Genesis 13 The Gospel Life
The Introduction
For no other reason other than God in his sovereign grace elects one man out of everybody else and gives this one man a promise:
Genesis 12:1–3 (CSB) The LORD said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
We know Abram believed because the rest of the Bible will state over and over that "Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness of God." For all we know, Abram did not trust nor obey nor worship the Living God. Nonetheless, like we have seen it starting with Adam and with Noah, God is gracious and kind and preaches the gospel to us and we believe. We didn't even earn the right to have the gospel preached nor even believed the gospel. We were once dead in our trespasses and sin. Abram is a son of Adam--he was wicked and depraved. Yet, God saved him.
Why would I say so strongly that Abram was depraved? Remember the latter half of Genesis 12? "Sarai, I need you to pretend to be my sister so I don't die." He dishonored his wife to save his neck. That is sin. But what does God do? Give up? "Oh man, I fumbled that. I gave a blessing and a covenant to the wrong dude." No! His choice of whom He will save actually saves. No sin was going to separate us from the love of God.
Genesis 13 is the new life in Christ. But just like what Romans 7 tells us and if you have been a Christian for longer than five minutes, so that Genesis 12 & 13 shows us our new lives in the gospel.
Genesis 12:1-6 is the Election, Predestination and Calling of God on those whom he has saved. Verse 7-20 is life--guess what--you are going to sin and you can break the promises of God. Not even God can break his own promises--you and I lack a great amount of strength to break something that God has made.
Now that we have leveled it all out. Here is the mundane everyday life in the gospel. The ordinary. The grind. The toil.
The Text
Genesis 13 (CSB)
1 Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
3 He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been,
4 to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of the LORD there.
5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents.
6 But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together,
7 and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.)
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.
9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan as far as Zoar was well watered everywhere like the LORD’s garden and the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
11 So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other.
12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom.
13 (Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the LORD.)
14 After Lot had separated from him, the LORD said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west,
15 for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
17 Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.”
18 So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
Our God
There are a few things God does for every human that has or will ever live:
1 Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.
2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
3 He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been,
4 to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of the LORD there.
5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents.
This Life: God provides every material needs and wants
Matthew 5:43-46 (CSB) “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
In the midst of Christ commanding everyone to love one another--including your enemies--he says a peculiar thing:
For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
God command us to love one another--but he provides our food, shelter, water, and riches. The God who owns a cattle on a thousand hills; the Christ who has inherited the universe provides for both the good and the evil and the righteous and unrighteous. That is what we call Common Grace.
Both believers and unbelievers are provided for. Both get to live this life. Both get to marry, own land, have kids, go to work, get money. That sounds like common sense. But if you ever been hurt by someone else--especially from an unbeliever, you might feel like that is unfair. It is unfair that unbelievers get to do or be rich or healthy or smart or have babies or whatever in this life.
But God only provided for those who trusted and obeyed him, then it would stand to reason that we would worship God mostly because of what He can do for us. Then you would be worshipping a mythical creature called a genie. Is that what you want? God doesn't want that and that is not how we are to worship him. We must worship him in spirit and truth--not in health, wealth, and prosperity.
6 But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together,
7 and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.)
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.
This Life: God provides all intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom
Again, we cannot earn our intelligence--that's from God. Our wisdom certainly comes from God. And God provides the tools to grow in that regard.
Knowledge, science, and technology is no different:
1 Corinthians 3:18-23 (CSB) Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool so that he can become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness; and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are futile. So let no one boast in human leaders, for everything is yours — whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come — everything is yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
All things come from God and everything is now ours. But with God's common grace, he does provide for all.
So why bother? Why trust God? Why obey God? Why believe in God? Is it to get out of hell for free? Because for many Christians, their lives became more difficult since being saved. I know, in my ways, that was my life.
Why bother?
Because we will not live unless God saves us. And that life doesn't start when we get to heaven but it starts when the Triune God makes his home in you the moment you first believe.
Here is the gospel life.
The Gospel
9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”
10 Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan as far as Zoar was well watered everywhere like the LORD’s garden and the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
11 So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other.
12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom.
13 (Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the LORD.)
This Life: You get to choose God
14 After Lot had separated from him, the LORD said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west,
15 for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
17 Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.”
This Life: You get the promises of God
There is a choice before you.
Joshua 24:15 (CSB) But if it doesn’t please you to worship the LORD, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.”
Granted that this choice is before every son and daughter. Do you choose to go with the world or do you choose God? And it is a choice. But here is the grace and the power of God: in your old estate, you did not have enough life, provision, health, intelligence, knowledge, science, technology nor wisdom to choose God. You and I were not born with that ability because we were all born into sin. And you can all the riches, power, all degrees, discoveries, everything and yet our lives are dew on grass that evaporates in an instance as soon as the sun's rays fall on us.
God provides every thing to everyone--but those just material.
For the spiritual? The absolute reality? That comes from God to those whom He has mercy upon.
John 3:16 (CSB) For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Who gets eternal life? Those who believe. How can we believe? God must give his heart and his spirit in order for us to live and believe.
We are always tempted to go back to the world. Oh, I wish I could give a testimony of my short life in Christ was one of linear progression where I just ascended into glory. But that didn't happen. In the time I have known Christ where the darkest times of my life. And I was abused by my parents. And I worked in porn at one point. But it wasn't me never falling. My testimony is about the God who not only saves but he never stops saving because he never stops loving us because he never started. Because He always loved me. He has always loved his people. We are rescued because He sent his Son to come and get us.
18 So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
This Life: You get to be with God forever
Choose the way of wickedness and the world and you will not dwell with God. Choose God and you get to dwell with God because God dwells in you. Once God has made his home in you, you are in Him forever. His steadfast love never ceases. His love never comes to end.
Our Response
Praise be to God.
Is God good enough? God alone is good. The world is offering us shiny things and a "love" that involves a lot pain and misery. But those of us who have ran to the world to get all that it can offer, we found out all the world offers is dung.
What God has is the only treasure. Because that treasure is Christ.
Choose on this day. Rest in him. You belong to him.