5
¶ And Lot also, which went with Abram,
had flocks, and herds, and tents. 6 And
the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their
substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of
Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the
Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 8
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me
and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate
thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go
to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
10 ¶
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it
was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even
as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of
Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the
other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of
Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward
Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were
wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Abram and Lot were too wealthy to share the land.
There was constant conflict. So, Lot made the fateful decision to pitch his tent toward Sodom as many modern-day
Christians have done in leaving their home and family to go reside in a city
where there were “more opportunities.” I am sure many a sermon has been started
with the question, “have you pitched your tent toward Sodom?”
Genesis 13:13 has 13 words in it. Interesting, isn’t
it? Thirteen is the number of rebellion, some commentators of the Bible say.
Sodom represented all that was standing in opposition
to God in the ancient world and was a symbol of wickedness.
Ezekiel
16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of
thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her
and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and
needy. 50 And they were haughty, and
committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Cattle
does not necessarily mean beef cows, as in our modern speech. The Bible defines
cattle as livestock of all kinds.
Exodus
9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon
thy cattle which is in the field,
upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the
sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.
Cattle
is
often used to refer to sheep.
Genesis
30:40 And Jacob did separate the lambs,
and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in
the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not
unto Laban’s cattle.
When we picture Israel, Jordan, and Syria today we
picture an arid, desert landscape with little greenery and lots of rocks. But
Josephus, Jewish turncoat general in a revolt against the Romans and an
interesting historian albeit with questionable integrity, describes the region
as well watered by rainfall with plenty of grass for cattle. When we imagine
the slow drying out process after the Flood we can easily understand that
Canaan was not the dry place then that it has become.
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