Genesis 13:1 ¶
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had,
and Lot with him, into the south. 2 And
Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the south
even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning,
between Bethel and Hai; 4 Unto the place
of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on
the name of the LORD.
Like
the Hebrews in the Exodus, Abram leaves Egypt being given much goods by the
Egyptians, only Abram gets his from the Pharaoh’s hand while the Hebrews
received theirs from all their neighbors (Exodus 11:2). Abram, now a very
wealthy man, returned to the place where he had built an altar to God and
called upon His name in 12:8. We, too, in a time of great deliverance, should
return to where we first called on God for help, at least in our minds, to get
straightened out from the false self-confidence that often comes when we escape
something bad ‘by the skin of our teeth.’ Here, Abram, at the place where he
built the altar, calls on God again. This whole episode brings to mind that
even when we are not praying, not acting out of concern for God’s will but for
our own self-preservation, that God is directing the reality of our lives and
manipulating events and people to push us toward the end He has set for us. I
recommend stopping at this point to read Psalm 139 and contemplate God’s
sovereignty over the affairs of men, even heathens like the Pharaoh. Abram and
Sarai escaped Egypt by God’s will and not Abram’s dishonesty and cleverness or
the Pharaoh’s self-glorying protestations of being morally offended. God used
Pharaoh’s power to save them from harm for His purpose.
Psalm
105:15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed,
and do my prophets no harm.
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