Lekh Lekha
Genesis 12:1-17:27
Isaiah 40:27-41:16
How do we make the most important decisions in our lives? How do we select which factors to consider and which to leave out when we decide, for example, where to live? When you most recently moved, how did you decide whether and where to go?
I know this: Values we believe we hold deeply, which, perhaps, really matter to us, still might have no influence on us when we make a key decision. A determination made in a moment of shallowness can profoundly bend our lives for decades afterward. Much of a lifetime can go into paying for one decision.
As it happens, I have a story to illustrate this observation. Lot often acts as a good man, sometimes even a heroic one (Gen. 19:3). He does not reflect his highest values when he makes one decision, with terrible consequences for himself, his wife and his daughters.
This story of Lot begins when Terah, his grandfather, takes the clan part of the way toward Canaan, and then stops at Haran (Gen. 11:31). There Lot’s uncle Avram has a prophetic encounter, in which he realizes that he must abandon his home to travel on (12:1). To obey, Avram must leave all that he has known, going completely alone unless some members of his clan join him. Lot loyally accompanies his uncle (12:4).
The decision to travel with Avram works out well for Lot in economic terms. As they travel, Avram becomes wealthy, while Lot develops extensive holdings in small and large cattle (13:5). But when Avram and Lot settle between Ai and Bethel, the pastures there seem too meager for their combined flocks (13:6). Herdsmen working for Avram quarrel with those working for Lot (13:7), perhaps over the diminishing supply of meadowland.
To resolve these quarrels, Avram makes a generous offer: “Please, let there be no quarrel between me and you, between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are kin. Is not the whole land before you? Separate from me: If you go to the left, I shall go to the right; if you go to the right, I shall go to the left” (13:9).
How could Lot respond? He could respond loyally: “Uncle, I have been with you on this long quest, and I do not want to part from you now. Let us figure out how to stay together.”
Or gallantly: “On the contrary, if we must part, you may take the land which you prefer.”
Or fairly: “How do you think we can divide the land most equitably?”
Instead, he answers greedily: Looking at the fertile Jordan Valley, he claims all of the most rich land for himself, leaving his uncle to settle for, and on, the dry lowlands of Canaan (13:10). Lot settles near Sodom (13:12).
At this crucial moment in his life, Lot chooses his economic self-interest over loyalty, gallantry, fairness and, as we shall see, his other interests. For he has interests other than economic, although you cannot tell as much from his decision.
Wealth does not bring every sort of security. Choosing to live in Sodom means linking fate with the king of Sodom, who has enemies. When these enemies capture Lot (Gen. 14:14), he appears doomed in their hands, if not for heroic intervention by Uncle Avram (14:16). After the rescue, Lot returns to Sodom.
In choosing the rich land of the Jordan Valley, Lot has also chosen to live and raise his daughters in Sodom, far from the influence of Uncle Avram. Some of these daughters will marry men who think Lot’s religious sensitivities a joke (19:14). His other daughters, and even Lot himself, will not escape having their sexual morality swayed by the prevailing custom (19:8, 20:31-36).
When retribution falls on Sodom, Lot and two of his daughters barely escape. The rest of the family dies in the destruction that he chose, inadvertently, when he chose an economically promising place to live — without considering whether it qualified as a good place to live.