God told Abram to leave his country, his people, his father’s
household and go. Yet, Abram took possessions, and people, including
Lot. He didn’t obey God completely. Incomplete obedience is
disobedience . How often do we obey God only when it's something we
want to do, completely ignoring other things that we should do?
Complete obedience is not always an easy thing for us to do.
Back
to Abram. He next decided to go to Egypt, instead of trusting God to
provide for him during the famine. If Abram had taken only what God
told him to take, he wouldn’t have had to worry about taking care of
all his entourage. (see the writing on the website www.philandpatti.com
under Chronological Chronicles II "Disobedient Abraham".)
In this context of people living lives of 200+ years, a man of 75 would be considered middle age.
Abram
is fearful of the Egyptian men so he passes Sarai as his sister.
Pharaoh in effect "pays" Abram for the "use" of Sarai when he takes
Sarai into his harem. It may have taken years for Sarai to be
completely prepared to actually become Pharaoh's wife. Even though
Abram declares that Sarai is his half-sister at another time, other
historical writings relate that Sarai was the daughter of Haran, Abram's
brother, making Sarai his neice.
When Abram
leaves Egypt, he goes to the land of Canaan and there he and Lot
discover that there isn't enough room for both of them and so Abram
gives Lot a choice of where to go. Lot chooses the fertile land (keep
in mind that at this time the land surrounding that area was fertile -
not so now - it is a desolate place) and pitches his tent among the
cities of the plain near Sodom. Bad idea!
Notice God
tells Abram that He will give him all the land that Abram can see.
God tells Abram to walk the length and breadth of the land. This
"walking the land" was to show the people there that Abram was claiming
the land as his own. But did Abram walk the land? Well, read it for
yourself. (Gen. 13:18)
Abram was not a perfect man.
He sinned. But God used him anyway! None of us are perfect. We all
sin. But God can use us anyway!
Then this man...Melchizedek...just who is He anyway??? See the book of Hebrews. It explains it very clearly!
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