Day 4: Genesis 12-16

Day 4: Genesis 12-16

My Lot in Life

I am sure we have all heard that old saying “It’s my lot in life.” You know, that phrase used when things don’t go well and we seem to always have the same outcome. Our “lot” becomes the thing we deserve, the thing we always get, the outcome we always know waits for us.

For some reason, when I read today’s passages I kept thinking of “my lot in life.” Look at Abram. He is promised children to outnumber the stars, yet he has none in his old age. Yet he has his nephew Lot. Abram is told by God to leave his home and find a new place. Yet he brings along Lot. Abram finds a home, but too much is feeding off the land and something has to change. Yet he gives the choice of who gets what to Lot.

If I was Abram I would be thinking that my lot in life had a lot to do with Lot. I wonder how the story would be different if Lot wasn’t in the picture. Where would Abram be without Lot on his heels?

Luckily the story continues and we find a reason for Lot. After all of the things Abram has given for Lot, Lot is captured. In response Abram goes after him and thus is praised by kings. Only in this moment can we see why Abram is so special. Only through Abram’s Lot in life, pun intended, can we see what sets Abram apart. When Abram is faced with the temptation offered by King Melchizedek of Salem he remembers his vow to God. Would we be so honorable?

Waiting is the hardest part

Abram is promised children to outnumber the sand, yet his wife cannot bare a child. To our standards, and even to that of the time to some degree, Abram is getting old (you know, if you take his age literally). Yet there is no child to call his own.

Growing impatient with God, something I know we all relate to, Sarai offers a plan. The plan sounds easy enough. Abram will take his slave woman and bare a child. This may sound crazy to us, but consider the time and culture in which he lived. The difference between a slave and wife is not such a big difference. Woman had no real place in society. Even children belonged to their father.

Abram follows his wife’s suggestion and Sarai gets upset. For some reason I keep imagining a really bad television show. You know, one of those shows that has an average family dealing with average issues. Talk about ratings! We all love a good scandal. Yet through this God creates and works. A child is born, the child named Ishmael.