (And they mean His earthly
kingdom.) They say that Christ could have taken
the throne of David at will. And all will say a hearty Amen
to this. And with this same earthly sensual logic these same
preachers tell us that it is not Christ’s will that any of us
should be poor. That it is not Christ’s will that any of us
should be sick, and that Christ has given this world into the
hands of the Church so that we can rule and reign with Him here
and now.
What
I am going to say now has been a mystery, and I cannot expect
anyone to understand it except that the Father has given it
to them.
It
is utterly false that Christ could have taken the throne of
David at anytime. As He had forsaken his natural
father, mother, sisters, brothers, houses, and lands, and made
Himself of no reputation. So too did Christ forsake his inheritance
as the Messiah and Heir to David’s throne. He forsook Jerusalem,
He forsook the palace of Herod, He forsook the royal lands,
and he forsook all those that would have been His servants that
at His word, He forsook all that would have sworn instant allegiance
to Him. And this is
the point on which the devil goaded and tempted Christ almost
daily to seize upon it.
How
could this have been sin? How could this have been wrong if
He was the Messiah? The answer is simple
it was sin because it was NOT
the will of the father at that time.
If there ever was a person that we could say every promise
in the book was His, that would have been Jesus Christ. – And
yet none of "these earthly things" were His for the
claiming, for the confessing, or for the taking, as our friends
who teach the Word of Faith message insist that they were. Consider
alone the words “Physician
heal thyself.”
And realize that even after Jesus rose from the dead and Christ
was in no less than His glorified body – which was indeed without
spot or wrinkle, but see that these wounds remained.
Remember
on the day that Simon Peter rebuked Christ and said that He
should not die, and Christ turned around and rebuked Satan for
speaking through Peter’s mouth. What I am trying to convey here is that Peter
was not the only one voicing the devil’s siren song for Christ
to take matters into his own hands and to seize that earthly
natural kingdom for himself.
The devil was using almost any mouth that could speak
to tempt to trick to divert and to chide Christ into sinning.
He was tested on all points – Hopefully now you can see this a little
more clearly.
Thank God Christ
was not taken in by any of this talk.
Thank God Jesus refused to accept any of it, or entertain
the thought of it for a even for a minute. Even the day when
the rich young ruler came and Christ could have easily accepted
his gifts and offerings He steadfastly refused any part of it
for himself from this man.
And instead of having receiving the endless offers of
gifts and handouts of men, Jesus testified in the last few days
before he was crucified: “Foxes have holes and birds have
nests but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
I have
known believers and preachers that have in my hearing said if
satan would have offered them the all kingdoms of the world
they would have at least considered accepting them. Some also
added that in accepting the kingdoms of this world from satan’s
hand they believed that somehow that they could do the greater
good of preaching the Gospel than without such a gift from the
devil. (How deluded are we when
we are freinds with the world and love the things of this world,
seek personal earthly wealth and riches, and crave to exert
earthly power and authority over others?)
These
were students in a bible school. These were students that wanted
to be preachers, pastors, and teachers. These came ready to
deal with the devil to "have a more effective ministry"
– but Christ did not, Christ refused.
It
has long been brought to my attention and demonstrated time
and again over the last 35 years that believers, preachers,
churches, denominations, and Christian organizations will accept
money and donations from any source, even when it comes even
from the most corrupt and contemptible sources.
And then adding sin to sin these “Christians” unflinchingly
declare the source of these corrupt offerings as the workings
of God.. We will further examine this issue
as it presents itself in the coming chapters.
Genesis 11:32 And the days
of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in
Haran. This verse does not mean Terah died chronologically at this time.
In order to see how long Terah was alive during the narrative
in the next few chapters, you have to do the math knowing that
when Abram was born Terah was 70 years old and he lived until
he was 205. In the next Chapter we find that Abram leaves a
live Terah in Haran when Abram is 75 so that would make Terah
age 145 at the beginning of Chapter 12, and Terah lives on for
another 60 years which means that he would lived until Isaac
was about age 30.
Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD
had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and
thou shalt be blessed: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed.
So
when Abram had left Ur of Chaldees his obedience had only been
a partial obedience. Because before leaving Abram had managed
to convince his father Terah and his nephew Lot to come along
with him. Abram had quite probably promised the two of them
a share of the kingdom that God promised him. Going to Haran
was probably Terah’s idea as Haran was actually family held
property that had belonged to Haran.
Haran was Terah’s other son making him Abram’s brother.
Gen 12:5 confirms Haran was been Abram’s brother.
As
nice and as caring and sharing as this may sound, the call of
God in Abrams life was a matter of obedience and purpose. The
obedience being Abram’s, and the purpose being God’s. On the
surface it sounds good that Abram had preached to others what
God had spoken and promised to him. And on the surface Abram sounds quite spiritual and humble of Abram
inviting Terah and Lot to come along with him to witness and
experience and share in Abram’s promise and call.
I
admit that that I did not see this at all when even though I
have read this passage repeatedly. It took the Lord, opening
these things up to me, opening my eyes and ears to see these
things. The natural man receiveth not . . . What I was made
to see here was that Abram had altered, he had changed his call
of being a king and priest unto God, into what we will term
as salvation by committee. I only saw this after I prayed and
meditated on God’s word and God saw fit to show this to me.
So
that once Abram adjoined himself to Terah and Lot when God spoke
to Abram, he would in turn tell this committee of co-equals. And Terah and Lot along with Abram probably mostly Terah and Lot
would then decide what God was saying, and how they were to
best proceed.
Understandably
Terah and Lot had quite different interests in this kingdom
and the lands than Abram or God did.
It is important to note that at no time during
all of this did God appear to either Terah or Lot. I hope that we can see that Abram bringing these
two in tow was in fact a rather faithless approach on the part
of Abram. In so doing Abram wanted God but he also wanted to
retain his ties to his worldly family and friends.
We could describe Abram as being double-minded here,
one foot in God and the other in the world. The separation that
God required of Abram was not the utter separation of Asceticism
and Monasticism.
The
Church for 1800 years has told its believers that spirituality
entails the practice self-inflicted suffering, take a vow of
abject poverty, and living a life of physical separation from
all human communication and activity.
However in the following chapters we will see that the
separation that God call Abram, Isaac Jacob, Joseph, David,
the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles was never the separation
of Asceticism or Monasticism, but instead God wanted Abram separated
unto Him, and the "Church" that was to form around
Abram (Unknown at that time to
Abram) and Abram was to lead this "flock:
that God was to give him. But first Abram had to come into obediance
himself. (What a radical thought)
Abram had to first enter into a state of faithfulness
And in so doing Abram would then be able to teach and impart
unto them the ways of righteousness so that they might be able
to come unto the same relationship with God as Abram had. What Abram was to teach and to do was not to
have been filtered and interpreted by any committee.
So
after Abram's partial obedience
God appears again and repeats to Abram exactly
what he had originally spoken to him in Ur of Chaldees, That
God had made the promise to Abram and Abram alone, and that
this kingdom that God had promised did not apply to Terah or
to Lot.
Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD
had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt (be blessed): And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed.
So
then God begins to speak of blessings. And while I read this
passage I suddenly knew that I was looking at something that
was written in the New Testament.
I searched in concordance and no matter what key words
I used from this text I could not find a single passage that
linked up with the words of this blessing. I did however find
number of passages that recounted the phrase “Bless and curse
not” but not the whole verse. Still I felt very strongly in
my sprit that this verse held great significance.
I
then understood for the first time that the words in Genesis
in the KJV in places were not correct and had been altered by
the translators, resulting in that certain passages had been
obscured -- from the scriptures their either were taken from
or where written to cite. I knew that somewhere in the NT one
or more passages referred to this momentous group of blessings
and promises given to Abram.
So
I found myy self lead by the Lord to the Greek Septuagint and
in examining this passage in the Greek I found that in this
passage only one Greek word was used for “Blessing” in every
spot. As I read this I felt unsettled in my spirit and knew
that this was still not correct. So I opened my Hebrew interlinear
and as near as I could tell I saw at least 4 different words
in Hebrew. Since my
Hebrew is not very good I then went to Strongs’ Concordance
(Something that I normally speak
against) and found in this case that of these
four words that Strong’s listed only two of the words, and I
noted that the letters of these two words did not match up exactly
with any of the words for blessing in the passage. But the two
words Strong’s had isolated I then looked them up in my Hebrew
Lexicon and found the first word was Barak to Kneel, and Bless.
And the second word was Berakah
A benediction for liberality, and prosperity, or increase.
The
raw Hebrew of Genesis 12:3 seems to read as follows: “And the
one despising you whom you bless will I bless. I will make great
your name. I will make you a blessing. I will curse and bless
all the families of the earth in you.”
Christ
in two Gospels seems to be quoting the Hebrew in Genesis 12:3
Matthew
5:44 But
I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you;
Luke
6:28 Bless them that curse you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you.
Paul the Apostle who seems to quote normally
from the Greek Septuagint instead quotes
From the Hebrew in Genesis 12:3
Romans 12:14 Bless
them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
And
finally David in Psalm 109:28 seems to be quoting the Hebrew
in Genesis 12:3
Psalm
109:28 Let
them curse, but bless thou:
Look
again now at what God Said to Abram:
Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make
of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy
name great; and thou shalt be blessed: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed.
The
second word in the Hebrew for bless Berakah means a benediction
for liberality and prosperity or increase. But Look when I used
a more basic word for bless – increase – lift up – or to rise and take the word curse on a more basic level curse – decrease – put down – or to cause to
fall. Suddenly this seemingly obscure promise to Abram
becomes a very familiar New Testament prophecy
I will (cause
to) curse (Fall) and bless (Rise) all the families
of the earth in you.”
The
second word in the Hebrew for bless Berakah means a benediction
for liberality and prosperity or increase. But Look when I used
a more basic word This very suddenly became a familiar New Testament
prophecy
Luke
2:34 And
Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold,
this child is set for the fall (Curse) and rising (Bless) again
of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall
be spoken against; (Curse -- which
Christ shall bless)
Concerning
the blessing and cursing what God said to Abram’s should read
as follows:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be
blessed: And those that despise you bless them and whom you bless will
I bless: I will
cause the fall and the rise of all the families of the earth
in you.
So
in what God speaks over Abram we now can see that this is a
prophecy concerning Christ the coming one that was in Abram. (Finding
these things by revelation of the Holy Ghost is such an amazing
thing. -- It is joyous, it is thrilling with every verse and
passage that God so opens.)
Concerning
the rise and fall or the curse and blessing let us look at a
few verses.
Psalm
37:23-24 The
steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth
in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth (Shall
raise) him with his hand.
Psalm 72:10-12 The
kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the
kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall
fall down before him: all nations shall
serve him. For he shall deliver the needy (Blessed
are the meek) when he crieth; the poor (Blessed
are the poor in spirit) also, and him that
hath no helper.(Blessed
are those who’s help is in the Lord) These
shall He uphold, these shall He raise with His hand.
Psalm 145:13-15 Thy
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth
throughout all generations. The
LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all
those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat
in due season.
Matthew 21:43-45 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom
of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 8:46-48 And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And
when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling,
and falling down before him, she declared
unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched
him, and how she was healed immediately.
This is a demonstration
of a person falling upon the stone and the Lord raising them
in His hand. Note also Her falling upon the stone included her
making confession not only before God but men. This confession
is not boasting to Christ of what her "spiritual rights"
are, but what her lack and needs are.
Luke 20:17-19 And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that
is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same
is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
John 12:23-25 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the
Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and
he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal.
We understand that
we are called to fall on the stone Christ. But Christ also had
to fall upon the stone of His Father and unless He did that
that He would have been corn of wheat
that abideth alone. He that seeks to save his
life aka he that is not willing to break on the stone, or give
his life for others, he will lose his life. but he that will
seek to fall upon the stone and break before God and is willing
to give his life for others shall be raised up (Blessed)
by the hand of God. Think of this in terms of ministry, and ask yourself what is the
difference between Christ and the Apostles’ ministry and the
powerless self-glorifying ministry of this day?
(Hebrew)
Genesis 12:3
“And the one despising you whom you bless will I bless.
I will make great your name. I will make you a blessing. I will
cause
to fall and rise all the families of
the earth in you.”
Returning
now to the focus of our study Abram the father of faith, we
see that in this blessing God pronounced over Abram, that God
commands Abram that he is to bless those that despised him and
not curse them. That tells us that for receiving
this heavenly gift that God expected Abram to be a man of great
humility, and a man of great mercy. We might say that Abram
was given a ministry to dispense grace and gifts among men.
And we will see this trait in Abram throughout the rest
of this narrative.
So thus far the Lord has had respect upon two
qualities of Abram and one of them was not his faith, not at
least in any way shape of form that we preach today. Abrams
two qualities that God had respect upon were his
obedience and
his grace towards others.
It
should be of some interest that these two qualities embody the
first and the great commandment and the second. Thou shalt love
the Lord they God with all thy heart with all thy soul with
all thy mind and all thy strength and thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.
It
should be of further interest that Moses embodied these two
commands and David embodied these two commands as well. And
it should be of paramount interest to a believer that Christ
embodied these two commands as well.
Genesis 12:4-5 So Abram
departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with
him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed
out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered,
and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth
to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they
came.
And
so at age 75 Abram somewhat reluctantly obeys God and leaves
his father Terah who now is 145 years old behind. But
as we see this is not a full obedience either,
because Abram once again brings Lot along with him and while
on the suface we see Lot is Abram’s dead brother’s son and he
wants to do the right thing by his family --
this act will ultimately have grave consequences. I am
going to voice what I feel. I think that Abram probably told both men it
was the end of the road. But I think that Lot begged or just
followed Abram and refused to give up on what he had been initially
promised by Abram and so in the end Abram felt obliged to accept
Lot as a tagalong – but for the same reasons as stated earlier
Lot was still Abram’s co-equal and was still able to filter
and pass judgment over what God was saying. And so in order
to remove this man who Abram can’t in himself do God allows
Lot to be given up and over to his corrupt desires and lusts.
Genesis 12:6-7 And Abram
passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain
of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD
appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this
land: and there builded he (Abram)
an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Once more because of Abram’s obedience even though it was a partial obedience
God appears to Abram. And God tells Abram that he has indeed
finally arrived in the Promised Land. And then the Lord abruptly
departed – so that Abram will not infer that all he has done
is righteous before the Lord.
And
so in this place Abram builds an altar unto the Lord. First
we need to know that on this altar Abram would have made an
offering specifically a burnt offering to God and in the midst
of making that offering in the rest of the narrative scripture
adds another detail that Abram would then: “Call there upon
the name of the Lord.”
So
God bodily appears to Abram and speaks a few brief words and
then He leaves. But Abram like us probably has some questions
that remained unanswered. So Abram builds an altar makes a burnt
offering and Abram calls on God -- but nothing happens. It is commonly taught
today that Abram was not calling on God for him to appear and
speak to him but that Abram being filled with gratitude was
giving God the sacrifices and offerings He was due. I feel confident
that the phrase called on the Lord means exactly that, and that
we need to note that God was not pleased here to appear at Abram’s
calling.
Genesis 12:8
And Abram removed from thence unto
a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having
Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded
an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
So Abram moves to a second and probably a "better location"
and again builds God an altar upon which Abram offers his sacrifice.
And in the midst of that Abram calls upon the name of the Lord
again -- but the Lord does not appear to Abram in this place
either. Was not Abram making an offering in faith, and was not
Abram calling upon the Lord in faith? The bible does not say
there Abram blessed and worshipped the Lord, or that Abram was cleansing and consecrating the land, or that Abram made
great prayers. All that
we really need to see here is that Abram has so far built two
altars and called upon the name of the Lord two times and that
there have been zero appearances of God at these altars.
Genesis 12:9-13 And Abram journeyed, going on still
toward the south. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram
went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous
in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter
into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I
know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall
come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall
say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will
save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that
it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live
because of thee.
We need to now consider what is happening in Abram’s life in the
faith realm. God has appeared at this point no less than three
times to Abram. Abram has in tow his flocks, shepherds maids
and men servants, he has also Lot with him and Lots shepherds,
maids and men servants. God promises him this land and tells
him he is on it. Abram builds some altars and God does not appear
but a drought and famine comes and what does Abram do? Does
he declare God gave us this land and He will provide for us
if we stay here and trust in Him? Does Abram declare that by
faith we should stay here and dig some wells and wait for rain?
No Abram says lets head down to Egypt, I hear there is no drought
and famine there. And to further attest to the fact that this
is not such a good idea (Godly
idea) Abram tells
Sarai that he needs her to lie for him that she not Abram's
wife but his availible sister. And Abram declares
that she has to lie no matter where it leads to save Abrams
buns out of the fire. We need to ask the question here did Abram
leave the Promised Land by faith or for fleshly convenience?
We need to ask that if he knew Sarai would be an object of lust
to the point of these people willing to kill Abram for her,
knowing these things could very well happedn was it faith for
Abram to go there anyway? We need to ask was it faith or for
fleshly convenience for Abram swore his wife to lying for him
regardless of the consequences to her? I have heard it preached repeatedly by Pentecostal and Fundamentalist
preachers that Abram lived before the Law of Moses, and that
Abram was free to do anything because in that "dispensation"
all was lawful before God.
Rather than doing their solemn duty to study the word of God with
all their heart and insuring that what they teach is not “urban
church lore” but really in the word of God,
these hirelings take short cuts using other peoples notes, preaching
other peoples sermons, teaching from other peoples books tapes
and seminars. And in so doing they end up invariably speaking
on any number of things they know nothing of, while hoping that
the person they’re teaching from hasn’t taken the same short
cuts that they have taken. What if the Apostles had taken this
slipshot approach when they wrote the gospels and epistles?
Supposedly when you are a preacher you are asking your hearers
to put their life on the line based on what you are teaching
and if you do not think your words have eternal conseqenced
in the ears of your hearerst, you need to seriously rethink
what you are doing because your hearers are making all kinds
of assumptions with eternal ramifications based on what you
are saying and not saying.
Consider
now God’s words in
Genesis 18:17-19 And the LORD
said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing
that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation,
and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
For I know
him, that he will command his children and his household after
him, (that)
they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment;
that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken
of him.
Genesis 26:4-5 And I will
make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give
unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice,
and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
In the Garden of Eden God had laws and commandments. And after the
Garden God made known his laws and commandments and men so transgressed
those laws that God wiped out the whole earth. God then reestablished
his laws and commandments through Noah.
2
Peter 2:5 And
spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person,
a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly.
It is unconscionable that anyone would suggest
that Abram was free from sin as we would understand it, because
there was no law of God, no commandments, and no statues. This
heresy completely alters this passage, and allows people to
come into adjoining passages to make the same erroneous suppositions.
It wipes out any morality of God because at any given moment
one of these "man-made dispensational
divisions could change without warning " and
then where would you stand? Here in the blind deaf and dumb
delerium called dispensationalism -- unless the
Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles read these authors books
and knew the "new rules" of each dispensation these
supposedly lived in -- they probably were not "on message"
at the start of any of these latest dispensations.
The
word of God is one. It can not be cookie cut into seperate pieces
that have nothing to do with each other. The word of God is
one, and reading it as one unity the Old and New Testament is
extremely important to our understanding of what God desires
of us in this hour.
Genesis 12:14-16 And it came to pass, that, when Abram
was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she
was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended
her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep,
and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and
she asses, and camels.
We need to understand that Abram was not
perfect. Abram was a sinner. Since I got saved
it has come to be acceptable to teach about Jacob shortcomings,
and even Jacob’s that name means “trickster”. We know that Jacob was not only prone to make
some dumpy deals but after he had done so he was also prone
to flee the scene. Well I’m here to tell you this smarmy trait
of Jacob ran in the family line and it started right from Abram.
Abram knew he shouldn’t have gone to Egypt and he made his wife
swear that she would tell everyone that she was Abram’s sister.
Can Abram name a horse or what? No sooner then they come to
town than the Egyptians are all over Sarai. And the next thing
Abrams doing is accepting a dowry of sheep oxen asses menservants
maidservants and camels. And all this time Abram does not breath
a word about Sarai being his wife. So Pharoah picks up his latest
trophy wife and puts her in his wives quarters and presumably
they begin work on her to get her all cleaned up and prepared
for the big day in similar fashion to what we read in the book
of Ester. And still Abram doesn’t say a word.
Genesis 12:17-20 And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his
house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. And
Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done
unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why
saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to
me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go
thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they
sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
And of course we read that Pharaoh got the surprise of his life when
these great plagues started hitting his house left and right.
It didn’t take long for him to call in his soothsayers and find
out that all of this was happening on account of his having
bought a used bride from Abram. And that the God of this Hebrew
was more powerful than anything they had, so these soothsayers
strongly advised Pharaoh that he had better treat Abram with
kid gloves. Pharaoh was furious and if he could Pharoah would
have slit Abram’s throat over being sold a used bride, with
his barns up in flames, his orchards were broken down, and half
of his palace was smashed in Pharoah now wanted Abram sliced
into a thousand pieces. And we see here Pharoah screaming at
Abram “What have you done to me? Why did you tell me she was
availible and your sister?” Pharaoh was probably trembling with rage when
he told Abram: “Because of you, I almost had taken her to me
to wife.” So he then banished Abram and Sarai from all
of Egypt and sent them off with the entire dowry.
Does Abram refuse the money and gifts? Does Abram return
anything and apologize? Not
a chance.
Genesis 13:1-2 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife,
and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram
was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
And
so we see Abram reveling here in all his ill-gotten goods.
Genesis 13:3-4 And he went
on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place
where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and
Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at
the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
So
while Abram’s journeying he gets to thinking about how God bailed
him out when he had stumbled and was helplessly going down in
a hole of his own creation. And Abram starts feeling a yearning
to seek God again. Abram experiences true repentance making
him want to meet with God. There is also a religious ascetic
repentance that leads us to hide from God as Adam did in the
garden in this kind of false repentence we abuse ourselves until
we feel worthy.
And
also of interest should be the fact that Abram returned to what
we might call the point of deviation. The point from where he
had his last solid experience in God. His first failed altar
between Bethel and Hai. And Abram makes presumably makes more
than his usual sacrifices since he is trying to patch things
up between him and God. And there is also a high probability
that Abram is making those sacrifices from some of his ill-gotten
goods from Pharaoh. And in the midst of all this smoke
and fire Abram calls on the name of the Lord and again and again.
So knowing all that we now know it should be of little surprise
to us when we read that Abram did not hear a peep from God at
this time once again.
Now it wasn’t that God did not want to speak to Abram, and it wasn’t
that God was bound that he could not speak to Abram. (As
many churches teach in this hour that God and Jesus Christ are
bound in some way today, so They can no longer do the things
that they did 2000 years ago. Rather, of a truth the church
is bound in the unfaithfulness and disobediance, of Abram, with
the same results. Or we can flip this and say: God
would not then, and will not now manifest Himself unto the partial
faith and partial obediance of Abram.)
It seems that the Holy Spirit is showing me that if God had
appeared to Abram that it would have justified some, if not
all the wrongs that Abram had committed. You see there is a
whole lot more riding on this visitation of God than Abram's
comfort and happiness. – First
there was Moses and Israel, the prophets and all the kings like
David. Then there is us, the whole church and the entire church
age that were going to doctrinally sniff around in what Abram
had done. And if they could have possibly found some "sin
rights" in faith, or if they would have found some "boasting
of the flesh" in faith, if they would have found God winking
at Abram’s sin(s) they would have gone hog wild. (Not to say that the
church is not already sinful and perverse in its doctrines and
traditions of men that they walk in.)
When God performs signs and wonders, when He appears that establishes
doctrine and it doctrinalizes the baggage that we have carried
to that point. When someone gets healed men search for patterns
and their doctrine machine kicks into high gear. Why, because
men want to duplicate the results themselves, men want God’s
power to come at their beck and call. This
desire of the clay to command the potter cannot be underestimated.
Even among born again Spirit-filled people.
So rather than respond directly to Abram’s call, God orchestrated
an opportunity for Abram. I would like to interject a piece
of personal testimony. It has been my observation that when
I have really screwed up in my walk, when most people would
have hidden from the face of God in shame like Adam in the garden
I have found that God has created circumstances that requires
obedience, and as I submitted myself to God, as I made myself
available to Him I found a level of God’s power and a level
of God’s grace that was above and beyond my "normal"
experience. Things that were normally impossible became so easy
a child could lead them, so easy that not even a fool shall
err therein. I can say of a truth that the most powerful demonstrations
of God in my youth occurred when I felt I had really failed
God.
Roman 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.
Without strength to do what?
To walk in righteousness, To save ourselves.
Romans 5:8-9 But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through him. While we were yet sinners –
Christ came to save sinners not the righteous. Christ died for
sinners not the righteous. Those who fall upon the stone shall
arise acknowledging the curse they shall be blessed.
How much more shall we be saved being (firmly founded)
by his blood (To Ground establish or found)
and (To render firm, just
and right.) Firmly founded in what? His grace,
because we have been redeemed, purchased and so we are no longer
our own. (When we make ourselves
our own [We control our own lives, we control our own destiny
etc.] when we stand by our righteousness and our deeds we have
walked out of His salvation, we are no longer His purchase.)
So whosoever calls upon
the name of the Lord for His rulership and His ownership shall
be saved, But whoso lives under their own ownership
and rulership their original sin and all their other sin as
beleivers remains for these are not servants own by Christ and
God but trather have become as the gods, assuming their own
ownership according to what is good and evil in our their eyes
and there by no longer covered by Christ’s death and blood,
aka His sin insurance policy.
Romans 5:16 but the free gift is (for) many offences
unto justification. Christ’s blood, his death on the cross his purchase of us is to help
us move from offense to offense unto justification and righteusness
before God.
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one
judgment came upon all men
to (leading to) condemnation; even so by the righteousness of
one the free gift came upon all men unto (leading to) justification
of life.
Romans 5:20 So where sin abounds grace much more
abounds. Why?
To enable people to move from death to life, a step at a time.
Romans 6:1 What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein? Shall we
suggest sinning that we receive this higher level of grace?
God forbid By this grace we are changing residence from living
in sin, to living in rightousness.
So
we see that grace abounds when we sin and stumble but Christ
imparts that grace that we can arise from the pit we have been
bound in and follow after him.
2 Corinthians 12:9 And the
Lord said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength
is made perfect in weakness. (Lack)
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in (Submit
to) my infirmities,(Greek Sickness)
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Here is Paul the Apostle and he is telling us
that he has weaknesses, that he has deficiencies – that he as
an Apostle of God had prayed for their removal but Jesus said
no. Jesus declared to Paul that they were there to humble Paul.
To make him small in the eyes of men, and that through these
lacks, weakensses, and sicknesses of Paul God demonstrates that
His power, is not at all of Paul. If Paul had no weaknesses,
no lack, in his life but was a man of great strength, head and
shoulders above the people as King Saul the power of Jesus Christ
would not be able to rest on him, for it would be interpreted
by men that by so being they could also obtain this power of
Paul under their own power and strength.. Grace, annointing
and the power of God come in where we acknowledge that we do
not measure up to the task requirded of the Lord , it comes
when we acknowledge that we fail, and can not under our own
power and strength, it comes when we are acknowledge when we
are weak. This is why Paul said he is glad for his infirmities,
that is why he submited to them rather than kicking against
their pricks.
2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am
I strong.
And so this opportunity from God opens
to Abram.
Genesis 13:5-7 And Lot also, which went with Abram,
had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able
to bear them, that they might dwell together:
(God here is creating the division, and seperation Abram did
not have in himself to do.) for their substance
was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there
was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen
of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled
then in the land. We need to see clearly that
Lot was not to have been here, that Abram the father of faith
had not fully obeyed the Lord. Abram was moving in weakness
from grace to grace Abram was operating out of weakness but
in so doing there are consequences that do not go away upon
forgiveness, which we shall see shortly.
Genesis 13:8-11 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between
my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the
whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from
me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;
or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan,
that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the
land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan;
and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one
from the other.
I am sure that Abram felt a certain level of betrayal. If for no
other reason than after having discipled Lot in the ways of
the Lord for almost two decades, or since the time that Abram
told Lot of his visitations from God and what God had spoken.
Abram probably experienced quite a few other emotions
that day as well like shock, dismay, and rejection.
Shock because even though God had commanded this separation from
the start Abram had created for almost two decades an entire
fantasy world of what the Kingdom of the Hebrew was going to
be like with him Terah and Lot ruling together.
Dismayed because all of his plans in one puff of smoke disappeared
before his eyes leaving Abram to wonder what he was now going
to do, as he had counted on Lot to be such a big part of what
God was going to do. What do you do when your dreams die?
And rejection, because Abram as a human probably took this separation
very personally.. Many understand this all too well through
the scourge of divorce that has come over the land both of churches
and of married couples that once separated no matter how well
intentioned, essentially death has come into a relationship
and any visits are marred with the death and life of what now
is.
In anger Abram could well have attacked Lot and driven Lot from the
land but he did not.
Abram could have read Lot the riot act and told him, “Look this is
what God promised me, and you are going to have to go and find
your own blessing somewhere else, but he did not.”
Consider instead what Abram did was he not only offered Lot a 50-50
split of his inherence from God, but he also offers Lot the
first dibs to have the pick of all of the all land and so that
Abram leaves himself with the leftovers.
This heroic act of selflessness on the part of Abram has seldom been
duplicated in the annals of Church History. And most remarkable Abram in the flesh did this, without the preaching
of Salvation or the commands of the Gospel.. Paul spoke of Abram
as being a gentile and of uncircumcision and being without the
law, but by nature fulfilling the law.
Certainly the disciples when they followed Christ with all of their
fleshly plans and schemes of who was to going to be first, and
how that they were going to rule would have never humbled themselves
to have handed their promised portion of the kingdom to one
another much less than someone else. And yet after Calvary they
were so changed that they now were able to walk in this same
grace that Abram had found without salvation and without the
preaching of the gospel. And
I dare say that none of us have yet experienced this thing that
Christ called conversion. Instead
we walk as mere men along the disciple's side of the cross very
much taken with the things of the world and how that all of
God’s promises will personally enrich us.
Nor have we yet experienced to Love God with all our hearts with
all our soul with all our minds and all our strength – that
being overwhelming in flow of the Spirit. And from this fullness
of the flow of the Spirit comes then a flow out to others to
share and impart of all that we have. – This is loving your
neighbor as yourself. And this is indeed what we see in Abram
this day with Lot.
Now on the other hand we now look upon Lot a man who has received so gracious a gift and
without hardly a thought, or a thank you, Lot picks out for
himself all the best of the land, all the most watered places
of the land, and all the land with the highest commercial value
for himself. From this
we can now see that Lot was of a different spirit than Abram.
And that all the years
Lots had spent at Abrams side seeing the provision of God and
hearing of God’s might visitations did nothing to convert Lots
heart to God. And neither did it do
anything for the Children of Israel
when Moses stood among them. (Which
Paul notes again and again as a loud warning to the church.)
Now Abram upon hearing Lots choices did not say, “Now hold on a minute
Lot, I thought we had us a deal here.
I thought we were going to split this land 50-50 fair
and square. Boy, I only offered you the right or left half,
and look now at what you’ve done what you have done, you’ve
taken all the good stuff and left me with nothing but dried
out wilderness land that nobody would ever want.
In other words Abram allowed Lot to
defraud him, As God had allowed Adam to do to
Him in the garden, And as Christ has done with opening up salvation
to us, and as the Apostles also did when they entrusted the
care of the Gospel to others. Is that not the essence of what
Christ said:
Luke
6:29 And unto him that smiteth
thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh
away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
The man of the flesh cannot reconcile this scripture because it is
contrary to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.
Luke
17:33 Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall
lose his life shall preserve it.
Our flesh finds it hard enough to justify losing our life or our
lifestyle for Christ even knowing that He is going to pay us
back for any acts of utter wreakless selflessness.. And if our
flesh were forced to grudgingly lose its life or life style
for someone we know we would expect that they would grovel a
bit and show us some real gratitude. But when God demands that
we lose our life or our lifestyle for a stranger the ungodly
or the ungrateful, one in whom we would receive no recognition,
and to those who we can receive no possible reward from.
To our flesh, that is a pill enough to gag an elephant.
(And this is that despite
all our claimes we walk after the flesh and not the Spirit.)
So without as much as a goodbye wave, Lot left Abram and headed off
to build in the flesh a name for himself, a nation, and an empire.
And thus counterfeit for himself the call of God and the promises
of God that were in Abram. –
This identical thing has occurred with the natural Church
over the spiritual church. The word Church does not even exist in scripture.
The Greek word is Ek-Klesia which is two words Ek- “Out from,
Away from” and Klesia – “The called.”
Together Ecclesia means: “The out called of the called”.
What we call the carnal church is the Klesia, the called. And
no matter which denomination you speak to they will tell you
they are the called of God. But the spiritual church is the Ekklesia –
the out called of the called. And we do not want to confuse
that with the sent. The Ekklesia can be seen in the Gospels
there were the multitudes, there were the the 70, there were
the twelve, there were the three, and there was one that lay
on Christ’s breast.
To the multitudes they were the Ekklesia from all of Israel. – But
were they were really not for the multitudes after a short season
no longer rejoiced in the light but turned back.
To the 70 they were the Ekklesia from the multitudes. For they had
became disciples and forsook all, but they also like the multitudes
after a short season turned back
To the twelve they were the Ekklesia from the 120 for they had become
disciples, they had forsaken all and stayed with Christ to the
garden of Gethsemane, but as we know they forsook Christ and
did not love him unto death they hid and denied him.
It was not until after Christ rose that he sought out his lost 11
sheep and they fasted in prayed in Jerusalem until they were
endued from on high that there hearts were converted and the
became the out call of the called.
Genesis 13:12-13 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan,
and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his
tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners
before the LORD exceedingly.
Many preachers have noted that Lot pitched his tent with its door
facing Sodom.
Speaking that his heart and his soul wanted their wealth and commerce
even though he knew that the men in that city were extremely
wicked sinners. When we walk after the flesh we can justify
many things and we will always find ways to be able to fellowship
with these people and we will always find ways to be able partake
of their coveted wealth and goods. It wasn’t that Lot just simply
set up his tent on the plains facing the city of Sodom and do
business with these people, it never is.
Lot had cross a lot of lines to do so, he had to become
one of them, and he had to set up shop downtown to be able to
do the kind of business he wanted to do.
We need to remind ourselves that Lot was not just anyone, Lot was
one that had been by Abram’s side from the beginning. Lot was
probably was the first one that Abram told when he had been
visited by God. Abram had repeatedly told Lot about how he
had been promised that if he would follow and serve the Lord
that he would receive a land of promise and become a great nation.
Abram probably told Lot of each ensuing encounter with God and
what God had added to his list of promises.
Lot was Abram’s disciple and Abram probably taught this
young man all that he could about God and serving God. Lot had
probably helped Abram build all of the altars and probably helped
offer the sacrifices as well. Lot probably was the single person
that had the most knowledge of God in the world next to Abram.
Nevertheless with all of that, and having received well over
half of all God was to give Abram we do not see Lot building
an altar and offering sacrifices to God and thanking him. Instead
we see Lot with a love for the things of the world and eyes
filled with lust.
I see now for the first time that this in essence is a duplication
of what transpired with Adam in the Garden. That Lot like Eve
had long looked at the fruits of good and evil in the well watered
garden that was at the gates of Sodom.
I can almost see the heartbreak in Abram. The person that Abram so
wanted to share his ministry with,
the one that he had so wanted to share the fruits of
the kingdom with. And after all those long
years of preparation with Lot sitting at his table, Lot
rises and rejects the offer and simply goes his own way. And
then even after all of that Abram continues to give and pour
out his soul to redeem this man – but even after that Lot does
not thank Abram or God but instead goes his own way once again.
I can hear too the sadness of the Apostles in the closing days of
their ministries in the hour that a father would most desire
to see a son stand in his stead to carry on the ministry
Paul despairs:
2 Timothy
4:10 For
Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and
is departed unto Thessalonica.
And John likewise laments:
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were
not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have
continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made
manifest that they were not all of us.
And I see the same sadness in Christ
and the Father over the apostate harlot that we call today the
Church.
Isaiah
5:1-6
Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful
hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in
the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked
that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What
could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done
in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will
do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it
shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall
be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned,
nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns:
What
more could Christ and God have done for the early Church? God
sent His only beloved Son, He gave them unparalleled signs and
wonders, Christ died on the cross and rose again and then showed
Himself for 40 days to many witnesses. He gave the Apostles
and believers the same Holy Spirit that dwelled in Him, He gave
them the gifts of the Spirit for all time whereby their words
would also receive witness of the Father and of the Spirit,
He gave them Holy Communion whereby all believers for all time
could receive the direct impartation of God. – and yet within
a few scant generations the Church fell away. We have been as
sheep scattered without a shepherd. We have been devoid the
visitation of Angels, there has been no open vision and, we
have been bereft the power of God of the Gospel of Jesus and
the Apostles. How could God and Jesus have done anything more
for us?
Genesis 13:14-18 And the LORD said unto Abram, after
that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and
look from the place where thou art northward, and southward,
and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so
that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered. Arise,
walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth
of it; for I will give it unto thee.
Then Abram
removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
In verse fourteen we see that God only spoke to Abram after Lot had
departed. Or as scripture says Lot was separated from him.
We need to briefly address the issue of separation unto the Lord.
Since the second century the Church has been poisoned by the
Greek philosophy of asceticism. Even to this day we picture
separation unto God as our living in a cave away from all human
contact. The church of the second century built monasteries
and invented vows of silence, vows of poverty, and all sorts
of things, with which people could abuse themselves to make
them feel holy while at the same time making themselves no earthly
good for God.
These people invented a gospel that allowed people to be believers
without letting their lights shine among men. They invented
a gospel that allowed them to not preach the gospel. They invented
a Gospel that allowed them to not confess Christ before men.
In this hour hell is filled with these foolish monks and nuns
and all those who have followed after their traditions.
In contrast when God called Abram to leave father and mother, family,
houses, and lands – after Abram had fully obeyed the Lord was
he alone? No, he was not. Abram still had with him Eliezer
of Damascus his house steward. He had with him his men servants,
maid servants, and the shepherds of his flocks. And shortly
we will see that Abram was able to muster 308 men of his servants
to rescue Lot. Though we can not any of them in these verses
these people are with Abram and Sarai on a daily basis. They
are at the altars and they were taught by Abram of God. These were Abram's flock. And when God speaks
of circumcision Abram circumcises all of them.
As stated above Abram’s separation with Terah and Lot
was because they were co-equals when sat in council with Abram.
Being unanointed and unenlightened their opinions and their
advice only served to hamper what God was speaking to Abram.
In looking back we can now see Abram the father of faith was only
able to submit to God layer by layer. Now some might argue that
without his disobedience that Abram would not have had that
great moment of utter selflessness with Lot.
And I will tell you that had Abram been fully obedience
at the first, Abram would have had the same experience with
another. But since this did not occur in scripture I will not
comment on what the significance that event might have meant.
So now Abram is now in the land and is finally separated from Terah
and Lot’s well intended opinions and their thoughts about what
God was trying to say to Abram and how best to obey and serve
Him. This foot dragging has not come without a price it had
cost Abram half his inheritance, not just to Abram but half
of the inheritance that was sworn to his seed was also gone
forever. If Abram would have obeyed fully he would have probably
been able to avoid the whole situation in Egypt, And if Abram
had been able to answer the call of God previously in either
Ur. Or when he was offered repentance in Haran Lot would have
never ended up facing the gates of Sodom.
We see that God calls Abram to now walk the land. And in order to
do so Abram could not go and build for himself a city as Haran
his brother had done, but instead he was to be a sojourner a
stranger and a wanderer.
Speaking of this very verse the writer of Hebrew declares:
Hebrews
11:9-10
By faith Abram sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs
with him of the same promise: For Abram looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
And likewise Christ gave no command to His followers to build fixed
dwellings. He gave no command that His disciples build temples
and synagogues. They
were to be sojourners and strangers in the land like Abram looking
for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is
God.
And in the Epistles we see that neither Paul nor the Apostles understood
any command to build temples and synagogues for Christ. They
speak of us as sojourners and strangers in this world.
Then Abram
removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
So Abram obeys God and begins wandering and sojourning and in the
plain of Manre he again with those of his household build an
altar unto the Lord and he offers sacrifices on it and he probably
calls upon the name of the Lord. Now there is a chapter division
here that does not exist in the Hebrew. But putting the chapter
division here the Catholic monks are creating the view that
once again God did not appear to Abram but that this is the
case.
But first we need to explore in scripture the phenomenon that we
have seen up till this point of God not honoring Abram’s sacrifices
up till now, and not answering Abrams prayers,
and not coming when Abram called upon Him.
Psalm 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou
opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Psalm 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Proverbs 21:3 To
do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than
sacrifice.
Both David
and Solomon understood the words of Samuel and that the obedience
being better than sacrifice was referring to Abram and how that
God had no regarded of Abram's sacrifices and offerings but
rather He appeared upon Abram’s obedience.
1 Samuel 15:22 And
Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat
of rams.
Consider now the words of the Apostle James
James 2:20-24
But wilt thou know, O vain
man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father
justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the
altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which
saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
This
is that which the apostle James spoke of
and as we can see there is no contradiction between James
and Paul they are just focusing on different parts of the same
event.
Hosea
6:6-7 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men
have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously
against me.
Matthew
9:13 But
go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance.
Matthew 12:7 But
if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
We see here that in these last three verses indicates that God was
moved by Abram’s selfless acts and he calls them “mercy”
And I again believe that another all too familiar passage of scripture
is actually derived from Abram in these chapters. All of I Corinthians
13
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.
Abram the father of Faith, Abram the father of Hope, and Abram the
father of mercy = Charity. If you read 1 Corinthians 13 with
Abram in mind you can see the verses in Genesis chapters 11-22
come alive.