Read: Genesis 13:5-15:21; Matthew 5:27-48; Psalm 6:1-10; Proverbs 1:29-33
Abram and Lot each had their own cattle and servants. When they grew too large to stay in the same place, they decided to split. Abram gave Lot first choice so he chose the greenest grass with the most water toward the east. When he had gone, God told Abram to look north, south, east and west. All the land would be his one day…even Lot’s land.
Lot lived in the city of Sodom where living was easier than living off the land, but sin was greater and more assessible. Abram chose to stay a nomad farmer. Kedorlaomer was king of Elam and most of the kingdoms were under him. Sodom was one of the cities that paid tribute to him in exchange for his protection. Sodom, along with four other cities decided they wanted to rebel. Kedorlaomer gathered three other allies and they all met in the valley of Siddim. Sodom and Gomorrah were ravaged and lost everything. Lot was carried off with all his possessions. Abram was told what had happened to Lot so he took 318 of his trained men and defeated the army of Kedorlaomer which had to be a miracle. They rescued Lot and the other people along with everything they had stolen. After this miraculous defeat, God sent his own High Priest, Melchizedek to meet Abram. Abram gave him a tenth of all his spoils.
The king of Sodom wanted to reward Abram with the goods of Sodom, but Abram refused. He didn’t want the king of Sodom ever saying that he had made Abram great. God reminded Abram that He was his reward. Abram reminded him that there was nothing he could give him that would mean anything without an heir. God took him to the stars and told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Abram believed him and his faith was the same as righteousness to God. God made a blood covenant with him and told him the future of his people. They would be strangers in a foreign nation and made slaves there for 400 years. Then, they would come out with much possessions. His descendants would return in the forth generation. God promised him the land once more.
In Matthew we have the most misunderstood passage about divorce. You have to read it in the King James to really understand what it is saying. Jesus said that whoever put away his wife must give her a writ of divorcement. If he put her away without it, he was committing adultery when he remarried and he would cause her to commit adultery if she wanted to remarry because they were not legally divorced. God hates the putting away (Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away.”) KJV
Committing adultery would be the only automatic reason that might not require a writ of divorcement. When God divorced Israel and Judah, he wrote them a writ of divorcement making it a legal act. Jeremiah 3:8.
Jesus blew their minds when he told them to love their enemies and pray for the ones who persecuted them. He practiced what he preached.
Lord, help us to live by your Word.
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