New Mercies on the Horizon (Genesis 13:14-15)
Meditations on Genesis #33
Genesis 13:14-15
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.”
Maybe Almighty God’s initial call to Abram back in Genesis 12:1 to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house” wasn’t a sweeping command to leave all his extended family members behind, but I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that Abram compromised by letting Lot accompany him in the first place. It’s only conjecture, of course, but I do find it striking that the LORD only delivers His promise to Abram after Lot is out of the picture, as if to signify that Abram needed to remove his compromise before he could fully receive the blessing.
In that light, I’m ashamed to think of just how many precious moments I’ve wasted, how many days I’ve spent engulfed in my Shepherd’s care, yet not even noticing, not even seeing the wounded Hand outstretched in front of me, because my head was down and my eyes were glued to the dirt and I let a log cloud my focus. Christ taught us in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God,” and purity of heart signifies singlemindedness. It means being all in, without keeping some nook or cranny of our little place in the cosmos to ourselves. It means getting alone in the uncomfortable silence and praying with the Psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
That’s always a scary prayer to pray at first, but the renewed vision we receive afterward is more than worth the discomfort, isn’t it? Suddenly, we see the vast terrain of mercies we’d been blind to. No matter where we look, whether northward or southward or eastward or westward, we discover a panorama of provision, underneath our feet, above our heads, and at our fingertips. And all the mundane responsibilities of the day ahead suddenly metamorphize into great adventures, as each commonplace task on our to-do list becomes a pioneering step forward into a wide and wonderful frontier.
*Speaking of wonderful frontiers, the above photograph is one of the many pictures I took on my recent trip to Whitetop Mountain, VA, and this is the exact spot where I camped out all alone a few years ago and had one of my most memorable encounters in the wild. It took place around 9:30 pm, as I stood there watching the second most glorious sunset I’d ever witnessed—second only to the sunset I enjoyed with my wife at our Grand Canyon wedding eleven years ago. A Mama bear and her cub suddenly came walking down the crest of the hill in my direction and I couldn’t decide which impulse to follow: to run after the bears and ask for a bear hug or just stand there quietly and appreciate the marvel. Well, I chose the former of course, but, sadly, the bears took off running in the opposite direction as soon as they caught wind of me. What a fool I’d been in! Rangers always told me never to camp out in the mountains unarmed, yet here I was, in the presence of bears, and I’d completely forgotten to bring along my big ole jar of raw clover honey.
Which gets me thinking: if Abram looked out across the horizon and saw a land flowing with milk and honey, how many bears do you think he spotted swimming and splashing around?
Truly being fully know by a holy God is a terrifying thought. It means that the dark places of my heart are revealed by the light. To ask the Lord for that is a difficult first step but you are right it is so worth it. It reminds me of the scene from Indiana Jones when he is faced with the leap of faith only to find after he leaped that there was a walkway right in front of his face it just took a little faith and it all worked out for the best. In the same way we if we trust God what is honestly terrifying to do at first becomes the greatest comfort as the spirit works to sanctify us.
On another note the beautiful nature scene you share creates a longing in me like no other. It makes me wish that I did not live in a city.
That prayer from Psalms is scary. I assume this is from later in David's life, just because it is toward the end of Psalms. It brings to mind that great section of Romans 7 -
"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So, I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Your bear story brought one of mine to mind. In ~2000 my wife & I went to Yellowstone & the Tetons. In Grand Teton Park we were watching a moose, whose stroll through the swampy meadow was ruined by the bees who took umbrage at the moose's presence. We were ~100 feet away behind some trees, filming, and I accidently stepped on a stick & broke it. The moose immediately forgot about the bees & focused his eyes exactly on us. He began slowly walking our way. I asked Deb if there was anything she could climb; there was an elephant-sized rock, but we decided to slowly, then rapidly, move on down the trail.