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Restoration

We left Abram last week as he was forcibly expelled from Egypt. His own behaviour in the whole episode was lamentable. Without prayer he had left the Promised Land and trusting to his own wisdom he had gone off to Egypt to escape the consequences of a famine. On the borders of Egypt he's suddenly perturbed about his own security so pleads with his wife Sarai to join him in lies and deceit regardless of the danger into which this precipitate her. God's promises to him seem for a time to be totally forgotten.

And yet we saw that the LORD did not abandon Abram nor did He give up on the one He had chosen to become the Father of the faithful. Abram was protected and so was his wife Sarai. Nevertheless it must have been somewhat embarrassing for Abram to be given a verbal dressing down by Pharaoh for his shabby behaviour before he is ignominiously escorted out of the land.

What happened next is the theme of chapter 13. The account opens with reference to the altar that Abram had constructed near Bethel and it will close with reference to the construction of yet another altar in Hebron. It really is impossible to understand the life of Abram without taking into account the reality of the presence of God in his life

As Abram retraces his steps from Egypt to the Negeb and to Bethel Moses is careful to spell out for us the reality of his material prosperity. Abram had been remarkably protected by the LORD in Egypt and now as he returns to the Promised he returns a wealthy man. The LORD has showered His blessings upon this unworthy man Abram. There was no way that Abram deserved to be treated with such generosity by the LORD but then that is just what grace is all about!

In His dealings with us our LORD always shows Himself to be a gracious God – neither our merit nor our demerit are the determining factor in just how the LORD treats His people. And how glad we should be that this is the case! Where would we be if everything were meted out to us just as we deserved?

How we need to learn such lessons though and take them seriously to heart! And yet how easily our poor hearts fail at this point! What do I mean? Just this: we can so often behave as though God did indeed treat us this way. We miss our morning Quiet Time and thoughts spring up in us that somehow the day will go wrong as a result. Now, don't get me wrong I'm not encouraging you for one moment to give up on your morning Bible reading. But what a poor appreciation of God we show when we entertain such low thoughts of Him! How dishonouring this all is to the God of grace. Do we really believe that He is just itching to spoil our lives? Shades of the third man in the parable of the talents who could say to his Master "I knew that you were a hard man." Cf. Mt.25:24.

So Moses tells us that as Abram re-enters the Promised Land he does so as a rich man. Rich not because he deserves such wealth for being such a fine upstanding man but because God being a God of grace delights to show His blessings upon His chosen!

So does all this mean that what Abram had done in Egypt didn't matter at all? No, of course not. Sin is always wrong and the fact that the LORD forgives us our sin for Jesus' sake does not mean that sin is insignificant leaving not the slightest mark upon us!

Abram returns not just to the Promised Land but he marches up to the last place in the Promised Land where he had had dealings with his God. It is a mark of his repentance of going back to the LORD and renewing his obedience where he had previously left it.

He goes not to an altar but to the place where the altar had been. Had Abram dismantled it before he headed further south or had the inhabitants of the land tried to eradicate any traces of the worship of the true and living God we don't know but we do know that Abram went back to this same place.

The place held a spiritual significance for him and so it is not wrong for us to travel sometimes only in our mind's eye to places where the Lord has met with us and had dealings with us. But the fact that the altar was no longer there also reminds us that there is no ultimate going back. We cannot change history – what has happened has happened. Abram might well return to Bethel but he can't wipe out what has taken place since in Egypt – ch.13 stands as a permanent testimony to that! Nevertheless what is impossible us is not impossible to God who is well able to "restore to you the years that the locust has eaten," Joel 2:25. Grace restores and restores fully – there is not the slightest hint here that Abram has somehow has missed out on God's best as he is now back in close fellowship with the LORD again.

And the repentant man is a praying man. Do you see that? Abram has returned to the place where the altar had been which he earlier built and there "he called upon the name of the LORD" v.4.

Matthew Henry commenting on this verse wrote at the beginning of the 18^th century:

All God's people are praying people. You may as soon find a living man without breath as a living Christian without prayer."

The first thing I want you to see here is that this new trial that confronts Abram comes immediately after his repentance and renewed obedience and is directly linked to the Lord's generosity and blessing. It is important to see this clearly for the enemy of our souls likes to suggest that our trials are due to our sinfulness and our waywardness. He comes with this kind of argument and whispers to the believer:

"You can't be a real Christian because if you were then this sort of thing would never be happen to you."

And my friends we are sadly stupid enough to listen to him all too often. Yes, we can get ourselves into a mess through our own sin but trials will come to us all whether or not we sin!

James tells us how we should respond:

Jas.1:2 "Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds,"

The Christian life is not a life which is exempt from trials and you must not think that succeeding in one trial will provide exemption from future trials. Our walk with the LORD will lead us to ever new challenges and opportunities to grow. The life of Abram shows us this very clearly.

Now, let's look at the trial that came.

Abram is back in the Land God had promised to give him but his experience of this land so far was mixed. In the promised land he had already been threatened with famine and now he finds that the land is not sufficient to support him and his nephew Lot as they try to settle down together. The problem was compounded by the fact that the Canaanites and Perizzites were in the land and had doubtless already laid claim to the best bits for themselves already.

And strife arises. The immediate cause is prosperity. Abram and Lot are just so rich that the land is unable to support both groups living together. How is the problem to be addressed.

In what follows Abram shows himself to be a man of faith and because of that he can well afford to be generous!

Abram was the undoubted head of the wider clan – it was up to him to decide what should be done. He could easily have argued with himself that the land had been promised to him therefore he had full rights to decide in his own favour. But Abram had already begun walking by faith when he had responded to the LORD's call to leave Haran. As he walked in obedience to this call he had never been let down. He had left his family behind him as he walked to the Promised Land and the LORD had provided for him. He could trust the LORD who had once told him to go to the 'land he would show him to continue' 12:1 to lead him now.

So the choice is offered to Lot and Lot provides us with an example to avoid.

From a human perspective Lot's choice seems eminently sensible if a little selfish. But in reality his choice turns out to have catastrophic consequences for him in the long run. Moses has trailed a number of clues for us even at this early stage to cause us to call into question the wisdom of Lot's choice.

1.       "Lot lifted up his eyes and saw" v.14 the phrase reminds us of Eve in the Garden of Eden. She saw the forbidden fruit and wanted it. Lot too goes on outward appearances and yes those appearances were at first sight very appealing indeed – wasn't what he saw just like "the garden of God"?

2.       Ah, but a second look saw that it was also "like the land of Egypt"! Yes, Egypt was the bread-basket of the region but it was also the place where Abram had failed so dismally and yet Lot seems to be unmoved by the experience of his uncle. Was he oblivious to it all? It would seem he was.

So Lot chooses the Jordan Valley and is soon heading off to settle in that green and pleasant land. The Jordan would later mark the eastern boundary of the Promised Land but the telling phrase we read of Lot is that he journeyed east – that is away from the LORD.

Moses is clear: Lot is heading off into dangerous territory. Sodom and Gomorrah were seriously wicked places and soon to be destroyed but Lot is off to pitch his tent in the region of Sodom. It won't be long before he is found living within that wicked city – in fact the very next chapter speaks of Lot as dwelling in Sodom. He's still there in ch.19 as the LORD prepares to destroy the city. Lot (described in 2 Peter as a righteous man) is saved but why oh why was he there? He is saved but he loses just about everything and the final years of his life make for sorry reading. Incestuous relations with his two daughters who give birth to boys who in the years to come will head up nations which become the enemies of God's people.

How important choices are! Where to live?  Which job to take? Are we guided by the right concerns? Is there a good Bible church we can become a part of or is it the scenery and the salary that are all important?

Do you think Lot would make the same choice again if he had known what lay ahead? Would what he saw with his eyes had determined things then? I doubt it! So we must be careful to learn to take the right decisions – every journey begins with the first step – may faith and not sight be the determining factor for us every time!! (cf.2Cor.5:7)

I wonder whether it has struck you that God did not speak to Abram until he was alone after Lot had left him. But when He does speak He speaks at length and with what wonderfully encouraging words for Abram.

I wonder whether Abram was beginning to wonder whether he'd done the right thing. I wonder whether he heard some of his own herdsmen calling into question what he'd done.

Well the LORD speaks to reassure and to add real comfort to Abram.

The promises already given are further fleshed out. The land that he can see, all the land that stretches out north, south, east and west will all belong to his descendants. And oh yes those descendants are going to be very numerous indeed. Here we have the first of three word pictures underlining the number of his descendants:

a.       "as the dust of the earth" v.16 – no-one will be able to count them all.

b.       "as numerous as the stars" 15:5

c.        "as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore"

Abram is then told to walk through the land – it'll all belong to his descendants so he should go and inspect it now.

And the chapter ends with Abram moving away to Hebron where he settled and where he built another altar. What else could he do? The LORD God had been so good to him, so remarkably generous and kind. How else to respond than to publicly acknowledge this God and to worship Him?

We don't physically build any altars now but surely the response of our hearts cannot be different from that of Abraham!

Amen.