Abraham’S Saner Solution

Copyright © 2010 by Emmanuel Oghenebrorhie.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4568-2664-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4568-2665-9

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Unless otherwise indicated, scriptures are from Today’s English Version (TEV) also known as the Good News Bible (GNB), New King James Version (NKJV), (New American Standard Bible (NASB), Contemporary English Version (CEV), Rotherham, and Gods-Word

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Contents

Dedication

Appreciation

Introduction

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Author’s Other Published Titles

Dedication

To all those that consciously seeks safest sanest solutions to the inevitable challenges they meet on their path through life. Also, to all genuine peace makers.

Appreciation

As always, all glory to God that this is available for others to read. Lord, everything in this call and commission is your doing and it is marvellous in my eyes. A million thanks for giving me the privilege to serve as sole administrator of this foreordained purpose.

God bless Cletus Okuguni for serving as editorial assistant. Mrs Yvonne Olatunbosun, my principal editor did editorial duties. May God swell your heavenly accounts richly, in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

Introduction

There is what I consider as the ASS of this world and obviously the acronym for the above title fits into it but we shall not consider it from that perspective. If not, we can substitute Abraham with Acceptable or Advisable or Applaudable. Therefore, we can talk of Aggressive Sickening Solution or Annoying Silly Solutions of this world.

I have used an experience in high school repeatedly as long as it is relevant. We had a labour prefect who was the younger of two brothers with the same surname. The younger brother and labour prefect had this hyperactive style, likeable to that of Esau and Jacob compared. His philosophy about resolution of differences was that, When all peaceful means of negotiation fail you apply force. His definition of exhaustive peaceful means of negotiation we were never bold enough to ask as he was a senior student and we lacked the guts to ask him. It is doubtful if he understood the full meaning of what he said. He might have taken that posture partly because of his labour prefect responsibilities as he had to force every junior student to do their assigned duties. And some were either lazy or played truant and he had to be very tough to get them to do their duties.

The other way to have tagged this would have been Advisable Avoidance or Applying Appropriate Dispute Resolution Method and Tactics if the name of Abraham were to be avoided necessarily. Not all solutions are worth applying to solve problems. The use of the word Saner means that there are sickening solutions, in fact, solutions which sink rather than save. For every challenge there are usually several solutions yet, it is necessary and important to consider them and apply the sanest of them. Genesis 13:2 and 5-18 says—

2 Abram was a very rich man, with sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as silver and gold. 5 Lot also had sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as his own family and servants. 6 And so there was not enough pasture land for the two of them to stay together, because they had too many animals. 7 So quarrels broke out between the men who took care of Abram’s animals and those who took care of Lot’s animals. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were still living in the land.) 8 Then Abram said to Lot, We are relatives, and your men and my men shouldn’t be quarreling. 9 So let’s separate. Choose any part of the land you want. You go one way, and I’ll go the other. 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole Jordan Valley, all the way to Zoar, had plenty of water, like the Garden of the Lord or like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley for himself and moved away toward the east. That is how the two men parted. 12 Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled among the cities in the valley and camped near Sodom, 13 whose people were wicked and sinned against the Lord. 14 After Lot had left, the Lord said to Abram, From where you are, look carefully in all directions. 15 I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever. 16 I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth! 17 Now, go and look over the whole land, because I am going to give it all to you. 18 So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. (TEV)

It is important to realise that Genesis 12 says that when God told him to relocate from his native land of Mesopotamia, God never said that he should take his relatives along because the emphasis was that he should leave his relatives and fatherland so to speak and relocate to where God would show him. However, probably because he had no child of his at the time, he took Lot, his nephew, along with him to Canaan. He intended that if eventually he had no child, he would make Lot his chief inheritor. As we know the story, it was after Lot left him behind in Canaan that he asked God for an heir so that his chief servant Eliezer of Damascus would not become his inheritor.

Considering his original intention of taking Lot along on his God-guided journey, we can say without fear of contradiction that he was not happy with what happened but had to encourage separation to avoid a messier experience. Abraham must have considered himself the reasonable party in his relationship with his nephew. He did not want the incessant disagreements to degenerate to a level where he would engage in shouting matches or even physical assault(s) on his nephew. He thought family members should not wait until their differences in opinion got to such a disheartening level. Relatives should not disagree to the extent that they make a scene for others to watch. And as if he acted in consonance with God-given wisdom, Proverbs 22:10 says—

10 Get rid of a conceited person, and then there will be no more arguments, quarreling, or name-calling. (TEV)

Very many issues arise from the above passages. God led Abraham to the land that he shared with his nephew. It is not out of place to argue that the nephew prospered by reason of living alongside him. Now he had grown rich like his uncle and there was a basis to disagree. God’s approval of their separation can be inferred from His response to their separation or after their separation. It was like now that you have finally parted ways with your relative, be rest assured that I would give the land or establish you on this land. He had been waiting for this separation to happen.

This teaches that, no matter the harmony between family members, a time must come when they would inevitably live apart because of God’s purpose for them and lack of space. There is a time to live together and a time to live apart, therefore, separation is better done peacefully like fantastic father Abraham did, rather than wait until it is caused by crises that would leave bad memories that could last for several generations afterwards.

Then, Proverbs 22:24-25 and 24:1-2 say—

24 Don’t make friends with people who have hot, violent tempers. 25 You might learn their habits and not be able to change.

1 Don’t be envious of evil people, and don’t try to make friends with them. 2 Causing trouble is all they ever think about; every time they open their mouth someone is going to be hurt. (TEV)

This is a serious matter because what if such a hot-tempered individual is one’s relative or sibling, it means that one should avoid such a sibling or relative moderately or as reasonably as possible. This seems part of God’s solution to interacting with such persons. Also, it means that God never meant that everyone should be like them. Perhaps they should not be many. And if there were never such mannered individuals, one would not need them to protect family or individuals in the day of trouble. There should be no trouble in this life if everyone were quiet.

If everyone were to be aggressive the world would be too volatile for mankind to live in just as if everyone were quiet the world would be too docile. Also, important to the focus here is the fact that Ecclesiastes 8:6 says—

6 There is a right time and a right way to do everything, but we know so little! (TEV)

Abraham thought that the proper way to separate from a relative was through the peaceful approach rather than otherwise. That is, relatives should not hide under the guise of living harmoniously with a relative and insist on living together always even when there is evidence that it is no longer realistic. In fact, if they were progressing and prospering appropriately, the need for more space should make them separate so that they would have enough room for expansion rather than remain cramped in the same place so that others would see them living harmoniously as relatives.

1

When John 7:2-4 says—

2 The time for the Festival of Shelters was near, 3 so Jesus’ brothers said to him, Leave this place and go to Judea, so that your followers will see the things that you are doing. 4 No one hides what he is doing if he wants to be well known. Since you are doing these things, let the whole world know about you! (TEV)

It can be interpreted to mean that Jesus’ siblings meant that even if they were not good enough to live in the city of Jerusalem, He was good enough to live among the great and mighty in Jerusalem. They knew that Jesus had what it takes for an individual to be well known. These were very honest relatives or siblings. They knew that they did not have what their sibling had and He was too good to remain in obscurity with them.

Someone might say that they hoped that when he had become famous they could hook up with Him and share in the glamour of being his relatives. That is even good because at least they did not want Him to remain obscure like them because of envy and jealousy. Now, it could be that because he was their eldest sibling it was easier for them to accept that He should be greater than them since he was older naturally. But at least, they wished Him well.

They agreed that they did not have to live together and domesticate His gifts which should earn Him great fame. Even if they would join Him later in Jerusalem, they agreed that they must separate in the immediate for Him to get the fame that they believed he deserved. This is a pointer to the fact of life that one’s greatness and glory is not at home and siblings and relatives must be allowed to separate at the appropriate time to go into the wider world to seek their desirable and possible greatness, glamour and glory.

There is when the presence of relatives and siblings constitutes