Genesis 13: Teachings
Written in Genesis.
Is not the whole land before you?
— Genesis 13:9.
This is much more my speed, compared to the last chapter. Abram’s embrace of God and his giving of the land to Lot is the kind of wisdom I expected to get the first time I opened the Bible. I feel so much more at home in this chapter than I did before.
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
Why would Lot choose Sodom? Obviously there’s a lesson to be taught here, in that Lot was given a choice and — judging by the Bible’s explicit mentioning of Sodom’s wickedness — he chose wrong. Typically in the Bible, if an entire chapter is about a person making a choice, that choice is momentous.
But before I turn the page, I want to give Lot the benefit of the doubt. I choose to believe Lot moved eastward in an attempt to take the Lord to Sodom, not to betray Him and… do some nebulous, nefarious deed. We’re past the flood now, so I have to assume everyone in God’s flock has some good in them.
It feels silly for a two thousand year old book to hold me in suspense, but at this very moment I am utterly held.