Did you not hear Me?

You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings yet crowned him with glory and honor.  You, O Lord, are patient with us, so very patient.  Your abounding love shows so much patience towards our ignorance and our disbelief and our disobedience.  You cause Your sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  Why are you so good to us? That’s just how You are.  You do not change.  No, You are not a man, that You should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Do You speak and then not act? Do You promise and not fulfill?

 

“When they arrived in Canaan, Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place of Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.’ Then Abram built an alter there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.”  -Genesis 12:5b-7

 

The LORD assured Abram again that He was going to fulfill His promise to give a certain land to Abram and his descendants.  But the LORD didn’t give Abram the full picture of how much land until Abram obeyed the LORD’s second request to “leave your relatives”.  Which meant, Lot had to get out of the picture.  So as you read in Genesis 13, a quarrel broke out between Abram’s servants and Lot’s servants because the land that Abram and Lot were sharing was two small for all their abundant sheep, goats, and cattle. As a result, Abram said, “We are relatives , and your men and my men shouldn’t be quarreling.  So let’s separate. Choose any part of the land you want.  You go one way and I’ll go the other” (Genesis 13:8-9).  Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley, which to him looked rich in resources. 

 

“Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled among the cities in the valley and camped near Sodom, whose people were wicked and sinned against the LORD.  After Lot had left, the LORD said to Abram, ‘From where you are, look carefully in all directions. I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever” (Genesis 13:14-15).  Now, the LORD could show Abram all He had in store for him.

 

Let’s put this lesson in our own lives.  Where is it and what is it the LORD has told us to “leave“?  Have we fully obeyed His command?  If not, we are missing out on the full blessing He has for us.