Pruning Abraham (Genesis 13:1-18)
Pruning Abraham
Genesis 13:1-18
March 9, 2014
As you know we are looking at the third major player in this account of “The Gospel According to Moses”
We started with Adam
The Tragic Reality of Sin
We moved to Noah
The Terrible Reality of Judgment
Now to Abraham
The Terrific Reality of Salvation
Abraham doesn’t just teach us faith, Abraham teaches us
“Salvation by Grace through Faith”
Now we will get to the faith part in a couple of chapters.
Genesis 15:6 “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
That is the great statement of the faith of Abraham, but we are not there yet.
Right now we are looking at the cause of Abraham’s salvation,
And that cause is nothing but grace.
• Abram was a pagan idolater
• Abram had a barren wife
• Abram was a worldly greedy man
And yet God chose him, spoke to him,
And promised to make a great nation out of him.
Abraham did leave Haran, and went to Canaan,
And God told Abram, “You are home”.
This was great news, and Abram responded
By building an altar and worshiping God.
However, a famine hit in the land of Canaan
And Abram wadded up the promise through it over his back,
Headed for Egypt and traded off his wife for the favor of Pharaoh.
The promise of God to Abraham looked impossible.
“But God…”
God sent a plague on Pharaoh
And Pharaoh sent Abram away with his wife.
And to that we clearly saw the grace of God.
• God chose a man who did not deserve it
• God blessed a man who could not perform it
• And God protected a man who had instantly abandoned it
It was nothing but grace in Abram’s life,
And it is this same grace that we enjoy in our lives.
• God chose us when we did not deserve it.
• God blesses us when we could not perform it.
• And God protects that blessing despite our failures and fickle attitudes.
Well this morning I want you to see more of the grace Abram enjoyed.
And in this chapter God’s grace is seen in a different way.
In chapter 12 grace was seen in what God gave to Abram.
In chapter 13 it is seen in what God removes.
There are three things in this chapter that I want you to see.
#1 THE PLAN RESTORED
Genesis 13:1-4
As you remember Abram had just made a major mistake
So far as his inheritance was concerned.
When famine hit Abram bailed for Egypt,
Traded off his wife to Pharaoh and was getting rich off the proceeds.
It was a horrible defection on Abraham’s part.
He was basically throwing away God’s promise
In return for temporary gain.
But God intervened and now we come to chapter 13
And the original plan of God has been restored.
“So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.”
Abram may have lost a little time in Egypt, but that is all he lost.
God has brought him back to Canaan
And the initial promise has been restored.
And if that were not enough, we notice that
God even allowed Abram to keep his prosperity in tact.
(2) “Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.”
God could have very easily allowed the excursion in Egypt
To drain Abram of all his resources, but He did not.
So Abram is back in the land, with his fortune still in tact,
And because of the tremendous grace that God had shown him,
Abram worships again.
(3-4) “He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.”
Abram returns to his previous altar
And there again calls on the name of the Lord.
And if you are keeping score you will recognize that we are right back where we were before the little excursion to Egypt.
And again I remind you that God protected Abraham’s inheritance.
It wasn’t Abram’s faith that secured the grace of God,
It was God’s grace that secured Abram’s faith.
If it had been up to Abram, he most certainly would have lost the promise,
But God was protecting what He promised.
And now, after a stumble by Abram, he is now back on track.
I like the way security was stated in the Westminster Confession.
Chapter 17, number 1
“They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”
• Can they sin? yes
• Can they stumble? yes
• Can they fall? yes
• Can they make mistakes? yes
But thanks to God’s grace, they can’t do it totally or finally.
They are protected by grace.
And you can certainly see that in Abraham.
He messed up, he strayed off course, he went the wrong direction,
But God’s grace wouldn’t allow him to mess up totally or finally.
After his brief excursion, the plan has been restored.
The Plan Restored
#2 A PERSON REMOVED
Genesis 13:5-13
Well here we come to the real focal point of this chapter.
God is separating Lot from Abram.
Now you will remember that separation is not a new thing.
We saw God do that with the segregation of Noah’s sons,
and with the tower of Babel.
We saw God then separate humanity
That He might choose the one on whom His favor would rest.
Well, we see that same type of even here.
(5) “Now Lot, who went with Abram…”
And that has been the case every time hasn’t it?
You will remember that Lot was Abram’s nephew.
Lot’s dad Haran died back in Ur of the Chaldeans
And it is easy to see that Lot became as a son to Abram.
In fact, Lot was still one area
In which Abram was still holding on to his past a little.
Do you remember the requirement God laid upon Abram as He offered grace?
Genesis 12:1 “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;”
And hopefully as we read that verse you are beginning to see
That Abraham had not fully obeyed that requirement.
He had left his country,
He had left his father,
But he still had one of his relatives.
Everywhere Abram went, Lot had followed.
This included Haran, this included Canaan,
This included Egypt, and now back into Canaan.
There was still a part of Abram’s past that was getting in the way.
And this part must be removed.
Now, was it that Lot was a bad influence or something? NO
Peter wrote about Lot:
2 Peter 2:7-8 “and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),”
In just two verses Peter calls Lot righteous 3 times.
Lot was not a wicked man.
In fact, when God is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,
Scripture says He could not until Lot was safely removed.
God would even allow two nations to come from Lot.
(the defiled incident of drunkenness and sleeping with his daughters to bring about Ammon and Moab)
But the point is that the problem wasn’t Lot’s character,
Or Lot as an individual.
The problem was Abram’s commitment to Lot.
God was promising to make a great nation out of Abram.
Do you find it peculiar that Abram has yet to question how God is going to do this since he has a barren wife?
Do you know why Abram hasn’t questioned?
It is because Abram is expecting that it will run through Lot.
If you fast forward two chapters, after Lot is removed,
Notice what Abram says:
Genesis 15:2-3 “Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”
The problem of not having an heir didn’t really come up with Abram
So long as Lot was with him.
It is clear that Abram was content to let the blessing flow through Lot.
But you and I know that God had other plans for Abram.
God had BETTER plans for Abram.
• God was going to give Abram a natural born son through his wife Sarai.
• God was going to miraculously do for Abram what he could not do for himself.
In short:
God’s plan for Abram was far superior
To the plan Abram had for himself.
So how does God get Abram to trade his plan for God’s plan?
The answer?
PRUNING
God would have to remove from Abram,
Something that Abram had failed to remove from himself,
In order that Abram might be able to receive the greater blessing.
First let me show you how God went about to do it.
(5-7) “Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.”
Now think of all the ways God could have separated the two of them.
• Another famine…
• A deadly disease…
• A broken relationship…
But look at how gracious God was.
He allowed them both to become more prosperous
Than the land could sustain.
Now that is a gracious way of saying you can’t dwell together any more.
Even in this pruning work, God continues to be gracious.
But God has presented a scenario
That is going to require Lot to be removed from the equation.
Now, as we read this, notice also how Abram’s faith is already maturing.
(8-9) “So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”
Now does that sound awfully benevolent to anyone else?
I mean, this is Abram’s land, not Lot’s land.
Why in the world would Abram let Lot choose first?
Well, let me ask you: What do you think Abram learned from his little excursion into Egypt?
He learned that God was able to protect his inheritance.
Even though Egypt was a mistake on Abram’s part,
God used it to grow Abram’s faith.
That is why Abram isn’t worried now that he will somehow lose the land.
God had already taught him that his inheritance is safely his.
That is how great a God we serve.
Last week we learned that even when our faith falters,
It does not put our inheritance at risk because God’s grace protects it.
But now we go a step further and see that not only can God protect our inheritance in spite of our mistakes, but God can also use our mistakes to grow our faith.
What did Paul say?
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Now that is encouraging.
In this life journey I am on.
• I have been chosen by God to be His child when I did not deserve it.
• He not only chose me, but atoned for me and promised me an
inheritance.
• That inheritance is secured by him regardless of my weakness.
• And even in those moments when my weakness reveals itself, God can
take my mistakes and use them to grow my faith even stronger.
That is grace!
That is what God has done for Abraham.
Now Abraham can let Lot have first choice of the land
Because Abram knows that God will keep his inheritance safe.
So Abram gives Lot the choice.
And you will notice that Lot did exactly what we would expect:
(10-13) “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere — this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah — like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the LORD.”
Lot chose the land that looked the best for raising his herd.
Any good shepherd would choose the best grass for his sheep.
But even in this choice what you begin to notice is that
The faith God has given Abram is actually starting to pay off.
Abram is walking by faith here, but Lot is walking by sight.
And Lot’s sight led him to green pastures
Which unfortunately took him to Sodom.
You and I both know that this is going to prove to be a poor decision.
The main point here is that God is pruning Lot from Abraham’s life,
So that He can do in Abraham’s life abundantly more
Than Abraham could even imagine.
Abram doesn’t realize it now,
But he is trading a nephew for a natural born son.
Now, think about this for a second in your own life.
This is a process we refer to as PRUNING.
John 15:1-3 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”
• Pruning isn’t fun
• Pruning isn’t even comfortable
• In fact pruning can be down right painful
But God must do it, in order that He can do in our lives
Exceedingly beyond what we could even imagine.
Think of it in this regard:
Matthew 13:22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
In that parable Jesus painted the weeds that would choke the word and make it unfruitful as things like “the world” and “wealth”
None of us like to lose those things.
Unfortunately we have learned to find comfort in the world and in wealth.
But those are things that must be pruned, why?
So that we can be more fruitful.
Look at Hebrews 12:
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There we aren’t depicted as plants bearing fruit,
But rather as runners in a race.
And just as there are things that can make a plant unfruitful (weeds),
There are things that can make a runner run slower.
There are things that hinder them.
And if you are going to run the race God intends,
Then those are things that must be removed.
Is it pleasant? No
Is it easy? No
But here is the point.
When God prunes things out of your life, understand that He is doing this, not to steal from you, not to make you miserable,
But because those things must be removed
Before He can do the greater work in you.
Abram was content with a nephew when God wanted him to have son.
What you and I must learn to do is accept that pruning with eyes of faith,
To understand that God has something better in store.
So when He begins to remove a few weeds,
Just know a garden will soon take its place.
So here God pruned Abram.
The Plan Restored, A Person Removed
#3 THE PROMISE REMEMBERED
Genesis 13:14-18
I can only imagine what a wonderful day this was for Abram.
I have no doubt that there was remorse in his heart
As he watched Lot travel away.
But as we have said many times before,
God doesn’t ask us to leave the world behind so that He can steal from us.
God asks us to lose this life that we might take hold of life indeed.
As Abraham watched Lot walk away, God grabbed Abram’s hand and said, “Abram, I know what I am doing”
Notice how God remembered and reiterated to Abram that entire promise.
1) A WORLD TO SEE (14-15)
“The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”
No, God didn’t give the whole world to Abram,
But He promised to Abram all the world he could see.
Look around Abram, as far as you can see in any direction, it’s all yours.
Lot is walking away, but you are losing nothing.
This whole land is yours, not Lot’s
Lot is leaving, but you aren’t losing descendants, you will gain them.
• Can you see how generous God is?
• Can you see how grace is better than anything Abram could have planned on his own?
Just look Abram, it’s all yours, everything you can see.
Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
For all extensive purposes, God laid the world at Abram’s feet.
God’s pruning was not about stealing Abram’s leaves,
It was about increasing Abram’s fruit.
A world to see
2) A WONDER TO FATHOM (16)
“I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.”
Now I know we’ve heard that analogy so many times that it really doesn’t shock us anymore, but think about that for a second.
“I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth”
What does that mean?
(his descendants will be brown?)
(his descendants will get in hard to reach places?)
(his descendants will make you sneeze?)
Well, can you count the dust? No
You won’t be able to count Abram’s descendants either
That’s a pretty remarkable statement to a man with a barren wife.
Psalms 139:6 “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
That must have been how Abram felt.
In fact, Abram voices this amazement later.
Genesis 15:1-5 “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, ” Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
• How can one even fathom such a promise?
• And certainly how can a barren man fathom such a promise?
A few years ago, Abram was a man with a barren wife, living in Haran trying to get rich so he could die and leave it all to his nephew.
But God, by His grace, has greatly changed Abram’s fortune.
This is the type of thing you just lay in bed at night and try to fathom. That is God’s grace to Abram.
A World to See, A Wonder to Fathom
3) A WALK TO REMEMBER (17)
“Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”
Now I’ve heard so many “name it and claim it” preachers reference this as some sort of faith walk where Abram claimed the land.
No, no, no – there was no “if” in that statement.
This was a walk of sheer enjoyment.
• That land was going to be Abram’s whether he walked or not.
• That land was going to be his whether he ever claimed it.
• God promised it, it was going to happen.
This was a walk to remember.
I’ve never been in that boat, but many in here have bought land. And you know the joy of walking that land or driving through it, once it is yours.
There is a satisfaction and an excitement about it.
That was the kind of walk Abram had.
Only, I’m not sure if Abram ever finished the walk because the gratitude overflowing in his heart forced him to stop again.
(18) “Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.”
If you’re keeping track, this is now the third time
Abram has stopped to worship God and give Him praise.
Why wouldn’t he?
• God chose him when he was unworthy.
• God protected him when he was unruly.
• And now God has pruned him in order to bless him when he was
uninformed of all God could do.
Such is grace!
Again friends can you see it?
Abram was saved “by grace”
Where it not for grace, I can tell you where Abram would be.
He’d be living in Hur, with no children of his own,
Scratching out a meager living that his nephew would inherit.
But grace entered the picture and rewrote Abram’s story.
God picked Him
God protected Him
God pruned Him
• So friends, rejoice that God has picked you
• Rejoice that God is protecting you
• And learn to rejoice when God prunes you, for it only means that He has something far greater in store.
And as a result of it all – worship God.
Build Him an altar, even if that altar stands alone in a pagan land.
God deserves your public worship, give it to Him.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
