BEMA 9: Letting Go (2016)

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4 Feb 24 — Added link for Bible study tools that we reference

14 Apr 22 — Initial public release

14 Mar 22 — Transcript approved for release

Letting Go

Brent Billings: This is The BEMA Podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host, Brent Billings. Today, we’re talking about Genesis 12–14, the call of Avraham and his initial adventures in the land of Canaan.

Marty Solomon: Last time we were chatting, we were talking about the story of Abraham beginning not where we typically think, in Chapter 12 where we’re going to be today, but just as a matter of calling us back and review: After this preface, we meet Abraham, Avraham, as he’s called here at this point in the story. We meet him at the end of Chapter 11, as we talked about Iscah and Sarai. We learn that this Avraham character, according to the Midrash and seemed like there’s some evidence in the text here to suggest how true it is, that he has this ability to see other people, he doesn’t just see himself.

He’s not just worried about himself, but he has this ability to trust the story in that he’s willing to lay down his life on behalf of other people. This is the kind of person that God wants to use and God wants to work with. Now, we’re going to pick up where we typically would start with Abraham in Chapter 12. I’m going to start reading. I’m not going to get very far but here we go anyway. The Lord had said to Avram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you.”

Now, one of the things that, for people that aren’t familiar with the context of this ancient patriarchal culture, for God to say, for the Scriptures here to point out that he’s leaving his father’s household is a bigger deal than we probably give it credit for initially, unless we’re aware of the cultural context here because your father’s household was absolutely everything in this culture. You lived in what was called a beit av, which literally means “house of my father.”

Beit av, and the Yiddish had a term they came up with called mishpucha, which I’ve always really liked, but beit av will be the term we try to use here as the Hebrew term. It’s a term used here in Genesis. You had your beit av and you would have a patriarch that was over this family. In this beit av, in this larger patriarchal family structure would have been you and your brothers and your sisters and your cousins, and maybe even some nieces and nephews and aunts and uncles, and anybody in this larger family structure that had decided to remain under the relational umbrella of a patriarch.

To be a part of a patriarchal culture in this ancient world was to be all together as a community. a family community that was pursuing the calling of the father. The father had been placed on this earth and given a call, and usually wrapped around a trade. Somebody would have a trade. They were a builder, or they were a farmer, or they were a miller, or whatever it is that they were, they would have this family trade. Then all the sons help this father, this patriarch, maybe even some nieces or some nephews, maybe even a brother.

All these people that had decided to stay under this patriarchal umbrella helped this patriarch pursue his calling, and they all shared in his legacy. You even see this tailing into the New Testament when we see people come to faith. We say conversion. You’ll notice that these whole households are being converted. In our culture, we find that just impossible to comprehend because your belief is something that is so individualistic to you and true to you and private.

We think, “Golly, these whole households were convinced like every single individual?” No, they were a part of this patriarchal society, where when the patriarch decided that this was a change the family was going to make. The family was a part of this larger system, a larger structure, and they had this trust for the patriarch, and so they decided to go with him. It didn’t mean they even understood or even believed in the way that he did, but they were following his lead.

Brent: Now, this isn’t just something that’s part of the Bible culture. This is the entire ancient world where it’s like this?

Marty: Yes, especially in the ancient Eastern world, especially. It’s really not going to be until a lot later we’ll begin studying Hellenism in the Western world. There are a few exceptions here and there, but by and large, it’s the Western world that brings a sense of individuality. The sense of “I’m going to get out on my own and have my own house and my own family and my own trade and my own identity and work.” Definitely a byproduct of that Western culture. This ancient Eastern culture had a sense of family and of the patriarch.

When God says to Avram, “Leave your beit av, your father’s house,” He’s asking him to leave everything that he knows. His provision, because his father is the one that provides for him. The trade that has identified this larger family. As somebody has pointed out, his father is also on his way out of Ur of the Chaldeans, they’re all traveling. They’ve left home, so he must belong to a pretty unique family. For Avram to strike out away from his father’s household, culturally, this is something totally wacky.

Brent: This isn’t like — I don’t know. I feel like if I was reading this for the very first time today, it might seem like God’s saying, “Hey, you’re a grown-up now. Why don’t you get out and get on your way like you’re supposed to?” This isn’t like Avram is living in his momma’s basement.

Marty: No, not at all. I’m sure that they probably had an agreement. We’re not given any indication in the text that Avram and his father have a misunderstanding. In that culture, to leave your father’s household would be an — you’re there to further your father’s legacy. It’s the exact opposite of our culture. This isn’t him living in his basement. He’s leaving dad’s basement and that’s an offensive thing to do in their culture because your whole life until your father passes away, your life is about furthering the calling.

You are Avram, son of Terah. That is his identity, and his identity is wrapped up in his father’s identity. For him to strike out and set out on his own course, this is like the story of the prodigal son that people are familiar with, this is a really big deal. Now, the reason I bring that up is because not only are you striking out and leaving your father’s trade and leaving your father’s provision and leaving your father’s literal household, but there are other things that come with this household. Like what, Brent?

Brent: You have all of your relationships, all of your food, all of your tools, skills.

Marty: Absolutely. Yes, what else? Your father also has some other things as well.

Brent: The thing that you worship.

Marty: Yes! So your father has these gods that he worships, gods that he clings to, which are the narratives that you’ve grown up with. Your father would have taught you how to worship and how to pursue the gods as he understands them. To strike out away from your father’s household is also a departure from the cultural narratives that he’s passed on to you and the gods that he clung to. In fact, there’s this wonderful midrash, one of my favorites, about Avram, the night he left his father’s, he decided he was leaving his father’s house.

It says he went into his father’s room where he kept all the idols and he grabbed an ax and he smashed every single one of the idols to bits, except for one final idol. Then he puts the ax in the hands of this remaining idol. The father wakes up and he runs into the room and says, “What in the world has happened?” Avram says, “Well, it’s pretty obvious what’s happened. You got the idol here holding the ax and all the other ones are smashed. I think it’s obvious what’s happened. This idol is apparently—”

The father says, “No, that’s ridiculous. These are just images made of stone. I carved them myself.” Avram’s retort to him is, “Then why do you bow down to them?” This is a big move for Avram to strike out away from his father’s house. This is about everything. This isn’t just about where he lives and where he rests his head at night. This is about where his paycheck comes from, and who he worships, and who he calls family, and where his provision comes from, and who makes the decisions. This is everything.

Let’s keep reading. I’ll start over again. The Lord had said to Avram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land 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, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” which is a really big part of the story that I’ll keep coming back all throughout our story. When God shows up and chooses his first partner, Avram, what God tells him is, “I’m going to bless you, not so that you can hang out in the community of the blessed ones. I am going to bless you because through you I want to bless all nations.” From the very beginning,  God’s plan is to put the whole world back together, and He’s going to use Avram to do it. We’ll keep reading for now.

Avram left, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Avram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Avram traveled to the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time, the Canaanites were still in the land. The Lord appeared to Avram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land,” so he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Now, just a passing note here as we pass by here. Like the very last story, before we start talking about Avram, Brent, what was the last story we talked about?

Brent: Tower of Babel.

Marty: Right, and so every time you have a group of people in the preface, what seems to define them is they’re building towers for themselves. We’re struggling metaphorically and literally in the preface to find mankind in a place where they’re not trying to make a name for themselves. What’s striking about Avram here is God makes him a promise that he’s going to give him this land.

We just saw in the Tower of Babel that God doesn’t want His people to settle. He doesn’t want His people to stop. He wants His people to be mobile, to keep moving, to follow the voice, if you will. He tells Avram, “I’m going to give you this land.” If you’re a reader here, your immediate reaction is, “No God, don’t tell him you’re going to give him this land,” because what do you assume he’s going to do, Brent?

Brent: What do I assume God is going to do?

Marty: What do you assume Avram is going to do?

Brent: That he will build a tower to himself.

Marty: Right, he’s just going to settle down. God promised him this chunk of dirt. “Great, I’ll stay here.” Amazingly, what Avram does is he does something totally different than what we’ve seen in the preface. He does build a tower but it’s not the same kind of a tower. He builds an altar. The tower that he builds, the thing that he makes permanent, is his belief in who God is. Instead of building a tower to himself trying to make his name permanent, he builds a tower to Adonai and calls on the name of God Most High. He makes God’s name permanent, and he pitches his tents. Now, what is a tent?

Brent: A temporary dwelling.

Marty: Right. He is mobile. Avram has this understanding, even in the presence of the promises of God, Avram has an understanding that it’s God’s promises and God’s name that is permanent, and he is but a wanderer, a sojourner, and a mobile piece of the story. From there, he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Avram set out and continued toward the Negev. He’s heading south towards Egypt. Now, there was a famine in the land. This is going to be a prominent theme throughout the Scriptures, always a famine in the land. They live in the Middle East, a land drenched with drought, if you will.

Brent: I can affirm that.

Marty: You came with us, you walked there. If there’s a famine in the land, we have a problem. There’s one place that everybody goes when there’s a famine in the land because of the Nile River, and that’s to Egypt. The Nile Delta, the land of Goshen, which we’ll run into later in the story. This land is a land that always floods. No matter how bad the drought is, the Nile is going to flood every year.

If there’s one place that always has food, and one place that always has water so that it could grow food, it’s going to be Egypt. Throughout history, whenever there’s a famine, people go down to Egypt. There’s a famine in the land, and Avram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. Now, any thoughts there as you read that, Brent?

Brent: How do you know it’s severe?

Marty: That’s true.

Brent: Why is it any different from any other year?

Marty: That’s a good question. Do you see anything else there when you’re thinking about the story in the narrative of Avram and what we expect to see in this hero?

Brent: What we expect to see?

Marty: Sure.

Brent: I don’t know. Is he going to start worshiping the gods of Egypt?

Marty: It feels like we start to have this hero story in Avram. Avram is this amazing guy, he’s going to marry the barren woman. He’s going to build altars and pitch tents. This is the amazing thing that Avram does. Then in this moment of — there’s a famine in the land. Well, that’s great because Avram’s the type of guy, he’s just going to trust the story, but then he goes down to Egypt. Now, my point here is not to throw Avram under the bus because Avram is a human being just like you and me, and that’s actually my point.

What I love about the story of Avram is that it’s not a story of just some hero character and this epic that does everything wonderfully. Avram is like you and like me. I know that 99% of our listeners to this podcast know what it is to wrestle with the tension between faith and responsibility. When do you trust in God, and when does God expect you to do the responsible thing? Here’s Avram, and there’s a famine in the land, and Avram decides he’s going to go down to Egypt. Not that there’s anything necessarily even wrong with that, but as the reader of the narrative, you’re starting to go — I think you brought up — there’s gods in Egypt.

There’s another story and another narrative in Egypt. “Avram, what are you doing? What’s going on?” The story is going to get worse, but maybe not the way that we love to just let Avram have it here in this story about his wife/sister, Sarai. Let’s look at it and try to understand what Avram’s doing here, because there’s a method to their madness. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say this is his wife, and they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

Now, all the time that I grew up with this story, and most of the times I’ve heard this talk, we just lob the grenades at Avram. He’s just trying to save his own skin and save his life, and what a jerk. Now, there’s plenty of jerk going on here in this story, but it’s much bigger than him simply trying to save his life. He says, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.” By the way, she must be the most attractive woman in her 60s. This is something, she’s so beautiful. She’s a 64-year old woman here. This is a 65-, 66-year-old woman. This is a big deal. She must be something.

Anyway, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ then they will kill me, but will let you live. Say you are my sister,’” and here’s the phrase that I think we read over, “‘so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.’” Avram and Sarai have a plan, and maybe it’s just Avram’s plan, however you want to look at that. They have a plan when they go down to Egypt. They’re not just going down to Egypt to find some food and trying to survive.

Avram has a plan to take Sarai, this beautiful wife of his, and use her to be blessed. “To be treated well for your sake,” is this Hebrew idea. I want to be blessed. We need some material goods. We’re out of food, we’re out of resources, we need to be treated well. We need to be blessed. What he’s going to do is he’s going to use this beautiful woman who is under his patriarchal care and authority. Instead of telling people she’s his wife, she’s going to tell them she’s his sister because then people are going to want to come and court her. If you’re going to come and court her to take her as a wife, what are you going to bring to the patriarch, Brent?

Brent: You got to have all kinds of gifts.

Marty: Bribes, gifts. You want to “treat him well” for her sake because you want him to decide. He’s the patriarch that is going to give her away as a bride. He’s the one that’s going to make the decision. You want him to choose you.

Brent: If she is as beautiful as he says, there’s going to be a lot of competition.

Marty: Going to be a lot of competition. So Avram’s got this plan. “We’re going to put you out there on the market. Lots of people are going to come courting you and we’ll just jet out of Egypt under the cover of nightfall with the resources we need and get back to our calling in Canaan.” But that’s not how the story goes.

Brent: The other side of that also has a huge effect. Not only do they want to go down there and get a bunch of stuff to take care of themselves, but the entire household is at stake. If they think, “Oh, all we have to do is kill Avram and then we can have his wife,” then the entire household is in a really bad spot.

Marty: Correct. It’s hard to know how large this household is at this point. We know it includes Lot and his family. We know when he comes out of Egypt, it’s going to be a massive beit av, a massive mishpucha, a massive household, but you’re absolutely correct. Whoever is in this household, this is about Lot, this is about anybody that comes with Lot, this is about Sarai, this is about any servants and other relatives that they have that we’re not told about, but that could be there. You’re absolutely correct. All right, so picking back up. When Avram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. It’s going right as planned. When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into his palace. Here we go. He treated Avram well for her sake, and Avram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. His plan falls apart because there’s only one person — see, in all of these arrangements, Avram got the upper hand in this covenant. We talked about suzerain-vassal covenants.

This is more of a relational covenant, but it’s the same concept. If Avram is a patriarch that needs to give away this beautiful woman, he’s got the upper hand — except with one person.

I think everybody else is going to always have the lower hand here, except for one guy; his name is Pharaoh, because Pharaoh doesn’t court anybody. Pharaoh takes and then courts later. Everybody else has to court because the patriarch has to give her away but Pharaoh doesn’t answer to anybody. Pharaoh takes and courts later. The plan backfires here.

Brent: Apparently not only was Avram right about his wife’s beauty, he was too right.

Marty: He was too right, exactly. Caught the eye of the most powerful guy in Egypt. The Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Avram’s wife, Sarai. Pharaoh summoned Avram, ‘What have you done to me?’ He said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her to be my wife. Now then here is your wife, take her and go.’ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Avram to his men and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had.

Avram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Avram had become very wealthy in livestock and silver and gold. See, it worked. Kind of only not really, at all. It backfired totally. From the Negev, he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Avram called on the name of the Lord. Is there anything that jumps out to you at the very end of that we are just in the first paragraph of Chapter 13? Anything jump out to you there, Brent, that you see?

Brent: The “call on the name of the Lord” business. I actually looked this up several weeks ago, and I can’t remember what is interesting about that. Fortunately, we have all of these students who are now educated in the tools to investigate such things. Check out that phrase, “call in the name of the Lord”.

[Ed. note: The tools can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK9kKd96wk4]

Marty: All right, I like that. We’ve got the tools from our last discussion group that we had, or at least a few weeks ago, by the time they listen to this, I suppose. We’ve got the tools you can look into that. Does anything else jump out to you when you hear that?

Brent: Just at the very end, you mean?

Marty: Yes.

Brent: He went back to where he built an altar, which is interesting…

Marty: You’re telling me that they are coming back… they’ve been here before?

Brent: Right.

Marty: It’s almost like the back end of the story seems to be mirroring the front end of the story.

Brent: It does seem that way…

Marty: It might even seem like we’ve got a chiasm. When we start looking here, let’s say we’re to look at Genesis 12 and we were to start, let’s say, verse 8. “From there, he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, Bethel on the west and Ai on the east end, he built an altar and called the name of the Lord.” Then you’ll notice it goes the exact opposite order, coming out of Chapter 12, into the beginning of Chapter 13. You can see that there. You can keep walking through the story and you can realize that there are other mirroring things.

“Say you are my sister,” and then on the other side, “Why did you say, ‘she was my sister’?” “I will be treated well for your sake.” On the other side, “Pharaoh treated him well for her sake.” There’s all these mirroring phrases on either side, this chiasm is another one of those that’s actually pretty easy to find. The center ends up becoming, verse 12 — excuse me, not 12, but 14 and 15. When Avram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. When Pharaoh officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into his palace.

The center of this chiasm is where the story backfires, and everything falls apart for Avram. To quote the rabbi who I learned this from — which again was Rabbi Fohrman, in his studies on his teachings on Genesis — the center of this chiasm is Avram’s uh-oh moment where he realizes that things don’t always go as we plan. He had this plan, but there are always things we can’t see. Things don’t go as planned. The question coming out of the story with this chiasm might be, what is Avram going to do with this new lesson that he’s learned?

Is he going to react in fear? Is he going to react in insecurity? What is he going to do with this newfound knowledge? Avram made a mistake, pretty big one, and so do you and so do I, and everybody listening to this podcast. This is the story of humanity. What do we do in our worst chapters? What do we do in our worst moments? We’re going to keep reading. Chapter 13, verse 5, Now, Lot, who was moving about with Avram, also had flocks and herds and tents, but the land could not support them while they stayed together for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together, and quarreling arose between Avram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot.

The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at the time. Avram said to Lot, ‘Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. It’s not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right and if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.’ Lot looked up and saw the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered like the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt towards Zoar. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company. Avram lived in the land of Canaan, where Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

The Lord said to Avram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes, and see where you are, and look north and south, east, and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth sled if anyone could count the dust, your offspring could be counted. Go walk through the length and breadth of the land for I am giving it to you.” Anything in that Chapter 13 there, Brent, that you are just like, “That does not belong. That is wacky, problems”?

Brent: Why is it important? Why do we need to know that this is before Sodom and Gomorrah have been destroyed? We haven’t even heard of these places before, right?

Marty: Correct. That’s a good question. It’s actually really closely related to another one that I’m getting at here.

Brent: The character of the people of Sodom.

Marty: How about earlier in the story moving away from the Sodom and Gomorrah, but the same principle? Is there anybody that I’m told about that’s like?

Brent: The Canaanites and Perrizites living in the land?

Marty: Yes, verse 7 there. What’s the point? That’s completely irrelevant to the story.

Brent: Is that to say like, “Oh, it’s crowded, because right after that, Avram says, “Hey, we got the whole land to ourselves. You take what you want, and I’ll take whatever’s left”

Marty: Yes, there could maybe be some indirect relevance to it. We’re not necessarily told but the one thing that we can say is, it’s not necessary for the story. The story would function completely without that line in there. If we had been paying attention because we were Easterners, but you and I aren’t, so it’s okay, we’re off the hook. If we were Easterners who had been paying attention, we would have noticed a very, very similar line back in the story of Chapter 12.

If we were to look at verse 6, “Avram traveled to land as far as the side of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem,” and now almost an identical line. “At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.” Completely unnecessary for the story. It’s almost like these two stories are tied. There’s another detail that ties these two stories together. It seems like the author’s wanting us to see 12 and 13 as related.

Brent: Chapters 12 and 13?

Marty: Chapters 12 and 13.

Brent: Not the numbers.

Marty: Right, Chapters 12 and 13 as being related. There’s another thing that jumped out. How about this? What’s wrong with this statement? Brent, tell me. “Avram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine; for we are brothers”

Brent: Brothers fight all the time.

Marty: Brothers fight all the time. What’s wrong with that statement?

Brent: I don’t know. Why does it matter?

Marty: Are Avram and Lot brothers?

Brent: That’s true.

Marty: They’re not brothers.

Brent: They are not brothers. The new NIV says close relatives.

Marty: We might catch something there. See, when Avram says in the last story that she was…? Here’s my point for bringing this up. Can you remember a story that we’ve looked at very, very recently, where Avram claims that somebody is a relative that really isn’t that kind of relative?

Brent: All right, yes, Sarai, who’s not a sister.

Marty: Sarai being a sister, who’s not really a sister, but technically she is a sister. You see, it’s not an outright lie. The word he uses there is that she’s a close relative, which is what the new NIV is trying to pull out in that translation. Same problem with Lot. He calls them a brother, but they’re not really brothers, but the word there is general enough that could apply to a guy like Lot.

Now, without a doubt, I’m trying not to let Avram off the hook for his lie in Chapter 12. That was certainly done intentionally to mislead people, no doubt about it. But it was, technically in the Hebrew, the truth, when he says that to the Egyptians. We have these two stories that are linked. We have two stories, linked by this odd phrase of the Canaanites and the Perrizites living in the land. The stories are linked because they’re about sister, brother that isn’t really sister, brother, it’s about brother, brother, that isn’t really brother, brother.

We have these same principles arising. We left that last story by asking the question, what is Avram going to do with this newfound lesson that he learned? We see it in this very next story. He finds himself out in the field arguing with Lot, because there’s not enough room for everybody. Now here’s the interesting question. Why did Avram bring Lot in the first place, Brent?

Brent: Well, he felt responsible to care for him.

Marty: Did he? Why not Nachor? Nachor is going to come back later in the story and Nachor is going to have a really big family and a household and going to be doing really well — quite well, actually — very hospitable.

Brent: Well, Avram is the first born. Lot’s father died, so that leaves Avram responsible, right?

Marty: No, because Avram set out from his father’s beit av.

Brent: Oh, Terah would still be alive, he still would be responsible for that.

Marty: Terah would still be alive. Absolutely. Even when Terah dies, Avram set out from the beit av. It’s still going to go to Nahor. Why does Avram bring Lot? Avram received a promise. What promise did he receive? He’s going to have what?

Brent: A great nation.

Marty: Okay. Problem...

Brent: He’s going to have all kinds of descendants.

Marty: Right! Problem, his wife is barren. Why does he bring Lot?

Brent: He needs Lot.

Marty: He needs Lot. The only way in Avram’s mind — think about it. See, this is why people are like, “Avram doesn’t know she’s barren.” I totally disagree, so does the Jewish teaching in the Midrash, because Avram is perfectly aware of her barrenness and he brings Lot because if Avram’s “family” is going to expand and he is going to have all these descendants underneath him, it’s not going to come from him and he knows it. He has a barren wife. He’s not going to have any kids. God promised him a bunch of kids. It must come from Lot.

He’s brought Lot along for this very purpose. In some ways, it’s even a mark of faith, by the way. We know where the story’s going to head, but Avram doesn’t. God made him a promise. Avram’s simply trying to be obedient to the best of his knowledge. He’s taking what he knows. He’s taking what he understands. He’s trying to follow God’s promises, and he’s trying to follow God’s way. He is like, “Well, Lot must end up having a family here. That’s how God’s going to fulfill his promise. He’s going to fulfill his promise through Lot, he can’t fulfill it through me.” What makes this story so compelling? What is it that Avram does here as you look at it, Brent?

Brent: Well, at this point, he is saying to the path of his blessing, “Let’s part company.”

Marty: Right. This is craziness. He is looking at Lot, his only hope for God’s promises coming true. He’s telling Lot, “You can go your own way.” I love the fact that the author has linked these two stories, because as Rabbi Fohrman taught it, Avram is taking the lessons that he’s learning and he’s applying them, not in a negative sense, but in a positive one. He’s learned in Egypt that things don’t always go as planned and that there’s things that we can’t see and understand from where we sit.

He’s looking at his “brother” in a field and they’re arguing over land and they’re arguing over space. He says, “I don’t know how God’s going to fulfill his promise, but I do know one thing: I can’t sit here in a field and argue with my brother.” We may even have a story… we think of when we think about two brothers in a field arguing… and how different Avram is from Cain and Abel. Avram says, “I know I can’t sit here and argue with my brother.” Then we get to see even more of Avram’s character because you pointed out Avram is not only the firstborn, but in this case, he’s the absolute patriarch.

He has all the bartering chips here. Lot doesn’t have a claim to anything if Avram doesn’t give it to him. Not only does Avram let him make his own claim, he lets him choose first. Some interesting language gets used here. It says that, “Lot looked,” same phrase that we saw when Eve looked at the fruit of the tree and saw that it was good. Lot looks and sees that this land is pleasing to the eye. Then we see at the end of the story, Avram hasn’t even looked up at all.

Avram has been waiting until God says, “Avram now look up because everything that you see is going to be yours.” It’s this really moving tale about the character of Avram and the way that he applies the lesson that he learned in the story just prior. He doesn’t know how God’s going to come through on his promise, but he is going to say, “I do know what I need to do here and so I’m going to let God figure out how he’s going to make good on his promise. I’m going to do the right thing and I’m going to trust the story.”

He lets Lot go, which ends up being a big deal because the very next chapter we’re not going to read it. Chapter 14, Lot becomes captured as a bunch of Kings go to war together. Lot has found himself pitching his tents at Sodom. The king of Sodom gets everything. Everybody gets captured and Avram goes out with 318. That’s a big household, by the way. It’s a big beit av he’s come out of Egypt with, but he takes his entire beit av and they go after Lot and they defeat the king and they capture…

They get everything back. The king comes to him at the end of 14 and he says… The king of Sodom said to Avram, I’m in verse 21 of Chapter 14, “give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” Avram has somehow miraculously defeated these Kings in the land and the king comes and says, “You know what? You can have all the money, you can have all the wealth, just give me my people. That’s what I want. Just give me my people back.”

Avram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High creator of heaven and earth and I have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made of Avram rich.’ I will accept nothing, but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me to Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Let them have their share.” Avram gives it all back.

Now what’s so interesting is he just got Lot back. If I’m Avram and I put myself in his situation, I’m thinking, “Oh, yay. I trusted the story. I did what God wanted me to do, and God gave me Lot back,” but the king asked for who back? He asked for all of his people back. He asked for all his people back and Avram gives it all back including Lot. I’ve had lots of students say, “No, he doesn’t give Lot back.” But the very next time we see lot, Brent, where is he going to be?

Brent: He’s back in Sodom.

Marty: He’s sitting in the city gates at Sodom. Avram gave Lot back a second time. Avram takes his worst chapters and his worst mistakes in Egypt and he turns it into a lesson about what he knows about the future. Instead of taking it and beating himself up and letting the mistake define who he is and turning that mistake into insecurity and fear and more mistakes and more tragedy, Avram is able to learn from it and apply it in a positive sense in a way that allows him to continue to trust the story. If we don’t think that’s what he is wrestling with, our next podcast, we’re going to go over Genesis 15, and you’re going to be able to sneak peek ahead and take a look at the first words out of Avram’s mouth.

Avram’s pretty worked up over this. This hasn’t been easy. His very complaint to God is that he just let Lot go and you’ll see if you weren’t sold on my explanation that he brought Lot in order to further his family line, just look at the very next words out of Avram’s mouth in Genesis 15, that’s his very complaint to God. “My heir is going to have to come through Eliezer now.” How frustrating is that? This is why he brought Lot. This is what he’s just let go twice, but he’s doing it because he believes in the right thing. It’s good stuff.

Brent: Yes, it’s good. Anything else, Marty?

Marty: I think that’s it for now.

Brent: All right.

Marty: Good place to stop it.

Brent: That was a good one. Avram, the father of faith—for a reason.

Marty: Yes—not perfect, mind you.

This isn’t the first nor the last mistake he’s going to make in this story. He’s gonna keep making mistakes, but he’s going to know how to lean back into trusting the story, to bounce back from his worst chapters, something that we can learn from his story.

Brent: Absolutely. All right. If you live on the Palouse, we hope you join us for discussion groups, in Moscow on Tuesday, or in Pullman on Wednesday. If you want to get a hold of Marty, you can find him on Twitter at @martysolomon. You can find me on Twitter at @eibcb. You can find more details about the show at bemadiscipleship.com. As we go into this next season, a lot of holidays are coming up. We hope you check out the schedule on the website. Keep up to date on when we’ll have discussion groups and everything else going on. So take a look at that. Thanks for joining us on the BEMA Podcast and we’ll talk to you again soon.