Title: The End of Lot Leaving Abram's Side!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Genesis 13:-18
Title: The End of Lot Leaving Abram's Side!
We know all too well about Abram in Genesis. But the lessons they teach us are not well understood. So today, let's take some time to examine ourselves through the relationship between Abram and Lot!
First, looking at their family members, Abram's father Terahyo Terah had an eldest son Abram, a second son Nahor, and a third son Haran. The eldest son Abram had no son until this time, and the second son Nahor had no children. The third son, Haran, had two sons, Milcah (Nahor's wife), Izca (Abram's wife Sarah), and Lot. In the end, Haran's two daughters live as the wives of two older brothers, Abram and Nahor.
From today's point of view, it seems that they have an incestuous relationship that is difficult to understand, but it was one of the customs that was taken for granted given the social background that valued bloodliness at the time. And Haran died in the mainland (Ur) before his father Terah, so he was unable to accompany Abram and his party. Nahor is probably the person who never left the mainland, as it is not mentioned in the Bible anymore.
When we look at Abram's family members for a moment, we try to understand even a little bit how God is working through them, although they are insignificant members of Abram's family. God does not call His ministers without a will. And if you call a minister to do your work, God will surely take all responsibility for it.
This is clearly evident in today's text. God called Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to use one Abram, but God always does not forget that Abram has a physical family. Therefore, it is God's will that if the family members are determined to walk together with Abram, God will bring them all to salvation no matter what their past may be.
In this way, Terah and Abram's family and his family leave the mainland (Ur region) and arrive at the land of Haran, a stopover in Canaan. After staying in the land of Haran for a while, Terah refused to follow Abram into the land of Canaan and ended his life there. This is an inevitable fate for Terah. If you wanted to follow Abram to the land of Canaan, you should have followed your children to the end no matter what adversity you faced.
Even if it is a child born to you, if you are with God, you should not look down on him and live with him whether he lives or not. Because the moment you part with him, you go to eternal destruction. Abram must have put a lot of effort into taking his father. However, in the end, Abram's heart, which had no choice but to leave behind his father, who did not break his stubbornness, must have been torn apart.
Abram leaves Terah behind and sets out for the first time in the land of Canaan with his nephew Lot. I came here because it was said to be a land flowing with milk and honey, but the land of Canaan is the land where we cannot live in peace, let alone milk and honey. Clearly, the land of Canaan is a land full of abundance. However, the wild-looking Canaanite natives were always guarding the place full of abundance, so to Abram and his companions, it was truly the bread of the picture. Abram had no choice but to hide from their eyes and encamp in a remote place. Then, because it was enough to grow up and live there, due to an untimely drought, he had no choice but to go down to Egypt and met an unexpected ambush (Sarah's work). When they came back from Egypt, they had plenty of silver and gold in their hands to avoid the same terrible difficulties as the first time.
However, problems began to arise with Lot and Abram. When he first followed his uncle, Lot would have been just a young immature. However, after living with Abram for a year or two, Lot would eventually be old enough to claim his rights, and furthermore, he would feel a sense of responsibility to form a family and live with him in the future. It started with such a thought, and as the years passed, the number of sheep grew exponentially, and in the end, it became wealthy enough to be equal to that of my uncle's flock. it has become
Abram must have been polite to his nephew several times at this time as well. ?쏮ine is yours, and yours is mine.??However, Lot disobeyed his uncle's words and fell into narcissism, saying, ?쏷he argument is how can your uncle become mine and mine become your uncle.??Abram, who did not see this, was troubled and made a serious decision. ?쏧sn?셳 the whole earth before you? Now leave me! If you are left, I will be right; if you are right, I will be left!??
Even Terah did not come to the land of Canaan with his son, but stayed in Haran and died. Lot came all the way here after chasing his uncle, but now he is blinded by a few hundred sheep, and even Lot is about to leave his uncle again. Since Abram had already known the path Lot was going to go, Abram's heart must have been filled with the pain of being torn in thousands again. Hearing Abram's words, Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and it was revealed in Lot's eyes that the land was full of water as far as Zoar, like the Garden of Eden of the Lord, and full of abundance like the land of Egypt. He didn't even know that it was the devil's whisper to seduce Lot.
After that, Lot lived in the plain of Zoar, and as his wealth increased, he moved his tent to the city of Sodom to enjoy a more comfortable and comfortable cultural life. This makes it easy to see their depravity. After that, when Lot left the city of Sodom, even his wife disobeyed God's word and became a pillar of salt, having an incestuous relationship under the guise of propagating a tribe by two daughters, and acquired two tribes, one a Moabite. One is the Ammonites. Their curse makes it impossible for them to enter the kingdom of God forever.
Looking at the ending of Lot's departure from Abram, there is something we must point out at this point. It is none other than saying that you will follow those who are with God and do not take care of your own things like Lot. As Abram said to Lot, ?쏻hen I said, ?쏮ine is yours, and yours is mine,??Lot would not have met such a miserable end if he had abandoned his greed and listened to his uncle. He said that he could not let go and that he was blessed forever and descended from his place of living to the last place of misery.
That is why we must live by faith with a clear sense of purpose. Even among those who claim to believe in Jesus today, like Lot, those who still want to run their careers by selling the name of Jesus, and those who want to accumulate their wealth in the name of Jesus, are as obvious as seeing fire, as can be seen from the results of Lot. A life of faith without a clear sense of purpose, like Lot, soon leads to blindness to wealth, fame and power.
As it is said that one cannot serve two masters, if we have decided to serve only one Lord, no matter how deceived and tempted by the world, I must be able to firmly reject it. Also, no matter what difficulties you face, you should never give up halfway through. If you want to give up in the middle, it's just not enough.
Just as it is said that salt is useless for anything after it loses its saltiness, if we decide to follow our Lord and give up halfway through hardship because it is too hard to bear, it is not as good as nothing. And no matter what anyone in this world says, I must have a firm faith in the Lord. If you don't, you'll be dragged around like a reed blown away by the wind, and eventually you'll end up falling into a deep pit like Lot that you can't get out of.