Righteous Abraham the Patriarch and His Nephew Lot (c. 2000 BC) — October 9 / October 22 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 9 according to the Julian Calendar (October 22 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Righteous Abraham the Patriarch and His Nephew Lot.

The righteous Patriarch Abraham and his nephew Lot lived two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Abram, the son of Terah, was born in the land of the Chaldeans, where idolatry was widespread. God chose him to be the father of true believers and the forefather of the people from whom Christ was to be born, and said to him: “Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation and bless you.” Abram, who was then seventy-five years old, obeyed the heavenly blessing and set out southward with his whole household and his nephew Lot.

In Canaan the Lord appeared to the blessed one again and declared: “To your seed I will give this land,” and God’s chosen one offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Canaan, present-day Palestine, was afterwards called the Promised Land).

While living in Canaan, Abram and his nephew Lot grew rich. They had so many sheep and cattle that the pastures could not hold the herds, and the herdsmen of Abram and Lot often quarrelled. To avoid strife, Abram proposed that they part: Lot went east and settled on the bank of the Jordan, near Sodom and Gomorrah, while Abram, at the Lord’s direction, moved to Hebron and settled by the oak of Mamre. Not long after the uncle and nephew parted, the allied kings of the land of Shinar attacked the king of Sodom, defeated and plundered him, and carried off Lot among the captives. When Abram learned of this, he gathered his three hundred and eighteen servants, called on his neighbours for help, and rescued all the captives and the stolen livestock.

As the Lord’s chosen one returned in victory, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. Melchizedek, king of Salem, who was “priest of God Most High,” also met him with bread and wine and blessed him. Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils, as to a priest.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God repeated to him all the earlier promises and changed his name from Abram — “exalted father” — to Abraham, which means “father of many.”

A year later the Lord appeared to the patriarch in the form of three angels by the oak of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent. Seeing the unknown travellers, the hospitable Abraham “ran to meet them,” bowed to the ground, and humbly invited them in. They accepted the invitation and sat down to the meal. Then one of them asked after his hostess Sarah and said: “I will certainly return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” Sarah, standing at the door and already ninety years old, laughed, and the Lord said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God then told Abraham that the sins of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had grown so grievous, and their depravity so unbearable, that He must destroy them. Abraham pleaded with God: if fifty righteous were found in “the city of Sodom,” would He destroy it? The Lord answered that if He found fifty righteous, He would spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham then interceded down to forty-five righteous, and finally the Lord promised to spare the city even for the sake of ten.

In the evening two angels came to Sodom. Lot, who was sitting at the city gate, went to meet them, bowed to the ground, and welcomed them into his house. When the Sodomites learned of it, all of them, “both young and old,” surrounded his house and shouted: “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to them, and said to the maddened crowd: “Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly!” He even offered his two innocent daughters in place of the travellers who had come under his roof, but the assailants would not relent. Then the guests reached out their hands, pulled Lot into the house, and shut the door, and the lawless crowd around it was struck with blindness.

At dawn the next day the angels commanded Lot to flee with his household from the lawless city that was doomed to destruction; but since the Lord’s chosen one lingered, they themselves took him by the hand and led him, with his wife and daughters, out of Sodom, saying: “Escape for your life; do not look behind you.” Lot’s wife, who could not resist temptation and looked back, was punished and became a pillar of salt.

Soon the Lord’s prophecy was fulfilled: in her old age Sarah conceived and bore a son, Isaac. The hundred-year-old patriarch’s joy knew no bounds, but a great trial awaited him: the Lord commanded him to offer his only-begotten son to Him as a burnt offering. Abraham’s faith did not waver. On the third day he came to the place appointed for the sacrifice, laid the wood on Isaac, took the fire and the knife in his own hands, and climbed the mountainside. At last Abraham stopped; he built an altar, arranged the wood upon it, laid the bound Isaac on the wood, and raised the knife to slay him. At that moment a voice came from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” The righteous patriarch looked around, saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket, brought it, and, filled with gratitude, offered it to the Lord in place of Isaac. God thus blessed His faithful servant: “Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will bless you and multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the cities of their enemies, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Abraham lived for a long time after this. He buried his wife Sarah with his own hands in Hebron, in the cave near the oak of Mamre, saw Isaac married, and at last, at the age of one hundred and seventy-five, gave up his soul peacefully to the Lord. The righteous patriarch was buried beside his wife Sarah.