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GENESIS 13
Learn and appreciate the gifts of God. -- (DATE: Around 1873 before Christ)
DISCOVER Genesis 13: From Egypt Abram returned to the place where he had rested and pitched his tent once before, between Bethel and Ai, where he had built an altar to the LORD. -- And through his journey to Egypt he had become rich, with many livestock animals as well as silver and gold. But so had Lot his nephew. The two were so rich that the land could not support them and all they had with them. This led to strife among their respective herdsmen, so that Abram decided it was best if they parted ways now, for then there would be no more quarrelling between them. So he went to Lot and said that they should part from each other and that if Lot wanted to go east he would go west or, if Lot preferred the west, he’d go east. -- And Lot saw that the Jordan valley was rich in water, much like the garden of Eden had been, and he and his camp traveled in the direction of Zoar, to settle in the east, among the cities of the valley (of the Jordan river) as far as Sodom. However, the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning against the LORD. -- To Abram, the LORD then appeared once more, and He told him that he was to look all around him, and what he saw He would give him and his offspring forever, promising that He would make Abram’s decedents as innumerable as the dust on the earth. Therefore Abram was to move on and walk the length and breadth of the land He would give him. Then Abram left from where he was and moved on towards Hebron (in the south of Canaan), where he settled by the oaks of Mamre and there again built an altar to the LORD.
PRAYER: Our heavenly Father we thank you for making Abram rich and giving him wisdom in resolving tensions within his family. Thank you also that Abram learned humility from you and was ready to settle in the less fruitful hill country instead of the fertile Jordan valley. We marvel at your promise to him and his descendants which you kept hundreds of years later when the Sons of Jacob were able to settle in the land of Canaan. Help us to learn humility and gentleness from Abram and listen to you like this founding father in the Bible did. Amen.
QUESTION 13: How did Abram resolve the quarrels between his people and the people of his nephew Lot, and how did the LORD honor his decisions?