Wednesday 16 September 2015

Psalm: Psalm 89:19-37

Background

Abram's travelling did not end when he arrived in the Negeb.Because of a famine he and the whole retinue were driven onwardinto Egypt (Genesis 12:10) where it appears they settledand gained many riches. They were eventually driven out by Pharohand they began to wander again, still within the knowledge that Godhad plans for them in Canaan.

However during the time in Egypt Abram's company had grownconsiderably and there was not enough grazing nor even enough foodto sustain both parts of the family. So Abraham decided that it wastime to split off from his nephew, Lot, and share out the landbetween them. Given the choice Lot chose the plain of Jordan havingseen its beauty and the fruitful nature of the ground, but thenarrator also gives a hint of the future when he speaks of thewickedness of the inhabitants (verse 13). Abram, however, settledin the place where he was sure that God wanted him to be, but Godhadn't finished with him yet. He was encouraged to move once moreuntil he eventually settled at Hebron where he built an altar toshow that he had arrived where God wanted him to be. We are nottold in any of these accounts of the journeying of Abram what thepeople in Canaan or any of the other stopping places on the journeymade of the invasion, but we can assume that they were nomadicpeople moving around to the fertile places to graze their animals,and Abram and family would have come amongst them in a similarway.

To Ponder

• How do you regard this journeying we read of here - asobedience to God or as a crusade travelling through other people'sterritory without thought of what they might think of theinvasion?

• To what extent do you think Abraham was being generous andloving to Lot allowing him to make the choice of land, or did heforesee the trouble Lot would have fitting in with what is spokenof as a wicked people?

• Where would the parallels be in the journeys we read of here intoday's world?