A moment comes when Abraham remains alone, having separated even from his nephew Lot, with whom he had wandered for quite a long time. It is then, when this has happened, that God addresses Abraham...
A moment comes when Abraham remains alone, having separated even from his nephew Lot, with whom he had wandered for quite a long time. It is then, when this has happened, that God addresses Abraham, reminding him of the promises given back in Haran concerning the future of the land to which Abraham has come and the destiny of his descendants, who are to take possession of it.
Why not earlier? Why not when Abraham and Lot were still walking together? The answer to the question may be the choice Lot made about the place of his future residence. Abraham, as is not hard to notice, keeps away from large cities. If he is ever in them, it is only when he has no other option, for example when he has to survive dry and therefore barren years. Then there is nowhere else to go, and Abraham seeks refuge in cities. In general, however, he tries to stay away from cities for a whole range of reasons, both political and spiritual. Life in a city is in some ways easier, but there are more temptations there too. It is comparatively easy to assimilate there, but then Abraham would have had to give up following his God, the One who had called Abraham after Himself.
Abraham did not know everything about his God, but he knew enough to understand that he needed both political and spiritual independence in order to remain faithful to his God. Lot looks at things differently. He likes the land near Sodom, and he is ready to go where the land is good, even if the people there are evil. This is his essential difference from Abraham, and therefore God does not reveal His plans to Lot. God is silent until Lot has made his choice, until he has gone where his own heart leads him, the heart that liked the land of Sodom. But when Lot leaves, God reveals to Abraham the future of his descendants, for Abraham too has made his choice, remaining where God led him from the beginning and not trying to look for better, more comfortable places to live. God does not keep each person from choosing his own, but He leads only the one who chooses His way, as Abraham chose that way.
13 In this chapter we have a farther account of Abram;
13:3 He went on to Bethel - Thither he went, not only because he was willing to go among his old acquaintance; but because there he had formerly had his altar. and though the altar was gone, probably he himself having taking it down when he left the place, lest it should be polluted by the idolatrous Canaanites; yet he came to the place of the altar, either to revive the remembrance of the sweet communion he had had with God at that place, or, perhaps, to pay the vows he had there made to God when he undertook his journey into Egypt.
13:6 The land was not able to bear them - The place was too strait for them, and they had not room for their flocks.
13:7 And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in the land - This made the quarrel,
13:10 The garden of the Lord - That is, paradise.
13:13 Sinners before the Lord - That is, impudent daring sinners.
13:16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth - That is, they shall increase incredibly, and take them altogether; they shall be such a great multitude as no man can number. They were so in Solomon's time, Ki1 4:20.Judah and Israel were many as the land which is by the sea in multitude.This God here gives him the promise of.
13:17 Arise, walk through the land - Enter and take possession, survey the parcels, and it will appear better than upon a distant prospect.
13:18 Then Abram removed his tent - God bid him walk through the land, that is, Do not think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan; in compliance with God's will herein, he removed his tent, conforming himself to the condition of a pilgrim. And he built there an altar - in token of his thankfulness to God for the kind visit he had made him.