The subtle interplay between Abraham, the man who looked for a city, and Lot, the man who lived in the city, graphically displays the importance of our daily decisions.
Lot’s father died prematurely, and he was raised by his grandfather until Terah died in Haran. It would seem from the verbs used (Terah took Lot; Lot went with Abram) that Lot came of age in Haran and made the decision to travel with his uncle to the promised land. If so, it was a wise decision on his part; the last wise decision he made, it seems.
The decision to part company was made when contention arose between their herders. ‘Although Lot may not have been wrong in having separate possessions, yet we observe that in all ages the chosen family of God is one. If the members begin to seek the things that are their own, there will soon be schism in the body’, C H WALLER.
The decision to move into Sodom was not made all at once, but having separated from the man who lived as a stranger and a pilgrim in the earth, it was only a matter of time. Lot ‘pitched his tent toward Sodom’, Gen. 13. 12, but perhaps felt it dangerous to be living exposed to marauders on the broad, fertile plains of the Jordan valley; so we find him dwelling in Sodom, Gen. 14. 12.
Lot’s move cost him both his material wealth and his testimony. He moved into Sodom a rich man; he left with what he could hurriedly carry out. And were it not for Peter’s comment, we would hardly think Lot was saved. It cost him his soul rest, for he was ‘vexed’ daily by the corrupt city where he lived. It cost him his family, with his sons-in-law thinking he was joking when he warned them to flee, his daughters engaging in behaviour just like Sodom’s citizens, and his wife so akin to her environment that God left her there, a pillar of salt, just like the surrounding terrain. Remember Lot’s strife as well as his wife.
How careful we must be of the choices we make. To advance a career, we may abandon a ministry the Lord has given us in a local assembly that needs us, uproot our families from a place of blessing, and while gaining temporarily in this world, may end up losing everything but our souls.
