Genesis 13:1-18--Abram and Lot Separate

Genesis 13
World English Bible

13 Abram went up out of Egypt—he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him—into the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on Yahweh’s name. 5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together; for their possessions were so great that they couldn’t live together. 7 There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time. 8 Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are relatives. 9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. 11 So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves from one another. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.

14 Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.”

18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.

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Last time we saw Abram deported from Egypt because he failed to reveal to Pharaoh that Sarai was his wife (not just his half-sister) and allowed Pharaoh to take Sarai as his own wife (though he was never able to consummate the union) and Pharaoh and his household became very ill because of her.  Now, Abram is back in the Promised Land, in the southern wilderness region called The Negev, which is correctly translated as The South here in this version.  When you read this, think of a dry, arid, wilderness area.  Typically the text wants us to consider not just the climate of the Land, but also of the person's heart, as we already discussed how this is probably an accurate representation of Abram's heart--it feels like a dry, arid, desert wilderness devoid of anything he felts close to (expect for his household, and even that is about to fracture and his nephew that was like a son to him is about to be taken away from him).

This is definitely not the best environment for raising lots of livestock.  Food and water would be scarce, but, since you're in the middle of nowhere, at least you wouldn't worry too much about the noise or smell being bothersome to neighbors or your livestock wandering onto your neighbor's property and eating their grain or grass, so, in another sense, this is the perfect place to raise livestock.  You just have to work really hard to keep them watered and fed.  There arises a dispute between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen about this very issue and it was no small disagreement.  Things got so heated that Abram decided that they were too wealthy to live together any more--each needed their own parcel of land to tend to and to use for their livestock.  Seeking to avoid conflict, Abram gave Lot the choice of which land he wanted, and Abram would take whatever was leftover.  Lot's choice reveals much about the condition of his own heart as he only saw things in the physical realm--he saw the fertile Jordan River Valley and decided that was where he wanted to raise his flocks and herds.  There was lots of grass and water and plenty of towns for him to do business with.  However, it won't be long before Lot is no longer agrarian in nature and he becomes a city-slicker, pitching his tent towards Sodom and living its shadow, then we find him within its gates doing business and the next time we will see him, he is living within the city with a family--living among an extremely wicked and perverse people.

Abram would mostly live in the area of the Negev, but as we will see, the LORD will come back and remind Abram that despite this contract with Lot, the LORD's contact with Abram superseded it and all of the Promised Land belongs to Abram and his descendants--none of it now or ever in the future will ever belong to Lot and his descendants.  Lot only had eyes for the physical beauty of the river valley and Plain of Jordan, but the LORD protected Abram once again from the spiritual depravity that was there.  The New Testament will tell us that God used Lot as a prophet to the people of this region, but it seems like they did a pretty good job at "evangelism" themselves, especially because Lots daughters married men from the area and they were unwilling to leave when God told Lot is was time for him and his family to get out of town before fire and brimstone rained down on the cities of the Plain to destroy them.  Never again has that region fully returned to the beauty that Lot once saw there as it was compared to the beauty of the Garden of Eden when Lot saw it.

The LORD tells Abram to look around to the north, south, east, and west.  All of the land of the Canaanites would belong to Abram and his family one day.  In fact, there was much more land that the LORD would promise to Abram, but this particular promise of land would be for where the people that we know as ethnic Israel or the Jewish people would be give to live.  It would always be their land forever and ever.  They would be given dominion over much more land, but their allotments would come specifically from the Land of Canaan.  We should keep this in mind when thinking of geopolitics.  No one else has any right to the Promised Land--not even Christians or Muslims who have lived in the area for hundreds or thousands of years.  There is plenty of other land promised to Abraham for them to live in if they want to live within the area of promise and blessing (pretty much everything between the Mediterranean Sea on the west, the Red Sea to the south, and the Euphrates River to the east and north as far north as Damascus).  There is no such thing as "land for peace" negotiations--anyone trying to take Israel's land away from them does not want peace with Israel--they want to make God break His covenant with Israel.  We should be people who love and support that eternal covenant, and we should desire to be a blessing to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as their spiritual descendants (though, again, being a spiritual descendant does not give you a right to what was promised to their physical descendant--we'll get to the conditional part of the promise to them later about blessings and staying in the land and not going into exile or slavery were all dependent on their obedience, but none of that came at this point.  For now, the promise made to Abram and his descendants was unconditional (and I believe still is, just like the promise of our redemption and salvation is unconditional because it is not based on the goodness of the men receive the grace and mercy of God, but on the goodness of the God extending that grace and mercy to those who don't deserve it, never can deserve it, and never will deserve it.)  We need to not treat this covenant with Abram any differently than we would want the LORD to treat His unconditional covenant with us.