TUESDAY May 20th
Genesis 12:16, Genesis 13:2, 5-7.
‘And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.’
‘Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.’
‘And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.’
Now, I have said previously that sometimes I let my spiritual imagination run wild, for in doing so I suddenly see something that helps me to bring about a spiritual truth, or to make an illustration from whatever I have been meditating on. And today’s devotion is another of those moments, for what I have done is asked a question of Abram.
It is this, ‘Should Abram have taken all he had with him when he set out on his journey of faith?’
There is no real answer to the question, for in the instruction that God gave to him, it was to ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house’, nothing about leaving the livestock behind, nor his silver and gold, but go from your kindred may suggest leave the family behind, but more specifically it could have just meant leave the family home and the family culture. Whatever, as I have used the verses above, we will see that taking everything with him became both a blessing and a hindrance. For a start imagine travelling thousands of miles through sometimes desert land with all the livestock! Being a farmer’s son, I would say it would have been a nightmare! I think I would have rather stayed back in Haran, herding a few cattle through a field or two can be bad enough!
But first, we see it was a blessing for it was because of his wealth that the Pharoah dealt well with Abram when they had gone down into Egypt. But as they returned to Negeb, the same possessions became a hindrance, for not only had Abram’s livestock multiplied, but so also had the livestock of Lot, Abram’s nephew who had been on the journey with him and whereas they had been a blessing in Egypt, they now became a hindrance, a nuisance, for it caused disharmony in the camp. The land where they had settled in could not support them all, and the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot began to strive with each other. The result being that Abram and Lot went their separate ways, Genesis 13:8-12.
I simply want to illustrate it this way, we could say (and this is only a suggestion) that Abram went on the journey with too much baggage. So many of the problems could have been avoided if he had travelled with far less and with fewer passengers, eventually he had to let go.
And we are encouraged to make sure that as we make our spiritual journey that we do not carry too much baggage, those things and sometimes it may even be people who we connect with who will hinder us along the way, the Hebrew writer puts it this way, ‘ . . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith . . .’
Let us ensure that what we do build up, whatever we gain, be it family, friends or possessions, that we use them in ways that will bring glory to God and not allow them to become things that lead us to be distracted on our journey.