A Tale of Two Men
When as a Christian one begins to live a life of faith in God, wonderful, fascinating and personally gratifying horizons open up before the eyes of faith. These things one may have by right of obedience; but, as one lives a life of faith he may exercise a choice to waive his rights, put his faith in God and let Him make the choices.
God sometimes allows the Christian to enter a place of testing where one’s own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if he were not living a life of faith; but, if he is, he will joyfully waive his rights and allow God to make the choices. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural life into a spiritual life by obedience to His Word through His Holy Spirit. The rewards of choosing this path are remarkably wonderful.
This is a true story of two men, the choice each made, the working out of the life of each, and through them the witness presented by each and the end of both men. This story is recorded in scripture for their posterity. It was directly for Abraham’s family under a covenant between the Creator (God) and Abraham.
God, who sees all eternity at a glance, also had a secondary purpose for those that are “Abraham’s children” in this present age1 according to the Covenant of mediation through His Messiah that He decreed before He created the earth and placed mankind on it (Psalm 2: 6-9).
“[Abraham] was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold…Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, 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.“ (Emphasis mine)(Genesis 13: verse 2; verses 6-9)
God decreed His intention to create mankind and a habitat for him on which he could prosper. There was everything necessary for a good life on the earth (Genesis 1: 31). There was in mankind everything necessary to be able to enjoy the earth and be content.
The bone of contention between the two men in the story arises out of conditions not attributable to either of them. The conditions of both men were directed by the unseen but omnipresent Creator God. They both had gold and silver as well as live stock in abundance that came not so much from the effort of either of them; but, from the good will of God. Abraham obeyed God and prospered; Lot was obedient to his uncle Abraham therefore he prospered. Abraham gave God praise, thanks and glory; Lot honored his uncle’s worship of God.
By right of presence and protocol it was Abraham’s choice as to what land he could choose from the promise God made through the His covenant. There was enough land for both. It was Abraham’s prerogative to choose he deferred to Lot. He gave first choice over to Lot. The nature of man is to choose his own destiny; Abraham chose to give over his right of first choice and trust God by faith for his own welfare and well being.
History provides ample evidence of the wisdom of the choice each made. It also proves the love and wisdom of God in the plan He had for both if both had obeyed Him.
Lot chose the immediate desire of what his eyes and his excellent prospects of good fortune presented to him. He perhaps thought of his good fortune at being allowed to choose. He could have the best of all possible worlds. He had the prospect of influential neighbors in the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and excellent grazing land for his stock. In the expedience of the moment things are not always as they appear at first glance.
“Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, 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 (verses 10-11).”
Lot departed ultimately into depravity, drunkenness, incest and oblivion.
“The LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which [you see], to you will I give it, and to your seed for ever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee (Genesis 13: 14-17).”
Abraham was ever obedient to the one true God of Creation and ended his days in a good old age, wealth and prosperity. He saw himself established as the head of God’s chosen people as well as seeing by faith the one through whom the entire world and many nations were blessed (Jesus Christ; the Messiah).
Lot’s descendants rejected Abraham’s God and turned to worship a false god Chemosh (god of fertility and sacrifice of children). Their end was to lose their nation and their posterity.2 The nations of Lot’s posterity (Moabites and Ammonites) were to be destroyed and their memory wiped out of history. It is recorded in scripture. The nineteenth chapter of Genesis records the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Through an incestuous relationship with his two remaining daughters (the rest of his family was lost in the destruction of the two cities) two sons were born (Moab and Ammon) out of which two nations arose. Both were destroyed in the course of time and his posterity was lost forever.3
- “And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29).”
- “Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites. We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba (Numbers 21: 29-30).”
- “Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts [Abraham’s seed] (Zephaniah 2: 9-10).”
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