Abram and Lot Separate
The Lord chooses a
man named Abram. And tells him to become a tool to correct the corrupted world.
The first Jew. (Abram in Hebrew means "passed over.") God says to
Abram, “Go! Let's start moving." As we know, he left with his whole
family, and with his nephew Lot, for whom he had paternal feelings - the
75-year-old Abram did not yet have his own children. After long wanderings,
friction began to occur between the two relatives:
So Abram said to
Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders
and mine, for we are close relatives. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s
part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the
right, I’ll go to the left.” 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain
of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like
the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) Genesis
13:8-10 NIV
Imagine a panoramic
picture. Abram and Lot are standing. An uncomfortable hilly steppe with grass
scorched in the sun, a gusty wind, and below, in a light bluish haze, a fertile
valley spreads, 20-30 km wide. Abraham asks:
– Where do you want
to go? In which direction?
And Lot says:
- Down there!
Where there is a lot of food, I think there I will find happiness and peace.
See how tempting the land below looks - a full-flowing river flows into a wide
lake - why do I need your desert, with periodic droughts? After all, life can
be so pleasant, easy, and stable.
Lot goes to the city
of Sodom - how long he goes down there - is not known.
We, too, sometimes,
go, alas, exactly there. Often, we say: “Look, after all, Paradise on earth has
already been built! Here it is! You just need to go down a bit. From these
uncomfortable, dryish standards of God. This valley - everything is there! The
river of happiness will never dry up. The sea of pleasure will never become
dead. We're just here to make things a little easier for ourselves. We must
know how to live!” We begin to descend and do not realize that we will descend
further and further.
And what terrified
us a year ago is becoming a reality of our lives today, and further, and
further ... deeper and deeper ...
Those who know a
little geography know that the Dead Sea Valley is the deepest place on earth.
Indeed, the Lord knows how to joke.
Life with the Lord is not always easy,
sometimes you must give up something. And the valley of Sodom is not
accidentally compared in the Bible with Paradise. She gives that impression.
Happy, beautiful people on the advertising posters say: “Are you not with us
yet? You're a loser! Drop that faith! Let's go - let's live in a buzz! Drive a
BMW and have a rest in beautiful countries 3 times a year. “Buy, buy, buy!
Cheap loans, affordable money - you just buy, buy, buy..."
Do not misunderstand
me. I am for material well-being - I am sure that it is NOT normal when a
person lives in need. But everything must be in its place. Material goods
should not be more important than spiritual ones. Good soft toilet paper should
not be more important than food.
How not to let our
landmarks go astray? How not to move down on the slippery ground? “The good that I
want, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want, I do.” —Paul understands
well the mechanism of the work of sin in us. Reread the seventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans.
There are two people
living in me - and one of them keeps pushing me down.
And sometimes,
literally, I walk over the abyss, I look directly into this abyss.
"Come on,
come on - look, it's so easy!" “Someone in me is saying, “Let’s make it
easy!” "Oh look - a great chance!" "Nobody sees!" “You are
now under grace; everything has been paid for! Yes Yes!"
But this is a
one-way road, and this end is known. Sometimes it takes some effort. I would
even say - to choose Do you remember how the path of the righteous Daniel
began? He “put it on his heart” - he wanted; he chose.
We decide. We make a
choice. We thus, as if turn on the mechanism. And in the spiritual world,
something starts happening.
We let God help us.
It gives spiritual strength to resist harmful desires. You have already done
the main part of the work, you said - “No! I won't go down! I am with you
Father. I want to be with you." And He will help! He always helps.
Each of us has our
own "Achilles heel", which we should pay special attention to. If
something "very interesting" attracts your eye - try not to look at
it, with a muscular effort - it's trite, turn your head away. Men will
understand me, and King David would understand, especially.
Someone eats delicious food, can't help but
empty the fridge. Try not to just bring them home. Some people are gambling. But
nevertheless - “Not by force and not by some host, but by Your Spirit”
Sincerely, Leon Mazin
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