The Book of Genesis
Part 27
It Would not be proper in our examination into the lapse of faith in the life of the patriarch Abram not to consider the God-designed cure for this sad condition. That God was behind such moves in the lives of His servant, must be obvious to every honest student of the Word.
In the consideration of this the closing part of this present study, we shall look first of all into
The Return (13:1)
“And Abram went up out of Egypt.” This was more than a geographic ascent, it was a moral elevation. He was on a return journey to the place he had seen the Lord (12:7). How gracious of God to turn our feet homeward again! This restoration was all of God; it is He that turns us to Himself. There is an interesting translation of the first verse of Psalm 126 which reads as follows, “When the Lord turned again, then returned the captivity of Zion, and we were like them that dream.” In the restoration of His people the Lord takes an active part, and moves first in grace toward them. Let us now consider
The Reproach (13:2)
“Abram was very rich.” The word “rich” used here means literally “heavy.” Abram was heavy ladened with goods, but his subsequent experience was to prove that when he came out of Egypt, he carried a weight with him that he could never lay down. One of the maidservants received from Pharoah in that hour of backsliding and deception was to prove oppressive to him and upon his seed after him, Hagar the symbol of bondage (Gal. 4:24-31), Hagar through whom Ishmael came. Thank God for restoration! Nevertheless, very frequently, in departure from the Lord, some moral stigma is thereby attached to us so definitely that we are never able to rid ourselves of its reproach. David’s sin is the classic example. How imperative the need of keeping close to the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him for the power for fruit-bearing and testimony!
A young Christian couple was guilty of a serious sin. They were disciplined by the assembly, but eventually were repentant and restored to church fellowship. Nearly twenty years after, a nurse who had attended the young mother and knew the circumstances, entered an assembly gospel meeting. She was horrified and stumbled to see the very man involved in this affair opening that gospel service; the stigma remained in her mind.
The Recovery (13:3)
“He went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning … unto the place of the altar.” Here we have recorded his return to, and his recovery of the place of nearness and the privilege of priesthood. There is no account of an altar in Egypt, but now at the place where God revealed Himself to Abraham at the first, he builds his altar again. In one respect he is outside the camp far removed from Egypt, and in another, he is inside the veil, in solitude alone with his God.
The Reliance (13:4)
“And Abram called on the name of the Lord.” At long last God hears the voice of His child, and that always pleases His heart. “Let Me see thy countenance let Me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely” (S. of S. 2:14), is His word to all of His own. Nothing betokens the recovery of his confidence and the complete reliance of Abraham’s heart in God like this short clause. His restoration is not only back to the place of nearness, back to the privilege of priesthood, but back also to the simplicity of confidence in God.
We now approach a new line of study in the life of Abraham. This, should we need a title, we might call His Repose of Faith. It is very interesting to see, after such a lapse in the pathway of faith, that Abraham rests in the Lord, and leaves affairs as they happen entirely in His care.
That both Abraham and Lot were children of God there is no doubt. From Rom. 4:3, we learn that Abraham was righteous before God, and from 2 Pet. 2:7-8 we learn that Lot likewise was a righteous man. The contents of this chapter and other subsequent events were not the result of a difference in their relationship to God, but rather because of a difference in their relationship to the world. Lot was an earthly man dwelling by choice within a wicked city (2 Pet. 2:8), while Abraham was a heavenly man sojourning in the Land of Promise, living as a pilgrim in a tent because he had his hopes fixed upon an eternal city (Heb. 11:8-10). Let us look at this portion under the three subtitles: The Circumstances (5-7), The Choice (8-13), and The Consequences (14-18). We shall not have time to cover all of these in this one study, but let us commence, and may the Spirit of God take of the things that are Christ’s and reveal them unto us.
The Circumstances
If these two brethren must part company, and it is after all better to part as friends than to live as enemies, there must of necessity be some underlying cause, and such there actually was.
Primary (5-6): There had been a happier day in the lives of these two men, a day in which the faith and the confidence of the elder, the uncle, had inspired his young nephew and he had become a follower of the example set before him. Abraham was the leader in the path of faith and Lot was the disciple (Gen. 12:4), but here wealth had come equally to both of them; consequently, they needed vast stretches of pasture land for their flocks. There is only one safe guard under such circumstances, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). This Scripture has been translated, “And be girded with the servile apron of humility.” This passage, therefore, is linked to the act of the Lord Jesus in the upper room (John 13:4-5). His gracious humility manifested in the washing of the disciples feet is the example of the moral quality that delights the Lord, and that removes pride, jealousy, and strife from the heart.