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Honey From The Rock Psalm 81:16 |
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"FOR WE ARE BRETHREN" This entry was posted on 02-04-2010 and is filed under STUDIES IN GENESIS. Does strife and division in the body of Christ bother you at all? It should. The very fact that it exists at all is a blot on Christianity. Jesus prayed that we might all be one (John 17:20, 21). The apostle Paul made a heartfelt plea for oneness (1 Cor. 1:10). Strife among fellow saints is the devil's harvest.
Today we come to an interesting passage in Genesis 13. Abram and his nephew Lot were so blessed that "the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together" (v. 6). Notice that the phrase "dwell together" appears twice in the text. God wants us to dwell together. David said, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" (Psa. 133:1). However, our text goes on to say, "And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock" (v. 7a). You can see how the strife was not so much between Abram and Lot personally as it was between their employees. This was not a healthy situation. Strife never is. Notice a third thing: "The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land" (v. 7b). To me this means that outsiders were watching God's people fuss and fight with one another. That is never a good thing either! Many people do not darken the door of a church because they have seen strife between churchgoers ~ professing Christians. But our text ends on a happy note. Abram was a wise man. It takes wisdom to diffuse division. He said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren" (v. 8). Royal blood flows in our veins. We are blood brothers because of the blood of Christ. "Let brotherly love continue" (Heb. 13:1). Cain shed the blood of his brother but we are of Christ, not Cain! Then Abram does something very wise and generous. He suggested a solution to the problem. "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, I will go to the left" (v. 9). "Abram was willing to maintain a loose grip on his rights and possessions; because of this, he was able to defer to his nephew and manage the growing conflict between his and Lot's herdsmen....Because he was older, Abram could have assigned Lot a parcel of land. He could have taken the best for himself." (The Leadership Bible). This is "crisis management" at its best! CommentsDisplay comments as (Linear | Threaded)
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