The Faith of Abraham | Genesis 13 | Abram and Lot Separate

1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling 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. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Genesis 12 showed us the beginning of God’s work in Abram’s life. He called him out of darkness to go to a land that he would show him later. He promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to the world. Abram believed God and went. By faith, he followed God’s call.

The next event we see is that of faithful Abram making decisions of unfaith in Egypt. He lies to save himself, forgetting that God is in control of everything. His lies save him, and even gain him wealth, but put his wife in danger. Worried about the promises of God coming to pass, Abram exchanges God’s word for his own and follows his heart into dangerous territory. He went down to Egypt a sojourner with a bright future. He came back humbled and exposed.

What would come of Abram now? Genesis 13 tells us God has more than one new beginning for his people. We see that God’s promises are not dependent upon our ability to make them come to pass; they are dependent on God alone. After Egypt, Abram saw that in a new way, and that new way led him to repentance and faith once again. That’s the path of the Christian life: faith, repentance, faith. The cycle of repentance and faith is what each of us can expect from now until the day we stand before the Lord in glory.

So in Genesis 13, we find faithful Abram returning to the land God gave him, humbling himself to give up what could be his, and finding the expansive promise of God to be the only stable thing he needs in life.

ABRAM RETURNED TO THE LAND (vv. 1-4)

1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

After the failure in Egypt, Abram returned a shell of who he was. Exposed and saddened, he saw himself in a new light. But God didn’t. God knew who he was when he called him. He knows who we all are when he calls us. We don’t surprise him, even if we surprise ourselves. We are all, like Abram, a mixture of self-righteous sinner and faithful follower. God knows that. Our righteousness didn’t get us in, and our failures don’t throw us out. It is God who is faithful through and through.

In his return to the Promised Land, Abram retraced his previous path as he considered the faithfulness of God. He went into the Negeb and on to Bethel. It was a pilgrimage back to his first love. It was a walk of repentance, recapturing the wonder of his previous walk with God. He came finally to the altar he built all those days before. He called on the name of the Lord, exalting him again in the land of pagans, proclaiming the goodness of the God who brought him out of Egypt.

What can we learn about this return? Simply this: God is faithful to his promises. Abram messed up in Egypt, but his mess-ups couldn’t retract the promise of God. As we saw at the end of Genesis 12, God miraculously delivered Abram and Sarai out of Egypt. As Abram sat despondently, God was working. So it is in our life as well.

As John Piper said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” That was Abram’s experience. He was aware of the promise. He was aware of his current situation. He was aware of his failure. But God was doing more than what he could see. He always is.

Piper elaborates:

Not only may you see a tiny fraction of what God is doing in your life; the part you do see may make no sense to you.

• You may find yourself in prison, and God may be advancing the gospel among the guards, and making the free brothers bold. (Philippians 1:12–14)

• You may find yourself with a painful thorn, and God may be making the power of Christ more beautiful in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:7–9)

• You may find yourself with a dead brother that Jesus could have healed, and God may be preparing to show his glory. (John 11:1–44)

• You may find yourself sold into slavery, accused falsely of sexual abuse, and forgotten in a prison cell, and God may be preparing you to rule a nation. (Genesis 37–50)

• You may wonder why a loved one is left in unbelief so long, and find that God is preparing a picture of his patience and a powerful missionary. (Galatians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:12–16)

• You may live in all purity and humility and truth only to end rejected and killed, and God may be making a parable of his Son and an extension of his merciful sufferings in yours. (Isaiah 53:3; Mark 8:31; Colossians 1:24)

• You may walk through famine, be driven from your homeland, lose husband and sons, and be left desolate with one foreign daughter-in-law, and God may be making you an ancestor of a King. (Ruth 1–4)

• You may find the best counselor you’ve ever known giving foolish advice, and God may be preparing the destruction of your enemy. (2 Samuel 17:14)

• You may be a sexually pure single person and yet accused of immorality, and God may be preparing you as a virgin blessing in ways no one can dream. (Luke 1:35)

• You may not be able to sleep and look in a random book, and God may be preparing to shame your arrogant enemy and rescue a condemned people. (Esther 6:1–13)

• You may be shamed and hurt, and God may be confirming your standing as his child and purifying you for the highest inheritance. (Hebrews 12:5–11)

Seeing the depth and breadth of God’s care for his people in the Bible leads us to worship him for the unseen things now in our life. Abram began to see that what he couldn’t see of God was bigger than what he could see. The promise was stronger than he imagined. The God he followed wasn’t making the plan up as he went. The road was paved, and though Abram thought the pavement would end out ahead, God proved otherwise.

This massive love of God leads us to worship, like Abram. He worshiped in verse 4 at the altar at Bethel and built a new altar in verse 18 at Hebron. The worship of God bookends Genesis 13. Abram is teaching us that it should be so in our lives as well. Yes, we may not know what God is doing in our life, but God is always worthy of worship. Whatever may look stronger in the world, God’s promise and character is stronger still.

ABRAM HUMBLED HIMSELF, GIVING UP WHAT COULD BE HIS (vv. 5-13)

5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling 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. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

We see one result of the great wealth Abram accumulated in Egypt. There wasn’t room enough for him and Lot to coexist. Today, if you’re wealthy, your money is tied up in invisible things like stocks and other investments. A bank holds your money. But in Abram’s day, wealth was carried around from place to place, taking the form of animals and people.

The solution to the problem was to split up, Abram going one way and Lot the other. Here is another test for Abram. He has the right to claim the land he wants. He can take what God has promised him. Lot was just along for the ride. God didn’t speak to him, making him the blessing to the nations. That was Abram’s role. But it’s what Abram did about the problem that shows his repentance was real and his faith was strong. 

Beginning in verse 8, Abram says to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

Abram gave Lot the pick of the land. Verse 10 tells us “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.” From their vantage point, Lot saw the fertile land before him, and he wanted it. So he journeyed East, just as Adam and Eve did when God cast them from the Garden of Eden. He settled near Sodom, where the author of Genesis hints at what is to come: “This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.” It was fertile but tempting and full of sin.

Do you blame Lot for taking that portion of the land? It was near the cities. It was fertile. It was well watered. It was perfect for raising a flock. It held prospects of gaining even more wealth because there would be an abundance of people and traders. He chose the obvious place.

There is more to Lot’s choice than the obvious, however. Lot wasn’t just going to the place that looked the best. Something spiritual was going on. He was going to the place that touched a spiritual nerve, a sense of longing, a homesickness. Lot wanted good land, yes, but deeper than that, he wanted the Garden of Eden. He wanted paradise. We all do. The question this passage forces us to ask is this: where is paradise in this post-fall world?

When Lot goes east, he’s doing what we all do naturally. He’s searching for the thing that will make his life matter. Abram, however, gave that up. Abram saw the same land. He could have taken it. Instead, he gave Lot first choice. He must have known what Lot would choose. In giving Lot first dibs, Abram was taking the land of Canaan. Why did he do that? Because Abram knew the land of Canaan was the Promised Land, even if it looked less than promising. Lot was trying to get back into the Garden. Abram knew he was already there. Derek Kidner says, “Lot, choosing the things that are seen, found them corrupt and insecure; choosing selfishly, he was to grow ever more isolated and unloved. Abram, on the other hand, found liberation.”

We live in a world filled with the tension of choosing what is seen for what is not. What will we choose? The contrast between Abram and Lot instructs us on the nature of trusting God. Lot chose by sight; Abram by faith. Lot moved to the edges, Abram to the center. Lot found corruption and temptation; Abram found assurance and peace. Lot was spiritually compromised; Abram was spiritually alive. Lot moved in with sinners; Abram moved in with God. Lot built no altars; Abram built them all. Lot chose by sight alone, and that is always a mistake.

ABRAM FOUND THE PROMISE OF GOD WAS SUFFICIENT (vv. 14-18)

14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

After Lot separates from Abram, we hear the voice of God again. John Calvin doesn’t allow us to race over that fact. Calvin comments. “There is no doubt that the wound inflicted by that separation was very severe, since he was obliged to send away one who was not less dear to him than his own life. When it is said, therefore, that the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, the circumstances should be noted. It is as if Moses said that the medicine of God’s word was now brought to alleviate Abram’s pain. And thus he teaches us that the best remedy for sadness is in the word of God.”

God’s word was well-placed, assuring Abram as he watched Lot fade into the distance. As Lot lifted his eyes to the valley, God told Abram, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward.” God has Abram look all around. What does he see? Does he see paradise?

God continued, “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” The land Abram had wasn’t the choicest land. But it was God’s land—the land of promise. It was God’s gift to Abram, and he wanted him to explore it, to get to know it, to call it his own. “Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

So Abram walked, and he built an altar to worship God again. All of Abram’s life was worship. That’s the result of believing God’s promise. Worship flows from trusting God. And when worship becomes your attitude, any land you’re in is the land of God. It’s a sanctuary, even if it’s a little dustier than the well-watered valleys.

In Genesis 13, Lot goes to the Garden while Abram stays in the wilderness. It sounds familiar to the early part of the gospels, where Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. At one point, “the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:5-7).

Jesus faced what Abram faced: a shortcut to the kingdom of God. Jesus wouldn’t take it, and neither did Abram. Instead, they believed the word of God and placed all their hope on that sufficient promise. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Like Jesus, Abram’s response was worship. There was an altar in Hebron to bear witness.

Unlike Abram, though, Jesus didn’t need to learn the lesson of failure before he tasted the sweetness of faith. His faith kept him from failure. And Abram, though he never saw Christ, saw the redemption he would bring that day on the mountain overlooking the valley. He knew that the promise of God was strong enough to sustain him in the chosen land. He knew God’s grace and mercy forgave his sins in Egypt. He knew what paradise looked like and he found it in the word of God, in the presence of God, in the worship of God. He knew—somehow—the promise of God sprang from the wilderness.

It is the same for us all. But what Abram saw by faith, we see now in history. Jesus came. Jesus lived and died and rose again. And like the thief on the cross, if we trust in him, when we die we go to be with him in paradise. Jesus brought the promise to pass for us all. Abram shows us how to trust in it today.