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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 13:14 - 13:18
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God Repeats His Promise
v. 14. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward;
v. 15. for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. The separation of Lot from Abram was, in a way, prophetical of the relation which would afterwards obtain between his descendants and those of Abram. And just at this time the Lord repeated His promise to Abram, bidding him look from the place where he then was, almost in the center of Canaan, in every direction, since this entire country was to be the possession of his descendants. Thus Abram, in spirit at least, if not in fact, was to claim the land of Canaan for his posterity.
v. 16. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that, if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. The double promise, that of possessing the land and that of having such an innumerable offspring, was, of course, addressed to Abram's faith and had to be accepted by him in faith, Heb_11:9-10.
v. 17. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. This refers to an ancient custom according to which a person signified his claim to a piece of ground by walking around it. Though Abram did not possess so much as one foot of land, yet God's promise stood that his descendants should occupy the entire country as their own. All this has a wider significance. For, as one commentator has it, through Christ the promise is elevated out of its temporal form to the dignity of substance; through Him the whole world becomes a Canaan. To the numberless seed of Abram belong all men from all generations of the earth that hold the faith of Abram, or Abraham. Abraham is the father of us all, Rom_4:16. We that believe the promise concerning Christ belongs to that great people of believers which has existed since the time of Adam and has its representatives in all nations of the earth.
v. 18. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. Abram was obedient to the Lord's word; he journeyed through the land in the course of the next years. He tented by easy stages until he finally made his home at Hebron, about in the center of the southern part of Canaan. There he lived in the grove of terebinths that belonged to the Amorite Mamre, Gen_14:13-24. One of his first acts here again was the erection of an altar to the Lord. He could not be without his regular worship, and he and his household met regularly for the service of Jehovah. It would undoubtedly result in much blessing if believers that settle in a new district or city would make the establishment of regular services of worship their first consideration.