God's Big Picture: Genesis 13:1-18

CIT: We become what we worship

Abram is changed by worship

Lot acts on what he sees

Abram acts on what he believes

Abram is changed by worship

In Egypt Abram was deceitful

When we last saw Abram he had left the promised land and had gone to Egypt because there was a famine, in doing so he is not trusting that God will provide for him in the land that was promised to him, and when he gets to Egypt he lies to Pharaoh saying that his wife, Sarai, is not his wife but is his sister. He was deceitful and selfish, so let’s see what happens to him now that he is coming back into the promised land.

The first thing he does back in the promised land is worship God

In Gen. 13:4 Abram builds an altar and calls upon the name of the LORD when he gets back into the promised land. In the place where he is supposed to be he worships God. This act of worship changes his heart away from being deceitful to being faithful.

In Gen. 13:5-7 we see that the land could not sustain both Abram and Lot’s herds. So Abram decides to settle this dispute with Lot in Gen. 13:8-9

Abram became more like the one whom he worshipped

If Abram acted like he did in Egypt then he would have deceitfully taken the land that God had promised to him from Lot, but his worship of YHWH has changed his heart, so that he allows Lot to have first dibs, trusting that the Lord will still give him the promised land.

We see that Abram is not the same after worshipping God, because he was not deceitful, he was benevolent.

As G.K. Beale states, “We become what we worship.” Abram worshipped God when he came back into the promised land, therefore he acted more like him, we’ll see however what happens to Lot.

Lot acts on what he sees

Lot gets to choose between the promised land and the Jordan Valley

When Abram presents Lot with his choice of land he has a choice between God’s promised land and the Jordan Valley, east of the Promised Land, which contains Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot chooses the Jordan Valley because it is appealing to the eyes

In Gen. 13:10 Lot sees that the Jordan Valley is appealing to the eyes, even comparing it to the garden of the LORD (Eden), but little does he know that there is danger waiting for him in this land.

Eve chose the fruit because it was appealing to the eyes

Notice how Lot chooses to take this land because of how it looks, this echoes eve taking the fruit because of how it looked, but that fruit, and this land only brings death.

We even see the progression of Lot becoming what he worships. We see that Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan Valley, but then we see him take another step and places his tent in Sodom, a city full of wicked sinners wickedly sinning against God. He is surrounding himself with sin and we see in Gen. 19 that Lot inevitably becomes what he worshipped with Sodom being destroyed and him committing sexual immorality with his daughters.

Abram acts on what he believes

Abram lets Lot pick first because of what he believes

We see a clear difference in how Lot acts and how Abram acts in this situation. Lot chose the land based on what he saw, Abram allowed Lot to pick first based on what he believed.

Abram believes that God will fulfill his promise of giving him this land

Abram believed that God would give him this land and he was right, God tells Abram in Gen. 13:14-18 to look all around him, and one day God will give him and his offspring, which will be more than the dust of the earth, this promised land.

Application

This is a cool Bible story but where does it lead us? It should lead us to follow in Abram’s footsteps.

When I was a Sophomore in high school I decided to start hanging around a new group of people. Reason being is that we all listened to the same type of music, that is heavy metal. My favorite heavy metal band at the time was a band called Slipknot. If you’ve never heard of them they are very heavy and have very dark lyrics, many of which are very atheistic. I loved this band though, mainly because my mom told me that I wasn’t allowed to listen to them when I was in Middle School. I loved this band so much that I wore my Slipknot shirt to school almost every day, and their biggest fans were called maggots, so I even put on Facebook that I “worked” as a maggot for Slipknot. I even went to see them live when I was in high school, and it was practically a worship concert for me because I idolized them so much.

Then my church got a new student pastor when I was a Junior in high school, his name was Michael. He would have me come over to his house to play pool and hangout, and one day he asked me about my love for Slipknot. He asked why I listened to them so much, why I wore their merch so much, why I identified myself as maggot so passionately. This caused me to realize that I had become what I had worshipped. Did I know that listening to that band when my mom said i wasn’t allowed to would lead me to such sin? Did Lot know that choosing the Jordan Valley and living in Sodom would lead him to such sin? what are you choosing rather than God? Let’s follow in the faith of Abram and become what we worship, let’s worship God.