GENESIS 13
Read Genesis 13:1-18
Having been sent away from Egypt by Pharaoh; Abram and his family returned to the area of Bethel, where he had been before. We read that he had become wealthy both in terms of money and livestock. At this point we are introduced to Lot, Abram’s nephew, who was evidently in Egypt with Abram although he was not mentioned in that episode.
Abram returned to Bethel and the Bible notes that Bethel was where he had built an altar and called on the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:8), and we read that on his return Abram again called on the name of the Lord. Worship was very much part of Abram’s life and in this case, it may well be that he is giving thanks for a safe return from his adventure in Egypt.
Attention now turns to Lot. He is part of Abram’s entourage and is a wealthy man in his own right, having many flocks and herds (v5). Wealth in that society (as it still is in some pastoral cultures) was measured in terms of livestock as well as silver and gold. Flocks and herds and herdsmen’s tents take up a lot of space and there was pressure on space because of the area taken up by all these animals and those tending them. There may well have been competition for grazing. All of this caused tension between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. They were limited in what they could do as the Bible points out that they were in the land of the Canaanites and Perizzites. So, Lot and Abram amicably decided to go their separate ways. In splitting up, it is noticeable that Abram gave Lot the choice of which direction to go. As the senior man it would have been reasonable for him to have the choice of where to go, perhaps to where the grazing was better. But Abram was gracious and allowed Lot to have that privilege, with disastrous results as it turned out.
Lot’s choice was to head for the fertile plains (“well-watered like the garden of Eden” (v10)) towards the east near to the city of Sodom. There is an ominous note that the city of Sodom was wicked and its inhabitants sinned greatly against the Lord (v15), but Lot did not know that . . . yet.
Meanwhile Abram took the opposite direction whereupon the Lord spoke to him again saying, look all around you. This is the land that I will give to you and your offspring. We see here a repeat of the promise that the Lord gave to Abram when he called him in Chapter 12, and this will be a recurring theme. The Lord also emphasised that he would have many descendants – in numbers like the dust of the earth, so many that they could not be counted. This re-iteration of the promise of offspring brings home Abram’s lack of faith in the previous chapter. Of course he was not going to be killed at the point; God had promised that he would have children.
The final verse of this chapter records Abram’s response to all that had gone on, and that was to worship God. He built an altar, and as we have seen earlier, that implies sacrifice.