The story of Abram begins in Genesis 12 with the “Call of Abram.” It is here that God makes this promise to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This promise is the beginning of something new and beautiful. God is starting a new nation through Abram in order to show the world a new side of God, one that redeems and restores. However, as is the case with many Old Testament stories, brokenness happens. In Genesis 13, Abram and his nephew Lot decide to separate because the land could not support both of their possessions. This separation is the beginning of the brokenness between Abram and Lot.

There is another story of brokenness in the Old Testament that can be applied here as well. The book of Ruth tells the story of a family that experiences tragedy when the father and sons die leaving the mother and the daughters-in-law alone in a foreign land. Ruth ends up moving with Naomi and meeting Naomi’s kinsman, Boaz. Boaz and Ruth eventually marry and have a son, Obed. It’s easy to miss but this is actually where the story of Ruth gets interesting. Boaz and Ruth both have connections rooted in Genesis 13. Boaz is a decedent of Abram and Ruth, a Moabite woman, is a decedent of Lot.

Do you see what God does here? God is bringing a nation back together that was broken in Genesis 13 just in time for King David. What these two stories tell us is that God wants to work in our broken relationships and situations. God has both the ability and desire to work within our brokenness in order to make beautiful things. The key element is that we must hand those situations over to God and allow him to restore our relationships and situations in the same way he did for Abram and Lot through Ruth and Boaz.