What is the story of Abraham and Lot?

How then does Abraham make use of his favoured position? Does he use it to strengthen more fully, and place on a firmer basis, the future interests of his house? Surely the natural heart would at once have prompted him to make such a use of his present advantage in the matter of nearness to Jehovah. Does he use it thus? Nay. Abraham had learnt too much of the ways of God to act in a way savouring so much of the selfishness of a heartless world. But, even had he thought of such a thing, he had no need to utter a syllable on the subject, for "the Almighty God" had most amply satisfied his heart with regard to the everlasting interests of his house — He had fixed it upon such a foundation that an anxious thought would have evidenced a complete want of moral order in Abraham's soul. He therefore entertained not a thought about himself or his house, but like a genuine man of faith, he takes advantage of his place in the presence of God to intercede for a brother, whose worldliness had plunged him into the very midst of that place which was about to be given over to everlasting destruction. "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" (ver. 23) "The righteous!" to whom can he allude? Can it be to the man who had so deliberately turned aside out of the path of faith to take up his abode at Sodom? Yes; he speaks of Lot — he calls him "righteous" — he speaks of him in the very same terms as the Spirit in the apostle afterward speaks of him when he calls him a "righteous soul." Abraham, therefore, was taught of God when he could recognise in the man surrounded by all the pollution of Sodom "a righteous soul."

{Although I consider Lot the principal object in Abraham's mind while interceding before the Lord, I do not forget there is mention made of "fifty," etc.}

Abram advances in the school of faith. Being in the land, he is where God would have him, and he is not careful to choose for himself any particular part. So when Lot separated from him, Abram's freedom from anxious consideration as to where he should pitch his tent, shows itself in his disinterestedness in giving to his selfish nephew the choice of where he would go. Lot made no advance in faith. As the companion of Abram, he professed to take the same position — that of a pilgrim. But he had not pilgrims' ways. So Abram, after his return from Egypt, and restored to his altar, begins to feel that the presence of Lot is a hindrance. There was no true communion between them. Lot was rather a follower of Abram than of God; the land more his object than obedience to the call of God; and his herdmen strove with the herdmen of Abram for the better pasturage. Would they have dared to strive with Abram's herdmen if they had not known their master's desire to have the best of the land? Here was a sight for the Canaanite and the Perizzite who still dwelt in the land — two saints, ostensibly in the same condition, making the same profession of obedience in forsaking all to follow the leading of God, yet cannot agree! The cause is soon seen. Where nothing disturbs, very feeble faith looks as bright and strong as great faith; but nothing so exposes the want of faith as the greed of earthly possessions, whether for ourselves, or for our children. In our pilgrimage here there never are wanting circumstances in which the power of true faith and unselfish love may be seen, where the faithful can no longer walk with the worldly. Faith is compelled at last to speak out plainly, still, if decidedly, yet lovingly. So Abram and Lot were made manifest; the wrong-doing was with Lot, but Abram does not reproach him. "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." (Gen. 13:8-9.) Abram, not for the sake of having undisturbed possession of the best pasturage for his flocks, but to live in peace, in undisturbed communion with God, bids Lot choose his ground, and he, Abram, will go elsewhere. The secret of Lot's heart comes out now. There is no expressed wish not to separate, but an apparent readiness to go away. No doubt the separation was a greater relief to Lot than to Abram. The worldly-minded are never at home with the faithful. Where are they at home? Let Lot, righteous though he be (2 Peter 2:7-8), declare. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan: and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other." (Gen. 13:10-11.) The horrible wickedness of the cities of the plain did not prevent him making his abode there; the good things of this life were too strong for him. So Paul said of Demas, who forsook him, "having loved this present world." The love of the world makes sad havoc among saints. Unfaithfulness, declension, no testimony: such the ruinous condition of a soul whose eye rests upon the well-watered plain. What advantage can it bring, even though it be "as the garden of the Lord"? The wicked are there in possession; is that a place for a saint who professes to be a pilgrim, and in separation?

We pass on to Lot, a sad but most instructive story. When the servants of Abraham and Lot quarrelled, Abraham suggests they separate, rather than have the Amorite who was then in the land view the sad sight of fellow-servants of the true God quarrelling with each other. In a lovely spirit of meekness, Abraham, the elder, invites his nephew Lot to choose where he would go. It was a sad exhibition of selfishness that permitted Lot to accept such an invitation; yet so it was, and he chose the well-watered plains of Sodom for his new home. Oh, how often have we taken our families into needless contact with defilement, in the hope of bringing greater profit to them, or to our purse.

Abram, at Hebron in the plain of Mamre, was far from the bad city, Sodom. He had plenty of servants and cattle. Later on, four kings came and fought against the kings of Sodom, and of four other cities. At last these four kings won the battle and took the people captive, with Lot and all the goods.

Abram heard about Lot. Abram had faith in God. He gathered his 318 trained servants and with some of his friends went after the four kings, till he caught them one night. They fought these kings and beat them, and brought back Lot and the people and goods to Sodom.

In Gen. 14 we read that four kings made war with five neighboring kings in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. The four kings triumphed over the five, and in taking the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah they captured Lot, Abram's nephew, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. The news of this was taken to Abram, who acted promptly, armed his trained servants born in his house, pursued the kings unto Dan in the far north of the country, made a night attack, and recovered his nephew Lot and his goods, and his women, and the people.

Here it comes out plainly. God reminds us that Lot dwelt in Sodom. This would at once disclose or recall what Lot's behaviour and unbelief had been; how little his soul could taste in daily life of "the word of God and prayer." Was there not the very reverse? It was not Lot standing only for God, but striving to care for himself. The consequence is, when the strife and turmoil of the battle between the powers of the world take place, there is an end of Lot's settling down for the present. But that which was no small rebuke to Lot was the occasion for Abram to come out as one who walked with God confiding in Him, and who shows us, too, that power of grace which rises above whatever had been personally wrong. There was no doubt about Lot's failure in testimony. But Abram thought nothing about his faults now. What he looked at was a righteous man (for no doubt Lot, spite of all, was righteous) swept away by the contending potsherds of the earth. This drew out his feelings of loving desire for Lot's rescue. "When Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan."

Whenever the counsels of God are revealed to faith, it brings out the spirit of intercession. The word to the prophet, "Make the heart of this people fat" (Isa. 6), at once brings out, "O Lord, how long!" So here Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare the city. (But there are not ten - there is not one righteous man in Sodom, with the exception of Lot.) As regards his own position, he is looking down upon the place of judgment. And in the morning, when the cities are in flames, he finds himself in quietness and peace on the spot where he "stood before the Lord" (v. 27), not at all in the place where the judgment had come, solemnized, indeed, by the scene before him, but calm and happy with the Lord.

The Lord sends Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. Angels warn him, and faith makes him listen. But his heart is there still. There are connections that bind him to Sodom, and he would fain take them with him. But you cannot take anything with you for God out of Sodom, you must leave it all behind. The Lord must put the pain where you find the pleasure. "While he yet lingered"; there is hesitation and lingering in the place of judgment, when the judgment has been pronounced; he ought to have left it at once; but the place, and path, and spirit of unbelief, enervate the heart - "the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters" - the Lord being merciful unto him - "and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." And now it is, "Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed," v. 17. As for the goods, the sheep, and the much cattle, he must leave them all behind. If the Lord's faithfulness is shewn in saving Lot, it is shewn also in breaking the links that bind him to the place. His mind is all distraction; he says, "Oh, not so, my Lord. I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die." He has lost the sense of security in the path of faith. Such is ever the consequence of the path of unbelief in a saint of God, he thinks the path of faith the most dangerous path in the world. Lot has become used to the plain, and the mountain (the place where Abraham is enjoying perfect security and peace) is a mountain. The Lord spares Zoar at his request, and lets him flee thither, but on seeing the judgment, he flees to the mountain, forced to take refuge there in the end.

Abraham rose early that morning to go to the place where had interceded with the Lord, evidently a point from which he could view the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. How deeply he would be affected in seeing the smoke from the land going up like the smoke of a furnace (v.28). He might well wonder if Lot had been killed in that terrible catastrophe. Yet verse 24 tells us that God remembered Abraham in this case, and delivered Lot, who was evidently the only righteous person in either Sodom or Gomorrah (v.29). We have no information, however, as to whether Abraham ever knew of Lot's escape. He had lost everything except his two daughters, and though in poverty, he may have been too ashamed to try to contact his uncle Abraham.

There was involved then in it the immediate favour of God, not in present comfort, but in personal calling. The personal revelation of Himself to Abram, as it were, identified him with Himself and with His purpose, and with the blessing of an appointed inheritance. This calling, however special and personal, however distinguishing in favour, necessarily involved obedience. The call of blessing to Abraham was a call to get out of his country unto a land which God would shew to him, and thus it necessarily involved obedience. Whatever the power which acted on his mind might be, obedience was the result; for in the very terms of the call it was manifest - no obedience, no blessing. He was (to use the words of scripture) "sanctified unto obedience," for there was nothing else now given but the command, "Go out" - "the Lord had said." It was not to gratify the present selfishness of Abram's nature, saying, "this is thy country," but it was "Get thee out of thy country" - to go where? "to a land that I will shew thee." It implied, therefore, implicit confidence in God for faithfulness, power, and love. Taking Him for the security and the portion (as the scriptures reveal it), he went out, not knowing whither he went. It is on this that the Spirit of God so specially tests as characteristic of his approved faith. By separation from the world, on the ground of implicit confidence in God, he lost everything, and got nothing but the word of God, scaled of course to his soul (for his faith rested in it) by the power of the Spirit of God. The God of glory had appeared to him in the matter, and God would shew to him the land. So Abram departed.

Terah, as long as he lived, was a dead weight on Abraham's obedience. As we are told, 'Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan' (Gen. 11:31). But the land, in these circumstances, they never reached. God told Abraham to quit his kindred as well as his country, and till this was done, he failed to reach Canaan.1 It would have scarcely been proper for Abram as the son to take Terah his father. So 'Terah took Abram …' This, however, was not at all according to the call of God to Abram. Hence, we read, 'they came to Haran, and dwelt there.' But when Terah died, 'Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him' (Gen. 12:4). Then the language is pointedly different: — 'And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came' (Gen. 12:5). There was no failure now that his faith was not hampered by the encumbrance of nature which almost necessarily took the upper hand; therefore the movement had lacked the power of God to give it effect. That gone, the blessing immediately followed. {1 Philo (Ed. Richter, iv. 20) is all wrong in denying that God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, confining the vision to Gen. 12:7 just like the Jews who assailed Stephen. Dean Alford's remarks are worse than 'inaccurate'.}