Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AND LOT 13:l-18
promises,’ he gave the choice of present good to Lot. Their
encampment looked westward on the rugged hills of Judea
and eastward on the fertile plain of the Jordan about
Sodom, ‘well watered everywhere, as the garden of the
Lord, like the land of Egypt’ he had only lately left. Even
from that distance, through the clear air of Palestine, can
be distinctly seen the long and thick masses of vegetation
which fringe the numerous streams that, descend from the
hills on either side to meet the central stream in its tropical
depths. It was exactly the prospect to tempt a man who
had no fixed purpose of his own, who had not like Abram
obeyed the stern call of duty, So Lot left his uncle on
the barren hills of Bethel, and chose all the precinct of the
Jordan, and journeyed east. Abram received his reward in
a third blessiizg and promise from Jehovah, who bade him
lift up his eyes and scan the whole land on every side, for
it should be the possession of his seed, and they should be
unnumbered as the dust of the earth.” Yahweh also en-
joins him to walk over his inheritance, and to contemplate
it in all its extent, with the repeated assurance that it will
be his. “To be understood not as a literal direction, but
as an intimation that he might leisurely survey his in-
heritance with the calm assurance that it was his” (PCG,
200). V. 15-Leupold (EG, 441): “True, Abram be-
comes possessor only in his seed. But such possession is none
the less real.” It is none the less real simply because it is
guaranteed by God, who is the Owner of all things (Psa.
24:1, 70:12; 1 Cor. 10:26): and only He could give a
completely clear title to any human being.
3. Abranz’s Third Altar: from Bethel to Mamre.
(Bethel became especially conspicuous in the time of
Jacob (Gen. 28:ll-22, 31:13, 35:l-15). It was allotted
to the tribe of Ephraim later (1 Chron. 7:28) and bordered
the territory of Benjamin (Josh. 18 : 13 ) . The Israelites
resettled the town calling it by the name Jacob had given
to the scene in his vision, instead of the name Luz which
.
101