The Vision (8.16.24): Pitching a Tent Toward Sodom

 

Image: Abraham and Lot Separating, print, Philip Medhurst Collection at St. George's Court, Kidderminster.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 13. 

“Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom” (Genesis 13:12).

A contrast is drawn in Gensis 13 between godly Abram (later Abraham) and his nephew Lot.

When they returned from Egypt to the land of promise they decided to divide the land. Abram was a peacemaker, generously offering Lot first choice (vv. 8-9).

Lot looked and chose the plain of Jordan. It was lush, well-watered, “even as the garden of the LORD” (v. 10).  

But Moses anticipates what will happen on that plain, telling us this was “before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah” (v. 10). All that glittered was not gold. The land looked enticing, but its end would be fire and brimstone and destruction (see Genesis 19:24-25).

Using naturalistic reasoning, it looked outwardly like a very good real estate decision. Abram was left with what seemed the less attractive land. He “dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom” (v. 12).

There is no doubt spiritual significance in the statement that Lot pitched his tent (oriented his life) toward Sodom. The spiritual problem of Sodom is made clear in v. 13: “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.”

Lot did not set up in Sodom but directed himself toward it. You might say he got as close to it as he possibly could without entering it, but, in the end, it rubbed off on him and his house. As Solomon would ask, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” (Proverbs 6:27).  As we shall see later in the narrative, Lot will barely escape Sodom, but his wife literally will be ruined by it, and his two daughters will fair little better, morally speaking (Genesis 19). It seemed like such a good choice, a no-brainer, humanly speaking, but it would have disastrous consequences for Lot and his household.

As one reads Genesis 13, he might ask whether he will choose the way of Abraham (righteousness) or Lot (unrighteousness). Will he “pitch a tent” (orient his life) to the way of the Lord or the way of the world? As Christ will put it in the Sermon on the Mount, will he choose the narrow way that leads to life or the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14)?

We must add a caution, however, about simply offering a “moralistic” interpretation of this account.

Our hope rests, in the end, not in our ability NOT to pitch our tent toward Sodom. It rests in the fact that there was one who came as a man, while also true God, and never bent in the direction of Sodom, and never entered it. But who took upon himself all the fire and brimstone, all the wrath that we deserved for our sin, saved us, and clothed us with his righteousness. That, in the end, is indeed our hope.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle