Starting on New Year’s Day (well, technically, on New Year’s Ever), I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 11:27-15:21.

    At the end of chapter 11 we read that Terah, Abram’s father, left Ur and started to move to Canaan. However, he stopped in Haran and settled there. We are not told why he began the move, nor why he settled in Haran. The only clue we have is that his son Haran died in Ur before Terah left Ur, which suggests it might have been related to his motive to leave Ur. Despite the fact that the name of Terah’s son who died in Ur and the town where he settled are the same in English, they are actually completely unrelated in the original Hebrew. Whatever the reasons, upon Terah’s death God instructs Abram to complete the migration which his father began. When Abram arrived in the land of Canaan, God promised him that his descendants would possess the land.

    Sometime after Abram arrived in Canaan there was a famine. As a result, Abraham moved to Egypt. When he got to Egypt, Abram was afraid that someone would kill him because they desired Sarai, his wife. So, he got her to agree that they would tell everyone that she was his sister. As a result of this lie, the Pharaoh gave Abram great wealth in order to take Sarai as his wife. The result was that God sent plagues on Pharaoh and his household. It is worth noting that Abram had sufficient faith in God to leave the land of his father’s family, but not sufficient faith to trust God to protect him from those who wanted to take his wife. God punished those who took his wife anyway.

    When Abram returned to Canaan, he realized that between them he and Lot had too many flocks to stay together. So, they chose to go separate ways. Abram gave Lot first choice and Lot chose the plains of the Jordan valley. Lot settled near the city of Sodom. Shortly after this war broke out between the kings of the Jordan valley, including Sodom, and kings from the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The kings of the Jordan valley lost and their enemies plundered the region. Among the plunder was Lot and his household. When Abram learned that Lot had been taken captive, he mobilized his men, and his allies. He overtook the force which had plundered the Jordan valley and taken Lot captive. He defeated the army and recovered the goods which had been taken. Reading this account we realize that Abram was a force to be reckoned with in the region. The army which he defeated was one which had been able to successfully demand tribute from the local kings, taking that tribute by force when they refused to give it.