Abram builds an altar

Genesis 13:8-18

This passage comes between the soap opera-style dramas with Pharaoh in chapter 12 and the war described in chapter 14. In this in-between, as Abram and his family pause in their transitions, Abram worships at an altar in his new homeland. But how easily that homeland might not have been his!

Lot goes east

Yahweh opens Genesis 12 with a command and a promise. Abram probably began his trip from Haram to Canaan in spring when food for his flocks would be most plentiful. The travelers likely hugged the banks of the Euphrates before turning south to catch mountain streams through Lebanon, finally crossing west over the Jordan. In chapter 13, they return to Canaan, and now it’s time to split up for the sake of harmony.

What if Lot had chosen Canaan, the western option? Abram might have become the minor character in this story! We can’t know all the symbolism the author intended, but going east in the Old Testament is often moving away from blessing. Cain goes east of Eden after killing Abel, Babylon is to the east, and, though God is everywhere, these are times of feeling far from God.

We know stories of families falling apart over inheritance, business, property. Abram lets Lot choose where they will each make their home, and, for now, everyone is getting along. As far as we know. We read throughout Genesis 12 and 13 that Sarai and Lot are along for the many moves, but we don’t know how they felt about it.

Family moves are often for one person’s calling or occupation. God continues to make plans and promises with Abram, and Abram makes questionable decisions that move them out of Egypt. Sarai and Lot have to pack up, again and again.

Family meetings

When I was about 10 years old my dad and I went canoeing together. It was a special treat to be on the river and to have my dad’s attention all to myself! But the memory is tinged with sadness for me, because out on the Eel River my dad explained that he’d been invited to move to either Elgin or New Windsor for his work with the Church of the Brethren, and he asked how I felt about moving. Though we had moved several times in my lifetime, all I could remember was North Manchester. Leaving my friends and starting over somewhere new was daunting.

A few days (or weeks?) later, my parents announced that we would not be moving, and I privately assumed it was my fault. Though they eventually clarified that moving hadn’t been anyone’s first choice, that canoe trip reminds me that my limitations can let people down or hold them back.

So, if Abram never asked Sarai, Lot, or the rest of the group their opinion about all these moves, maybe he was doing them a favor!

Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

Why do you think the author mentions (v. 10) that this is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Building suspense? Tensions for Abram, Lot, their families, and neighbors simmer under the surface, even in this moment of apparent harmony as Lot and Abram part ways.

We’re tuning in to altars in this study. Altars proclaim the presence of God; they help us mark transitions. The foreshadowing of Yahweh’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah turns my mind to an unintended altar in Genesis 19:26—the pillar of salt that was once a woman looking back to her home and loved ones as she ran toward safety.

Think of collective, unplanned altars today: along the highway where someone was killed in a traffic accident, on the sidewalk after someone died in an act of violence, or outside their home when a celebrity dies. What marks the spot at which yet another boat filled with families fleeing war went down? We mark God’s presence when we feel God’s blessing (like Abram will do at the end of today’s reading) and when we are confounded by what appears to be God’s punishment or refusal to intervene.

Language for God

God has about a thousand names in scripture, and the most common in the Old Testament is Yahweh, appearing in every book but Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. This name became so sacred and personal that eventually it was only spoken aloud by priests in the Second Temple. When the temple was destroyed, the name was not pronounced aloud anymore. Then “Adonai” was used aloud when “Yahweh” was written.

Today, no one knows precisely how to pronounce Yahweh. English Bibles usually translate Adonai as “Lord” and Yahweh as “Lord.” The name Yahweh is most associated with God’s redeeming acts. Adonai literally means “my lord” and is also used between humans, such as in 1 Samuel 24:8.

What altars are for

You might wonder if these “count” as altars. What is an altar, anyway? The word used in Hebrew ( חֵּבְזִמ )ַ means to slaughter and in Greek (θυσιαστήριον) it means place of sacrifice. But humans have been building and using altars longer than we have been slaughtering or sacrificing at them. The earliest human altars were probably stacked stones or naturally high spots, decorated to mark how they point to the heavens. We have been using altars for all the history we know of to mark a place and/or time as holy. Perhaps the first “altar” in scripture is the sabbath, which God marked for rest, proclaiming that creation is very good (Genesis 2:3).

Cain and Abel bring offerings to God, but we hear more about the associated conflict than the location or method of their gifts (4:3-4). We remember Noah for building an ark, according to detailed specifications declared by God. After that he also builds the first (named) altar in scripture, and burns choice animals and birds on it (8:20). We don’t know if God asked for it, let alone provided instructions, but God is pleased with what may have been God’s first carnivorous experience. And perhaps God is inspired to declare: “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (9:3-4).

Who is special?

I feel even more guilty about my childhood reluctance to move when I think about the recent record-breaking numbers of refugees and displaced persons throughout the world: 110 million. These are asylum-seekers, not adventure-seekers. These are parents, older siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, carrying beloved babies and fragile hope toward any possible future they can find.

I was born into a loving, stable family in one of the wealthiest countries that has ever existed, with white skin and access to education and health care. Sometimes I have to stop and catch my breath when I consider how fortunate I have been. Does Abram feel staggered by the weight of his blessings? He settles into the shade of an oak tree and builds an altar to the Lord.

Though he is grateful, Abram isn’t necessarily special. God already tried collective punishment: destroying nearly all life in a devastating flood and scattering all of humanity when they seek unity through a tall tower and common language. But God isn’t satisfied. If collective punishment isn’t working, maybe blessing all people through one family would work? “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. . . [I]n you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Stories change us

God says the same to all of Israel!
“Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?” (Amos 9:7)

Human hearts and minds are story-size. You won’t be changed by reading that there are a record 110 million refugees in the world today. But if you read a story of one family (or even better, met one family) who had to move far from home for safety, you would carry their story with you. God hopes to change the whole world through Abram’s family. Later, God will seek the same through Israel, not because they are more special but because God is loving and keeps promises:
“It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8a).