Bible Commentary

Genesis 13:17

Genesis 13:17

Little Bible — for children and parents · Growth Figures · © Growth Figures. All rights reserved.

Walking the land is an ancient way of taking symbolic possession of it. God is telling Abram to inhabit the promise physically — to walk through what has been given in word. This is a profound insight about faith: we are meant to walk in the direction of what God has promised, to live as though His word is true. Faith without feet is incomplete.

Memory phrase: Walk in the direction of what God has promised.

Talk about it: God told Abram to walk through the land — not just hear about it. What is the difference between just believing something in your head and actually living as if it's true?

Prayer: God, help me not just believe Your promises in my head — help me walk in the direction of them, live them out, act as though they are true.

Recommended reading

More for Genesis 13:17

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleIn this chapter we have a further account concerning Abram. I. In general, of his condition and behaviour in the land of promise, which was now the land of his pilgrimage. 1. His removes, ver. 1, 3, 4, 18. 2.…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeGenesis 13:1, Abram and Lot return with great riches out of Egypt; Genesis 13:6, Strife arises between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot; Genesis 13:8, Abram meekly refers it to Lot to choose his part of the country,…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · John Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThis chapter gives an account of the return of Abram from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and to the same place in it he had been before, Ge 13:1 and of a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, and the occasion of…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Little Bible — for children and parentsAbram returns from Egypt very wealthy. He and Lot travel back to Canaan — back to Bethel, back to the altar Abram had built. But their households have grown so large that the land cannot support them both. Their…Genesis 13:14-18Genesis 13:14-18 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleWe have here an account of a gracious visit which God paid to Abram, to confirm the promise to him and his. Observe, I. When it was that God renewed and ratified the promise: After that Lot was separated from…Genesis 13:14-18Genesis 13:14-18 · The Pulpit CommentaryEXPOSITION Genesis 13:14, Genesis 13:15 And the Lord said—speaking probably with an articulate voice; the third occasion on which the patriarch was directly addressed by God. The narrative, however, does not affirm…