January 6, 2025 - Genesis 13-14

“So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.  Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.  And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord” (13:1-4).  Abram was rich.  He had been blessed greatly by the Lord.  “And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents” (13:5).  We know about Abraham and his faithfulness.  And Lot, though caught up in that mess in Sodom and Gomorrah, is commended by Peter as faithful to God (2 Peter 2:7).  We tend to think of the rich as worldly in their ways while the poor occupy in our minds sort of a faux righteousness.  The wealthy of Israel were condemned by Amos for living lives of easy while oppressing the poor.  Solomon, in the Proverbs, takes to task those who are poor because they are lazy (Proverbs 13:4).  Of course, not all poor are lazy, and not all wealthy oppress the poor.  Here’s the thing, though:  God looks not at what we possess; rather, he looks at the heart.  Abraham and Lot are examples of this truth.

O Father, not for worldly wealth,

We pray to Thee today;

We only ask for faith to tread

The straight and narrow way.

God’s plans and purposes to us

May oft seem strange and dim,

But where we cannot understand,

We trust it all to Him.   -- E. L. Whiting (1873)