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.
For further study – Genesis 13:1-18
The key verse for our devotional reading for today is a record of the establishment of the first Jewish city by the “father” of the Jewish people, Abraham. Hebron is the oldest Jewish community in the world dating back some 4,000 years ago. Abraham is setting claim on the city that today has around 800 Jewish people living there.
In a future reading, Genesis 23, we’ll see how Abraham purchased his burial site in Hebron. He paid cash money for the site and when he was buried there, along with his son and grandson, Hebron became the second most sacred piece of real estate in the universe for the Jewish people, second only to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Abram, the Gentile name for the man who would be known as Abraham, Abram was a very wealthy man, verse 2, “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold”. This reference to the silver and gold of Abraham has an interesting connection to Bible Prophecy.
Silver and gold are mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13 as the “spoil” that may be the “hook”, Ezekiel 38:4, that will bring the enemies of Israel into the land of the Jewish State to try and destroy Israel and wipe the Jewish people off the Earth. It would be interesting to know where the gold and silver of Abraham may be today.
Genesis 13:5-13 is the record of Abraham dividing the land that God gave him with his nephew Lot. The land was actually too small and could not accommodate them that they might live together.
Abraham was so gracious that he offered Lot the choice of the “promised land”, the exact location that he wanted before Abraham would take his portion. Notice that Lot choose the area that was most pleasant to his sight, the land that looked like the Garden of Eden, verse 10.
Let me remind you that you cannot go by “what looks good”, the area Lot wanted was Sodom and Gomorrah, a location that the Lord would destroy because of the sin of “sodomy”.
The promise of the “land” that God would make to the Jewish people is a “forever promise” of a “forever land” and the result of a promise that the Lord cannot break. This promise is in the Abrahamic Covenant that God made with Abraham, and passed on to all Jews after him.
As you read all 18 verses of Genesis 13 you can recognize the “foundations” being laid for Bible Prophecy, in the last days, to be fulfilled. All of Bible Prophecy has its foundations in the book of “beginnings”, the book of Genesis.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me Lord to remember that the time of your return is quickly approaching and each passing day is a day closer to your shout to have all Christians join you in the heavens. Thank you for the foundations laid for Bible Prophecy in the book of Genesis and please help me to realize how close it may well be that you will shout for us to join You in the heavens.
