The wilderness of Shur is a large area in southern Sinai Peninsula. The balloon on this map is but one possible location for Abraham on his wanderings.
God considers marriage important.
Sarah was the half-sister of Abraham, so Abraham stretched the truth, but defended himself.
This biblical word “know” here means Sodomy.
This was before kosher laws, where dairy products and meat are eaten separately.
This is now the sixth name of God introduced.
The covenant is with Isaac, not Ishmael.
But Ishmael was still circumcised with Abraham, and his male household!
Benjamin’s land, right north of Jerusalem, geographically the smallest of tribes.
This is now the fourth name of God introduced. NIV translates it “Sovereign GOD”
The normal way of sealing a covenant is that both parties to the covenant pass between the halves of the sacrifice, as is described in Jeremiah:
The smoking oven and the burning torch symbolize God passing between the pieces. The most important thing to realize is that God walks through alone. Normally, both parties of the covenant would walk through together, showing that they both had responsibilities to keep in order to maintain the covenant. But when God walks through alone, He shows Abram that there is absolutely nothing Abram or his descendants have to do in order for God to keep this covenant.
It is a one sided covenant. God takes all the responsibility for fulfilling it upon Himself. No matter what Abram does or doesn’t do from this point on, God will keep His promise. No matter what Israel has or has not done in history, God will keep His promise. (
That was a lot of information about a very minor tribal warfare! But Lot was captured.
This was a long pursuit, all the way to north of Damascus!
Back to Salem, which means “peace”. It is now called Jerusalem.
Melchizedek came out of nowhere! He is mentioned in the Psalms:
But the best description of him is found in Hebrews 7:
Now back to Genesis 14:
By taking the easy way, Lot became vulnerable to temptations and bad influences.
But Abram stayed true to the promises of the LORD.
The great oaks of Mamre:
The command came with a promise:
This promise is valid even for us Christians. It is the blessing that comes with faith:
And not Abraham’s offspring, but to all that has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as is written in
This is interesting. Abraham went in faith. Yet, when trouble started he did not have faith that God would protect him through the famine, but resorted to deceit to stay alive. It caused trouble, and God had to bail him out. This is one strong argument why I believe the Bible. It shows even Abraham with faults and failing faith.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 