Three scenes today.
Scene 1: Conversation between God and Abram. Childless, landless Abram. And God promises the land he’s standing on will be his children’s. That’s two promises in one. Children and land. Pretty big deal.
Scene 2: A world at war. Abraham is not alone in this land. It is a land of violence. Of pillage and plunder. Of danger.
Lest we think Abram is wandering through vacant, sweeping Wyoming vistas, the writer of Genesis paints a picture of an urban war zone. An alliance of four local warlords and their cities against an alliance of five. This is the land God promised Abram. If I’m Abram, maybe I try bargaining with God, “Got any land that isn’t full of warring Canaanites? I hear Wyoming is nice.”
But maybe God is up to what he was doing in Genesis 1:2 all over again.
Scene 3: Abram the innocent bystander becomes Abram the conquering warlord. The fight gets personal when Lot, Abram’s nephew, is captured and taken away. Abram fights. Abram wins, and he reclaims not just his nephew, but everybody else that was captured and their stuff.
Lesson: Don’t mess with Abram.
What if this means that the promises of God don’t come without a battle, or some sense of struggle?
What about you? What do you see?
Fiftyeight 