All that glitters Genesis 13-15

The Hubble Telescope got off to a shaky start but has over time produced the most amazing images of space and time ever. Hubble has enabled us to look with incredible detail into far away places never seen before.

Wouldn't it be great to have Hubble-like vision here on earth? To be able to look so forward that we'd understand were we are heading, what the future holds and how things would pan out. Wouldn't it be great to have Hubble-vision?

Abram's nephew Lot is not interested in having this type of vision - he's content to seeing only as far as his nose. So, Lot looked at Sodom; he saw that it was beautiful and took possession of it. The grass looked greener. But before Abram could feel cheated, God appeared to him and reminds him of not what he should look to, but who...

Genesis 13:14-15 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 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."

And...

Genesis 15:5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be."

God reminds Abram that there are two ways to look. One is to look to at the earth; the other to God. One is to things that are temporary, the other toward eternity. God calls upon Abram to look to him. To trust in his promises. To not be sucked by what he sees...to not be like Lot. Looks can be deceiving. All that glitters is not gold...

And so how are your eyes? Do you look to God or are you diverted by the things of this earth? Are you fixing your eyes on God's promises or on fighting the seven signs of ageing...looking thinner...more money...bigger house...retirment et al? How often do you look forward to God fulfilling God's promises...because this is what Abram was famous for...

Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham...made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country...for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Lot's eyes were fixed in the things of the earth; the temporary buildings of men...which were later to crumble and fall. But Abram looked forward to the city that lasts forever. From humble, small, insignificant beginnings, he looked to the day God would fulfill his promises. That's what you call eyes of faith. Telescopic-Hubble-like eyes of faith. Let us do the same.