Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
Seriously. Foreshadowing much? Maybe it’s just me, but that’s all I can think about while reading this story. How the Israelites are going to go through this whole thing as soon as we hit Exodus. That is, pretty much the same thing, with a little more slavery, a little more time, and a lot more people.
In fact, Abram and Lot have collected so much stuff, there isn’t enough land to support them both if they stay together. As far as I can tell, that’s a lot of stuff. These guys seem like they’re living the high life. Follow God, get stuff. Cool. Notice that God never promised this, though. He just told Abram to pack up and leave. True, he did promise blessings, but mostly it was about Abram becoming a great nation and everyone else on earth being blessed through him.
Anyways, they split up and “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain…” Now it’s not clear exactly what’s going on in Sodom, but they’ve already established a name for themselves as a wicked city. And while Lot doesn’t just go in and join them, he does pitch his tent near Sodom. I don’t know if he was planning on trying to witness to the city, and turn the people from their evil ways, or if he just wanted to be close to watch and see if God would fry them, or what he was thinking. But for whatever reason, he decides that instead of trying to stay as far away as possible, he’ll just live next to this pit of sin.
Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.
Go walk. Experience it. Enjoy it. It’s yours. I’m giving it to you.
So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
Hey look, more trees. Again, besides just being the best landmarks, with cities still being in somewhat sort supply, it’s very likely that these trees were basically shrines to something or other. So Abram builds another altar. Gets a promise from God, builds an altar. It’s starting to become a pattern if I do say so myself…
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