Lot's Choices
Yes, I know I haven't finished the Book of John. I might not on this blog.
I bought a new Chronological Study Bible and have started reading it from the beginning.
So the next while will be things I pick up along the way. I hope they bless you, encourage you, challenge you.
The first one is about Lot.
Lot was Abraham's nephew. He left the land where Abraham was raised and traveled with Abraham towards the promised land.
At one point, Abraham and Lot decide to go their separate ways. Both were very wealthy and had considerable flocks and servants.
So Abraham gives Lot first choice in which area he wanted. This would normally be the choice of the elder relative as well as the more influential one. But Abraham was not as concerned with where He would end up. He knew God was preparing a place for him.
Lot, on the other hand, wanted the easy life.
Gen 13:8-12 Then Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left."
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
As we see later in the story, Lot's choice for the easy life was a bad decision. He is taken away by an invading army, restored to life in Sodom, and then rescued by Angels as God prepares to destroy Sodom.
Even then, the angels tell Lot to head to the mountains but he pleads with them to stay in the city or Zoar.
Gen 19:14-23 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city."
But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."
And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords.
Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!"
He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
I bought a new Chronological Study Bible and have started reading it from the beginning.
So the next while will be things I pick up along the way. I hope they bless you, encourage you, challenge you.
The first one is about Lot.
Lot was Abraham's nephew. He left the land where Abraham was raised and traveled with Abraham towards the promised land.
At one point, Abraham and Lot decide to go their separate ways. Both were very wealthy and had considerable flocks and servants.
So Abraham gives Lot first choice in which area he wanted. This would normally be the choice of the elder relative as well as the more influential one. But Abraham was not as concerned with where He would end up. He knew God was preparing a place for him.
Lot, on the other hand, wanted the easy life.
Gen 13:8-12 Then Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left."
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
As we see later in the story, Lot's choice for the easy life was a bad decision. He is taken away by an invading army, restored to life in Sodom, and then rescued by Angels as God prepares to destroy Sodom.
Even then, the angels tell Lot to head to the mountains but he pleads with them to stay in the city or Zoar.
Gen 19:14-23 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city."
But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."
And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords.
Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!"
He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
At the end of it all, Lot ends up living in the mountains, in a cave with his two daughters, living in fear.
He had lots everything. Livestock, servants, tents, wife, everything was gone.
Gen 19:30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
We need to make sure we are making choices that reflect our trust in our Father, not the "easy life".
We need to go beyond our comfort zones and live in a way that says "there is something different about that person".
1Co 3:10-15 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Be Blessed!
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