March 9: Genesis 13

Today's reading.

In this passage, Abram returns with his family and Lot to the Promised Land. The two part ways, and we find out how exactly Lot came to live in Sodom (which is ominously described in 13:13). Abram returns with quite a bit of cash (13:2), much of which he acquired by pimping out his wife in the previous chapter. When he returns, though, Abram reaffirms his faith at the altar he had made earlier and calls "upon the name of the LORD" (13:4). And a few verses later, the Lord comes calling on Abram in return.

God's promises are grandiose in his exchange with Abram at the end of the chapter. He tells Abram to look north, south, east and west; God's going to give it all to him (13:14-15). The horizon can't contain God's goodness. And Abram's offspring will be "as the dust of the earth," so numerous as to defy computation (13:16). Then the Lord gives Abram an interesting command: "Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you" (13:17).

Why does God ask him to do that? Why does he tell Abram to, basically, go for a stroll in this land?

Because Abram doesn't own it yet. Abram hasn't seen the fulfillment of God's promised inheritance, and he won't in his lifetime. Going out for a walk in someone else's land is an act of faith. And Abram responds well: he moves his tent someplace else and builds another altar there (13:18).

Abram could have kept a low profile and taught his kids to do the same. He could have lived in a little corner of the Negeb (a desert in southern Palestine) and stayed out of the way of the Canaanites and Perizzites. But God doesn't call his people to passive, fearful retreat. He calls us to confident, faith-filled, abundant life.

Abram was an heir to a Promised Land. In Christ, you and I are heirs of everything (see this message for more on this idea). Abram, though he didn't see the fulfillment of that promise, lived as a stranger in a place that God said would one day be his. Similarly, you and I—as children of our Father who made and owns everything—walk, live, eat, sleep, work, pray and die in a world that we will one day inherit at the end of all things. In Christ, we've received everything. It's kind of like being the world's richest trust fund kids. All the stuff we're tempted to covet, pine after, idolize isn't ours yet. But it will be.

The question for us, then, is how will we walk. Will we live in a little corner of the universe, afraid to step out in faith? Or will we hear God's promises to us and boldly live in their radiant shadow? Perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). In light of the love of Christ, how will we walk?