Genesis 13:1

Now I turn to this: recovery from Egypt is possible. "So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had." This was a second great day in the history of Abram. The first was when he went out from Ur of the Chaldeans. This second act did not make him a man of faith. He was a man of faith before. But through it Satan was refused and overcome, and Abram became God's witness on the earth once more. He was again a witness that a man of faith could give up "his country, his kindred, and his father's house" — and now more, even all the supplies of Egypt — to walk by faith with God.

Abraham was a true man of faith. Yet like us, he sometimes breaks down on the path of faith. He had tasted the blessing of the place outside Egypt. Now nothing will satisfy his soul but getting back to the place of blessing his feet had strayed from.

Down in Egypt there is no altar, and no calling on the name of the Lord. God takes care of him and watches over him. But Abram is no worshipper there, and not until he gets back. He goes down to Egypt forced, as people say, by circumstances. He is not in the place of dependence or communion. That is the character of the position he takes.

All the time spent in Egypt went for nothing. Abraham had to get back to the very same point from which he had turned aside, and begin again.

Like every restored soul, he retraces his path step by step. At last he is found again as a stranger and pilgrim with his tent, as a worshipper with his altar, and as a dependent man calling on the Name of the Lord.

If we are to be restored after failure, we must return to the place we left. Here the text stresses that this was the place where he had first pitched his tent, between Bethel and Ai. It was the place where he decided to leave his old life behind for the interests of God.

The flocks he got in Egypt come home with him. The gold and the silver glitter and set off his return. But they were gifts from a land that lay outside the place where the God of glory had called him. What do we say to all this? Does the bleating and lowing of such flocks and herds sound in our ears like the soft music of a clear conscience? Does this glittering wealth shine like the presence of God, which Abraham had now lost?

For Abram and Lot, their riches became the occasion of division. We may well ask, where were these riches gained? When Abram first entered the path of faith, and Lot went with him, they took "all their possessions." But that was no cause of strife. In Egypt, however, Abram gains great wealth, so that after his restoration we read, "Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold."

Here we get the secret of Lot's later instability. He seems to have gone up with Abram rather than with God. So when he parted from Abram, he had nothing to lean on. Until then he had moved under Abram's protection and guidance instead of standing before the Lord for himself. When he lost Abram, he went astray.