Do you ever feel like people are taking advantage of you? Abram would understand. He was genuinely trying to worship God (13:4, 18), and God had made great promises to him (12:1-3, 7). In fact, God had blessed him and his nephew Lot so greatly that their livestock were too numerous for them to pasture together (13:7). So, Abram did the right thing. Since they had to separate from one another, he decided to give Lot first choice of the land. As the friend of God, he demonstrated the selfless character of God.

And Lot took advantage of Abram’s generosity. He was focused on material things, not spiritual things. He was only interested in what he could get, not what he could give. And so, he looked around and took the best part of the land for himself (13:10-11). He set off for the well-watered plains, for the easy life, and left Abram in the hill country where pasturing his livestock would be much more difficult.

Now, it should come as no surprise that Lot fell into bad company (13:13). After all, birds of a feather flock together, so those who focus on satisfying themselves tend to gravitate toward the richest, most pleasant places. But selfish people also tend to want what others have, and Lot got caught up in one of the fights that inevitably results (14:11-12). And who had to go bail him out? Abram, of course. Abram and all his herdsmen had to go and rescue Lot, at no doubt considerable risk to themselves (14:14-16).

But isn’t this really the same thing God does for all of us, time and time again? And are any of us worthy of God’s salvation? Even Abram wasn’t perfect – he let his fears put his wife in tremendous danger (12:11-15). No, it doesn’t matter how selfish, how materialistic we think other people are – none of us deserve God’s forgiveness and grace.

But just as Abram loved Lot enough to give him the best part of the land, God loved His people enough to give us His Son. And just as Abram saved undeserving Lot, God saves those who belong to Him, no matter how selfish and materialistic we may have been.

And God promises to bless those who are faithful to Him. Even after Lot took the best land and left, God promised Abram that it would be Abram’s descendants, not Lot’s, who would end up possessing both of their shares of the land (13:15). And God has repeated that promise for all those who trust in Jesus Christ: it is the meek and the generous who will inherit the earth, not the grasping and greedy (Matthew 5:5; 25:34).

So today, let’s keep loving, keep giving, keep helping and keep serving, no matter how little we may receive in return. How else can we truly say we are following Jesus, the One Who gave up Himself for sinners like us?

Genesis 13:2-18 (NASB)

2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there previously; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. 5 Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 And the land could not support both of them while living together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are relatives! 9 Is the entire land not before you? Please separate from me; if you choose the left, then I will go to the right; or if you choose the right, then I will go to the left.” 10 Lot raised his eyes and saw all the vicinity of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt going toward Zoar. 11 So Lot chose for himself all the vicinity of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. So they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the vicinity of the Jordan, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked sinners against the Lord.

14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now raise your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward, and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as plentiful as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted. 17 Arise, walk about in the land through its length and width; for I will give it to you.” 18 Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.