Genesis 11:31-32 “31 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.”
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We often talk of the call of Abraham to make the great journey to the promised land, but it was actually his father who began the journey. Terah indeed set out with the intention of going all the way to Canaan, but for some reason he stopped part ways. Abraham went down in history as one of the most famous biblical characters; meanwhile no one knows who Terah is. It seems God placed a call upon Terah’s family which was carried generationally. When Terah stopped part ways and refused to continue to fulfil the mission in obedience to God, God called his son Abraham to leave his family and take the journey himself without them.
What caused Terah to stop partways? Perhaps he had intended to go all the way to the promised land but one particularly comfortable rest stop became a permanent abode. Perhaps Terah began to lack the faith that God would even come through. The people of Israel would struggle with this same fear when leaving Egypt, that God might be leading them to a dead end to die in the wilderness. Perhaps Terah originally planned to stay there for just two weeks, but kept extending the time, knowing the desert journey would be full of exhaustion, lack, and hardship. Days became weeks, weeks became seasons and seasons turned into years. Due to the procrastination, Terah’s family gradually grew roots in a place that should have been a short pit stop and they named the city after Abraham’s brother Haran, the naming showing a final intention to remain there permanently. Abraham felt the burden of destiny to carry forward the call of God that the others had abandoned.
Genesis 12:1-5
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.”
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The Burden of Lot
Unfortunately even Abraham was not fully obedient to the instructions to leave his father's house and family behind, given that he brought along his nephew Lot as verse 5 indicates. It may have seemed an innocent minor detail but this would have significant repercussions for Abraham in his future.
Genesis 13:5-7 “Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. 6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.”
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When first accepting God’s call we sometimes also carry worldly baggage along with us. Lot signifies the part of us that wants to mix worldliness and godliness and try to do both at the same time, enjoying the compromise instead of sacrificing to put God first and remain pure. “Shepherd” or “herdsman” is another word for pastor. In the New Testament the Greek word we translate as “pastor” literally means shepherd in the original language. The passage shows the two kinds of leaders in ministry. The Lot leadership will use comfort and compromise to gain more followers and increase church attendance. They allow a lukewarm atmosphere with no mention of the need for repentance and the fear of God. They focus only on man’s needs and not on God’s needs. The leadership of Abraham in contrast, will chose a lesser worldly position to have more of God. Abraham also signifies the apostolic and prophetic leadership the church must be connected to. Because a pastor is a peacemaker, pastor only leadership can often become overly soft. Being connected with true apostolic and prophetic voices is essential to ensure the church puts God's will first and above all, rather than being a place that is too accommodating.
Just as strife broke out between Abraham and Lot’s shepherds, a heart for holiness cannot coexist with a lukewarm spirit.
Revelation 3:15-16, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
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Lukewarm Lot wanted one foot in God’s kingdom and the other foot in the world. He wanted to tag along with Abraham for the blessings but without putting effort into his own relationship with God. Trying to extract the maximum personal benefits out of Christianity while doing the minimum sacrifice is at the heart of the lukewarm spirit.
Gen 13:8 So Abram said to Lot,….. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.
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In biblical and cultural symbolism the “left” represents the evil or satanic path and “the right” represents the “good” path (God’s way). The word “sinister” actually comes from the Latin word for “left.” The Bible teaches that at the end of the age the wheat are separated from the tares (poisonous lookalike wheat) and the sheep are separated from the goats. We see this separation happened to Abraham also as God divided the carnal “Lot” nature he carried within his spirit, allowing him and his followers to serve God without mixture and distraction.
Gen 13:10-11 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.
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In future years, as the below passage from Numbers shows, the Hebrews would complain that the slavery in Egypt was preferable to the wilderness journey by faith. Lot likewise chose a land which was “like the land of Egypt.”
Numbers 11:4-6 “The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!””
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These complaining Israelites claimed they had eaten “free” food while in Egypt, ignoring the unpleasant truth that it was paid for in hard slave labour all day in the sun while being beaten and whipped whenever the Egyptians felt like it. Far from a “free” meal. It is a common mistake to reminisce about the positives of the past and gloss over the negatives. Just as Ecclesiates 7:10 says: Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this. The melons tasted better in the imagination than their true experience of eating them in a hurry during their five minute break with a back broken from work and bleeding from a recent whipping.
Lot had just come from Egypt and rather than noticing their slavery practices, his focus was only on the produce the land could provide. Little did he know but this mistake would eventually result in his own enslavement and loss of all possessions.
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Although Abraham was the leader of this journey, Lot ended up taking the most fertile land for himself, leaving Abraham with the desolate leftovers. Likely Abraham never expected this outcome from a small disobedience to God’s instruction. In Lot’s greed however, he was not contented with so much good land but kept going and “even pitched his tent as far as Sodom,” despite their reputation for total depravity.
God had a way of turning Abraham’s mistake around however and Lot would come to regret his choice of territory, despite choosing the better land. Sodom was in a very fertile area. This made it highly desirable for conquest. Abraham's area in contrast was nothing special and meant he could enjoy the land in peace without war. Except for having to protect Lot that is…..
Genesis 14 describes how Lot was captured along with those in his city, about to enter a miserable life of slavery. Lucky for him Abraham heard news of this and formed a raiding band to capture Lot and the men back.
Interestingly, after the battle Abraham was met by emissaries from both God and satan. God's priest Melchizedek, offered Abraham bread and wine (foreshadowing communion) and gave him a blessing. Abraham gave tithes of all his possessions to Melchizedek as he was God's representative.
Now the devil takes his turn to greet Abraham in the form of the king of Sodom......
Genesis 14:21 “Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the souls, and take the goods for yourself.”
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The devil will try to get us to compromise the gospel and focus on the material goods while allowing souls to be lost. The king of Sodom hoped Abraham would enter a subtle satanic covenant with him implicitly by accepting his bribe of material goods, while in exchange Abraham would be forfeiting the purity of his and his men’s souls by entering this covenant. Just as Abraham was tested in his choice between Melchizedek’s offer of God’s communion or Sodom’s offering of carnal reward we are often shown this choice daily in our common everyday life. Whether to seek to communion with God and his service versus the “pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness” that Sodom uses to seduce (Ezekiel 16:49)
Reading further in Genesis (Chapter 19) we see the final outcome of Abraham and Lot’s choices. Lot’s home of Sodom is nuked by divine heavenly fire while he and his family are the only ones to mercifully escape just in time before the fire destroyed their city; saved as through fire. All of his wealth and possessions went up in flames except the little he could carry by hand.
Worst of all, although God brought Lot out of Sodom, it appears the Sodom did not fully come out of Lot. Lot is still called a righteous man in the New Testament, but he was only truly righteous in comparison to those around him, the Sodomites. Living in the mountains now, Lot’s daughters began going hysterical as if the entire earth had been destroyed and there would be no man to have children with. They hatched a plot to make their father drunk and then slept with him while his inhibition was lowered. Lot could behave morally while in a sober state but after a few drinks the restraint of his higher nature was gone and the lust of the flesh was given free reign. He ended up impregnating both daughters. Lot’s descendants, Moab and Ammon would often be at war with Abraham’s futures descendants, the Israelites, for generations. The seeming “small” disobedience toward God by bringing along Lot on his journey cost Abraham not only throughout his own life but also the life of his future children for many generations. Despite the setback however, God was able to use Abraham to start a nation of people who would change the world for all of time.