Reflections on Genesis 13

Genesis 13 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Abram and Sarai took everything they owned and went to the Southern Desert. Lot went with them.
   
2. Abram was very rich. He owned many cattle, sheep, and goats, and had a lot of silver and gold.
   
3. Abram moved from place to place in the Southern Desert. And finally, he went north and set up his tents between Bethel and Ai,
   
4. where he had earlier camped and built an altar. There he worshiped the LORD.
   
5. Lot, who was traveling with him, also had sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as his own family and slaves.
   
6. At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the same area, and so there wasn't enough pastureland left for Abram and Lot with all of their animals. Besides this, the men who took care of Abram's animals and the ones who took care of Lot's animals started quarreling.
   
7. (SEE 13:6)
   
8. Abram said to Lot, "We are close relatives. We shouldn't argue, and our men shouldn't be fighting one another.
   
9. There is plenty of land for you to choose from. Let's separate. If you go north, I'll go south, if you go south, I'll go north."
   
10. This happened before the LORD had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And when Lot looked around, he saw there was plenty of water in the Jordan Valley. All the way to Zoar the valley was as green as the garden of the LORD or the land of Egypt.
    
11. So Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley for himself, and as he started toward the east, he and Abram separated.
    
12. Abram stayed in the land of Canaan. But Lot settled near the cities of the valley and put up his tents not far from Sodom,
    
13. where the people were evil and sinned terribly against the LORD.
    
14. After Abram and Lot had gone their separate ways, the LORD said to Abram: Look around to the north, south, east, and west.
    
15. I will give you and your family all the land you can see. It will be theirs forever!
    
16. I will give you more descendants than there are specks of dust on the earth, and someday it will be easier to count the specks of dust than to count your descendants.
    
17. Now walk back and forth across the land, because I am giving it to you.
    
18. Abram took down his tents and went to live near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar in honor of the LORD.
    
    

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    No doubt God directed Abram's foray into Egypt of which we read in chapter 12. Although Abram acted on his own when he lied about his wife Sarai being his sister, thus getting expelled from Egypt, he gained considerable wealth while in Egypt. Acting as Sarai's brother, Abram received from Egypt's Pharoah "flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels," (12:16) as a dowry to take Sarai as his wife. So Abram returned from Egypt to the Negev a wealthy man, as did Lot his nephew.
    
    Arriving again in Canaan, the land of God's promise, Abram again built an altar and worshipped God. The next section of chapter 13 contrasts one whose faith is in God with one whose faith is elsewhere. Because of the wealth of both Abram and Lot with large herds requiring much food and water, the land was unable to support them. Strife broke out between the herdsmen of the two kinsmen as they fought over the meager resources of the land. Abram decided the best solution was for them to separate. It was his choice in how to separate that highlighted the contrast between the two. Abram's faith was in God to provide for him so it made no difference to him where he resided. Lot, on the other hand, did not have such a faith. When given first choice of the land, he grabbed for the logically best portion of land along the Jordan valley.
    
    Covetousness was forbidden by God because what we covet will ensnare us, turning us away from God and toward evil. This account of Lot's choice gives a good example of covetousness at work. The outcome of Lot's choice, as can be seen through the reading of the following chapters, was the loss of all he had rather than greater prosperity.  Abram, on the other hand, accepted a less fertile land, depending on God's provision, and was increasingly prospered by God. The last verses of this chapter tell of God's promise to Abram to give him all of the land of Canaan - him and his offspring. A land they would possess forever.