Tues.’s Devo - Abram’s Blessing

Read: Genesis 13:5-15:21; Matthew 5:27-48; Psalm 6:1-10; Proverbs 1:29-33 Both Abraham and Lot owned great amounts of cattle and there was not enough land to support both herds. It was beginning to become contentious between the shepherds so Abraham thought it best for them to separate. He gave Lot first choice of the land. Lot chose the land in the Jordan Valley because it was well-watered and had good soil. Once Lot left, God spoke to Abraham and told him that He was giving Abraham all the land, as far as he could see, for his descendants. Abram moved to Hebron and built an altar to the Lord. *** Lot moved to the Jordan Valley and lived in the city of Sodom. The people of this area were extremely wicked and sinned against the Lord continually. *** War broke out among nine of the the evil kings of the area - four against five. Lot’s king of Sodom was one of them. They fought and Lot’s king lost, so the people of Sodom along with Lot was captured and carried off. *** Abram was told this and gathered 318 of his trained men who worked for him and they went to rescue Lot. They met them at Dan and with their little army they won. They returned Lot and all his possessions and all the people of Sodom to their land. *** On his way back to Sodom, Abram met Melchizedek, the king of Salem and the priest of the Lord’s. He blessed Abram and offered him wine and bread. He blessed Abram as being of the most high God, who possessed heaven and earth. Abram gave Melchizedek tithes of all his spoils. The king of Sodom then met with Abram and told him he could keep all the spoils, he only wanted the people who belonged to his city. Abram refused to keep any of it because he didn’t want to give the king of Sodom credit for making him rich. He did let the men who helped him take their share of the spoil. *** One night the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and told him that he would protect him and his reward would be great. Abram asked him what good would it do to him when he had no son to pass it down to. His slave, Eliezer would inherit all his wealth. *** The Lord assured him that Eliezer would not be his heir. He would have a son and his descendants would be like the stars - so many they would be uncountable. God reiterated that all this land would one day be his. Abram questioned how this could happen. *** The Lord asked him to bring him a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dow and a young pigeon. He told Abram to kill them and cut them in half, all but the birds. Abram kept the vultures away until night. *** Abram fell into a deep sleep and the Lord showed Abram the future. His descendants would be strangers in a foreign land and be oppressed as slaves for 400 year. Then God would punish the nation that enslaved them and they would exit with great wealth. Abram would die in peace but after four generations his people would return to this land and destroy the Amorites. *** After this, Abram saw a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses he had filleted. The Lord made a covenant with Abram and told him that this land was given to his descendants from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates. The land at the time was full of 10 “ites”. *** In Matthew, Jesus continued his sermon showing the law to be spiritual and so much more than the letter of the law. It had to do with the heart. *** He spoke of marriage and divorce. What keeps a marriage together is faith. When that is broken, the covenant is broken. Only forgiveness and new faith can heal it. *** Jesus spoke against making vows swearing by something. He told them just let your “yes” or your “no” be enough. He told them to give forgiveness, not revenge. They were even to love their enemies which is going far beyond what the world does. Jesus was giving us the conduct of the Kingdom of God which is opposite of the kingdom of this world. God’s kingdom is ruled by love. *** Lord, may we choose love above fairness or retaliation. You are our protector and defender. May we be like little children and love everyone.