Mon.’s Devo - God’s Covenant with Man

Read: Genesis 13:5-15:21; Matthew 5:27-48; Psalm 6:1-10; Proverbs 1:29-33 Both Abram and Lot had become so blessed with provisions and animals that their herdsmen argued over land. Abram met with Lot and wanted to part in peace. He offered Lot his first choice of land and he would go the opposite direction. Lot chose the fertile plains of the Jordan, so Abram went toward Canaan. *** Lot ended up living near Sodom and settling among the cities there. The people there were extremely and constantly wicked against the Lord. *** When Lot left his conversation with Abram, God spoke to Abram. He told him to look in every direction as far as he could see, because God was giving it all to him and his descendants. Abram moved to Hebron and built an altar there. *** War broke out among the seven kings of the land. It was four against five. The five had been paying tribute to Kedorlaomer of Elam for 12 years and finally rebelled. Kedorlaomer gathered his three allies and began attacking the land. They conquered four nations before they met the four nations that had rebelled against them. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other two nations assembled to fight back. They met in the valley of the Dead Sea or Siddim. When the people of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of them fell into the tar pits in the Dead Sea. They captured Lot and carried off all he owned. *** Abram was notified about what happened and called his 318 men who had been born in his household. They caught up with Kedorlaomer’s army at Dan. Abram recovered all they had stolen as well and Lot and all his family. *** On Abram’s way home, the king of Sodom met him in the valley of Shaveh as well as Melchizedek. Melchizedek was the king of Salem which means “peace” and he was also a priest of God’s . He brought bread and wine and blessed Abram. Abram received his blessing and gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils. *** When Abram met with the king of Sodom, he gave him everything that was his and refused to keep any of it for himself. He would only keep some of the goods for the three friends from Mamre who had helped him fight. *** God told Abram that he would protect him and his reward would be great! Abram had done all that for Lot and received nothing in return. But, God wanted to reward Abram and his reward was greater than any man could have given him. God’s protection was priceless and his reward is the very best. *** Abram replied that though God’s blessings were great, they would die with him. Since he had no son, his servant Eliezer would inherit all his wealth. God disagreed. God told him to look up in the sky and try to count the stars. He would have that many descendants - uncountable. Abram believed what he said and his faith pleased God. *** When God told him again that he was going to give him the land, Abram asked how he could be sure he would possess it. God told Abram to bring him a 3 year old heifer, female goat, and ram and a turtle dove and young pigeon. Abram did and cut them down the middle and laid them sit by side. He had to chase the vultures away, but eventually, as the sun was setting, he fell asleep. *** God showed him that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land where they would be slaves for 400 years. Then the Lord would punish the nation that had enslaved them and they would come out of it with great wealth. Abram would die in peace after living a long life. After 4 generations his descendant would return to this land. *** Abram then saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the animals he had offered. The Lord made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River. All the land at the time was occupied by the 10 “ites.” In Matthew, Jesus took the Commandments and added life and relevance to them. He explained that committing adultery or any sin began with the heart. It is the desire for sin that provokes the action. If you deal with your heart, it won’t mature to the action. Jesus also dealt with the seriousness of covenants. They were not to be taken or broken lightly. Making vows is a serious thing to the Lord. It is better not to make them than to make them and break them. *** But the greatest of these is love. As a Christian, we are not to just love those who are easy to love, but we are also to love those who don’t love us back. That is how Jesus loves. That is how we are his witnesses. *** Lord, help us to love those that persecute us and hate us. May your love permeate our relationships and cause us to become more like you.