There is much profitable instruction in tracing, in contrast, the characters of Lot and Abraham. Both were saints of God, yet how different as to their walk! how different also as to their personal experiences in regard to peace, joy, and nearness to God! And there is ever this difference between a worldly-minded believer and one, through the grace of God, truehearted. In the scriptural sense of the term (2 Pet. 2:88(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) (2 Peter 2:8)) a "righteous man," Lot, "vexed his righteous soul from day to day." Abraham walked before God.
The Lord cannot but be faithful to His people; still, He does mark in their path that which is not of faith, and Lot's trials are the consequences of his unbelief. There is one thing very marked in his course throughout—great uncertainty and obscurity as to the path and as to the judgment of God, because of not realizing that security in God which would have enabled him to walk straight forward, while there is no hesitation in things connected with this world. And it is thus with ourselves if we have not taken Christ for our portion heartily. Abraham's was a thoroughly happy life—he had God for his portion.
Lot is seen rather as the companion in the walk of faith of those who have faith, than as one having and acting in the energy of faith himself. Therefore, when put to the test, there is only weakness. In how many things do we act with those who have faith before having it for ourselves. It was thus with the disciples of the Lord; and the moment they were put to the test, there was weakness and failure. The soul will not stand when sifted through temptation if walking in the light of another.
God's personal call of Abraham at the first is mixed with a sort of unbelief in Abraham, much like the reply in the Gospel, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." He set out, but he took Terah his father with him, and went and lodged in Haran (he could not take Terah with him into the land of Canaan). Now God had called Abraham, but not Terah. He left everything except Terah, and entered into possession of nothing. But he tried to carry something with him which was not of God, and he could not. It is not until after Terah's death that he removed into Canaan where God had called him. (Compare Gen. 12:11Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: (Genesis 12:1) and Acts 7:44Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. (Acts 7:4).) "So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him:... they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."
Lot (though having faith) goes in the path he treads as the companion of Abraham. As to actual position, he stands with Abraham. He is truly a saint of God, though afterward we find him treading the crooked path of the world's policy.
God blesses them. The land is not able to bear them so that they may dwell together (chap. 13). They have flocks and herds and much cattle, and there is not room for them both—they must separate. Circumstances, no matter what (here it is God's blessings), reveal this.
They are in the place of strangers, that is clear ("the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land"). They have nothing in possession, not so much as to put a foot upon; all rests on their valuing the promises (Heb. 11:99By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Hebrews 11:9)). They have just two things, the altar and the tent. Journeying about and worshiping God, they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Abraham confesses that he is such; he declares plainly that he seeks a country; "Wherefore," we are told, God is not ashamed to be called his God. (He is never called "the God of Lot.") This acts upon the whole spirit and character of Abraham.
The land is not able to bear them that they may dwell together; there is a strife between their herdsmen; they must separate. Abraham says, "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." His heart is upon the promises of God, and everything else is as nothing in comparison. It might seem a foolish thing to let Lot choose—to give up to Lot—the right to do so is certainly his own; but his heart is elsewhere. His faith goes entirely free from earthly advantage.
Not so Lot—he lifts up his eyes—the plain of Jordan is well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord, and he chooses it. There is nothing gross or wrong in itself, in his choosing a well-watered plain; but it just distinctly proves that his whole heart is not set upon the promises of God. Thus he is put to the test. And thus, in the way of the accomplishments of God's purposes, character is displayed. Abraham's conduct has for its spring a simplicity of faith which embraces God's promises (Heb. 11:1313These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13)), and wants nothing besides. Faith can give up. The spirit of a carnal mind takes all it can get. Lot acts upon the present sense of what is pleasant and desirable; why should he not? what harm is there in the plains of Jordan? His heart is not on the promises. The companion of Abraham, he is brought to the level of his own faith.
But he will dwell in the cities of the plain if he chooses the rivers of the plain. It is not his intention to go into the city, but he will get there step by step. (He must find trouble in the place he has taken pleasure in.) There is not the power of faith to keep him from temptation. Where there is not the faith that keeps the soul on the promises, there is not the faith to keep it out of sin. It is not insincerity, but people's souls are in that condition, and God proves them.
Abraham's path all the way through is characterized by personal intimacy with God—visits from God—the Lord comes down to him and explains His purposes, so that he is called the "friend of God" (2 Chron. 20:77Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? (2 Chronicles 20:7); Isa. 41:88But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. (Isaiah 41:8); Jas. 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)); and this is not only as to his own portion, but as to what He is going to do with Sodom—the judgment He is about to bring on Sodom. though personally he has nothing to do with it, and the promise is his hope (chap. 18). So now He tells His people what He is going to do about the world. Though their hope is connected with their own views, with the promises and the heavenly Canaan, He takes them into His confidence as to what is to happen where they are not to be.
Lot, the while, is vexing his righteous soul. Does he know anything about the purposes of God? Not a word. He is saved, yet so as by fire; though a "righteous soul," his is a vexed soul instead of a soul in communion with God, vexed "from day to day" (there is so far right-mindedness that it is a vexed soul). He is there before the judgment comes, with his soul vexed, while happy Abraham is on the mount holding conversation with God; and when it does come, how does it find him? With his soul vexed and totally unprepared for it, instead of in communion with God about it.
"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation," and He delivers "just Lot." But, while thus vexing his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds, the men of the city have a right to say to him, What business have you here? "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge" (v. 9). You are quarreling with sin in the place of sin. They have a perfect right to judge thus. All power of testimony is lost by reason of association with the world, when he ought to be witnessing to his total separation from it; there is vexation of spirit, but not power. When Abraham got down into Egypt, he had nothing to do but to go right back to the place of the altar he had built at the first. Lot testifies, but he cannot get out of the place he is in; the energy that ought to have thrown him out is neutralized and lost by his getting into it; his daughters have married there; he has ties where his unbelief had led him. It is far more difficult to tread the uphill road than the downhill road.
Whenever the counsels of God are revealed to faith, it brings out the spirit of intercession. The word to the prophet, "Make the heart of this people fat" (Isa. 6), at once brings out, "Lord, how long?" So here, Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare the city. (But there are not ten—there is not one righteous man in Sodom with the exception of Lot.) As regards his own position, he is looking down upon the place of judgment. And in the morning, when the cities are in flames, he finds himself in quietness and peace on the spot where he "stood before the LORD" (v. 27), not at all in the place where the judgment had come, solemnized indeed by the scene before him, but calm and happy with the Lord.
The Lord sends Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. Angels warn him, and faith makes him listen. But his heart is still there. There are connections that bind him to Sodom, and he would fain take them with him. But you cannot take anything with you for God out of Sodom; you must leave it all behind. The Lord must put the pain where you find the pleasure. "While he lingered" (there is hesitation and lingering in the place of judgment, when the judgment has been pronounced; he ought to have left at once; but the place, the path, and spirit of unbelief enervate the heart), "the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." And now it is, "Escape for they life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed." v. 17. As for the goods, the sheep, and the much cattle, he must leave them all behind. If the Lord's faithfulness is shown in saving Lot, it is shown also in breaking the links that bind him to the place. His mind is all distraction. He says, "Oh, not so, my Lord.... I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me, and I die." He has lost the sense of security in the path of faith. Such is ever the consequence of the path of unbelief in a saint of God; he thinks the path of faith the most dangerous path in the world. Lot has become used to the plain, and the place where Abraham is enjoying perfect security and peace is a mountain. The Lord spared Zoar at his request, and lets him flee thither; but, on seeing the judgment, he flees to the mountain, forced to take refuge there in the end.
This is an extreme case; we shall find the same thing true in varying degrees. Abraham could give up (that sacrifice always belongs to faith); but there are trials to the believer because of unbelief—because he is a believer, but in a wrong place. Lot was a "righteous man"; but, when he did not walk in the path of faith, he had vexation of soul and trouble—a righteous soul, but where a righteous soul ought not to be. Observe his incapacity simply to follow the Lord. Observe all his uncertainty. So will it be with us if we are walking in the path of unbelief; there will be trouble which is not our proper portion, but which comes upon us because we are in a wrong, worldly place—the trial that belongs to unbelief. We may be seeking the compassion of the Church of God when we are only suffering, like Lot, the fruit of our own unbelief—the simple path of faith having been departed from because we had not learned to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. Giving up is our proper position, simple sacrifice in the knowledge and present consciousness that "all things are ours."