Heap of Ruins or House of God?

As Abraham travels from Egypt to Canaan, he pitches tent in a spot between two geographic points. He was east of Bethel and west of Hai (Genesis 12:8; 13:3). In Hebrew Bethel means "house of God" and Hai means "heap of ruins" (see Strong's # 1008 and 5857).

I was always fascinated by this idea as a recovering alcoholic. In my past lay the "heap of ruins," and little did I know there would be a "house of God" waiting in the future. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous calls this a "turning point." Always in recovery I have the choice of returning to my "heap of ruins" or "wreckage of the past." Or I can look to the house of God--His holy temple. Every day affords each of us such choices.

The Lord tells Abraham to, "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:14-16).

The phrase that contrasts the opposites of northward and southward and eastward and westward is what Bible scholars call a merism. A merism uses opposites to emphasize a totality. So it's not just A to Z, but everything in between. It can be summarized by the phrase "all that my Father hath" (D&C 84:38). And that's what the Father wants to give to Abraham, and because you are Abraham's seed, that is precisely what He wants to give to you. Notice verse 15 above. It is all the land and everything that goes with it to create worlds and populate them. So when Jesus says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," (D&C 45:7) we should take Him at His word and know He must be everything, everyday of our lives.

Abraham's nephew, Lot, was not so judicious and "pitched his tent toward Sodom" (Genesis 13:12). Lot gets captured in the next chapter and Abraham has to rescue him.

Also in this chapter Abraham pays tithes to Melchizedek. His name means "king of righteousness," and he is "king of Salem ... and priest of the most high God" (Genesis 14:18). Thus, Melchizedek is a king and a priest. The king of Sodom wants to offer Abraham all the spoils of battle, but Abraham knows he has been blessed of Melchizedek to become a "possessor of heaven and earth" (verse 19). He refuses to do anything unethical or dishonest as he says, "I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth" (verse 22). I can only think of one place where he would lift up his hand to the Most High God.

Later, as Abraham is sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, he "lift(s) up his eyes" and sees three men standing by him (Genesis 18:1-2). I believe that when we see this phrase, "lifted up his eyes," it is much more than a mere glance upward. He is seeing things on a higher sphere of existence. He is seeing from an eternal, godlike perspective.

The three men are messengers and they represent the keys of presidency. Messengers coming in threes is a common scriptural theme and we call it a tripartite. A tripartite symbolizes the Godhead. We see it in bishoprics, stake presidencies, quorum presidencies, and the First Presidency. The Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis 18, verse 22 says these messengers were three "holy men ... sent forth after the order of God," meaning they held Melchizedek Priesthood keys.

Lot also receives a visit from messengers. The Joseph Smith Translation changes the number from two to three, thus we have another tripartite. Lot is sent forth out of Sodom with the instruction, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed" (Genesis 19:17).

In Isaiah the "mountain of the Lord's house" is the holy temple (Isaiah 2:2). In our modern world, we can escape for our spiritual life and leave Sodom and Gomorrah behind by going regularly to the temple.

One of our modern apostles, Elder Richard G Scott gave counsel in the last conference about not looking back. He said:

"Satan will try to use our memory of any previous guilt to lure us back into his influence. We must be ever vigilant to avoid his enticements. Such was the case of the faithful Ammonite fathers. Even after their years of faithful living, it was imperative for them to protect themselves spiritually from any attraction to the memory of past sins."

Lot's wife apparently forgot or neglected this counsel as she looked back and became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).

For those of us, like me, who have had a rocky past, as we pursue our journey from the "heap of ruins" to the "house of God," we cannot afford to look back but must keep pressing forward on the pathway back to God's presence.