Abram Treated Family Well.

My, it's an early morning for me today. My boyo decided to be LOUD at 400 a.m. At my hubbie's prompting (over the last couple of weeks) I had taken some melatonin before going to bed to see if that would prevent my waking up at 2,3 or 4 a.m in the morning. Well....it did that, but it also made it hard for me to get up at 4 to see what was up with the boy. When I finally did get up, he was DRENCHED from top to bottom. I don't know if his sippy cup leaked or the more likely, if he just peed so much that everything just leaked through. BUT he was so happy to see his mommy! Changed him, gave him a bottle, and put him back to bed. he's happy with the bottle, but I'm rather awake though feeling rather dopey. :) And since the boyo is still mumbling away in his room I figured I not going to get back to sleep so may as well be productive. :)

I always find it interesting how in Genesis 13, Abram gives way to his brother. Lot and Abram's servants are fighting over watering rights. Abram basically says, enough of this, we are family, this shouldn't be happening. Abram then says, Lot pick the land you like best, either to the left or to the right. Whatever you choose, I will take the opposite.

Lot of course, looks at the land, and picks the best for himself.

And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.

No more struggles for him to find enough water for his herds. No more fighting with anyone about watering rights. Lot probably thinks to himself...I"m set!

Abram lives up to his word and goes off in the opposite direction from Lot. He settles in the land of Canaan, by the Oaks of Mamre, where he built an altar to the Lord. God makes this promise to Abram

"Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."

So it's interesting, how Abram made the first offer to Lot. Lot apparently got the better of the deal when you first look at it. Lots of water, no enemies to fight. Abram on the other hand, got the second choice land, and it was the land of the Canaanites who weren't just going to give up their land that easily.

But in the long run, Abram got the better end of the stick. Lot ends up living among the people of the land, right in their cities. And we have forwarning in this passage that God is going to destroy two of it's cities (Sodom and Gomorrah). Abram and his children will inherit all the land of the Canaanites.

So what can we learn from this?
1. Treating your family well is important
2. Worshipping God is important. It's one of the first things that Abram did.
3. The externals of any given situation don't always mean squat.
4. What means something, in any situation, is God's take on the matter. God blesses as he wills.