Don’t Neglect God in Your Decision-Making – Genesis 13:8-12; Genesis 18:1-19:29
Genesis 13:8-12
13 (8) Then Abram said to Lot, I beg you, let there be no conflict between me and you, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. (9) Is not the whole land before you? I ask you, please separate yourself from me. If you will go to the left, then I will go to the right. Or if you will go to the right, I will go to the left. (10) Lot looked up and observed that all the Plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere, it was like the garden of Jehovah, or like the land of Egypt as you go towards Zoar. (This was before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) (11) So Lot chose for himself all the Plain of the Jordan. Then Lot journeyed east. So they separated themselves from one another. (12) Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the Plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
Genesis 18:1-19:29
18 And Jehovah appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. (2) Abraham looked up, and behold, three men stood before him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to greet them. He bowed down to the earth (3) and said, My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, I beg you, do not pass by your servant. (4) Let a little water be brought, then you may all wash your feet and take a rest under this tree. (5) Since you have come to your servant, allow me to bring you a crust of bread, so that you may eat and regain your strength; then you shall go on your way. And they said, Do as you have spoken. (6) So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread. (7) Then Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to his servant who hurried to prepare it. (8) Abraham took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. He stood near them under the tree while they ate…
(16) When the men got up to leave, they looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to bring them on their way. (17) And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do; (18) seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed by him? (19) The reason I have known Abraham* is so that he may instruct his children and his household after him to keep the way of Jehovah—to do righteousness and justice; so that Jehovah may bestow upon Abraham that which he has promised concerning him. (20) And Jehovah said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and because their sin is very grievous; (21) I will now go down and investigate whether they have done all that the protest that has been brought before me charges; and if not, I will know. (22) Then the men departed from there and went toward Sodom; but Abraham remained standing before Jehovah…
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Now Lot was sitting at the entrance gate of the city. When Lot saw them, he stood up to greet them; bowing himself with his face to the ground. (2) He said to them, Hear me now, my lords, I beg you, come to your servant’s house. Spend the night with me; wash your feet. Then you shall rise early in the morning and go on your way. And they said, No; on the contrary, we will remain all night in the street. (3) But he strongly urged them; so they went with him and entered his house. Lot made a feast for them. He baked unleavened bread, and they ate…
(12) Then the men said to Lot, Do you have any family members living here beside yourself? Whomever you have living in the city—your sons-in-law, your sons, and your daughters—take them out of here; (13) for we are about to destroy this place. The outcry to Jehovah against this people is so great that he has sent us to destroy this city. (14) So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were married to his daughters. He said to them, Get up and get out of this place, because Jehovah is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be a man who was joking.
(15) As soon as it was morning, the angels hurried Lot out, saying, Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, so that you will not be consumed with the iniquity of the city. (16) But Lot lingered; so the men took hold of his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hand of his two daughters—Jehovah being merciful to him—and dragged him away, setting him outside the city. (17) Then, after they had brought them away from the city, he said, Flee for your life; do not look behind you, neither stay in any part of the Plain. Flee to the mountains, so that you will not be consumed…
(24) Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire—from Jehovah out of heaven. (25) So he overthrew those cities—and all the Plain—and all the inhabitants of those cities, and all the vegetation of the land.
(26) But Lot’s wife, who was following him, looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
(27) When Abraham got up early in the morning and came to the place where he had stood before Jehovah; (28) he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain. As he watched, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. (29) So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, by delivering Lot from the catastrophe when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
*That is to say, “The reason I have entered into covenant with Abraham.”
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
