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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Genesis 13:10
Comments
Lot is given first choice and he takes it immediately. ‘And Lot lifted up his eyes.’ The old preachers and writers make much of that, and they all like to point out that Lot made a choice according to his eyes and what he could see, and he lusted after the fertile plain of Jordan and all the riches it could bring him. He could see also or knew that there were those evil cities there in the plain, but that did not put him off because they would mean trade and even greater riches, and then perhaps influence and companionship, and so he was drawn to all that. The narrative deliberately uses that language, because it is going to give contrasting language in verse 14, where God blesses Abram and says to him, ‘Lift up now thine eyes, your eyes.’ So the lifting up the eyes of verse 10 is matched by the lifting up of the eyes in verse 14. Lot lifted up his light eyes to make a human choice for the here and now and possessions and stuff, whereas Abram lifted up the eye of faith to look at the things that God had determined for him. There’s a contrast deliberately signed up in the narrative here.
Application
Have you been prospered? Has God prospered you or do you have blessings in this life? You have maybe got a good brain you, and you do well in studies; you get good passes, good qualifications? You have got a great skill, and you have got money and substance: a flat, a house, family, children. Well these things are great blessings, but do they go to your head? Do they take over your soul so that you love them too much and serve them, and you let go of the Lord and the life of faith? This is what is happening to Lot. He is a converted man, but you can see him step-by-step, stage by stage, being drawn into the world.
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