Abraham and Lot separate
13
📚And Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot went with him, into the south 📖 of Canaan. 2 📚And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. 3 📚And 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 first made there. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD 📖.5 📚And Lot 📖 also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. 6 📚And the land was not able to support them while they were living together, for their possessions were great, so that they could not live together. 7 📚And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite 📖 were then living in the land.
8 📚And Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife 📖 between me and you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. 9 📚Is not the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right, then I will go to the left”.
13:9 The whole land was given to Abram, but he was willing to give the best portion to Lot in order to avoid strife. He is an example to us of unselfishness. See also Gen 26:19-22.⚜
10 📚And Lot raised his eyes, and saw all the plain of 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 come to Zoar. 11 📚Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot traveled east. And so they separated themselves from one another.
13:10-11 Lot was greedy and selfish in this decision. He got what he wanted but it cost him dearly in the end, as can be seen in chapter 19. This choice brought Lot close to the wicked cities that God would later destroy (vs 12,13). God will surely punish greed and selfishness (Col 3:5-6; 1 Tim 6:6-10; Heb 13:5). See the way of happiness and blessing in the words of Jesus in Matt 10:38-39; Luke 14:33.⚜
12 📚Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. 13 📚But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against 📖 the LORD, exceedingly so.
14 📚And after Lot had separated from him, the LORD said to Abram, “Raise your eyes and from the place where you are look 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 📚And I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your offspring also will be numbered. 17 📚Get up, walk over the land, through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you”.
18 📚Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oak trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron 📖, and there built an altar to the LORD.