Abram and Lot: You Choose First

Shouting on a dusty hillside. Two groups of herdsmen, shoving and pointing, each claiming the best grass for their animals. Sheep bleat. Tempers flare. And these are not enemies. They work for an uncle and his nephew.

Abram has come back from a time in Egypt, where he had gone to escape a famine. Now he is very rich, in livestock, in silver and in gold. His nephew Lot travels with him, and Lot has his own flocks and herds and tents too. They return to the place near Bethel where Abram had built an altar when he first arrived, and there Abram calls on the name of the Lord again. But there is a problem. The land cannot support them both. They have so many animals that they cannot stay together.

Quarrels break out between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. Every flock needs grass and water, and there is not enough to go around. Each side thinks the other is taking more than its share. And Genesis adds a detail. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. The neighbours are watching. A family argument is about to become everyone’s business.

Abram is the elder. God has promised this land to his family. He could have pulled rank and taken the best for himself. Instead, he goes to Lot. “Let’s not have any quarrelling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are family. Isn’t the whole land in front of you? Let’s part ways. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right. If you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” Abram gives Lot first choice.

Lot looks up and sees the whole plain of the Jordan. It is well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. And Genesis adds a shadow: this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot chooses the whole plain for himself and sets off toward the east. He settles among the cities of the plain and pitches his tents near Sodom. Then the narrator quietly tells us one more thing. The people of Sodom were wicked, and sinned greatly against the Lord. The choice that looked greenest would bring Lot great trouble later on.

After Lot has gone, the Lord speaks to Abram. “Look around from where you are, to the north and the south, to the east and the west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” Abram let Lot choose first, and he lost nothing God had promised. So Abram moves his tents and goes to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron. And there, once again, he builds an altar to the Lord.

Fights over grazing and water were a real part of life for herding families in Canaan. Much of the hill country depended on seasonal rain, and good pasture and water sources were limited, so large flocks had to spread out. Genesis records more of these disputes later. Abraham has to complain to a local king about a well his servants had seized. And Isaac’s herdsmen quarrel so often over wells that he names one of them Esek, a Hebrew word meaning quarrel or dispute.

Abram and Lot. You’ll find it in Genesis chapter 13. Abram had the right to choose first, and he gave it away to keep the peace. So here’s the question to think about. Where could you let someone else go first this week, trusting God with what you give up?