DWDP - Gen 13: 1-4 Back To Bethel, Back to God

Abram walks out of Egypt with more money and less dignity, and that tension hits close to home. We sit with Genesis 13:1–4 and watch him head back to Bethel, back to the first altar, back to the place where he called on the name of the Lord. It’s a story about what happens when fear pushes us into shortcuts, when we compromise convictions, and when our testimony takes a public hit even if our circumstances look “fine” on the outside.

We also get painfully practical. I share a personal high school story about a beach house trip, the wrong crowd, underage drinking, and ending up at a police station trying to clean up the mess. The point is not shame for shame’s sake. It’s a warning about choices, community, and how fast things slide when we ignore clear boundaries. Scripture’s line rings true: evil company corrupts good morals, and “Egypt” is rarely as far away as we think.

Then we land on the hope: the way back. Real conversation with God starts with worship, moves into confession, and rests on the promise of forgiveness. No matter how many steps you’ve taken away from God, it only takes one step to return, honest repentance. We anchor that confidence in 1 John 1:9 and the cleansing blood of Jesus, not in church attendance, baptism, or family heritage. If you’ve been needing a reset, a return to basics, or assurance of salvation, come back to Bethel with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you.

Transcript

Welcome And Scripture Reading;

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Today our Bible reading is from Genesis thirteen verses one through four. So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot with him. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. He went on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and A, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word.

Abram Leaves Egypt In Humiliation;

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I'm going to entitle this lesson Back to Bethel or Back to Basics. In this few verses Abram leaves Egypt with his wife and his servants and his flocks, along with Lot, his nephew. He leaves much enriched by Pharaoh, who begged him to leave to assuage God's wrath and alleviate the plagues that God had sent on Pharaoh's household because Pharaoh had taken Sarah as his wife. Abram leaves financially better off, but he's embarrassed that he lied to Pharaoh. He misrepresented his wife as his sister, protect to protect his own skin, to protect his own life. More than that he's embarrassed because his divine protector had to rescue him. Abram was unfaithful, but Jehovah was faithful and proved himself able to deliver and able to keep his promise, to bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. Abram is returning not in triumph, but in humiliation. He may be prosperous, but his testimony is tarnished. Really his testimony is trashed. Why? Because he compromised. He lied about his relationship to Sarai, his wife. He abandoned the land God promised to give him and his descendants, and he left without consulting with God.

Have You Ever Done That Too;

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Have you ever done that? Gone off halfcocked without consulting God? Ended up compromising your convictions and embarrassing yourself? Have you had to come back home with your tail tucked between your legs in financial trouble or in trouble with the law or getting out of the hospital or losing friends or embarrassed in front of friends and family because of bad choices? Now don't sit there looking at me like a bunch of coons in a tree. I know all of you have just like I have, just like Abram did.

Beach House Lesson On Bad Company;

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Let me just tell you a story about myself and some of my friends way, way back in high school. I my father offered to rent a beach house for me and my friends. Now you have to understand my dad was a family doctor, and he was a teetotaler. He hated alcohol. Alcohol ruined every family vacation that we ever took because our family would have plans to have a backyard barbecue or invite all of his brothers and sisters over, and inevitably the emergency room would call and some of his patients would have an alcohol-related motor vehicle accident or an altercation or a shooting or a stabbing, and he would have to leave our carefully planned family event and go to the emergency room to take care of his patients who had been injured by an alcohol-related incident. So you understand my dad despised alcohol. So he told me and all my buddies that I invited my friends on my high school baseball team, no alcohol. I'll rent the beach house. Your mom and two of her friends can go as chaperones, but no alcohol. So I had a choice. I can invite three of my Sunday school friends who didn't drink, or I could invite the entire baseball friend, baseball team, many of them who I knew were unchurched and were bad to drink alcohol. I made a bad choice. I invited the whole baseball team. And so there we went, about fifteen of us, and we stayed at a big old beach house at Ocean Drive Beach. And it rained cats and dogs for the first five days, and we had a good time playing football in the rain on the beach and just having a good old time. But then the weekend came and six of my friends got soused on the weekend, drinking too much alcohol, violating their promise to me and my dad. And I ended up having to go down to the city of Ocean Drive and rounding up my friends who were intoxicated. And before the night was over, I ended up standing in a circle in the police station in downtown Ocean Drive with the chief of police asking questions of me and six of my friends, all of them telling him a different story. Well, I told him the truth, and I said, Look, these are my friends, they all got drunk. I'm down here collecting them and taking them back to the beach house. And he looks at me and he says, You're the only one that I think is telling the truth. You put them in that station wagon right there and you take them to the beach house, and I won't arrest any of you underage kids. And I promised to do that. Got them back to the lake out a beach house. As soon as I got there, one of my friends said, So and so is still downtown, intoxicated. We need to go get him. Which we did, and as soon as I got him by the elbow and crossed the intersection in the middle of Ocean Drive, I looked and there's that city cop parked at the intersection, watching me walk one more of my friends across the intersection. He puts his head on the steering wheel and shakes his head, but he didn't arrest me because I was doing his job. Now I had made a bad choice. A year goes by and my dad, who's a family doctor, a Vietnam veteran, and a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina Air National Guard, calls me in one day and says, We need to talk. And somehow through the grapevine the word had gotten back to him of what had happened at Ocean Drive the previous year, and he began to quiz me about it, and I had to tell him the whole story. Nothing stays a secret long in our small hometown of thirty five hundred people. Well I got in big trouble. You see, evil company corrupts good morals is what First Corinthians chapter fifteen says. Now what did Abram do?

Back To Bethel Through Worship;

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Well he went back to basics. He went back to Bethel. When he came back from Egypt, the place where he built the first altar was in Bethel. The first altar he built to God and first called on the name of the Lord is the very first place where Abram went. So what did they have to talk about? Have you ever wondered? All proper conversation with God begins with worship. God is eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. To him and through him and for him are all things, both now and forever. Who has been his advisor? Who has ever been his counselor? Who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? But then follows

Confession And The One Step Back;

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confession. We start with worship, but then we have to go to confession of sin. And I'm certain Abram had a boatload of personal sin to confess after the debacle down in Egypt land. But then so do you and I. How often have we gone down to Egypt without consulting with God? How often have we made bad choices, embarrassing ourselves and ruining our testimony and come back home with our tail tucked between our legs just like Abram in humiliation? And then we end up at the altar asking God's forgiveness back to basics, back to Bethel, needing to confess our sins. Let me remind you no matter how many steps we take in the wrong direction, there's only one step to get back to God, and that step is God I'm sorry I was wrong, please forgive me. That one step is confession and repentance. No matter how many bad choices you have made, it only takes one good choice to get back to Bethel, to get back to God, and that choice is Lord, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Sometimes we make bad choices, sometimes a string of bad choices. Sometimes we fall into sin for a day or a week or maybe even years. But listen to me. It only takes one step to get back to Bethel, to get back to God, and that step is honest confession and repentance.

Forgiveness Through The Blood Of Jesus;

SPEAKER_00 13:38

First John 1 9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? Because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. When you and I die and stand at the gate of heaven, and God says, Why should I let you into my heaven? Don't you say anything about your personal righteousness, which is nothing more than filthy rags. Don't say anything about your church attendance, which does not take away a single sin. Don't say anything about being baptized, which won't remove a single sin stain. Don't talk about your grandpa who was a preacher, because God doesn't have grandchildren. You just say I'm trusting in the blood. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. The older I get, the more I recall the sins of my life. I don't know if that's just human frailty or the devil trying to cripple me spiritually. But over against my collection of sin, I see Jesus on the cross and the blood running down. I go back to Bethel every day. Build an altar and call on the name of the Lord. I worship

Daily Return To The Altar;

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Jesus, the true King, and I confess all my sin. I place all my sin under the blood. Then I thank the good God and my Savior for delivering me from my sin burden. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Remember, dear listener, no matter how many steps you go away from God, it only takes one step to get back to God. And that step is I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Final Reminder And Share The Show

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You're listening to devotions with Dr. Papa. If you like what you hear, follow, like, share, download, and tell your friends about devotions with Dr. Papa. Remember, Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you. We'll be back again next week, and until then, may the Lord bless you real good.