Genesis 13:5 Commentary and Bible Study

When Abram was called to leave Ur of the Chaldees by God, he was called to leave his family and his father's house, and some people suggest that really he should never have taken Lot, that Lot was part of the family that he should have left entirely behind. But that is not altogether fair. Lot obviously wanted to identify with him and wanted to take this journey in obedience to God, and yet there is a profound difference between them. We can see that while Lot is a believer, and he has a real union with God and trust in him, yet he is not made of quite the same stuff as Abram, and he doesn't have the same faith and commitment. Both Abram and Lot were now considerably enriched through being in Egypt and through trade, but although Abram remained focused on God’s calling, Lot was perhaps already being distracted by his possessions. Abram is described as having his livestock and also silver and gold – rather unusual for travelling person of that kind – but when it comes to Lot you read of ‘flocks, and herds, and tents’. The old writers used to fix on that, ‘and tents’. Why are they brought in? They're not normally mentioned. The possibility is that our attention is being drawn to this. Lot’s encampment was significant for the number of tents. Abraham was content to be a nomad, a tent-dweller, because that's what the Lord had instructed him to be, and the instruction is repeated later in this chapter. He is to walk by faith. He is to be a symbol of someone on pilgrimage. He is not going to inherit the land personally. He will walk up and down in the land, but it's for his seed to plant it and inherit it fully, not for him, and he's going to honour that. But Lot is inkling after buildings, and if he can't have buildings, he'll have the nearest thing, a multiplicity of tents, and, dare we suggest, rather splendid tents also. He's halfway to being a minor city-state in his own encampment. It's in his heart already to go to a city like Sodom, where he can have influence and trade, and be somebody special, and be noticed – even though he is a believer. He is drawn to those things. It suggests that he is picking up far more staff, far more servants, more herdsman than Abram, even though his flocks were not as great by any means. You are seeing a difference between them.