GENESIS 13, or, "Mo' money mo' problems"

Abram returns from Egypt, quarrels with his nephew Lot, and they go their separate ways. God promises Abram land and offspring.

Abram, Sarai and Lot return from Egypt as a result of the whole "sister/wife" fiasco with the Pharaoh. No matter though. They return far richer than when they left. Only now, they were going to suffer from having too much rather than too little. The land Abram and Lot shared could not support their combined number of livestock and herdsman. The amount of bickering and rude hand gestures increased at an alarming rate. Something had to be done.

Not wanting to argue anymore, Abram and Lot decide that they should split up. Abram allows Lot to choose which way he wants to go. He tells Lot, "If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." Lot saw that the land to the east was well-watered so eastward he went, while Abram stayed in the west.

After Lot leaves, God speaks to Abram again, telling him to look around, that all the land he can see belongs to him, and that his offspring will be an numerous as all of the grains of dust on Earth.


The song that came into my head while reading this passage: "Landlocked Blues", by Bright Eyes. This one's for you, Abe:

If you walk away I walk away
first tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing somday
so you walk that way I'll walk this way

and the future hangs over our heads
and it moves with each current event
until it falls all around like a cold steady rain
just stay in when it's lookin' this way

and the moon's laying low in the sky
forcing everything metal to shine
and the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
they argue "walk this way," "no walk this way"

GENESIS 12, or, "Wanderlust"

The Lord calls on Abraham and his family to leave their home without much reason or idea of a destination. Wandering ensues.

I think what most people don't know is that Christianity, Judaism and Islam all share the same roots in Abraham. For Christians and Jews he goes on to father Jacob, or Israel, and for Muslims he is a forefather of Muhammad. It's ironic that a reason there is so much turmoil in the Middle East is because the religions of Islam and Judaism are so closely related, warring over land they both hold sacred - a lot of that land being where Abraham had traveled.

God tells Abraham (at this point his name is simply "Abram") that if he leaves his homeland:

"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

And really, how can you pass an offer like that up? Abram, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot set out to wander around the Middle East for a while.

They travel from their home in Haran (a city that might have been in modern day northern Syria or southern Turkey) to Schechem. Abram builds an alter. They travel from Schechem to east of Bethel. He builds another alter. They go to Negev. See the map below, because I didn't know where any of these places were either.

There's a famine that forces them to move again, this time into Egypt. Abram realized this wife Sarai was beautiful - beautiful enough to make the Egyptians want to kill him so they could take her away from him. Abram tells Sarai to tell people that she is his sister.

They get to Egypt and sure enough, those Egyptians take an immediate shine to Sarai. The Pharaoh takes Sarai into his palace and treats Abram well, giving him sheep and whatnot. Then God plagues Pharaoh and his household for messing around with Sarai, Pharaoh catches on that Saria is actually Abram's wife and the jig is up. He tells them to get lost, so Abram and Sarai leave, but still in possession of all of Pharaoh's gifts to them (the aforementioned sheep and whatnot - actually, at this point Abram has become a rich man. Sheep were worth a lot more in those days).

Some things I wonder about as I read Genesis is, where's the mention of Heaven? Or Hell? Or, you know, rules and stuff? What qualifies Abram as a "good" person? This was all taking place well before our current idea of Christianity was full formed, so it kinda makes you wonder what kinds of rules Abram lived by. Were people even being sent to Heaven or Hell in those days, because the Bible doesn't even mention their existence at this point.