And Jehovah said to Abram, after that Lot had separated himself from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
The timing of these words matters as much as the words. Abram has just handed his nephew Lot the first choice of the land, and God speaks only after Lot has gone.
One writer reads God's timing as deliberate, and notes that God had never given this command before:
After Lot had taken the best for himself, Another settles the matter. It was disgraceful that the nephew dared to act that way in a land God had promised to Abram only. "The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him." So the Spirit notes here that everything followed the simple will of God. He was no careless onlooker, and He does not fail to clear away what hinders. Now that it was so, the LORD said, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward." He had never said this before.
Four verses earlier Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the well-watered plain. The same words now come to Abram. The difference lies in what each man saw:
"Lot lifted up his eyes," and what they rested on was, as you would expect, what suited his natural desires — "well-watered plains." However lovely they looked to man, in the sight of the Lord they were filled with terrible wickedness (compare verses 10 and 14). Abram, on the other hand, had let his eye wander over the length and breadth of the promised inheritance. Nothing else swayed him. He looked at the portion which God was keeping for him and his offspring, and took his position in line with it.
Lot looked; God told Abram where to look. The four directions are the point:
This is exactly what Lot had done (v. 10), but he had limited his sight to what appealed to him. God tells Abram to look to the north, south, east and west. He would give Abram and his descendants all the land that he saw. How much broader is God's view than that of our natural selfishness!
Abram's offer to take whatever Lot left was not weakness. One writer explains why he could afford it:
Abram says to Lot: take what you want, do not let us quarrel. The promise is my portion. I am a complete stranger here; the city of God is open in glory before me. His heart is set on the promises of God, and everything else is nothing in comparison. It might seem foolish to let Lot choose. The right to choose was certainly Abram's own. But his heart is elsewhere, and his faith goes entirely free from earthly advantage.
The same writer draws a wider lesson from Abram's trust:
How sweet that Abram trusted in the Lord! The whole question seemed to rest with Lot, but it really rested with the LORD. When will we learn to be that simple and trusting? We will surely learn something else at the same time. The Lord always answers a giving up of self. He answers it in His grace, in the sweet assurance of that grace to our souls, and by a better gift still through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Abram could look at the land in every direction, yet everything he had rested on a promise:
Wherever he looked around, his eye fell on part of the land of his inheritance, which God had promised to give him. But all his security for possessing that land lay in God's promise. God gave him no other guarantee about it.
Abram uses his eyes here, but only at God's direction — and a writer applies that to us:
Now Abraham uses his eyes, but at the direction of the LORD. When Lot had separated from him, the LORD said, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are." He is to look in every direction at the land which the LORD has given him. And it is well for us too, when we are freed from the weight of those who have no faith for the outside path. It is well if we set our minds on things above and "look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen." It is well if we seek to enjoy all that God has revealed about the world to come, the heavenly country with its city that has foundations.
- Separated — God spoke after Lot was gone; He clears away what hinders before He enlarges the vision.
- Directed — Lot lifted his eyes and chose; Abram lifted his at God's word, and God showed him north, south, east and west.
- Surrendered — Abram could give up the choice because the promise was already his. His faith went free of earthly advantage.
- Answered — no giving up of self goes unanswered by the Lord; He replies with a better gift.
- Unseen — Abram held the land by promise alone, with no other security. The same call comes to us: look at what is unseen, not only at what appeals to the eye.
for all the land that thou seest will I give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.
Lot has just taken the best of the Jordan plain for himself. Only then does God speak to Abram and tell him to lift up his own eyes. What God hands him is far larger than Lot's choice: the whole land, and forever.
Abram had the right to choose first, and he let it go.
But notice how good it is to bow before the Lord and to refuse to fight for our rights, however natural that is to the heart. The moment Abram gives up to Lot, Jehovah appears again. God never gave anyone a gift in terms as clear and as large as the one He now gives Abram. Lot lifted up his eyes, looked over the plain of Jordan, and chose the best of it. Now Jehovah speaks to Abram after Lot had separated from him — that is, after Lot had taken his ill-gotten gains. He says, "Lift up your eyes." How blessed are the words of the Lord!
Two things carry the weight of the verse. God gives the land, and He gives it forever. He asks nothing from Abram in return, and He sets no end date.
Just then, while the patriarch was living between Bethel and Ai, the Lord confirmed the promise He had made to him at Shechem — and apparently without His servant asking… The promise of the land to Abraham's seed at Shechem had been unconditional. Now he heard that his offspring would enjoy it for unlimited time. God is the God of the whole earth. He alone had the right and the power to give away any part of the globe as He pleased. He bound Himself in this way to Abraham and to his seed. What a thing it was to deal with the one true God, who could act with such grace! Abraham had once worshipped idols, and he must have felt it.
God told Abram to look over land he did not own. He had no title and no deed, and other peoples were living on the ground in front of him.
They are clearly in the place of strangers ("the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land"). They have nothing in possession, "not even a foot's length"; everything depends on their valuing the promises (Heb. 11:9). They have just two things, the altar and the tent. Travelling about, and worshipping God, they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
God promised the land to Abram himself, not only to his descendants. Abram died without owning it. So the promise reaches past the grave.
God never gave the land of Israel into the actual possession of Abraham or Isaac or Jacob while they were alive in their natural bodies; yet He did promise them the land — not merely to their children, but to themselves. So they must rise to have the land promised to them. God gave them the land in promise, but they never owned it. Since they cannot own it while they are dead, they must live again to receive the promised land.
This promise still stands over the same land today, whatever nations have fought over it since.
Not the smallest detail of what God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will fail. He will do it all. Despite everything said and done against it, God remembers His promises, and He will fulfil them… Dynasties have risen and played their part on the stage of this world. Thrones have been built on the apparent ruins of Jerusalem's ancient glory. Empires have flourished for a time and then fallen into decay. Ambitious rulers have fought to possess "the land of promise". All these things have happened. But the LORD has said about that land, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23).
God does not stop at the promise. He tells Abram to get up and walk through the land He has given him.
It was a turning point for Abraham as it was for Lot. God told him He would give him all the land, and said, "Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land." When he had made the good choice and accepted the portion from God, then God showed him far more fully all that He had given him… All the land is ours, but we have to realise it. It produces happy worship in the heart when we live as strangers and pilgrims, seeking nothing in the world… Gifts are precious as they put us in touch with the Giver. The love that gives is more precious than the gift.
- Give up — Abram let Lot choose first; the promise came only after he stopped defending his rights.
- Look up — Lot's own eyes picked out a fragment. God showed Abram the whole land, in every direction.
- Hold on — Abram had a tent and an altar and not one foot of ground. His entire security was the word of God.
- Rise — God promised "forever" to Abraham himself. He died without owning the land, so God must raise him to receive it.
- Walk — God gave the land first, then told Abram to cross it. We enjoy God's gifts by walking through them — and the Giver is worth more than the gift.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if any one can number the dust of the earth, thy seed also will be numbered.
Abram had just let his nephew Lot take first pick of the land. God then promised him a family as countless as the dust — and the commentators ask who this seed is, and whether the promise has yet been kept.
The timing matters. God spoke only after Abram had given up his claim.
But notice how blessed it is to bow before the Lord and to refuse to fight for our rights, however natural that is to the heart. The moment Abram gives up to Lot, Jehovah appears again. No gift was ever given to man in such clear and large terms as the one He now gives to Abram. Lot had lifted up his eyes, seen the whole Jordan valley, and chosen the best of it. Now Jehovah speaks to Abram after Lot had separated from him — that is, after Lot had taken his ill-gotten gains. And He says, "Lift up your eyes."
The same writer draws out what this means for us.
How sweet it was that Abram trusted in the Lord! The choice seemed to lie with Lot, but Abram left the whole matter with Jehovah. When will we learn to be this simple and trusting? We will certainly learn at the same time that the Lord always answers a giving up of self. He answers it in His grace, and in the sweet assurance of that grace to our souls, by a still better gift through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Dust lies on the ground. The picture marks out which family God has in view here.
More than this, God would increase Abram's descendants "as the dust of the earth" (v. 16). The man of faith will always prove fruitful in the end. It may seem otherwise to us because of the long delay, as it did to Abram, but God's promise was absolute: it could not possibly fail. At this time God only speaks of "the dust of the earth," for He implies only an earthly people, primarily Israel. Later, in Genesis 15:5, He tells Abram his seed would be as the stars of heaven. That takes in the great number called "sons of Abraham," whose inheritance is in heaven — for Galatians 3:7 says that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.
This verse gives the first of three pictures of the seed. The order matters.
Looking back to Genesis with this in view, we read that the first time God made a promise to Abraham about his seed He told him it would be as "the dust of the earth" (Gen. 13:16). The next time God spoke of that seed in Genesis 15:5, He said it would be as "the stars." Then in Gen. 22:17 He added a third thing about the seed, saying it would be "as the sand." So Abraham received the promises in this order — dust, stars and sand. … We have long understood the stars to picture the heavenly company, the dust Israel and the sand the Gentiles. While the dust came first at the outset, the stars take first place in God's dealings: the heavenly company now come first, Israel second and the Gentiles third.
Centuries later, a prophet looked at Israel's numbers and reached for the same picture.
At the time of this prophecy they were still a small nation (Deut. 4:38). But it gives a glimpse of the future, when the first word (Gen. 13:16) will be literally fulfilled through the line of Israel whose seed shall be like the dust of the earth, and as the sand on the sea shore for multitude (Gen. 28:14, Gen. 32:12). Balaam, "the man whose eyes are open," sees their vast numbers. He cries out: who can count the dust of Jacob, or the number of the fourth part of Israel?
Some treat Israel's long stay in Canaan as this promise paid in full. One writer weighs that against what God said.
The possession of Canaan for some 1500 years, down to AD 70, would be a poor answer to the rich words of the God who gave promises to Abraham. The true fulfilment is still future, and will only be under Messiah and the new covenant.
God gave Abram no timetable and no details. What Abram did with the promise is the model.
Such a promise, so persistently repeated, Abram could only treasure up in his heart, without asking for an explanation. There was in him something of the spirit of our Lord's mother, Mary, who treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Such an attitude greatly honours God.
- Surrender first. Abram handed Lot the choice. Only after Lot had gone did God speak this promise — the Lord always answers a giving up of self.
- Three measures. Dust, then stars, then sand: an earthly people, primarily Israel; then those whose inheritance is heavenly; then the Gentiles.
- Fruitful in the end. The man of faith proves fruitful in the end. The long delay never made God's absolute promise fail.
- Uncountable. Balaam saw Israel's vast numbers and asked who could count the dust of Jacob. The promise had begun to show itself.
- Still future. Israel's past centuries in Canaan are too small a payment for words this rich. The true fulfilment waits for Messiah. So Abram's part, and ours, is to treasure the promise and not demand an explanation.
Arise, walk through the land according to the length of it and according to the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee.
Lot had just taken the well-watered plain and moved away. God then sent Abram walking across a land He had promised him but had not yet given him. Why now — and why walk over ground he could not yet own?
Abram had let his nephew pick the best ground, and the promise came straight after. One writer sees the same pattern each time Abram gave something up:
The blessing that rested upon Abraham was very great. It more than repaid him for all he gave up. If he gave up earthly prospects in Ur, he became an inheritor of blessing that would finally spread out to "all families of the earth." If he yielded the fairest parts of the land to Lot, directly afterwards came the word, "Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."
Another writer reads the timing as God's own doing:
The Spirit notes that everything now was according to the simple will of God. He was no careless onlooker, and He does not fail to clear away what hinders.
God does not tell Abram to fence off a portion. The command is movement — the whole length and breadth. That matches what Abram held in his lifetime:
He was not to settle down and take possession of any part of the land, but pass through all of it, as Stephen says in Acts 7:5: "He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child."
So what was the walk for? God had never spoken this way to Abram before. Notice where the command finally left Abram:
"Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward" — He had never said so before — "for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever… Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land" — Abram was to take possession by faith — "for I will give it to you." So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD. Well he might!
Israel did later live in Canaan for centuries. One writer weighs that against the size of what God promised:
The possession of Canaan for 1500 years would be a poor answer to the rich words of the God who gave promises to Abraham. The true accomplishment is still future, and will only come under the Messiah and the new covenant.
That hope rests on the promise itself, which carried no conditions: "The promises made to Abraham were unconditional and absolute." (W. Trotter)
Abram got a clear view of his land only after he took his portion from God's hand. The gift did more than enlarge his map:
When he had made the good choice, and accepted the portion from God, then God shows him far more fully all that He had given him. Abraham gets a definite knowledge of his possessions. When our affections are set upon God, He can reveal Himself to us more fully. All the land is ours, but we have to realise it… Gifts are precious as they put us in communion with the Giver. The love that gives is more precious than the gift.
Abram held his land by promise alone. Believers stand in a like place, with one difference:
Like Abraham, we have the promise of an inheritance. Like him, wherever we look around, our eye falls on part of it… Abraham could walk through the length and breadth of the land of his inheritance. We cannot yet see how far ours reaches. We have heard of its limits, but have never seen them. Like Abraham, we must leave earth before we can enjoy the inheritance promised to us. But unlike him, we have more than the word of our God about it. God has also given us the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of it.
- Give up. Abram handed Lot the better land. The survey of the whole country came right after. What he gave up, God more than repaid.
- Get up. The command is to rise and cross the ground — not to settle on a corner of it. He owned no part of it, not even a foot's length.
- Walk it. Crossing the land was how Abram took possession by faith. It brought him to Mamre, to a tent and an altar.
- Wait for it. The promise carried no conditions, and its true fulfilment is still ahead. Israel's centuries in Canaan were too small a return on words that large.
- Know the Giver. God showed Abram his whole portion after Abram took it from His hand. The love that gives is worth more than the gift.