Summary of passage: The Lord told Abram He was giving him and his offspring all the land Abram could see forever. God will make Abram’s offspring as numerous as the dust on the earth. God told Abram to walk his land. So Abram moved his tents and settled near Hebron where he built an altar to the Lord.
Questions:
8a) Lot chose the best, greenest, most fertile land for himself.
b) Abram stayed in Canaan which had been overgrazed.
c) Not everything is as it seems. Matthew 6 says you need to be concentrating on storing up treasures in heaven and not treasures on earth (or having the best) for where you treasure is lies your heart. Matthew 10 says its about following Jesus and sacrificing all for him. Matthew 19 reminds us its about giving and not receiving to earn treasures in heaven. Luke reminds us the earth is not our home.
9) Abram got all the land he could see forever plus his offspring would inherit it and his offspring would be numerous as dust. Lot’s was probably temporary and subject to takeovers.
10a) Matthew 19:29: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
The Beatitudes in Matthew 5. My favorite is Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Luke 6:22-23: “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.”
b) Our greatest blessing is having our sins forgiven and promised an eternal life with God. What we give up seems paltry next to Jesus’s sacrifice especially in the 21st century. When I read the Bible, God’s commandments in essence are simple. He asks nothing impossible of us. Yet we fail repeatedly. Overcoming our sinful nature is where the battle is but with training and practice we can all become better.
God does not ask us to give up much it seems. To just be a good person. Do what Jesus would do. Hard? Yes. Impossible? No.
Conclusions: For Question 8 I had to go back to Genesis 13:10. I believe our sacrifices for Jesus are small compared to his. We must remember this world is not our home and if we keep that in the forefront of our minds when we are tempted by our eyes then we should be alright.
Myself, though, I’m jaded anyways. I don’t believe half of what I see anyways. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is, as the saying goes.
Yet so many get caught in the materialistic trap. Just look at Black Friday. I don’t leave the house on that day. It’s not about the latest gadget. It’s about the fact you are able to purchase the latest gadget through God’s provision. So many lose sight of that.
Everything is God’s. It is just on loan to us.