Drew Boswell

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“Abram and Lot Go Their Separate Ways” Genesis 13:1-18

Father Abraham

A Sermon Series

“Abram and Lot Go Their Separate Ways”

Genesis 13:1-18

 Introduction

Former president Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?” Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days. Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready.” When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,” the cobbler said to his indecisive customer. “I learned right then and there,”

Reagan said later, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.”[1]

Prayer

The Picture of the Penitent Man (v. 1)

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

At this point in Abram’s story, he has been called to go, but he (along with his entire family settled) in Haran. Then being called again (a second time) be follows in faith to go to the land of Canaan. He is promised by God that his name would be great, he would be blessed, he would bless those who bless him, and that eventually his offspring would possess the land where he was living. A famine came and having doubted God went to Egypt, lied to the Pharaoh and ended up being thrown out humiliated and embarrassed. Now we see a humbled and trusting man – he is growing in his faith of God.

When the account picks back up we are made aware that Abram is very wealthy, and the famine that originally drove him to Egypt seems to no longer be an issue. This is the first time wealth is mentioned in the Bible.

Humble and Worshipful (vv. 3-4)

3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

Abram has come to realize that he had sinned against God by escaping to Egypt (trusting it for help and strength instead of God), having jeopardized the safety of his wife, asking her to lie, and being a poor example of a man called of God. We see Abram turn from (repent) all of that and return to God. For Abram “the only way to get back into the will of God is to go back to the very cause of the departure, confess it, forsake it, and return to the place of fellowship.”[2] “to the place where he had made an altar at the first.”

1 John 1:8-9 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Abram has confessed his sins before the Lord, and returned to a place where he can worship God (in spirit and in truth). God is merciful and allows us to return to Him,[3] and in his grace He restores (the prodigal son sits down to a feast, the leper of Luke 5:13 goes to the temple, Peter having denied Jesus three times is told “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”) Matt. 16:18.

All of this was lived out before Lot. He observed Abram leaving to go to Egypt, and he observed him coming back in humiliation and embarrassment. Because he was of Abram’s household his possessions and wealth increased greatly.

Blessed By God (vv. 5-7)

5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

By the time Abram leaves Egypt and returns to where his journey with God started, the blessing of God upon his household was so significant that the land itself could not support that many animals. Quarrels began to happen over watering holes, and pasturing their animals. There were also animals of the Canaanites and Perizzites competing for resources.

Jesus tells the parable in Luke 12:15 “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

How do we become rich toward God?[4]

Remember the point of God blessing Abram (and his household, i.e. Lot) was so that they could be a blessing to others. Genesis 12:2 “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Was Lot rich toward God? In the over-abundance of his possessions, how was he being a blessing to others?

 Trusting God’s Provision (vv. 8-9)

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

 As the elder and leader of the family Abram had the first right to tell Lot what to do, and where to go – but he understands that no matter where he goes, God is going to take care of him, and to watch over him, so he gives the first choice to Lot.

 After Jesus’ baptism, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days (Matthew 4:1-17). Satan came to him three times, “turns stones into bread,” “cast yourself from a high place so that angels will catch you,” and “bow the knee before Satan and he would give him all the peoples of the earth,” – Each has to do with his calling, trust in his own ability to complete the mission, make your own name great instead of trusting God to do it, and take the shortcut that takes you away from the cross. Each is a crossroad where a decision has to be made.

 The Picture of An Impenitent Man (vv. 10-13)

10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

Led By His Eyes

So now Lot “lifts his eyes” and he scans the horizon and saw the Jordan Valley, and it was “like the garden of the Lord (the Garden of Eden), like the land of Egypt,(where Abram had just come from in disgrace)” – There is a calling upon his and his family’s life, but there is no consideration of that in this decision.

Even when this family eventually became the nation of Israel there was never the idea to part ways. While they griped and complained about not having enough water, even then, they did not splinter into different groups. For Lot to separate from Abram was to leave that calling that was upon their family. Lot moves out of the promised land, out of where they were called to go. They could have reduced the number of animals to a number that the land could support and stay together.

Abram’s test was a famine – the fear was that God would not provide, so Abram had to leave his calling in Canaan. With Lot it was being blessed so much that the land could not support the number of animals – the test was to allow material possessions to pull him away from their calling. He was led by his eyes and the calling upon his life.

When Paul was imprisoned for the preaching of the gospel, he said, 2 Timothy 4:10 “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” He was once a respected colleague, mentioned positively in other letters like Philemon and Colossians, but his love for worldly comfort over Christ’s calling led him to desert Paul when he needed support most, heading to Thessalonica.

 Willing To Settle With Wickedness

“Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom,” – Sodom represented to Lot the resources of the world, but he thought he could get close to the world, yet not be affected by it. “They had developed a culture that was fundamentally contrary to the ways of justice.”[5] Why pitch your tent close to it and not move into and live there? Because Lot knew, “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.” So in his mind, “I will live close to them so that I (and my family) are not influenced by them.

In Genesis 14:12 Lot is kidnapped, but he was not out on the plains in his tent, he had moved into the city, “They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.” 2 Peter 2:7-8 tells us that Sodom and their wickedness bothered him, but his desire to have what they offered was not enough for him to leave the city, “. . . if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);. . .”

Lot’s daughters married the men of Sodom, his wife was so broken on having to leave that she looked about and turned to a pillar of salt. Ultimately Lot’s decision to move his tent away from his family’s calling, pitching his tent close to Sodom, then moving into the city,[6] it would eventually take everything he held dear and he would escape only by angels dragging him away.

 What drove Lot to Sodom was the city’s promise for more possessions,

but in the end it took all he had and he leaves with no possessions.

 “like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.” These are three cities that become famous for escaping or having to leave; Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, God’s people would be enslaved and eventually escape from Egypt, and Zoar would be the city that Lot escaped to after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.[7] All deal with escaping; starting well but ending badly.

God Reminds the Penitent Man of His Promise (vv. 14-18)

14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Abram has experienced mounting loss, 1) his wife was barren, he had no one to pass the promised blessing of God on to, 2) He didn’t know where he was going, so he was always on the move; Hebrews 11:8 in talking about Abram, “And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” He lost his original homeland and people, 3) He has left all that he knows, the people there were strangers to him – it was just his immediate family. 4) at some point in this journey his brother and father have passed away, and he leaves his other brother behind, 5) there was a famine, 6) now Lot is leaving.[8] While his possessions are great, there are few relationships in his life.

So now God comes to Abram and he once again tells him I want you to walk through the land and see it. God says, “All that you see and everywhere you place your foot, I will give it to your offspring.” There are two different ways to look; In v. 10, 1) “Lot lifted up his eyes” and he ended up in Sodom. You can set your eyes on this world and what is has to offer, or 2) God tells Abram to “Lift up your eyes,” and to focus on what God wants you to see; but what is it that God wants Abram to see?

It was the lifting his eyes and focusing on the promise of God, walking across the land that his offspring would one day own (yet he personally never would) and “Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, . . .” Lot lifted his eyes and put his tent next to Sodom. Abram lifted his eyes, and places his tent where God would one day keep his promises to Abram.

God gives Abram even more “I will” promises, “all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth . . for I will give it to you . . . God responds to Abram’s loss with promises of how these felt losses will be replaced with what God gives.

The apostle Paul urges believers “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,” (Ephesians 4:1). That worthy walk includes what we lift our eyes to see and where we pitch our tent. For Abram, God wants him to focus on the future generations of offspring (those who live by faith in Christ). For Christians, God wants us to focus on how we can bless others, there is no greater blessing than the sharing of the gospel.

“and there he built an altar to the Lord.” Wherever Abram pitched his tent, he built an alter and worshipped the Lord. Trusting in a promise of what was to come, he lived out his days in the land of promise (one day this land would belong to those who live by faith), and until that day arrived he would worship God.

Conclusion

Gandalf: I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.

Bilbo: I should think so—in these parts! We are plain, quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them. . . .

Gandalf: You’ll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back.

Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back?

Gandalf: No. And if you do, you will not be the same.[9]

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[1] Today in the Word, MBI, August, 1991, 16.

[2] James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary, Genesis, Volume 2, A New Beginning Chapters 12-36 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 2002) 480.

[3] See also Luke 15:17-24.

[4] Matthew 6:19-21

[5] John E. Hartley, New International Biblical Commentary, Genesis (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishing, 2003) 144.

[6] By Genesis 19 he is sitting at the city gate indicating he held some leadership position. It marks his movement and deepening relationship with the city and its’ people.

[7]John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1990) 118.

[8] James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary, Genesis 12-36 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 1998) 472.

[9]  J. R. R. Tolkein, From the film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).

 

“The Fallen Hero and the Promise Protected” Genesis 12:10-20

Father Abraham

A Sermon Series

“The Fallen Hero and the Promise Protected”

Genesis 12:10-20

 Introduction

Exploding whale in Florence, Oregon 1970 – Unintended Consequences

Abram Faces Mounting Pressure (v. 10)

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Right after Abram is called by God to be the father of a great nation of God’s people, God has promised multiple “I will” statements” (great nation, make your name great, be a blessing, etc.) – he encounters his first real struggle, for “there was a famine in the land.”

There is also the building of stress upon Abram, 1) his wife was barren, he had no one to pass the promised blessing of God on to, 2) He didn’t know where he was going, so he was always on the move; Hebrews 11:8 in talking about Abram, “And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” So he is never settled, He wanders from Shechem, Bethel, Negev – the land was promised to his future children, but he owned none of it, except for a burial plot for his wife (eventually). 3) He is leaving all that he knows, the people there were strangers to him – it was just his immediate family. 4) at some point in this journey his brother and father have passed away, and he leaves his other brother behind, 5) he becomes responsible for Lot his brother’s son 6) and now there was also a famine.[1] All of these life’s situations push Abram toward growing in his walk with the Lord.

Watch out when you feel pressure starting to build so that you do not return to your sin (the predictable sin that you return to when life gets hard).

 In the birth narrative of Samson, there is a conversation between Samson’s father and his mother. The angel has just given them instruction about the child that is come (Samson), and how they were to live; Judges 13:21-23 “The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

 If God had planned to make Abram’s name great, to be a blessing to the nations, for his descendants to possess the land of promise, for his name to be great, etc. why go through all that trouble just to bring him into a strange let and let him starve to death? God did not call him out of all that he knew to allow him to starve in the land of Canaan.

Acts 16:10 “And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them . . . v. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, . . . v. 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

When Paul received the calling to go to Philli to share the gospel, yet quit as soon as he was arrested or faced difficulty, then those in the prison would not have heard the praying and singing, and never would have asked the most important question a person could ever ask. It may be the difficulty takes us to a place where others may hear the gospel. Knowing there is an all powerful God, who has a plan for our good (in spite of difficulty), kept Paul and Silas singing.

There is a pretty consistent teaching in the OT, that God’s people were to avoid Egypt. It represented the world, trusting human resources rather than trusting God, wrong alliances, etc. Isaiah 31:1 “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!” Egypt represents going to the world to solve our problems instead of seeking counsel and depending on the strength of God. What should Abram have done? He should have trusted God.

Abraham left the place of blessing and goes to a place that appeared to a place of strength and prosperity. Each step we take, each opportunity we have to make a decision is a step closer to God, or one that takes us further away.

The circumstances are quite significant; famine was sweeping across the land of Canaan. He did not know anyone, and those around him would have been in just as much of a crisis as his family – everyone was going hungry. God does not call us to blind faith – we should take in full information about our problem – we should not be blind to reality. God does not expect us to pretend as though there is no issue. But our focus most of time is concentrated on the problem. But the problem is not the whole picture.

Abram has been called by God who has made promises to Him – and God always keeps his promises. How can God keep His promises to Abram if he is dead?

Matthew 14:26-31 “But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Why did Peter doubt? When did he start to lose faith? He looked at the waves, he heard the thunder, and he took his eyes off of Jesus. The he began to sink.

When did Abram doubt? When did he start to lose faith? He saw the land around him turning brown, dusty, he looked at the fields that were dried up husks of plants, and he heard the rumors of shortages, and he looked at his supply bag and how it was getting emptier – and he said “I need to do something before we all starve.” He took his mind off of the promises of God, and he took his life back – and he took an action that seemed logical to him.

If you look only at the circumstances, and you take your eyes of the greatness of God, and how He loves you, and has a purpose and plan for you – when you doubt that you begin to take actions that lead you away from God. Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Steps Toward Failure: Focus Only on the Problem.

Steps Toward Faith: Define the problem, But Trust God and His Plan For Your Life.

 Abram Develops His Own Plan (vv. 11-15)

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

Abram now faces a second fear that he hadn’t thought of before he arrived at the border of Egypt. His wife was beautiful – his fear was that they would kill him so that they could take her as a wife. So he encouraged his wife to lie and tell everyone they are brother and sister only.

Abram is wanting two things to happen, 1) “that it may go well with me because of you,” and 2) “that my life may be spared for your sake.” Abram’s plan actually worked; his life was spared (but we really don’t know if he was truly ever in any danger), and he did receive, “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. Be careful when you look around and say to yourself, “everything is going well for because of this decision (that you know is a sin). Pharaoh took Sarai as his own wife.

When Abram turns to the world to solve his problems, there are no alters to worship God. As he is going through the land of promise he is building alters and worshipping God. But in Egypt no worship takes place, there are no new promises from God while in Egypt, his marriage is wrecked, and he has left the calling that God gave him.

“When the prodigal leaves his Father’s house, though he may win a brief spell of forbidden pleasure, yet he loses all that makes life worth living, and brings himself down to the level of the swine. . .”[2] The only way for Abram to turn this declining situation around is go back to the land of promise, and to return to the calling upon his life.

Do you think that “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels,” can replace the call of God upon your life? Nothing can compare to faith, a worshipping spirit who worships God is spirit and in truth, the ability to authentically commune with God, a pure testimony, heartfelt service to God, and a clear conscience.

 Steps Toward Failure: Look Out Only For Yourself and Abandon All Your Responsibilities.

Steps Toward Faith: Remember The Promises and the Call Upon Your Life.

 Abram Faces The Consequences of His Decisions (vv. 17-20)

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

So now Pharaoh has taken Sarai as his own wife, he has dealt well with Abram giving him, “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels,” and everyone knows it is for Sarai. What could Abram do, at this point to get out of this lie, to get his wife back from the king of Egypt? This account has not been given to us for historical knowledge, it was given to us, as God’s people to learn from and apply to our lives – when we find ourselves sinking deeper and deeper in sinful decisions – what should we do?

At that point God steps in, “But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai,” and just so the reader doesn’t get confused, “Abram’s wife.” Pharaoh calls Abram and says, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife?”

Abram was the reason that this man and his home was suffering “great plagues”[3] – his lie caused pain to multiple people. Then Pharaoh makes Abram and Sarai leave – he casts them out under guarded escort, which would have been humiliating and embarrassing for them both.

With this confrontation of his sin, he is silent, “The saving mercy of God had so humbled him, that he silently acknowledged his guilt in concealing his relation to Sarai from the Egyptian king.”[4]

But that is the flow of sin, walking away from God, trusting in your own wisdom, taking action that is sinful, drawing others into the sin, the hurting of others and yourself, and eventual humiliation and shame. You see this same pattern with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, David and Bathsheba, Judas . . . etc.

Abraham leaves Egypt (embarrassed and humiliated), goes back to Bethel and resumed worship of God, Genesis 13:3-4 “And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.” The answer to the crisis you find yourself in is not to double down on your sin, and blame others, or to blame the circumstances, but to repent and return to God. When Abram gathered for worship this time around it was a man who had gotten himself in all kinds of trouble, but God untied the knot around his neck.

Steps Toward Failure: Double Down on Your Sin, Keep Making Excuses.

Steps Toward Faith: Repent and Return to God’s Promises.

 In all of this God is protecting the plan of salvation. Sarai was protected, not just for her honor’s sake, but also because she would eventually give birth to Isaac, the son of promise. God gave His word and He was protecting that promise. When God corrects our paths, and puts us pack in the right place – that is not just for our sakes, but for the sake of the people who we will minister to in the future.

In Genesis 12:31 we see that God called Abram’s family to go to Canaan, but they settled somewhere else (which included Abram), but them in chapter 12 God called Abram again and he went in faith. In today’s passage, God called Abram to a land of promise, but he left that calling when the famine came, lied and got wrapped up issues with Egypt and lit looked like God’s plan for the salvation of the world was done even before it could start – but God stepped in and Abram was able to get back to where he needed to be, back in line with promises upon his life – God is the God of second chances.

Also, Abram is a human being – there are times of great faith, and there are times of great failure. But what makes us better is how we deal with our failures. Abram returned to worship, the land of promise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0CT8zrw6lw

Cleveland Balloon Fest 1986 Disaster

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[1] James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary, Genesis 12-36 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 1998) 472.

[2] Boice, 476.

[3] From the Egyptian mindset, if you mess with God’s people there will be plagues. This seems to be lost in Egyptian history, so that when Moses shows up it has long since been forgotten.

[4] C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament In Ten Volumes, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) 198.

Drew’s Top Ten 2025

At the end of each year I try to sit down and look at the things I learned, and remember what that year brought. The following are some things to consider (from my journey) from this past year. Let me know what you think.

Drew’s Top Ten for 2026

1 Keep pushing – it will give way eventually. God has not called you to try and quit, He has called you to keep moving forward. He is not going to bring you into the desert so that you will drop dead; there is a plan. Trust Him.

2 Friendship is important – make the time to invest in the relationship.

3 Ultimately you will be more effective and get more done if you take the time to invest in other people.

4 Sometimes opportunities come around a second time – don’t burn any bridges that you don’t have to. Leave the door open.

5 Work hard when it’s time to work, rest when it’s time to rest. Ministry is seasonal; there are busy seasons and slow seasons, learn when it is time to speed up and when it is time to slow down.

6 You need a hobby – a hobby is a way for you to step away from the work and come back with fresh eyes and a refreshed spirit.

7 Knowing who you are as a person will ground you in reality – you probably are not as great as others tell you that you are, and you are probably not as bad as you think either. Your relationship with God and what He tells you is the truth. Ability is balanced with grace.

8 “Everything rises and falls on leadership” (not original to me) – the person in charge sets the pace for the rest of the organization. It is better to wait and put the right person in a place of leadership (and feel the pain of the vacancy) than to quickly place the wrong person in a leadership position (and feel the pain of inadequacy).

9 Sometimes things don’t work out. Take time to mourn the “what could have been,” but then get over it and move on.

10 New people don’t care about how difficult it was for the organization in years past. Telling them about how hard it has been, will not motivate them to get on board. Instead, motivate with vision and where you are going. Yes, the organization is healthier than it used to be, but there are miles still to go and you need them to get there. Stop talking about how hard things have been, instead talk about the journey ahead. Buckle up because God is on the move.

Click here for another article on evaluation.

“Considering the Call of God” Genesis 11:31-12:9

Father Abraham

A Sermon Series

“Considering the Call of God”

Genesis 11:31-12:9

Introduction

Abram’s story begins with a calling given to his family, Genesis 11:31 “Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.” Joshua 24:2 tells us they worshipped false gods, “And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.”

In Stephen’s speech in Acts 7:2-4 we get some insight into what has happened before chapter 12 of Genesis, “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.”

When we are first introduced to Abram, he is with his father and family and they have a call from God to leave Ur (their home) and go to Canaan. But when they got to Haran, they settled there. They stopped moving toward the call upon their lives, so when God tells Abram to leave his “father’s house” it was because his father and kindred wanted to settle but God wants them to move.

In (v. 2) we are told, “Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” So during their time of being settled in Haran Abram became very rich. “The influences of nature are ever hostile to the full realization and practical power of “the calling of God. We are sadly prone to take lower ground than that which the divine call would set before us.”[1]

Jesus even says in Matthew 29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” There may be a time when you have to leave those you love because the call upon your life is movement, but they want to settle. What Abraham learns from the first time God calls him, and the second time is that this place and the things of this world, are not our home. We are just passing through this time and place, as strangers in a foreign land.

B. Meyer once said, “They eat, they drink; they buy, they sell; they plant, they build; they marry, they give in marriage – though the flood is already breaking through the crumbling barriers to sweep them all away.”[2] How do we move from being so focused on this world and all that attracts us to it, to what we cannot see, yet is truly what is of any importance? God does this with Abram by giving him promises.

God moves Abram from being settled to moving.

Abram moves from being focused on this world to what is to come.

Don’t settle for this world.

The Promises of God Given to An Underserving Man ( 1-3)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

With the introduction of Abram, God uses the words, “I will” multiple times – God is telling Abram what He is going to do. God promises Abram seven things that He will do in Abram’s life;

There are other examples of where others say they will do something, (Promises in Arrogance) Isaiah 14 records Satan’s words, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Because of Satan’s arrogance and pride, he was cast out of heaven. He desired to be in place of God, or to be above God.

(Promises in Ignorance) We even say as in James 3:14-16, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance.”

The first promise is one of seeing a land, “the land I will show you.” You are going to go to a place, and you will see it. Then later, with the last promise (v. 7), we says, “To your offspring I will give this land.” “What started out as a promise of a land to be seen becomes in God’s gracious fulfillment a land not only to be seen but also to be possessed.”[3] God often times allows us to see something before He calls and directs us to do something about/with it.

Isaiah 6:8 “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” God made Isaiah aware of a need; someone needed to go to and give a message. Isaiah filled with thankfulness of his own salvation, wanted others to experience it as well – “Here am I, Send me!”

This is why we should let God chose the land that we go to – let His will lead in our lives. It doesn’t matter where it is, if that is the land that God desires for us to see and that He wants to give us, then it will be good. When we say “I will,” it is a promise made in ignorance and pride.

(v. 3) “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – another way to say this “all the families of the ground,” In Genesis 3:17 as a result of Adam’s sin, the ground is cursed, “cursed is the ground because of you;”, but Abram will bless the earth and reverse the curse.

Paul uses this text in Galatians to show that salvation is for everyone in the world, and that salvation is by faith – Abraham believed God’s promises, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Galatians 3:16 “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring, who is Christ.” Paul’s point is that the Messiah, the Savior would come through Abraham’s lineage, and the promises being made to Abraham will be ultimately be fulfilled through one man, “who is the Christ,” Jesus.

Abram would become a blessing for others – the promise of God was that Abram would be a way for others to be blessed. Mankind wants blessing to mean more power, money, wealth, etc., but God wants us to get to a place where others can be blessed through u We get to bless others by telling them about how God has broken the curse of son by sending Jesus.

Then God promises, “I will make you into a great nation,” – but notice there is no condition attached. I am going to do this for you and your descendants, separate from how you behave. The promise is unconditional. Then God promises, “. . . make your name great, so that you will be a blessing,” Earlier in Genesis the people of the earth wanted to build the tower of Babel, Genesis 11:4 “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, . . .” Their building was for their glory. God tells Abram I will make your name great, “so that you will be a blessing.” The world will come to know the name Abram, but it is in the context of God bringing salvation to the world.

So the name Abraham stands for a God who made unconditional promises to a man who did not deserve the (blessing, the land, the wealth, etc.) just because God chose to do so. This is grace. The ultimate blessing for the nations is that a Savior would come through Abram’s lineage. God would bless the nations through him, by sending a Savior. Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Then God promises, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse,” You are either blessed or cursed depending on what you do with who Abraham is – the father of faith, the beginning a nation of people who would bring the Savior into the world.

All of the promises are a call to abandon – abandon your country, and I promise to make into a great nation, abandon your kindred, and I will multiply your numbers (even though his wife is barren), abandon your faither’s house where you are known, go to land of foreigners, and I promise to make your name great. Abandon your earthly home, and I will give you an eternal home where God himself builds the foundation. God requires that we abandon everything, in order to pursue a calling. All of the promises are directly related to what God is asking Abram to give up.[4]

An Undeserving Man Obeying The Will of a Gracious God (vv. 4-5)

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.[5]

Abram was seventy-five years old, and his wife Sarai was ten years younger than he was (and she was barren). God was telling him to leave some things behind that would have been very important to him, “your country and your kindred and your father’s house,” – He left it all behind, “So Abram went.” There is the promise that if you leave certain things behind, trust God to keep his promises, God will do certain things in your life. This is faith. God has spoken, and Abram responds by believing God.

Hebrews explains that this is where Abram’s journey of with God began, 11:8 “By faith[6] Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

 Faith includes two things: belief and action.

Abraham believed God’s promise so we went.

The Man Worships Because of God’s Promises Given (vv. 5-9)

When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram was called by God to leave “your country and your kindred and your father’s house,”— leaving behind all that he knew, then as a stranger he would live in a foreign land, moving from place-to-place living in a tent, later there would be a famine, later Lot his nephew is going to be captured and carried off – God says go, and Abram went – so while God promised to bless him, God did not promise that his life would be easy.

God promises, “I will bless you,” – This is where the things you place your hand to goes well, things prosper. In (v. 2) we are told, “Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” The promise is unconditional, just like all the promises, but it was different than what may be expected.

Hebrews 11:9-10 further explains how this was an act of faith, “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” When God promises to bless, He will keep His promise, but it will not necessarily be with more “livestock, silver, or gold.”

Abraham would be the man that God chose to start the long story of the salvation of the world (it would begin with one man’s faith). But the way Abram could endure the hard times was to focus on the promise of what was to come, “for he was looking forward to the city . . .”

“So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” – Traveling five hundred miles from Haran to Canaan, he stopped along the way (Shechem, Bethel, Ai, etc.) and built alters and worshipped God. So God wants Abram to see “I will show you” what one day his people will possess (the promised land), as he goes through the land he is praying and worshipping, “To your offspring I will give this land,”

 When God shows you what He wants you do,

then pray over, go to work, and wait for His promises to come to pass.

I want to point out one more man from the text, Genesis 11:27 “Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took 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 Iscah.”

The whole family was called and they set out to Canaan, but when they arrived at Haran they settled. From there Abram left and Nahor stayed. There is no reason not to assume that because Abram was wealthy then the other brother would be also. Genesis 24:10 tells us that he built his own city. Who was truly the successful man in God’s eyes? The man who had cities names after him, or the man who began to lay the groundwork for the salvation of the world?

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[1] C. H. Mackintosh, Genesis to Deuteronomy, Notes on the Pentateuch (Neptune, New York; Loizeaux Brothers Publishing, 1972) 60.

[2] James Montgomery Boice, Genesis, An Expositional Commentary, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 2002) 466.

[3] Boice, 445.

[4] God is not going to call you to do something that goes against his Word – A man who has a wife and children will not be called to abandon them to pursue a calling. God is not going to call someone to cheat on their spouse to do some kind of ministry within the church, etc.

[5] Nehemiah 9:7 ff.

[6] “A faith which laid hold of the word of promise, and on the strength of that word gave up the visible and present for the invisible and future, was the fundamental characteristics of the patriarchs” (Delitzsch). C.F. Keil and F. Delitzch, Commentary on the Old Testament In Ten Volumes, The Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) 183.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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