Sermon Tone Analysis

DEPARTURE FROM ABRAHAM

UNTIL THE TIME of the events of our text, Lot had always lived in the company of Abraham.

He was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, the place where his uncle Abraham then resided.

He traveled with the group that went with Abraham from Ur to Haran.

When Terah died in Haran, he became part of Abraham’s household and continued on with Abraham as Abraham left Haran and moved to Canaan then to Egypt and then back to Canaan again.

But this continuous living in the company of Abraham will stop in our text.

Lot will move away from Abraham and live a considerable distance from him.

But the change will be disastrous for Lot.

Lot needed Abraham.

Abraham did not need Lot, but Lot needed Abraham.

Without Abraham, Lot will experience a terrible moral and spiritual decline that will leave him shorn of everything good in life.

When Scripture focuses on Lot, as it begins to do in our text, it reports only a life of shameful failure.

The world, of course, would not call it failure nearly as soon as the godly would; for the world would laud the material prosperity which came to Lot for a time after he departed from Abraham.

When the world assesses a person, it does not take into account one’s moral and spiritual well-being.

It looks rather at such things as one’s material possessions.

The greater your possessions, the greater the world thinks you are.

If you have thrown your moral and spiritual well-being to the winds to gain materially, the world will hardly notice, and it certainly will not condemn; for the world gives little thought or value to one’s moral and spiritual condition.

Hence, the world will not evaluate Lot’s life as negatively—or as correctly—as the godly will.

To study this departure of Lot from Abraham, we will consider the causes of the departure (vv.

2–8), the counsel for the departure (vv.

8, 9), and the choice in the departure (vv.

10–13).

A. THE CAUSES OF THE DEPARTURE

There were two causes that mandated Lot’s departure from Abraham.

These two causes were substance and strife.

The profuseness of substance was the primary cause.

The presence of strife was the secondary cause.

1.

The Profuseness of Substance

By the time that Lot had returned from Egypt with his uncle Abraham, both he and Abraham were wealthy men.

Not surprisingly, Abraham was obviously the wealthier of the two.

A few verses earlier in our text, he is described as being “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (v.2)

He had done very well materially before his trip to Egypt, but in Egypt he had added considerably (but not honorably) to his wealth because of Sarah being in Pharaoh’s custody

This had helped to make him “very rich.”

But all of this great wealth of Abraham and of Lot did not promote and bring great harmony in their relationship with each other.

It did not eliminate all of their problems.

To the contrary, it created some very serious problems.

This is not unusual, however; for there are many problems associated with an abundance of wealth.

When one becomes wealthy, life becomes hectic; and untold cares and worries are added to life.

Wealthy people are seldom happy.

Their smiles and laughter are all outward cosmetics most of the time.

The wealthy do not know who their true friends are (for many feign friendship to get a cut of the pie).

The privacy of a wealthy person is constantly being invaded (one of the first things a big lottery winner does is disconnect the phone or get an unlisted number in order to hide from the pursuing public).

Wealth promotes more strife than peace (as seen in our text).

It does not promote good marriages or good family relationships.

Law suits, blackmail, and ransom payments are a constant threat for the wealthy.

And in our text, wealth was the root cause which brought about the separation of Lot from Abraham, a separation Lot’s character could ill-afford.

Oh, what a curse wealth can be.

Though many problems plague wealth, few recognize or accept this truth about wealth.

To most, and especially to those who have lived on the short end of things materially, wealth seems to be that which will put one into utopia living and that which will solve just about all of one’s problems.

The general consensus of people is that poverty, not wealth, is the cause of our problems; and that if we only had more money, we could solve more of our problems.

Our government worships perpetually at the shrine of that ideal.

Whenever a problem in the land comes to their attention, the only remedy the government seems to know is to allocate money for the problem—which helps explain why the government does not solve many problems.

Though few people seem to recognize the perils of earthly wealth and, hence, over evaluate and esteem earthly wealth, they have no excuse for this failure; for Scripture warns us early about the drawbacks of wealth.

We only have to read as far as this thirteenth chapter of the first book of the Bible before great wealth is mentioned in a negative way.

And not too much further on in Genesis, we are given a repeated warning of the perils of wealth when we are told that Jacob and Esau had a problem very similar to Lot and Abraham.

“Their riches were more than that they might dwell together” (Genesis 36:7).

Warning us early and repeatedly in Scripture about the problems of wealth emphasizes the peril of wealth and gives us a strong warning not to set our hearts on wealth.

All of this does not mean that earthly wealth is in itself evil.

To be rich is not necessarily sinful.

But you cannot be rich in the goods of this world without giving up some valuable things and without having great difficulty keeping the heart unaffected by it all.

Therefore, if you do not have a great deal materially in this world, do not pity yourself or envy those who have more.

You are better off than you think.

Many wealthy folk would change places with you if they could.

“Be content with such things as ye have” (Hebrews 13:5).

Count your blessings in something other than dollars and cents.

When you do that, you may discover that you are wealthier than all the millionaires.

Do not give up the great blessings you have in order to accumulate a bundle in the dollars and cents department.

No departure, like Lot from Abraham, can ever be compensated for by wealth.

Had Lot experienced nothing but poverty and yet had remained in Abraham’s company, he would have escaped the troubles which ruined his life.

2. The Presence of Strife

This secondary cause of the departure of Lot from Abraham, like many secondary causes, seems like the primary cause.

But the primary cause of the departure was wealth.

Strife is simply a frequent offshoot of wealth, as we noted above.

It is not difficult in this case to see why the wealth of Lot and Abraham would cause strife.

With the land where Lot and Abraham lived being unable to support their large flocks, disputings would easily occur about pasture lands, about wells and watering times, and about which animals belonged to whom.

While the “strife” here was mostly words or nearly all words (Wilson states that the Hebrew word is used “rarely of those who contend by blows … oftener of those who strive in words”), it was no small matter.

For if the strife had been permitted to continue, it could have led to some very bad consequences for the flocks, the faith, and the family.

It could have led to diminishing of the flocks (v.

7), dishonor for the faith (v.

7), and dissension in the family (v.

8).

These perils of continued strife are not problems limited to strife caused by wealth, as here; but they are also troubles that result from evil strife caused by any number of reasons.

Diminishing of the flocks.

Right after verse 7 reports that there was strife among the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham, it next says, “and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land.”

Because of where that statement is placed in Scripture by the Holy Spirit, it becomes a very ominous statement regarding the strife and instructs us regarding some consequences that could result from the striving.

The statement warns that the strife could diminish the flocks and dishonor the faith.

Here, we deal with the diminishing of the flocks.

With the Canaanites and Perizzites nearby, the striving of the herdsmen left the flocks open to being plundered by these neighboring people.

If the herdsmen are bickering and fussing with each other, they obviously will not be doing a very good job of watching their flocks.

Herdsmen cannot at the same time be watching their flocks well and fighting with each other.

The Canaanites and Perizzites could not help but be envious of the large flocks of Abraham and Lot (one of the problems of being wealthy is to experience the evil envy of others).

With their lack of character, this would only encourage plundering of the flocks if the opportunity presented itself; and the striving amongst the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham would present a golden opportunity to plunder.

Church flocks also become vulnerable to being plundered by Satan when fighting goes on within a church.

Church contentions give the devil a free hand to diminish the size of the flock.

It is not infrequent that church members get scattered into apostate churches or end up attending no church at all because of fights within a church.

This ought to encourage church members to endeavor to live more peaceably with each other.

It also ought to encourage the good church members to mark out those of disagreeable nature, who are always causing unnecessary uprisings in the church, and deal firmly with them.

If these contentious members are not straightened out or removed from the church, the church will lose more and more members and could even eventually dissolve.

Dishonor for the faith.

The other warning we have from the statement about the Canaanites and Perizzites being in the land is that the striving of the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham could bring great dishonor to faith in God and to God Himself.

Abraham had given very clear evidence about his faith when he built altars in the land to worship Jehovah.

The Canaanites and Perizzites would readily observe those altars.