Genesis 13: God Blesses Abraham in What At First Glance Seems a Poor Choice
Abraham and Lot come out of Egypt and decide they must part ways. Abraham gives first choice of the land to Lot and he takes the choicest looking land not knowing it would be a money pit. Lot gets Sodom, and Abraham gets Canaan. God promises Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust or sand of the Earth. One estimate of the number of the sands of the earth is about 75 to 17 power. This is, of course, blatant hyperbole – which just goes to show that even God uses extreme exaggeration to make a point – and it is needful to be careful when we make personal interpretations of Bible scripture; there is such a thing as too much literal-ism.
Lot heads off down the plains of Jordan and Abraham ambles towards Hebron and the Palestinian oaks of Mamre. Nice symbolism found in the oak – long living, strong and useful. Acorns can grow from a single small seed into a whole forest of oaks which is an appropriate analogy for Abraham. And one of those oaks would bless all men.