Lot the Leaner

Pastor Don Carpenter

Bible Boneheads / Compromise; Direction and Orientation / Genesis 13:1–13

How in the world did Lot end up in such a mess?

One word—choices.

—Something each of us has in common. Every single day… every single moment we make choices.

—What to eat. What to wear. What to say. What to do. How to act.

—You’ve made a thousand choices before you arrived here this morning!

—A choice to argue with your wife. A choice to yell at the kids. A choice to spend some time with the Lord in prayer. Choices.

The choices you make today are the ones you’re going to have to live with tomorrow.

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Tonight we are launching a brand new series entitled “Bible Boneheads” We will be studying three different folks who were given everything they needed to serve God effectively, but, being Boneheads, they squandered all that they were given and ended up reaping terrible consequences for their actions. The men we will be studying are all believers. They all knew better. They all belonged to God. They all suffered needlessly because of the choices they made.

Most of us know the basic story of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. He came out of the Pagan land with his uncle. He learned to worship the One True God, yet he ended up in a city that was judged by the Fire of God. He lost almost everything because of the choices he made. Tonight we are going to see where it all started to go wrong.  

Lot and Abraham started together but ended up is vastly different places because they were pointed in different directions.

Abraham Was Headed Away From Sin

He Left the Bad Choices of Egypt Behind.

Genesis 13:1 KJV

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Abraham learned his lesson, repented, and “went up” out of Egypt (13:1). When you disobey the will of God, the only right thing to do is to go back to the place where you left Him and make a new beginning (1 John 1:9). No failure is permanent in “the school of faith.” Abraham went back to his tent and altar and the life of a “pilgrim and stranger.”

A casual observer of this episode might conclude, “What happened to Abraham wasn’t all bad. Pharaoh gave Abraham a lot of wealth (Gen. 12:16; 13:2), and Sarah was given her own maid, Hagar (16:1). God forgave Abraham’s sin, and he started over again. So, what’s the big problem?”

The “big problem” is that everything Abraham received in Egypt later caused trouble. Because of their great wealth, Abraham and Lot could not live together and had to separate (13:5–6). Hagar, the Egyptian maidservant, brought division and sorrow into the home (Gen. 16). Having had a taste of Egypt (the world), Lot started measuring everything by what he saw there (13:10–11); and this led to his downfall and the ruin of his family. There are no benefits from disobedience.

The practical lesson from all of this is simply never abandon your altar. Stay in fellowship with the Lord no matter what the circumstances may be. If you have disobeyed and God is disciplining you, go back to the place where you left Him and make things right. Remember: “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.” That is not an excuse for sin, but it is an encouragement for repentance

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1991). Be Obedient (pp. 25–26). Victor Books.

Proverbs 24:16 KJV

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: But the wicked shall fall into mischief.

He Was Headed Back to Bethel

Genesis 13:3 KJV

And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai;

Genesis 12:7–8 KJV

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. 

And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

Bethel = House of the Lord

1 Timothy 3:15 KJV

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

He Was Headed Back to the Altar – Repentance and prayer.

Genesis 13:4 KJV

Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

He Called on the Name of the LORD – Jehovah

Genesis 4:26 KJV

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Genesis 12:8 KJV

And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

 Genesis 21:33 (KJV)

 And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

Abraham Was Headed Away From Selfishness.

Genesis 13:5–9 KJV

And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. 

And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. 

And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 

And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. 

Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

Did you notice this statement: “And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land?” Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen are fighting, and then Abram and Lot disagree. The very interesting thing is that then the Canaanite probably whispered over to the Perizzite, “Look at them! Fightin’ again! When they came into this land and built an altar to the living and true God, how we looked up to Abram! When he first came here, we thought he was such a wonderful man. We knew he was honest, we knew he was truthful, but look at him now. Look at the strife they’re having!” I do not think the Perizzite and the Canaanite were very well impressed by Abram and Lot at this time.1

1 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Law (Genesis 1-15) (electronic ed., Vol. 1, p. 180). Thomas Nelson.

James 3:13–16 KJV

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 

This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

It was bad enough that this dispute was between brethren (Gen. 13:8); but even worse, the heathen people of the land were watching and listening (13:7). When Christians have disputes, it hurts the testimony of the Lord. In my pastoral ministry, I frequently visited the unsaved relatives and friends of church members, seeking to interest them in spiritual things, only to discover that they knew about every “church fight” in town. No wonder our Lord prayed that His people might be one, that the world might believe (John 17:20–23). Christian unity is fragrant and fruitful (Ps. 133), but disunity turns that fragrance into a stench and the garden into a desert.1

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1991). Be Obedient (pp. 26–27). Victor Books.

Philippians 2:2–4 KJV

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Hebrews 12:14 KJV

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Romans 12:18 KJV

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

I wonder how many family fights have been caused by the love of money. The newspapers often publish reports about families battling in court because of an inheritance or a lottery winning. People who used to love each other and enjoy each other start attacking each other just to get money, but money cannot buy the blessings that families freely give.

Abraham may have failed the first two tests, but he passed this third test with great success. The test was not an easy one, for it involved land and wealth; but Abraham is the example of what every believer should do when there are disputes about material things.

Abraham determined to be a peacemaker and not a troublemaker. The problem between Abraham and Lot was not caused by the land, the famine, their wealth (both of them were rich), or even their herdsmen (13:7). The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. Lot’s heart was centered on wealth and worldly achievement, while Abraham wanted only to please the Lord. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:31

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1991). Be Obedient (p. 26). Victor Books.

Lot Was Headed Away From God and His People and Toward the World

Genesis 13:10–13 KJV

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 

Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 

Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. 

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

Covetousness—an insatiable appetite for more things—leads to all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10). In order to get more money, people will lie (Prov. 21:6), mistreat people (22:16), cheat (28:8), and even trouble their own families (15:27). “Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil’s alphabet,” wrote Robert South, “the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.”

Abraham had caused trouble in Egypt because he was out of place, and Lot caused trouble in Canaan because he was out of place: His heart was really in Egypt (13:10). According to 1 Corinthians 2:14–3:3, there are only three kinds of people in the world: the natural (unsaved), the carnal (saved but living for the world and the flesh), and the spiritual (devoted to God). You find all three in Genesis 13: the natural (13:13), the carnal (Lot), and the spiritual (Abraham). Lot was a righteous man (2 Peter 2:7–8) but not devoted to the Lord. He could not walk with Abraham because Abraham was the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8) and Lot was a friend of the world (James 4:4). Many church splits and family fights are caused by carnal Christians who are not walking with the Lord or with other believers.1

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1991). Be Obedient (pp. 27–28). Victor Books.

1 John 2:15 KJV

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Proverbs 24:19 KJV

Fret not thyself because of evil men, Neither be thou envious at the wicked;

 Feathers for Arrows (Light—Detested by the Wicked) C. H. Spurgeon

 A …housemaid when scolded for the untidiness of the chambers exclaimed, “I’m sure the rooms would be clean enough if it were not for the nasty sun which is always showing the dirty corners.” Thus do men revile the gospel because it reveals their own sin. Thus all agitations for reforms in Church and State are opposed, and all manner of mischief attributed to them as if they created the evils which they bring to light. The lover of the right courts anything which may manifest the wrong, but those who love evil have never a good word for those disturbing beams of truth which show up the filthy corners of their hearts and lives.

Lot started to be interested, then tolerant, then apathetic to wickedness around him. It was much easier to ease up to Sodom as he grew more and more carnal, than it would have been to be around Abraham as he grew closer and closer to God. Lot and Abram started in the same place. But Lot was leaning in the wrong direction. Take care that you do not follow the same habit of Lot the Leaner.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 7:41 PM March 15, 2022.