Abram and Sarai Travel With Their Flocksby Ironbark
13:1Genesis 13:1
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
Abram went up out of Egypt into the south on the way toward Canaan, taking with him his wife and Lot and all that he had, being very rich in cattle and in silver and in gold. Lot was still with him when they came again to Bethel and pitched their tents by the altar Abram had erected before. Their increased possessions brought increased trouble, for the pasturage was not sufficient for the flocks and herds of both, and frequent disputes among their herdsmen had to be brought to their masters for settlement, making it evident that they must separate.
The account beginning here displays Abraham's noble, unselfish spirit in refusing to cling to individual rights and preferences in order to preserve peace with Lot, asking that there be no strife between them because they are brethren. Brethren means not only natural relationship but fellow worshipers of the true God, showing that the children of God the world over are one family and that the same spirit of love and conciliation should govern them. This calls for being kindly affectioned with brotherly love and in honor preferring one another, cultivating uniform courtesy and willingness to do to others as we would wish them to do to us, which would remove half the ills of life. The spirit of self-aggrandizement is the spirit of Satan, but the heart where the love of Christ is cherished has charity that seeketh not her own and looks not only on its own interests but also on the interests of others.
Abram went up out of Egypt into the south on the way toward Canaan, taking with him his wife and Lot and all that he had, being very rich in cattle and in silver and in gold. Lot was still with him when they came again to Bethel and pitched their tents by the altar Abram had erected before. Their increased possessions brought increased trouble, for the pasturage was not sufficient for the flocks and herds of both, and frequent disputes among their herdsmen had to be brought to their masters for settlement, making it evident that they must separate.
The account beginning here displays Abraham's noble, unselfish spirit in refusing to cling to individual rights and preferences in order to preserve peace with Lot, asking that there be no strife between them because they are brethren. Brethren means not only natural relationship but fellow worshipers of the true God, showing that the children of God the world over are one family and that the same spirit of love and conciliation should govern them. This calls for being kindly affectioned with brotherly love and in honor preferring one another, cultivating uniform courtesy and willingness to do to others as we would wish them to do to us, which would remove half the ills of life. The spirit of self-aggrandizement is the spirit of Satan, but the heart where the love of Christ is cherished has charity that seeketh not her own and looks not only on its own interests but also on the interests of others.