Lot Leaves Abram

After Egypt, Abram knew where he needed to go. Abram goes back. He does not head somewhere new. Verse 3 says he went “as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.” Verse 4 says what was there: “the place of the altar which he had made there at first.” He is not just picking a campsite. He is going back to the very spot where things were right between him and God. He prays again. “There Abram called on the name of the Lord” (13:4). In Egypt Abram built no altar and did not call on God. Right after Egypt, both come back. The way back. When we fail, the way back is usually a return to God. It is not a fresh start somewhere new.

The route. In 13:3-4 Abram goes back to the very same place: el-hammaqom asher-hayah sham oholoh battechillah, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. Then comes el-meqom hammizbeach asher-asah sham bari'shonah, to the place of the altar he had made there at first. God's Word says twice that this is the same place. Silence in Egypt. Compare 12:10-20, where Abram builds nothing and says nothing to God. The Egypt story has an altar on each side: 12:8 before, 13:4 after, and silence in between. When Abram stopped trusting God, his worship stopped too. The same words. Wayyiqra Abram beshem YHWH — he called on the name of the Lord — is the same wording used at 12:8. So Abram comes back in his words as well as his steps. Coming back to God does not need a long speech. Abram simply returned to the altar and called on the Lord, and God met him there.

Remember where Abram was last time. A king had just sent him out of Egypt. He had told a half truth and been caught. The first thing he did next was walk back to Bethel. Bethel is where he had built an altar before. It is the spot where things had been right. And there he called on the name of the Lord. He did not stay away because he felt bad. He went back to the place he had left. That is a good thing to copy.

Abram came back from Egypt with lots of things. The first place he went was his altar. He went right back to talking with God.

The Bible tells us the cause of the fight twice. It was not a lack of food or water. They had too much. “Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together” (13:6). The reason shows up at both ends of the verse. The problem was having too much, not too little. Both men got rich in Egypt, where chapter 12 left them. The workers fight first. The strife in verse 7 is “between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock” (13:7). It is the workers, not the owners. Abram and Lot are not shouting at each other yet. The problem can still be fixed. That is why what Abram does next matters. Other people are watching. Verse 7 also says, “The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land” (13:7). Two families who said they followed God were arguing in public. Their neighbors did not follow God, and they could see it all.

Too much to share. 13:6 says twice that they could not lashevet yachdav — dwell together. The reason is ki-hayah rekhusham rav, for their possessions were great. Living together was simply not possible. Nobody had to be the villain for the problem to be real. The herdsmen and the neighbors. The fight in 13:7 is among the ro'im, the herdsmen. And the Canaanites and Perizzites were in the land, watching. When two families share grazing land, a public fight weakens both of them in front of the people who already live there. It hurts them in a practical way, and it hurts how others see their faith. God's people were meant to show the nations what He is like. Where the wealth came from. The wealth that caused this problem came from Egypt (12:16), when Abram was in the wrong. The gifts were not stolen. But riches that came out of Abram's failure in Egypt now brought a new problem.

Then a new problem came up. Lot had come back from Egypt rich as well. He had his own sheep and cattle and tents. Two rich families were camping in the same place. And the land could not hold them both. There was not enough grass. The water ran short too. So the men who looked after the animals started fighting. They were not fighting because they were poor. They were fighting because they had too much. Getting more things does not make problems go away. Sometimes getting more is what starts them.

Abram and Lot both had lots of animals. There was not enough grass for all of them. So the helpers started to argue.

Next, Abram makes a choice. It costs him a lot. He had two rights to choose first. He was the older man, and Lot was his nephew. In that world the older man chose first. He also had a promise. God had said “to your descendants I will give this land” (12:7), about this very ground. No one would have been surprised if Abram had taken the valley. He gives both away. “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right” (13:9). He lets the younger man pick first from the land God had promised to Abram. His reason. It was not a plan to get ahead. It was this: “For we are brethren” (13:8). Keeping peace with his family mattered more to him than the better half of a valley. He did not know what was coming. Abram is not being clever here. He does not know what God will say in verse 14. He gives up the land without knowing. That is why his giving is real.

A polite offer. In 13:8-9 Abram formally gives up his claim, and the Hebrew stays polite the whole way. He begins with al-na tehi merivah — please let there be no strife. The small word na softens a request he had every right to give as an order. The one reason. The reason he gives is ki-anashim achim anachnu, for we are men, brothers. Ach covers the wider family bond, not only brothers. It is the only reason he offers. He makes no appeal to being older. He says nothing about the promise of 12:7. Nor does he point out that Lot depends on him in the land. The usual order turned around. The offer itself is a normal way to split land: you take one side, I take the other. But here the person with the first claim makes the offer, which turns the usual order around. Abraham ben-Terah has both the older man's right and a land-grant from God over this very ground. He uses neither one. The gift came after. The bigger promise in 13:14-17 comes after Lot leaves: “after Lot had separated from him.” Abram did not give up the land to get a reward. He gave it up freely, trusting God, and only then did God speak.

Then Abram does a very surprising thing. He goes to Lot and says, “No more fighting.” “We are family,” he tells him. Then he gives away something that was his. Back then, things worked a certain way. Abram was the older man. Lot was his nephew. The older man always picked first. That was the rule. And God had promised this whole land to Abram. It was his twice over, by rule and by promise. So Abram could have taken the best part. Everyone would have said that was fair. But Abram said, “You pick. You go first.”

Abram got to pick the land first. But he let Lot pick instead! He wanted peace more than the best field.

One phrase shows up twice in this chapter. First time, verse 10. “And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere.” He looks the land over, and he judges well. The land really was good. Then he takes it. What he did not check. The Bible tells us three verses later: “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord” (13:13). Lot checked the ground carefully and the people not at all. Verse 12 shows him moving closer — he “pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.” Nothing about the land told him any of this. Second time, verse 14. “And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are.” It is the same action, going the other way. Lot lifted his eyes and chose. Abram lifted his eyes because God told him to. Then God showed him what was already being given to him. The difference. It is not that one man looked and the other did not. Both looked. One trusted what he could see. The other was shown by God.

The same words twice. 13:10 opens wayyissa-Lot et-enav wayyar — and Lot lifted his eyes and saw. In 13:14 God tells Abram sa na enekha ure'eh, lift now your eyes and see. It is the same phrase. God tells Abram to do what Lot did, but now God is the one showing him the land. Two comparisons. The words that describe the plain in 13:10 point two ways. The plain is kegan-YHWH, like the garden of the Lord, and ke'erets Mitsrayim, like the land of Egypt. Eden and Egypt are named together. The first is the highest praise there is. The second is the place Abram was just sent away from. Verse 10 also tells us how it ends — “before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.” Lot could not see what was coming. God could. A slow slide. 13:12 shows a slow slide, not one big decision. Lot settles among the cities of the plain and pitches his tent ad-Sedom, as far as Sodom. By 14:12 he is living in it. By 19:1 he is sitting in its gate. Sin rarely pulls us in all at once. It usually draws us in one small step at a time. A gift, not a payment. The promise in 13:15-17 is bigger in size and in time: ad-olam, forever, and offspring as the dust of the earth. It is also given with no conditions. Nothing is asked of Abram in return for giving up the land. It is a gift, not a payment.

Now Lot had to choose. The Bible says Lot lifted up his eyes and looked. He saw green grass and water everywhere. So he chose it and moved east with his animals. He chose by looking, and he never asked God. He also never asked who lived there. The Bible tells us right away. The people of Sodom were very bad. Then, after Lot left, God spoke to Abram. “Lift up your eyes,” God said. “Look all around.” They are the very same words. But there was a big difference. Lot lifted his eyes and grabbed. Abram lifted his eyes and was handed it all.

Lot looked at the land and picked the best. Later God told Abram to look up too. Lot took. Abram was given!

🎉 All Matched!