What happened to Abraham gives us clues as to what happens to us as his children through the generations. As Paul said, we’re “blessed along with Abraham” (Galatians 3:9), and as “our father” (Romans 4:16-17) Abraham trod the ground that we’d be treading, learning about the relational YHWH as he did, and being changed by knowing his love too.
So how did knowing YHWH’s love change Abraham? Well, in a nutshell, he became a rather loving chap himself. After his thorough scolding by the Egyptian Pharaoh in Genesis 12:18-19 for selfishly seeking to preserve his own life by palming off his lovely wife as his sister, resulting in “the Lord inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household” (17), Abraham learnt something about YHWH’s love, in both his mercy and correction, that changed him in how he dealt with the next dilemma in his life.
It was on his return trip to Canaan from Egypt that another problem arose. He and his nephew Lot had both accumulated so much livestock that “the land could not support them while they stayed together” (6) and “quarrelling arose” between their herdsmen (7).
At which point, Abraham could have sought a selfish solution to preserve his own interests (just as he’d done in Egypt), and being the senior of the two men he could have put his foot down and demanded his way. But how YHWH had dealt with him in Egypt had clearly made a major impact on Abraham, because he came up with a solution for himself and Lot that was enormously gracious and generous – and totally unselfish.
He starts off by saying to Lot, “Let’s not quarrel, we’re brothers” (8) – so rather than pushing his seniority in the family, Abraham puts himself and Lot on the same level, as “brothers.” And on suggesting they part ways so their herds aren’t piled up in one spot, Abraham gives Lot first choice as to what part of the land he would like (9).
Lot likes the look of “the whole plain of Jordan” to the east (11), because it’s “like the garden of the Lord” (10), perfectly set up with everything he needed. Abraham, meanwhile, remains in Canaan (12).
YHWH is delighted that his love for Abraham has now made Abraham loving too, because right after Lot leaves he tells Abraham he’s giving “all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever” (15).
More in the next blog, then, about “Abraham’s growing relationship with YHWH”
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