look and see

^{Genesis 13}

¹⁴ The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 

¹⁵ All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. ¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷ Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

 ¹⁸ So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the LORD.

***

Once Lot has separated from Abram and the tie between them broken (for now), Yahweh speaks again to Abram and reaffirms the promise - both of land and of offspring.

This time the emphasis is on the entire land belonging to Abram's descendants - so numerous will they be that they cannot be counted. This from a man who has no children at all!

The land, so visible and tangible - Abram can walk it's length and breadth - is one part of the promise - the two halves hinged together, reliant on each other.  The land will be filled by Abram's descendants  there will be enough descendants to fill the land.  The promise filled out - it becomes a promise made for perpetuity - forever; it is personal - God gives it to Abram himself as well as his offspring.

A promise that is personal, powerful, and apparently impossible. But it is God who gives the land.  The God of the improbable and the impossible.  In fact, he specialises in just such cases!


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