I was happier with this talk than last time, as I felt it has a better hook and flow, was shorter and had fewer footnotes. I filmed this outside as it was a nice day, but it does have a bit of car and bird background noises in.
Choices
I hate movies that don’t make sense. After I have seen a movie, as I deconstruct it and work out if what I saw was realistic. Did the characters make logical decisions? Why didn’t someone report something earlier to the police? Why did they run upstairs and not outside? It annoys Hannah to no end.Any good story has the hero making good, wise and noble decision. And that is what a movie is, characters making decisions in different circumstances.
The Matrix is all about this, and it has that iconic scene with Morpheus holding out two pills to take with Neo having to choose which way he wants to go.
When Alice is in wonderland she meets the Cheshire Cat she has to choose which way to go. Since she doesn’t know where she wants to go, her decision doesn’t seem that important.
Today in our passage we have Abram and he is faced with some decisions, which really do matter.
Recap
Last week we met our main character Abram in Genesis 12. There God makes some promises to him and he seemed to have trusted God - until it got a bit hard and then he made some stupid choices. God essentially sent a plague on Egypt to get Abram back into the Promised Land.Today in our passage of Genesis 13 and 14 we have two stories involving Abram and his nephew Lot. Lot’s dad died back in the old country and since then has been following Abram and Sarai around. It seems like Abram and Saria were like his primary carers. They had no children of their own so maybe Lot seems like an adopted son to them.
Choice of Land (Gen 13)
Anyway, things get a bit more complicated at the start of chapter 13 where Abram’s crew and Lot’s crew start fighting over resources. Both of their flocks and herds grew too big for the same area and this caused tension between their shepherds.So, Abram comes up with a plan. To stop the fighting each group is to go their own way, and Abram lets Lot choose which way he wants to go first.
This is big. Abram is very much the senior and he lets the junior have first pick. Now pretend you are in this situation. Would you pick the well-watered side for your flocks? The one with the cities or the one with less resources and less protection? There is clearly a good side and a bad side. And why wouldn’t you choose the best land? It would make life easier and more comfortable.
So Lot looks around and sees the fat streams, like the Nile in Egypt, and how that is making everything green. It also has a city in it. That means better trade. Of cause he chooses this land. It will grow his flocks and he can sell them to the people in the city. He sees the advantages of this land, but he does not the dangers[1]. We are told something about this land, which is a little like Egypt, it is the land of Sodom, and these people do not seem that nice. We will come back to them later in the story, but for now, we see Lot making his choice and pitching his tent near the wicked city of Sodom.
After this blind choice[2] for Abram, the Lord comes down and now tells Abram to look around. Unlike Lot who just looked with his eyes, the Lord tells Abram to look with faith and future hope. All the land that he sees will be given to him. His descendants will be like the dust of the earth. And Abram pitches his tent and builds an altar to God.
Abram could have told Lot what to do, Abram could have chosen the best land for himself, but here he allows Lot to choose, and I wonder if Abram already had God’s promises in mind. Last week we saw that the land of Canaan was the land that God promised to Abram (Gen 12:6-7). It letting Lot choose first Abram was choosing to trust in God and His promises. After this choice, God reaffirmed what He had already told Abram and Abram worships God.
Choice of Kings (Gen 14)
The next story in chapter 14 starts with some regional politics, which resulted in a war. Interestingly this story about all the great powerful kings of the time, is just the background for the really important people. We find out that in all of this Lot gets captured with the rest of the people of Sodom. You have to feel a bit sorry for Lot here, he chose the land that looked the best and then, out of his control he get swept up in the regional politics and gets kidnapped. Abram hears what happens and with 318 guys from his clan, they go into action. Using night time to plan a surprise attack they go out and rescues Lot and the rest of the people of Sodom.And here, from verse 17 to the end of the chapter we see Abram making another interesting choice.
Two kings come out after this rescue mission to speak to Abram. We have the king of Sodom and the king of Salem.
The king of Salem kind of interrupts the king of Sodom’s welcome. This king, Melchizedek, is full of mystery, as we aren’t told much about him, like who his parents are or how he knew about God. He is the king of Salem, which later becomes Jerusalem[3]. He is also priest well before Israel and the Levite priests were a thing, and that is about all we know of him.
Out of nowhere Melchizedek offers Abram bread and wine and comes with a blessing for Abram. In response Abram does not build an altar, instead, he gives this priest-king a tenth of what he has collected. In this way, Melchizedek is blessed for blessing Abram.
Next, the king of Sodom makes Abram an offer. He asks for the people of his city back but tells Abram he can keep all of the other spoils they took. This would probably be a pretty impressive amount of loot. But instead, Abram refuses. He offers some of the wealth to the men who helped in the rescue mission, but for himself, he doesn’t take anything. This is strange. He risked his life to save his nephew and didn’t even want compensation for the hassle.
But we find out why Abram refuses the king of Sodom. Verses 22-23 we see that Abram didn’t want his money because he didn’t want to be associated with this wicked city. Abram wanted to stay with God and to trust in the plan God has for him. He doesn’t want even the appearance of his blessing to have come from such a wicked place. Abram wants people to see his life and to know that he is only what he is by the grace of God.
And so we see in both these stories Abram chose not immediate wealth and gain but instead trusted in the promises of God.
Our choices
Now we may not feel like we ever get the chance to turn down millions for the sake of the Gospel. We don’t get the massive spotlight and are able to show people how we live by this one sacrificial choice we make.Our life isn’t like that. But we are confronted with a whole bunch of choices, every day, every hour. And as Dumbledore said in the Chamber of Secrets "It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices."
And we make loads of choices, and sometimes we don’t even realise we are making them, as we have formed habits and just switch on to autopilot sometimes. We have a habit of worrying, a habit of procrastination, a habit of sin, and we don’t even notice sometimes[4].
Our habits come from a whole series of little choices that we make every day, about what media we listen to and watch, what we browse on our phone, what relationships we chose to invest in.
What we need to do, as followers of Jesus is to remember the promises of God in our life. We need to remember God’s promises for us, so that those affect the choices we make.
The author of Hebrews reminds us that
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, (Heb 11:8-9a)Look at Abraham and see how he trusted in the promises of God. He did not seek money, or associate with the wicked. There were many people also after Abraham who was faithful and trusted in God’s promises. Every great Christian in the past and present has had their struggles, and they came out of them, by trusting in God, with their faith stronger, knowing personally that God is true to His word.
In light of all those who have come before us, we too should
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Heb 12:1b-2a)We see in Jesus, the assurance that God keeps His promises, and that Jesus helps perfect our faith.
So, pay attention to the choices you make this week. Are you being a good character, are you making good, wise and noble decision, in light of God’s promises to you?
I pray that, with God’s help, you will trust in God and this will affect your choices.
[1] Faith of our Fathers – Dale Ralph Davis, p30
[2] Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries) – Derek Kinder, p118
[3] Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries) – Derek Kinder, p121
[4] Update. After I posted this I remembered that I saw this clip, and some of this section has been influenced by this video You Are Your Choices Motivational Video
0 comments:
Post a Comment