Family Problems
Every soap has its family quarrel and family members who don’t like a quarrel usually spend time trying to avoid one. Abraham’s family was no exception, but since this is only the second episode it is worth asking what might have gone before.
If you have ever lived or worked where one person had a natural position of power and a strong conviction of some sort or other you would have no difficulty writing one or two ‘previous’ episodes. You may well feel, ‘I know a man like that’. So try a few questions.
Whom did Abraham consult before the move? Sarah? Presumably not. She was a woman. The herdsmen? Almost certainly not — workers would do what they were told. Lot? Maybe yes, maybe no. But if Abraham consulted nobody, small wonder he soon ran into trouble. When it came it was not so much the fault of the family as the inadequacy of resources. The land could not provide sufficient for all their needs (v. 6) and though the heart of the family seemed able to cope the situation was intolerable to the point of strife for the workers.
By now you may be thinking of something similar in a different situation. Stay with it. Is the threat of limited resources real or imaginary? Or is someone using it for their own advantage?
Abraham’s offer seems a generous one. He gives Lot the choice. Lot’s decision tells us a lot about his character and the narrator puts the boot in by adding verse 13, possibly as a preparation for what is to follow. But in view of Abraham’s strong conviction it is strange that he seems never even to have shared the problem with God. How can he allow Lot to decide what God has given him and still expect God to go along with it?
This story says a lot about the way we relate to one another, the pressures we live under, the choices we make, the way we handle strong convictions when it comes to the crunch, and how readily we take God for granted when it suits our purposes.
