The Story

Primary

We all know Abram. And do we all know Lot? Who was he? They went up out of Egypt, our story says. How did they come to be in Egypt? How had they prospered there? They were now very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. "Cattle" means also sheep, of which they had many. They came into the "south." They traveled north and east, but into the "south country," as the pasture country at the south of Canaan was called, much as we call the southern part of the United States "the south," and might speak of one traveling north from Mexico as coming into the south.

They came to the hills of Bethel, coming back to places where they had been before. Yet places are never quite the same to us when we come back to them again, for we ourselves have grown older and changed. We are now with Abram and Lot on the high hills of Bethel, looking out over the land. Hills to the north and south, to the west hills and the plain stretching off toward the sea, and to the east they look down steep hills to the beautiful, warm, well-watered plain of Jordan and across to the hills beyond. Why are they looking out so earnestly over the land? And why do we see them presently parting from each other and going different ways? Read verses 1-9 of our chapter and see if you can tell why. Our larger picture today, of Palestine sheep and shepherds, helps us to imagine the flocks of Abram and Lot and the shepherds who took care of them. Think how it would be if twenty shepherds and hundreds of sheep were trying at the same time to get water from a spring, and if native people of the land were trying to drive them away and to keep the water for themselves. They ought not quarrel; it would be better to separate.

Our little picture shows us the plain of Jordan, where Lot chose to make his home. We think of Sodom near the north end of the Dead Sea. Our picture is from the ruins of Jericho, and the stream running out into the meadow is from Elisha's spring. It looked to Lot like the garden of the Lord, like Eden, which we have learned about. There were dangers there, as Lot afterward found out, for Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked cities. Zoar was a little city of the same group, perhaps over toward the eastern hills across the plain.

Abram was left standing on the hills at Bethel. The Lord told him to look over the land in every direction and to walk through it, for it should some day belong to his family and they would increase to very many people. Lot had chosen the plain; Abram kept to the hills and made his home at Hebron, high among the hills to the south of Bethel. Both Lot and Abram were living in tents like other shepherds, and Abram pitched his tent not in "the plain" but by the oaks (or terebinths, trees that look much like oaks) of Mamre, another name for Hebron. We soon have a lesson which tells of a tree shading his tent door. What happened here at Bethel? What here near Sodom? What here at Hebron?

Lot had come with Abram and his family from Ur in the land of the Euphrates, and he had journeyed on with Abram from Haran to the land of Canaan and had gone down with him into Egypt. Who was Lot? Abram's nephew, the son of his brother Haran. Abram and Lot came back together from Egypt "into the south," not in a southerly direction, but into the South Country. This was the name of the open pasture land stretching southward from the hills of Judaea to the desert. It is a rolling country with few trees, but with broad sunny slopes where large flocks of sheep and droves of camels pasture. They journeyed through this country and back to the hills of Bethel where they had camped before. We know that Abram had sheep and oxen and asses and camels when he went down to Egypt. Now he had still more, and Lot had many also. There were also native people in the land with their flocks and herds. The Canaanites were the lowlanders living by the sea and in the Jordan Valley; the Perizzites were villagers of the middle country. Disputes were sure to arise between the herdsmen about the pastures and the watering places. Isaac afterward had such trouble in the South Country (Gen. 26:20), and it was probably to avoid such disputes that Jacob dug his well at Shechem. But Abram would have no strife with Lot; they should separate in peace.

At Bethel you stand on high hills which form the crest of the land. You look westward over lower hills and the broad Philistine meadows to the Mediterranean Sea; eastward you look down into the deep valley of the Jordan and to the purple hills beyond. The Jordan is a wonderful river. Follow it on the map from the great springs under Mount Hermon through the Sea of Galilee and down to the Dead Sea; all the way it is running down hill fast. The name Jordan means the "descender." Before it reaches the Sea of Galilee, it is much below the ocean level and it keeps on going down so that the lower part of its course is in a deep trough very much lower than the sea. The Dead Sea into which the river empties is very salty, and its shores are barren, but north of the Dead Sea bordering the river east and west are wide meadows. The sunshine is very hot, and in the old days when the water from springs and streams was carefully used, there were rich gardens and orchards everywhere. In this meadow near the Dead Sea we think of Sodom and Gomorrah and Zoar and other cities. Lot looked from the hills of Bethel into the Jordan Valley and chose it for his home. It was a beautiful garden country, but the people there were wicked.

After Lot had gone from Abram, the Lord blessed Abram and told him that the land should belong to him. He went from Bethel to Hebron or Mamre, a very old city in what was afterward called the "hill country of Judaea." There Abram's flock pastured on the hills and he pitched his tents by the oaks or terebinths near the town. A very old tree near Hebron is still called "Abram's oak," and it may perhaps be near his camping place. Now let us read the story.

There are times when it is well to separate. It is a duty to separate in our own minds things that do not agree with true Christian life: laziness, enjoyment in eating and drinking which leads us to eat and drink too much, fondness for play, for seeing and hearing pleasant things which makes us neglect our work, which makes us selfish and thoughtless of other people's comfort. Pleasures are good and useful when they are enjoyed in a right way, and made useful to Christian life. This is the plain of Jordan seen as a garden of the Lord. But enjoyments that are selfish, that are evil, which pitch their tents toward Sodom (and Sodom is evil) - these must be separated and dismissed. They must not be allowed to crowd, to quarrel with, to weaken and perhaps to destroy the Christian life.

1. Who was Lot? What journey did he take with Abram?

2. Where is Bethel? When did Abram first camp there? When did he come again to the place?

3. Why did Lot separate from Abram? Where did Lot make his home?

4. What sort of country was the plain of Jordan? What cities were there? Were the people good or bad?

5. Where did Abram make his home? At what other place had he camped by a tree?

Spiritual Study

What does the journey of Abram from his native country to the Holy Land represent in our experience and in the Lord's life on earth? What does the famine represent, and Abram's stay in Egypt? Abram returned from Egypt to the mountain east of Bethel where he had camped before. The camp upon this mountain represented a holy, heavenly state. The return to the mountain represents the coming again to holy states after having strengthened the life with natural knowledge represented by the stay in Egypt. Are we always careful after we have gained knowledge, to be as gentle and innocent as before? (A. 1556)

What Lot means in this story is made plain by his choice of a home. We are familiar with the land of Canaan as a type of heaven and spiritual life. The holiness centers in Jerusalem and the central hills of the land. The low-lying plains by the sea and Jordan represent external and lower developments of life, the plain of Jordan especially the enjoyment of external pleasures, among them pleasures of eating and drinking and of the senses, right and good in their place, but so easily approaching evil. It was here that the children of Israel first entered the land, and here also John the Baptist gave the first simple teachings of heavenly life. Lot chose the plain of Jordan, and he represents in the story the external nature with its interests and pleasures. Abram who remained upon the hills represents the more interior, heavenly nature. There is often strife between these two natures. Many things which are naturally pleasant do not agree with our duty to the Lord; they must be separated or they will continually war with and hinder the heavenly life. This putting aside all natural things which conflict with heavenly life is represented by Abram's sending Lot away. (A. 1571, 1581)

When Lot came with Abram from Ur, we learned that he represented the external side of life, of which Abram represented the internal. Through most of the story of Abram and Lot, Lot has this meaning, representing interests and pleasures of outward physical life, both those that are good and helpful to spiritual life and those that are not. But in this thirteenth chapter, Lot has a special and more restricted meaning. He means in this chapter those interests and pleasures of external life that cannot agree with spiritual life and must be separated. We find Lot in the broader meaning again in the next chapter, where he is taken captive and is released and restored to his place by Abram. (A. 1547) How much wiser, with the Lord's help, to dismiss pleasures, desires and longings that will not agree with spiritual life, and give them up, than to worry along with them, allowing the spiritual life to be continually harassed and crippled by them.

We have developed the thought in relation to ourselves. We can see the meaning of the story in relation to the Lord, and can see the picture of His separation as a Child of all things of outward pleasure that would not agree with the Divine life which He was to live and the Divine work which He was to do. A helpful number in the Arcana puts this separation from Lot side by side with Abram's leaving Egypt. Leaving Egypt and Pharaoh means the discarding of things of knowledge which were not helpful to living out and doing the work of the Divine love. And this parting from Lot is the separation of things of external pleasure which are not helpful but discordant. (A. 1542)

We must have a final thought of Abram after Lot parted from him. He was left standing on the hills of Bethel, and was given a new vision of the land and a new promise of its possession by his family. It suggests the new freedom and expansion which comes to us in some degree, and which came to the Lord in Divine degree, as each hindering evil was removed. Compare the Lord's words: "Now is the Son of man glorified," after Judas had gone out into the night. (John 13:30-32)

Think of the encouragement to the Lord of these promises of great increases of Abram's family, for the Lord's family are those who become His children, living with Him the Christian life. Sometimes the increase is compared to the dust of the earth, sometimes to the sand of the sea, and sometimes to the stars of heaven. The general thought is the same, but more specifically the dust has reference to the increase of good, the sea to the increase of truth, and the stars to both in a higher degree. (A. 1610)

We have had a thought of the meaning of Lot's home in the plain of Jordan. Have we a thought as to the meaning of Abram's home in Hebron, the ancient city in the hills of Judah? And can anyone learn the meaning of the oaks, or terebinths, by which he camped? They stand for the child's perception of truth, not yet well ordered, but strong and tenacious. It was the oak of Moreh, and now the oaks of Mamre. (A. 1616)

The Canaanite and Perizzite were also in the land. They represent still more evil things with which we must contend. At Abram's first coming into the land the Canaanite only was mentioned (Gen. 12:6), but now both Canaanite and Perizzite. The first opposition to good life in a child is from unheavenly feelings, meant by the Canaanite. After children have reached the age of intellectual development represented by the stay in Egypt, false thoughts also trouble them, represented by the Perizzite. (A. 1573)

As Lot beheld the plain of Jordan it was beautiful as "the garden of the Lord." It means that the external nature with its interests and pleasures may be wholly good and lovely if they are kept in order and in true relation to the spiritual life. But there were wicked people in that country, suggesting how easily external pleasures are enjoyed in a selfish way and become evil. (A. 1588, 1600)

Abram's first camp in the land was by the oak or terebinth of Moreh at Shechem, and the tree represented a child's first heavenly perceptions, not very intelligent but strong and sturdy. The oaks of Mamre where he now pitched his tents represent heavenly perceptions more interior and abundant. (A. 1443, 1616)

We have spoken of Abram and Lot as representing the more interior and external natures in ourselves. In a deeper sense, they represent the Divine and the external natures in the Lord. The separation of external things not in agreement with internal was never perfectly accomplished except in His life. The external nature was never brought into perfect order and beauty as a "garden of the Lord" except in Him. (A. 1542, 1568)

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