Abram, Lot, Land (Genesis 13)

We move to Genesis 13. This chapter begins the story of Abram and Lot’s relationship.

Abram, Sarai, and Lot leave Egypt, cast out by the Pharaoh at the end of chapter 12. They traverse the Negev desert which lies between Egypt and the Israel region. They eventually arrive at Bethel which is north of what is now Jerusalem. They settle in Bethel, at least for a time.

For Abram, it is a return. Verse 3 specifies that the spot is between Bethel and Ai, a spot that Abram had visited before and where he built an altar. Remember early on in Genesis 12? Before Abram and Sarai’s time as immigrants in Egypt, they inhabited the region between Bethel and Ai, and an altar was built there to prove it.

The mention of specific geographic spaces is important because of the dynamic still tragically at play, a dynamic revolving around the question, “whose land is it?” We should remember that the land we’re talking about is not void of people living there.

Anyway, Abram and Lot are doing very well. They do so well that they confront a problem only the well-to-do encounter. There’s not enough land for the both of them to grow into. Verse 6 says it all – “the land could not support both of them living together because their possessions were so great that they could not live together.”

Conflict arises quickly. The very next verse, verse 7, talks about strife developing over their livestock and the herders they employ.

Verse 7 points out something that we can’t ignore. It comes out of the blue but is important to remember – “Canaanites and Perizzites lived in the land.” Abram and Lot shared the land with folks who were there before they arrived.

Abram proposes a solution to end the strife. You go your way. I’ll go mine. And, Lot, you get to choose first. Lot of course chooses the prime real estate near city limits. Reminds me of lyrics from James McMurtry:

now cousin Clifford

he got the good land

right on the highway out by Air Base road

looks like a Wal-Mart waiting to happen

I mean to tell you it's a pot of gold

It's in the city limits, zoned commercial

Got city water and a sewer line

What with the base expanding from consolidation

It's worth a fortune and it oughta been mine

Replace Clifford with Lot, and “oughta” with “coulda,” and you get the deal Abram and Lot agree to.

Verse 12: “Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom. “

The closest city limits for Lot is the soon-to-be infamous city of Sodom which already has a bad reputation according to verse 13. Mark this mention of Sodom. More is about to go down despite Sodom being prime real estate for Lot. Or maybe because it is prime real estate for Lot. After all, he chooses me, me, me, and selfishly. It won’t be the last time either.

As for what Abram gets, he gets land in Canaan, which is already occupied by - duh - Canaanites. He also gets God’s promise in greater clarity. In 12:1-3, God promised to bless Abraham and make him a nation. In 13:14-17, God gives more details to this promise. God points to the general land where this new nation of Israel will develop. And he details that Abram’s descendants will be numerous, almost too many to be counted. 

“Raise your eyes now, 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 like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

Of the course the difficulty, as we've been mentioning all along, is that people already inhabit the land of Canaan. God is promising Abram land that people with their own god(s) already claim as their own.

Here’s the larger, universal dilemma for human beings. What comes of those who have no where to go?

Abram and Sarai, a family of two with children in the works  - what do families or groups of people do when they have no home, no land to call their own?

What’s for sure, homelessness, landlessness, lack of belonging - this is no easy place to be for families or groups of people. That God is on the side of such families and groups, that helps immensely!

The next question is for God. What can God do when he sees a family in need of a homeplace? Work on the conscience of those who already inhabit the land to welcome strangers like Abram and Sarai? Confront the occupying empire in power (in this case, Egypt) controlling the land ? Move the people already inhabiting the land out if they are not hospitable to refugees and immigrants like Abram and Sarai?

The answer to these questions is YES! God will work on the conscience of the Canaanites and all the other -ites there in the Canaan region. God will confront Egypt, the empire that controls a huge swath of that side of the world. And God will move out those who are not hospitable to this vagabond family and people in need of a home.

One more thing before I call it a day. Hospitality proves immensely important in the discussion moving forward. Sodom: at heart, Sodom’s sin is its inhospitable ways toward refugees and immigrants. Sodom’s lack of compassion, it's hard-heartedness is what angers God first and foremost. The natural consequence for such hard-heartedness is akin to a tenderizing hammer used on calloused souls. But that's a story for another Thursday.