Genesis 13:10: Well watered everywhere, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 13:10
Genesis 13 records a parting. Abram gives his nephew Lot the first pick of the land. Lot looks out over the Jordan valley before he chooses. The verse sets what Lot saw against what he could not see. The plain looked like paradise, but judgment against it was already fixed.
A Look Without God
Lot's first move is to raise his eyes. God later speaks the same words to Abram. That difference decides everything.
What then did Lot do? "He lifted up his eyes." This is always how we act when we are not under the direct power of faith. Whenever we lift up our eyes without God's direction, we are sure to go wrong. I say, without God's direction, because the Lord later tells Abram to lift up his eyes. But that was completely different from Lot's act. Lot's look was only the suggestion of human wisdom and foresight.
A second writer names the step Lot skipped.
He should have depended on the Lord and so given the first choice to his uncle. Instead, "he lifted up his eyes" (v. 10) — but not high enough! He had no idea of asking the Lord's guidance.
Two Comparisons in One Breath
The verse likens the plain to two places at once: God's garden and Egypt. One writer shows how strange that pairing is.
Choosing by sight confuses the garden of the Lord with the land of Egypt. Just think of these two put together: "Egypt," and "the garden of the Lord!" What a contrast! The one is above and unseen; the other is below and visible. Jordan separates them.
Egypt Still in the Heart
Lot had already been to Egypt with Abram. The likeness he spots shows what he brought home.
Everywhere there was water for his flocks, without the work of digging wells. Most significant of all, it was "like the land of Egypt." Lot had followed Abraham into Egypt. There he picked up a taste for Egypt's pleasures, and so strengthened his desire for worldly ease and plenty... There was nothing gross or wrong in choosing a well-watered plain. But it proves that the heart is not set on the unseen land of God's promise. And the real danger of the well-watered plains is that Satan had raised up Sodom in the middle of them.
Piety as a Cover
The comparison to God's garden gave the choice a religious sound. Under that sound lay the real motive.
The plain of Jordan is "like the garden of the Lord" — like paradise: why should he not enjoy God's gifts in it? He forgets the fall, and that paradise is barred from man. He argues religiously enough. But under it all the real secret is this: it is "like the land of Egypt." How much of man's reasoning comes from his heart and not his head — a heart too far from God! It is significant that the verse adds, "in the direction of Zoar" — and that is exactly where Lot came.
The Clause Lot Could Not See
The words before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah are the narrator's, not Lot's. They add the one fact no survey could supply.
On the surface all was pleasant and attractive. The view was matchless, the prospects reassuring. But there was one thing no human eye could see — the thoughts of God, and His counsels about the people of the plain.
That hidden fact decided everything about the choice.
He chose Sodom — the very place that was about to be judged. But how was this? Why select such a spot? Because he looked at the outward appearance, and not at the true character and future destiny. The character of the place was "wicked." Its future destiny was judgment — to be destroyed by fire and sulfur from heaven. Someone may say, "Lot knew nothing of all this." Perhaps not, and neither did Abraham; but God did. If Lot had let God choose his inheritance for him, God would never have chosen a spot He Himself was about to destroy.
Where the Look Led
The choice did not end with the choosing.
"Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan" (Gen. 13); then he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Next he lived in Sodom (Gen. 14). On the eve of its downfall, "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom," in the place of honour there (Gen. 19:1) — a sad example of the earthly minded believer on a path of decline.
Summary
- Look — Lot raised his eyes, but not high enough. A look taken without God's direction is where trouble starts.
- Likeness — The plain looked like the garden of the Lord and like Egypt. Only sight can hold those two together.
- Leaven — Nothing was wrong with a well-watered plain. But the Egypt in the view exposed the Egypt already in his heart.
- Blind spot — He could read water and pasture. He could not read God's judgment hanging over the cities of that plain.
- Landslide — He chose the plain, pitched his tent toward Sodom, then lived in it, then sat in its gate. Decline moves by stages.
