LOT – PART 1 – A LOT OF TROUBLE FOR GOD – FOR ABRAHAM – AND FOR HIMSELF – GENESIS 11 – 13 LOT BEGINS HIS FAILURE
One the more troubled characters in the Old Testament is Lot and he had a life that began with a good example in Abram and deteriorated from there on. We will look at this man’s life over a few messages. This is PART 1.
LET US GO TO THE BEGINNING – THE BACKGROUND
{{Genesis 11:31 “Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan and they went as far as Haran and settled there.”}}
It all began with Terah who decided to leave Ur in the Chaldees that was in the same region as the ziggurat of Genesis chapter 11 was. His ambition was to journey to Canaan but they got as far as Haran and there they settled. Terah took his own son Abram, and Lot, his grandson (son of his son, Haran), and Sarai, Abram’s wife also.
It was at this point that Lot’s relationship with Abram became firmer and the two of them were together for some time. Terah died in Haran aged 205. After that God took up Abram in order that the great workings of the will of God might be performed. No one man apart from the Lord was as influential in the outworking of God’s will and purposes, as Abram. This was the start of a whole new era, having left behind the disgrace of Babel and all Nimrod’s corruption.
This is the bible’s account from around 2000 B.C. – {{Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you, Gen 12:2 and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. Gen 12:3 I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed,”}}
In obedience to the Lord’s command Abram ventured forth in the words of Paul – {{Hebrews 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. Heb 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, Heb 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”}}
From that we appreciate the importance of faith for there is no greater working principle than faith, for that is the way God ordained it. The righteous shall live by faith and without faith it is impossible to please God. Abram went out of Haran by faith. Right at the time of Abram’s initial call, God gave him the promises that are irrefutable. They can not be distorted or replaced as a certain brand of theology has done, largely dismissing Israel and the Jews.
The land was his inheritance, later defined by boundaries and the great promise of that inheritance being for his descendants from the Euphrates River to the Nile. Of course that is not yet operational but in the Millennium it will be fully realised. Abraham was an alien in his own land, which did not become a reality for the Jews until after the exodus. What we don’t appreciate in the Old Testament is Abram’s personal sincere desire. That we learn in Hebrews for he looked for a city that was founded by God. That faith took him beyond the immediate dwelling of his own time.
All the saints of God must have a desire that takes them beyond their own time. The Old Testament believers looked for the establishment of the promises given to Abraham. They also looked for the coming King/Messiah who would come to rule in His kingdom. The New Testament believers look for the heavenly city that opens to each one at death or at the Rapture. We look forward to the coming of the Lord and love His appearing. Christians are heavenly people with all their future and treasure in heaven, whereas Israel is an earthly people with all their future in the land and that is where their treasure will be. That is future. Today in the Church age, there is no difference between Gentile and Jew for all enter in through faith.
The promise in Genesis 12:2 is that a great nation shall come from Abram, and indeed it has. Other nations have arisen from Abraham but only one is the nation of promise, the true inheritance. 12:3 is a vital verse and a deep warning for those who despise the Jews and take action against them. It is clear as crystal. In October 2022 the Australian Government announced that the Australian Embassy would be removed from Jerusalem because the Labor Government (a very socialist, hard left one) is anti-Semitic and fully pro-Palestinian. I wrote to the Minister responsible for this, a Penny Wong, and told her clearly that God will bring His judgement on her and she will know it. One can not despise (curse) God’s earthly people and be guiltless. On the other hand they who bless Israel (support) will know the favour of God. The Australian Prime Minister shares in this anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian terrorist belief.
In the account so far the concentration is on Abram with no reference to Lot, but Lot was with Abram for all that time and could not have had a better example of faith. At the word of the Lord Abraham set out as the record shows – {{Genesis 12:4-5 so Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Gen 12:5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan.”}}
That was a large contingent that left Haran not really knowing just where they were going. Often we have a leading from God but not the details. That is the leading of the Holy Spirit. God speaks to us but does not write the book for us. Often he opens the book for us just one page at a time but it is required of us to be faithful. Verse 4 mentions Lot for he was still with Abram. Sadly Lot did not learn from Abram as his life will show. Far too often we observe but do not learn. Lot observed but did not learn. He was controlled by the base nature. Lot’s experience is all too common as can be observed in Christian homes where godly parents can watch as a son or daughter becomes wayward, much to the parents’ grief.
THE CHOICE TO DISASTER
{{Genesis 13:5-7 “Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, Gen 13:6 and the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. Gen 13:7 There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.”}}
Abram and all that he had went down into Egypt to escape a famine and was lucky (God’s grace) to escape Pharaoh’s jail as he was not properly honest with Pharaoh. After that incident they returned to Canaan and settled and prospered. It was obvious that Abram and Lot stayed connected in everything including their separate livestock but that arrangement was not going to be sustainable.
To make matters worse conflict arose between the herdsmen of both parties. Blame will not be attributed. It may have been over grazing areas of the better grass, or a hint of dynasty rivalry, or arguments about stock. In any case, the godly man Abram had to resolve it, but very graciously he gave the choice to Lot to choose what area he wanted. What would be the choice Lot would make?
{{Genesis 13:8-11 Then Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Gen 13:9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me: if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.” Gen 13:10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere - this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah - like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar, Gen 13:11 so Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.”}}
Decisions we make in life can exalt us or bring us to ruin. Lot was given a decision and the choice he made ruined him and his family. When you live right up next to a rat’s nest you will get fleas, so the idea is not to go to the rat’s nest in the first place, especially if you like rats. Lot was weak, so it turned out that he chose what would be detrimental to him. Too often we are driven by instincts and the old base nature and do not see the pitfalls that lie ahead. We get so captivated with things we want, and by lust that we don’t recognise as lust, until we have fallen into a pit. Lot proceeded from one pit to the next. He was never really out of pits.
How gracious Abram was to give Lot that decision and he choose according what his eyes lusted after. He wanted the fattest of the land, and greed impelled him to tell Abram he would take the best part, but the best part had a rat’s nest. I am sure if Abram had made the decision he would have taken the opposite part from what Lot did.
Do you remember the incident in Daniel where young men refused the dainties of Babylon for a basic diet of staples because they would not contaminate themselves? Well the Lord so prospered them they looked finer than any of the other men who were happy to eat the spiritually contaminated food. Although the land Abram ended with, may not have been as fertile as the lot that Lot chose, he knew the faithful God would bless him. Little is much when it is in the hand of God. Abram’s life was in the hand of God.
Lot saw the well watered plains and his decision was made. However I hope I am not taking liberties but I think there was another reason Lot chose that section of land. The choice was wrong. Lot's first step toward failure came because he looked at things from the wrong perspective. The choice he made was selfish. He chose for “himself." The place was wrong and his hankering was wrong. I feel Lot was hankering after the fleshly attraction of that place and that was Sodom, filled with sodomites. The whole of the Jordan Valley was crowned by one of the most sinful places in history – Sodom.
Maybe it was curiosity that led Lot there; maybe it was the instincts of the fallen nature taking over, propelled onward by the lust of the eyes and of the flesh.
Another has written some insightful observations -
[[[“The God of glory appeared unto Abraham - that thrust the world back into its right place; that kindled the desires and ambitions of the man; that loosed him from the tyranny of the scene, the narrow prison of the present, and set him at liberty for God. The fadeless glory of that vision ennobled and elevated all the life.
“But Lot only went with Abraham. Never do you read that he built an altar unto the Lord that appeared to him. The religion of Lot is a religion without the vision of God. For us the great question is this: “What can we do to make the blessed life our own?” This is the only answer: “Tarry, waiting upon God until there be a heart communion with Him.”
“Let us follow the story. And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. That sojourn in Egypt was damaging to Abraham; but it was fatal to Lot. He had seen a land that had kindled his greed; the possibility of his growing rich had seized him and mastered him. That which attracted him in Sodom was that it was like the land of Egypt, well-watered everywhere. The heathenism of Egypt had prepared him for the grosser wickedness of Sodom. His wife and daughters had seen the glitter and gaiety of a company that made the quiet of Abraham's encampment seem very dull.
“And worst of all, they had seen a good man without his altar and his God; why then need they be so particular? So when the opportunity came, Lot was quite prepared to avail himself of it. "And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle." Lot saw what it pleased him to see. Let us see what the love of gain, which was the ruin of Lot, did for him.
“The one man set the land first, and lost all. The other found all in God. Lot came out of Sodom stripped of his goods, and the man himself more empty and blind than when he had gone into it. This is the great lesson of this Book - that whilst we think of making a living, God is thinking of what our living makes us.”]]]
(M. G. Pearse.)
The account of Lot and his continued downward progression will continue in PART 2. Hope you can join us.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
