The Geography of Faith Text: Genesis 13:14-18
Introduction: The Necessary Separation
We live in a sentimental age, an age that despises sharp edges and necessary divisions. Our culture preaches a gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity, which is really just a gospel of universal compromise. But the God of Scripture is a God who separates. He separated the light from the darkness, the waters above from the waters below, and the land from the sea. And in the work of redemption, He is constantly separating His people from the world. He separates a man from his pagan kindred in Ur, and He separates a believer from his former life of sin. Sometimes, He even separates believers from other believers when their paths diverge.
This is what we have just witnessed in the life of Abram. The conflict between his herdsmen and the herdsmen of his nephew Lot was not just a squabble over grazing rights. It was a collision of two different trajectories, two different ways of seeing the world. Lot was a man who walked by sight. He lifted up his eyes and saw the well watered plains of the Jordan, looking for all the world like the garden of the Lord, or like the Egypt they had just left. He chose what was immediately gratifying, what was prosperous in the world's eyes, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Abram, on the other hand, fresh from a humbling lesson in Egypt, chose to walk by faith. He gave Lot the choice, effectively entrusting his own prosperity to the sovereign hand of God. He was willing to be last, so that God might be first.
It is precisely at this moment, after Lot has made his choice and departed, that God speaks to Abram again. The departure of Lot was a necessary prerequisite. The vision of faith needed to be clarified, and it could not be clarified while it was entangled with the vision of sight. Before God could show Abram the true scope of his inheritance, the lesser, worldly vision represented by Lot had to be removed from the picture. God often has to take things away from us before He can give us what He truly intends for us. He empties our hands of our own grasping plans so that He can fill them with His lavish promises. This is a hard lesson, but a necessary one. And it is after this painful but necessary separation that God reaffirms and massively expands His covenant promises to Abram.
The Text
And Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.
(Genesis 13:14-18 LSB)
The Boundless Promise (v. 14-15)
God begins by giving Abram a new set of instructions for his eyes.
"And Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.'" (Genesis 13:14-15)
Notice the contrast. Lot lifted up his own eyes and saw with the wisdom of the flesh. Now, God commands Abram to lift up his eyes, but to see with the eyes of faith. God is the one directing his gaze. Lot saw one direction, the well watered plain. God tells Abram to look in every direction: north, south, east, and west. Lot chose a piece of the land. God gives Abram all of it. Abram, in his meekness, gave up his right to choose, and in response, God gave him everything. This is the constant principle of the kingdom: whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Abram acted out that beatitude, and God immediately fulfilled it.
And the promise is not just for a temporary lease. God says He will give it to Abram and his seed "forever." Now, we must read this with New Testament eyes. Dispensationalists get tangled up here, thinking this is a permanent real estate deed for ethnic Israel. But the New Testament is clear. The land of Canaan was a type, a down payment, a shadow of the real inheritance. What was promised to Abraham was not a small strip of land in the Middle East, but the entire world. "For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith" (Romans 4:13). The physical land was the training ground, the stage on which the drama of redemption would unfold. But the ultimate fulfillment of this promise is global. It is the inheritance of the whole earth by the seed of Abraham, which is Christ and all who are in Him, through the triumphant advance of the gospel.
When God says "forever," He means it. The promise has not been revoked; it has been glorified and expanded in Christ. The physical descendants of Abraham who reject their Messiah have been cut off from this promise, and believing Gentiles have been grafted in. The Church is the true Israel, and our inheritance is the entire cosmos, to be brought under the dominion of Christ the King.
The Innumerable Seed (v. 16)
Next, God expands the promise concerning Abram's descendants in a staggering way.
"And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered." (Genesis 13:16 LSB)
This is holy hyperbole. God is using the language of immensity to drive home the scope of His plan. At this point, Abram is childless and his wife is barren. From a human perspective, the promise of even one heir seems unlikely. But God is not interested in what is likely; He is interested in what He has decreed. He tells this childless old man that his offspring will be as uncountable as the particles of dust on the ground he is standing on.
Again, we must understand who this "seed" is. The Apostle Paul tells us plainly that the seed is singular, referring to Christ (Gal. 3:16). He is the true Seed of Abraham. And all who are united to Him by faith, whether Jew or Gentile, become part of that seed and heirs of this promise. This promise, then, is not about one ethnic group. It is a promise about the success of the Great Commission. It is a postmillennial promise. It declares that the gospel will be so wildly successful in history that the number of believers from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be beyond human calculation. It is a promise that Christianity will not be a failed, minority religion, huddled in a corner waiting for rescue. It will be a global, conquering faith that fills the earth with worshippers of Jesus Christ, as numerous as the dust.
The Obedience of Possession (v. 17)
God's promise is not meant to produce passivity. It is a summons to active, obedient faith.
"Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you." (Genesis 13:17 LSB)
This is a fascinating command. God has already given Abram the land by promise. But now Abram is commanded to act on that promise. He is to walk through it, to survey it, to tread upon it as though it were already his. This is the nature of faith. Faith is not simply agreeing with a set of propositions. Faith is acting on the truth of those propositions. It is stepping out, moving, and living as though God's Word is more real than the Canaanites who currently occupy the territory.
This is a picture of the Christian life. God has given us "all things that pertain to life and godliness" in Christ (2 Peter 1:3). He has given us the Scriptures, which are our promised land. And He calls us to do what Abram did: arise, and walk through the land. We are to traverse its length and breadth, from Genesis to Revelation. We are to explore its doctrines, its histories, its promises, and its commands. We take possession of the promises of God by walking in them, by living them out, by claiming them in prayer and obedience. Just as Abram walked through a land that was not yet fully his in experience, so we walk through this life by faith, laying claim to an inheritance that is already ours in Christ, but not yet fully realized.
The Altar of Covenant Renewal (v. 18)
The chapter concludes with Abram's response. It is not a response of words, but of worship.
"Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh." (Genesis 13:18 LSB)
Abram's obedience is immediate. He moves his tent, not to the fertile plains, but to the hill country of Hebron. He settles by the oaks of Mamre. An oak tree is a symbol of strength and endurance. Hebron itself is a place of immense significance. It is where the spies would later bring back a cluster of grapes, a foretaste of the land's goodness. It is where Caleb would claim his inheritance. It is where David would be crowned king, first over Judah, and then over all Israel. By settling here, Abram is, by faith, taking possession of the very heart of the future kingdom.
And what is the first thing he does upon arriving? He builds an altar. This is the consistent pattern of Abram's life. Wherever he goes, he establishes a center of true worship. The altar is a public declaration. It says to the Canaanites, "This land does not belong to your gods. It belongs to Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth, who has given it to me." Building an altar is an act of spiritual warfare. It is planting the flag of God's kingdom in enemy territory.
More than that, the altar is a place of covenant renewal. It is where Abram meets with his God, offers sacrifices, and has his faith strengthened. It is where he acknowledges that all these promises, the land and the seed, come from God's hand alone. Our worship services are our altars. When we gather on the Lord's Day, we are doing what Abram did at Hebron. We are renewing our covenant with God. We confess our sins, we hear His word of promise in the sermon, we dedicate our lives and substance to Him in the offering, and we have communion with Him at His table. We are planting the flag of Christ's kingdom in the midst of a hostile culture and declaring that this world belongs not to Caesar or to Mammon, but to Jesus Christ.
Conclusion: Inheriting the World
The story of Abram's separation from Lot and the subsequent renewal of the covenant is our story. We are called to separate ourselves from the worldly wisdom of Lot, which judges by sight and seeks immediate gratification. We are called to walk by faith, entrusting our future to the God who promises to give the whole earth to the meek.
Like Abram, we have been given staggering promises. We are part of a seed that will be as innumerable as the dust of the earth. We are heirs of a kingdom that will have no end. And our task is the same as his. We are to arise and walk through the land. We are to possess our inheritance by faith, living out the reality of God's promises in our homes, our churches, and our communities. And at the center of it all, we are to build altars. We are to be a people of worship, constantly renewing our covenant with the God who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Abram gave up the Jordan valley and got the world. Lot grasped for the best land and got Sodom. The choice before us is the same. Will we walk by sight, or by faith? Will we build our lives around our own ambitions, or will we build them around the altar of God? May God give us the grace to be true sons and daughters of Abraham, who by faith inherit the world.