The Scene: (Genesis 13) Lot and his uncle Abram are looking toward a massive city rising in the distance. The city of Sodom and the Jordan river valley under it. They have a decision to make-seemingly a small, unassuming, unambiguous decision. But a decision which would result in a series of events which led to an apocalyptic climax that neither man imagined. One man’s choice was a decision of faith based on promise from God for the future. The others would lead to the acquisition of wealth and power but ultimately despair and degradation, and a destiny which would become an infamous legacy.
We seldom think about the power and consequences of choices, and even less about the vulnerability of the moment when we make those choices. That moment between Abram on that hill of Bethel is one of the most significant moments in the Bible.
There is a tendency in Church circles to immediately spiritualize the story without going into the context of the choice. This moment did not happen in a vacuum nor were the choices made as an impulse. In Genesis 12, Abram and his family went down to Egypt during a time of famine/drought in Canaan. But there is one detail which is not so obvious: why did he not draw nearer to Sodom?
As serious as a drought could be, the area around Sodom would have been able to handle such a crisis almost as well as the Nile valley in Egypt. And while there was traffic going down to Egypt from Canaan at this time, there was not a mass exodus from the plains of Jordan around Sodom and Gomorrah. And yet, Abram did not head that way even though it was in the bounds of the land that God promised to give him and his descendants. For some reason, Lot may have found that decision rather strange, or even nonsensical, especially in the aftermath of what happened in Egypt.
It is true that Abram and Lot became very wealthy from their time in Egypt, but one should not forget the risks that was taken there, or that the sojourn there was a very perilous one. Abram and Sarai bore the brunt of that risk, but that does not make it any less frightening to those who were involved.
Abram’s greatest fear on entering Egypt was that someone would kill him to take his wife. It was the first time that Lot saw his uncle exhibit fear. That fear was doubled when the person who wanted Sarai for his own was the Pharaoh of Egypt-at the time the most powerful man in the known world.
Lot was there when Abram told his wife to tell everyone that she was his sister-another first observation for Lot. Abram did not falter with this lie even after his wife was taken into Pharaoh’s palace! Instead, the king of Egypt gave enormous amounts of treasures and bounties for this “acquisition”.
Lot was not part of any of this play and transaction except as an observer. Nonetheless, he would have been terrified. He was married, and possibly at this point a father of two baby girls with a wife to whom he was devoted. Sarai, besides being Abram’s wife, was also Lot’s aunt. What else could go wrong? What if someone came for his wife?
We know that God intervened in this situation to save Sarai out of Pharaoh’ hand and while Abram came out of Egypt wealthy, it was with a rebuke from Pharaoh. All of this left a sour taste in Lot’s mouth, as well as his family.
This is a very important point for everyone to consider. A walk of Faith, a person’s experience with God, can have different implications or interpretations to people who are bystanders or fellow travelers. When William Carey, the man who is considered the Father of Modern Missions, went to India for his missionary service, his reactions and expectations were diametrically different from those of his wife and children. His wife could be a considered a “country girl” who had no desire to leave the confines of their little village in England for the vast and strange mission field of 17th century India. There was no joy or excitement in it for her as it was for him, and the fact that in the first seven years, there was not one convert and the effort seemed increasingly hopeless, left his wife in deep depression. The death of their first child pushed her into a state of insanity out of which she never emerged. William Carey was a devoted servant of God trying to evangelize India, and while his 41-year journey of Faith was an adventure, it was traumatic to the very end for his wife and family.
Lot and his family were traumatized. And to a certain extent, so was Abram and Sarai. But Abram had a relationship with God, and with his wife Sarai, that Lot did not have-on both accounts. (More about that later.) I’m pretty sure that at this stage, Lot and his wife were ready to part ways with Abram, they were just looking for an opportunity to make that move.
Genesis 13 documents that after a coming back into the land of Canaan, a fight erupted between Abram’s ranch hands and those of Lot over the resources available for the livestock. And it was serious enough of a situation for Abram to take Lot aside to discuss the matter. This was a first-time experience for Lot. Up till this moment, Abram had made the decisions regarding the caravan, but this time it was different. Dare I say, something changed in Abram as well? Perhaps he recognized that Lot’s mood had changed. Probably he recognized that mood change was happening to the rest of the family as well (Sarai included).
While trusting in God was important to him, he was stuck with the reality that he had led his family and his caravan into a difficult, dangerous, situation in Egypt. He had acted in a foolish way and was humiliated by the Pharaoh for his actions. And that was a bitter pill to swallow despite coming out of Egypt a wiser and wealthier man. It was a humiliation in front of his family and caravan. And as many have found after failure, the soul and spirit are bruised.
What was the point of thinking of that old promise that the Voice had spoken to him years earlier, that God would “make him great”? What greatness? After all, he had risked his wife on a lie for Pharaoh to immensely make him rich-something for which that Egyptian experience would always be bad memory to him. Sarai was his beloved wife! What did she think about his faith in God now or the promise that God would bless them and their descendants?
The caravan came back to Bethel, to the place he had built the altar after God spoke to him when he first arrived in Canaan. That is where the conversation with Lot took place (an irony not to be taken lightly) and the conversation began:
“Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.” (Abram attempting to keep the relationship on the forefront between him and Lot.) “Is not the who land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”
There it was. Lot’s chance to become independent of his uncle.
Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere-this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. (Interesting detail at the end.)
Lot made his choice, the valley of the Jordan…the massive plush valley over which dominated the city of Sodom.
The detail that is present but not often mentioned in sermons and Bible studies, is that of Abram’s silence at this moment. He did not say anything to deter his nephew from the choice he made. It made sense in the natural. Lot’s herds were enormous, and there were plenty of green pastures as well as rivers and brook in the Jordan valley to more than take care of them. And there was easy access to markets and highways where he could make unbelievable profits! And yet something always made Abram stay away from that valley. Lot did not seem to ponder the reason for that, nor did he have reservations of going into that valley near Sodom and its sister city Gomorrah.
Abram and Sarai stood by that altar and looked on as Lot and his family and all his herds and herdsmen made the trek from Bethel into the “Kikkar of the Jordan” (as archeologist Dr. Steven Collins calls it).
Were there tears and hugs? Almost certainly yes. Lot and his wife could possibly have been surrogates in place of the children that Abram and Sarai did not have. They were a close family and shared many intimate moments around the fires of the camp. Sarai would be looking at her husband as they watched Lot and his family and caravan depart, probably taking his hand and wondering what all had happened to bring them to this point.
All of a sudden, God’s Voice interrupted the reverie: “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”
“Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the LORD.”
In my imagination, I see Abram muttering that statement out loud and Sarai’s stare turning into concern, dare I say perhaps even to horror?
Abram decided to go South (in a direction opposite his nephew, and quite a distance away) towards a place that would be called Hebron, toward a grove of Oak Trees in a place called Mamre. “And there he built an altar to the Lord.”
Choices are never free from consequences-good and bad. Abram’s decision is not one that was easy to make, though by God it was the right decision. In the short term, he would be mocked by people who were supposedly “smarter”. The choice that he made at this point is something that Jesus Christ would make simple in the Sermon on the Mount: “Seek ye first the King of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” In God, all the other decision and details of life in general would be taken care off. Lot did not get that part of the equation right, and that’s the point where everything began to be akin to a man who decides to speed his Ferrari on a highway without safety rails and warning signs.
In JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth books, there is a recurring theme of ‘Doom’. That word is almost always spoken or thought about with foreboding and not easily thought about in terms as clear as ‘black and white’. I think Tolkien’s intention was to convey the idea that the consequences of decisions are not as known or foreseeable as many assume. The only way forward was to decide what was right, not for one’s ambitions or desires, but rather for denial to oneself for the greater good of a “higher power”. There was hardly any advantage or convenience to making the right choice except that it would result in the absolute defeat of evil. And hence comes the idea of the “doom of choice”.
Abram and Lot’s choices had consequences that neither of these men could fathom. But at the moment…which choice was more difficult? A question we should think about closely in our time.
Over the course of the 48 years of my life, I have watched many families leave the church. As we had grown up their children, those partings were painful. What made it worse was hearing the rationale that many gave for their decision. For some, they felt that Church took “too much” of their time. For others, Maranatha was “uncivilized”. For others, the life of Faith was “too risky” with “too few people”. And so, they decided to go where everyone else was going. “Safety in numbers.” A lot of people wanted to “just live their lives”, or “were looking for a better future for their children”. And while this seems a reasonable desire, one should be warned.
Speaking as a first generation American from Asian Indian descent, I must acknowledge the fact that my community is the most financially and academically successful among the people groups in these United States. In the first 50-60 years of our existence in this nation, our people have reached such heights that in this 2024 Presidential Election, three candidates were from Indian descent. The highest earning income group in this nation are Asian Indians. But speaking spiritually, this is a façade.
Leaving the Hindus and the other religious groups coming from India, most Christian Indians I have knowns, met, or observed like to shy away from questions of morality and/or social trends of the time. They prefer the “go with the flow” method of choice. After all, you can lose money by being on the “wrong side”. Church attendance and spiritual growth…well let’s just say that many take the proverbial “club approach”. Every so often, they may make a sizeable donation or payment (Not tithe!) to keep up membership without paying too much heed to the worship or teaching aspect of Church. Sad to say, many church leaders have accepted this reality for the sake of budgets, building projects and payments, and payroll. But spiritually speaking, many churches have become so formal to the point of becoming spiritually dead. And hence the need for a wakeup call.
In the New Testament era, God has called His Church to be the Salt and the Light in a world of corruption and darkness. A world without a conscience. As a second and third generation or our people rises in this nation, can the Indian churches honestly say that they are fulfilling either responsibility? I would say not. Rather, the tendency is to hide behind the veneer of success
Into many homes, alcohol and liquor have come back with vengeance. And with it has come cigarettes other “recreational” drugs. Pornography is reeking a deadly destruction in families. And in states and territories where gambling is legalized, many Christian youths are losing their money and their minds inside the casinos. And when the ideas of Sodom and Gomorrah start entering, there is almost no resistance even though there may be revulsion (2 Peter 2: 7-8).
Our people are the most financially successful in this nation, and that is basically where their involvement in many local churches lay. Many pastors feel that the only way to retain the next generation in the Church is to get them involved in projects such building constructions or social benefits. Spiritually speaking…let’s just say many of the next generation have little in common with their parents. Many do not worship or spend time in the ministry of the Word, together. In church or home. From observation, many youths take the high minded attitude with their elders and so it is impossible for them to accept spiritual edification from them. And to be brutally frank, many parents are in the same spiritual mode of life as Lot and his wife-so in essence they have nothing to offer their children with regards to a relationship with God. As a result, just like Lot’s children, many youths may “play by the rules” while under their parents’ roof, but the influence of Sodom is in their hearts, and they do not have, nor know the Power or Presence of God who can preserve them and help them to overcome that demonic influence. Instead of being God’s salt and light in the world, they instead become part of the Sodom crowd.
For those who think this situation will continue unhindered, get ready for a dose of reality! (Stay tune for the next article!)
May God raise up Holy Spirit-filled and influenced, Bible based preachers, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and especially parents to stand in the gap and make up the “hedge”-Ezekiel 22:30. Without that Divine power, we will not be able to stand like Elijah or Daniel, alone against the powers of Darkness that presently dominates the cultures and peoples of the world. Sodom is no longer a location, but rather a pervading spirit in the world. May the choices that we make in our personal lives, our family lives, our professions, and in the issues that affect the society in which we live help us to resist and/or escape that spirit.