Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan; and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched tents as far as Sodom.
Abram and Lot have just parted ways, and this one verse records where each man chose to live. Older translations read "pitched his tent toward Sodom," and commentators come back to that phrase again and again as the moment Lot's direction changed.
The verse does more than record two addresses. It sets an environment beside an environment, and the rest of Lot's story is the outworking of his.
To be an overcomer, we must pay careful attention to where we live, to our surroundings. Isn't it significant that the Spirit of God mentions in Genesis 13:12 that Abraham lived in the land of Canaan, and that Lot lived in the cities of the plain? … No one can live in Sodom and stay untouched. Its corrupt air and polluting influences work on a man, for its people were wicked and great sinners before God. Poor Lot, by his associations, was helpless in the presence of the world.
Abram had just handed Lot the choicest ground. What he kept was not land but a way of living in it — two objects that go together.
In this episode we see Abram back at the moral height that had marked his start. Then he gave up Ur with all its comforts. Now he gives up the choicest part of the land of promise, content to remain a pilgrim, as long as he is in communion with God. His altar showed that he was in touch with God; his tent, that he still remained a pilgrim, though in the land of promise.
Lot's half of the verse is missing something Abram's half has. He had shared Abram's journey, but the record never gives him an altar of his own — and that absence explains the choice he made.
There is no mention of Lot ever building an altar or calling on the name of the Lord. Yet he was probably with Abraham where Abraham pitched his tent and called on Jehovah's name. When he chose the part of the land where he would live, there was no thought of putting the choice to God. Appearances swayed him… What looked like the land of Egypt appealed to Lot. He could not look by faith beyond the present, to see the plain as it would be after God had judged it. If he had had an altar, and had been in the habit of calling on the name of the Lord, he would no doubt have been spared the many snares he fell into.
The Hebrew phrase is not vague. It marks how far the tent was moved, and how little room was left between Lot and the city.
Note in verse 12, Lot pitched toward — up to, even to — Sodom, but in verse 12 of the next chapter he was settled there.
A tent is the shelter of someone passing through. Aimed at Sodom, it says two contradictory things at once.
The tent of a pilgrim pitched towards Sodom is a sadly out-of-place sight. Yet how many Christians are in that very position!
Read alone, verse 12 looks like a settlement decision. Read alongside what follows, it is the first move in a slide Lot did not intend.
Notice Lot, who chose all the plain of Jordan and "pitched his tent toward Sodom" (Gen. 13:12). He has now taken a further step on his downward course, for here we read that he "dwells in Sodom." We may be sure Lot never intended to dwell in Sodom when he pitched his tent toward Sodom. But one false step leads to another. Drawing near to the world, he is soon in the world. Living in the world, he is caught up in its conflicts and falls captive to its power.
Lot saw the scenery. He missed the warning standing in the middle of it.
The walls of wicked Sodom, rising in the middle of those well-watered plains, were no barrier to Lot. He pitched his tent towards Sodom. He knew what company he would be keeping there, and it did not make him draw back from his choice… His eyes were fixed on the attractive scene. So he overlooked the tower of Sodom, which should have been like a warning finger raised among those inviting fields and gardens. The calm waters that made those plains so fertile were soon to reflect the fire and brimstone that would rain from heaven… His tent disappeared soon after it was pitched "towards Sodom." From the edge of Sodom to its gates is only one step. We find him sitting in the gate of Sodom, the place of honour and business in the ancient world.
- Toward decides. No one moves into Sodom in a single day. Lot only aimed his tent at it, and one false step led to another until he lived inside.
- Toward skips prayer. Lot never built an altar or called on the Lord's name. So he judged by appearances, and could not see the plain as it would look after God judged it.
- Toward is exact. The word means up to, even as far as Sodom. The gap Lot left between himself and the city was no gap at all.
- Toward reshapes you. Where a believer lives works on him. Among Sodom's polluting influences, Lot was helpless before the world he had chosen.
- Toward has a rival. Abram gave up the best ground. He kept his tent and his altar, and stayed in the land of promise.
And the people of Sodom were wicked, and great sinners before Jehovah.
Lot has just parted from Abraham and chosen the plain towards Sodom for himself. This verse names the one thing his eyes had not weighed: the people living there.
The plain looked like a garden. This verse tells us what it was underneath.
In contrast to this, Lot saw that the plain, stretching towards Sodom and Gomorrah, was "like the garden of the LORD," and he embraced it, pitching his tent toward Sodom. The men of Sodom, however, excelled in wickedness, as verse 13 tells us. So it is clear that, though those cities were like the garden of the LORD, they were really a playground of the devil. Towards that evil spot Lot gravitated.
Lot was measuring pasture. God was measuring people.
Whether Lot knew it or not, "the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD." The moral conditions were such that God could not tolerate them much longer. If Lot had been living in close fellowship with God, he might have felt something of what God felt about what was happening in Sodom... God's thoughts were on the lives of the men who lived in the cities of the plain. Lot's thoughts were taken up with the natural beauty of the land and its rich pastures. Little did Lot realise that before long the fair valley he was feasting his eyes on would be the scene of devastating divine judgment.
Sodom's sin was against the LORD Himself. Sin like that does not stay unanswered forever.
Already we have learned that "the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD" (Gen. 13:13). Now we learn that their sin cried out to the Lord for judgment, because it was "very grievous." God waits and is patient with the wickedness of men, but He is not indifferent to sin. It cries out to Him until at last it is ripe for judgment. But, even so, the Lord is slow to judge.
Abraham was in the same land, looking at the same country. His tent pointed somewhere else.
While Lot's worldly eyes were on the green pastures of Sodom, Abraham's heart was "desiring a better country." Lot pitched his tent towards wicked Sodom. Abraham's eyes were looking towards a heavenly city, and he pitched his tent that way — a city "whose builder and maker is God."
Lot did not move into Sodom in one step. The verse names what the place was while he was still outside it, and he kept going closer.
He may not have known what the people of Sodom were really like when he first left Abram. But he could hardly live in the cities of the plain without learning something of their wickedness. The decline had been gradual, yet the steps are clear. First came the choice of the pleasant, fertile plain. Next came the separation from the company of the man of faith. Then came living in the cities of the plain. Then he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Finally he lived in the wicked city. So long as Lot had his tents there was the appearance of his being a pilgrim, but even the outward show had gone when he lived in Sodom.
Choosing the easiest option also chooses your neighbours. Lot lived with the result.
He wanted the easiest circumstances, and of course in Sodom he found the people who love the easiest circumstances, those who were "wicked, great sinners against the LORD." If we seek only to please ourselves, we will soon find company with the same unhealthy desires... Peter tells us about Lot, "that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds" (2 Peter 2:8).
- See. Lot judged the plain by what met the eye. The verse supplies the fact he missed: the character of the people living in it.
- Choose. Ease was his standard, so ease picked his neighbours. The choice tormented the soul it was meant to comfort.
- Drift. The move was gradual and traceable: the plain, then away from Abraham, then the cities, then the tent facing Sodom, then living inside it.
- Cry out. Sodom's sin was against the LORD Himself. It cried out to Him until it was ripe for judgment — yet He is slow to judge.
- Look higher. Abraham looked at the same land and wanted a city built by God. Same view, different horizon.
And Jehovah said to Abram, after that Lot had separated himself from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
The timing of these words matters as much as the words. Abram has just handed his nephew Lot the first choice of the land, and God speaks only after Lot has gone.
One writer reads God's timing as deliberate, and notes that God had never given this command before:
After Lot had taken the best for himself, Another settles the matter. It was disgraceful that the nephew dared to act that way in a land God had promised to Abram only. "The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him." So the Spirit notes here that everything followed the simple will of God. He was no careless onlooker, and He does not fail to clear away what hinders. Now that it was so, the LORD said, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward." He had never said this before.
Four verses earlier Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the well-watered plain. The same words now come to Abram. The difference lies in what each man saw:
"Lot lifted up his eyes," and what they rested on was, as you would expect, what suited his natural desires — "well-watered plains." However lovely they looked to man, in the sight of the Lord they were filled with terrible wickedness (compare verses 10 and 14). Abram, on the other hand, had let his eye wander over the length and breadth of the promised inheritance. Nothing else swayed him. He looked at the portion which God was keeping for him and his offspring, and took his position in line with it.
Lot looked; God told Abram where to look. The four directions are the point:
This is exactly what Lot had done (v. 10), but he had limited his sight to what appealed to him. God tells Abram to look to the north, south, east and west. He would give Abram and his descendants all the land that he saw. How much broader is God's view than that of our natural selfishness!
Abram's offer to take whatever Lot left was not weakness. One writer explains why he could afford it:
Abram says to Lot: take what you want, do not let us quarrel. The promise is my portion. I am a complete stranger here; the city of God is open in glory before me. His heart is set on the promises of God, and everything else is nothing in comparison. It might seem foolish to let Lot choose. The right to choose was certainly Abram's own. But his heart is elsewhere, and his faith goes entirely free from earthly advantage.
The same writer draws a wider lesson from Abram's trust:
How sweet that Abram trusted in the Lord! The whole question seemed to rest with Lot, but it really rested with the LORD. When will we learn to be that simple and trusting? We will surely learn something else at the same time. The Lord always answers a giving up of self. He answers it in His grace, in the sweet assurance of that grace to our souls, and by a better gift still through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Abram could look at the land in every direction, yet everything he had rested on a promise:
Wherever he looked around, his eye fell on part of the land of his inheritance, which God had promised to give him. But all his security for possessing that land lay in God's promise. God gave him no other guarantee about it.
Abram uses his eyes here, but only at God's direction — and a writer applies that to us:
Now Abraham uses his eyes, but at the direction of the LORD. When Lot had separated from him, the LORD said, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are." He is to look in every direction at the land which the LORD has given him. And it is well for us too, when we are freed from the weight of those who have no faith for the outside path. It is well if we set our minds on things above and "look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen." It is well if we seek to enjoy all that God has revealed about the world to come, the heavenly country with its city that has foundations.
- Separated — God spoke after Lot was gone; He clears away what hinders before He enlarges the vision.
- Directed — Lot lifted his eyes and chose; Abram lifted his at God's word, and God showed him north, south, east and west.
- Surrendered — Abram could give up the choice because the promise was already his. His faith went free of earthly advantage.
- Answered — no giving up of self goes unanswered by the Lord; He replies with a better gift.
- Unseen — Abram held the land by promise alone, with no other security. The same call comes to us: look at what is unseen, not only at what appeals to the eye.
for all the land that thou seest will I give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.
Lot has just taken the best of the Jordan plain for himself. Only then does God speak to Abram and tell him to lift up his own eyes. What God hands him is far larger than Lot's choice: the whole land, and forever.
Abram had the right to choose first, and he let it go.
But notice how good it is to bow before the Lord and to refuse to fight for our rights, however natural that is to the heart. The moment Abram gives up to Lot, Jehovah appears again. God never gave anyone a gift in terms as clear and as large as the one He now gives Abram. Lot lifted up his eyes, looked over the plain of Jordan, and chose the best of it. Now Jehovah speaks to Abram after Lot had separated from him — that is, after Lot had taken his ill-gotten gains. He says, "Lift up your eyes." How blessed are the words of the Lord!
Two things carry the weight of the verse. God gives the land, and He gives it forever. He asks nothing from Abram in return, and He sets no end date.
Just then, while the patriarch was living between Bethel and Ai, the Lord confirmed the promise He had made to him at Shechem — and apparently without His servant asking… The promise of the land to Abraham's seed at Shechem had been unconditional. Now he heard that his offspring would enjoy it for unlimited time. God is the God of the whole earth. He alone had the right and the power to give away any part of the globe as He pleased. He bound Himself in this way to Abraham and to his seed. What a thing it was to deal with the one true God, who could act with such grace! Abraham had once worshipped idols, and he must have felt it.
God told Abram to look over land he did not own. He had no title and no deed, and other peoples were living on the ground in front of him.
They are clearly in the place of strangers ("the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land"). They have nothing in possession, "not even a foot's length"; everything depends on their valuing the promises (Heb. 11:9). They have just two things, the altar and the tent. Travelling about, and worshipping God, they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
God promised the land to Abram himself, not only to his descendants. Abram died without owning it. So the promise reaches past the grave.
God never gave the land of Israel into the actual possession of Abraham or Isaac or Jacob while they were alive in their natural bodies; yet He did promise them the land — not merely to their children, but to themselves. So they must rise to have the land promised to them. God gave them the land in promise, but they never owned it. Since they cannot own it while they are dead, they must live again to receive the promised land.
This promise still stands over the same land today, whatever nations have fought over it since.
Not the smallest detail of what God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will fail. He will do it all. Despite everything said and done against it, God remembers His promises, and He will fulfil them… Dynasties have risen and played their part on the stage of this world. Thrones have been built on the apparent ruins of Jerusalem's ancient glory. Empires have flourished for a time and then fallen into decay. Ambitious rulers have fought to possess "the land of promise". All these things have happened. But the LORD has said about that land, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23).
God does not stop at the promise. He tells Abram to get up and walk through the land He has given him.
It was a turning point for Abraham as it was for Lot. God told him He would give him all the land, and said, "Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land." When he had made the good choice and accepted the portion from God, then God showed him far more fully all that He had given him… All the land is ours, but we have to realise it. It produces happy worship in the heart when we live as strangers and pilgrims, seeking nothing in the world… Gifts are precious as they put us in touch with the Giver. The love that gives is more precious than the gift.
- Give up — Abram let Lot choose first; the promise came only after he stopped defending his rights.
- Look up — Lot's own eyes picked out a fragment. God showed Abram the whole land, in every direction.
- Hold on — Abram had a tent and an altar and not one foot of ground. His entire security was the word of God.
- Rise — God promised "forever" to Abraham himself. He died without owning the land, so God must raise him to receive it.
- Walk — God gave the land first, then told Abram to cross it. We enjoy God's gifts by walking through them — and the Giver is worth more than the gift.