Leave Lot at Home

Abram’s Disobedience in Bringing Lot to Canaan

There are many questions I have about Scripture that I am certain the (human) narrator knew the answer to, but declined to share.  Other times, I feel pretty sure he did not.  But on some occasions, I wonder if perhaps the narrator did know the answer, and did share his conclusion, but just not in the straight forward way we might hope.  I think I have an example of this third scenario. 

In Genesis 12:1, we see the call of Abram, “Now Yahweh said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.’”  We often focus on the burden of leaving his beloved country and culture and heading off to a backwater nowhere-land.  We might say something about leaving his father and family, but we really don’t dwell on that for very long because, 1) His father is dead, and 2) He brings some family with him. 

In the fourth verse we read, “So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him” (italics mine).  It is here that I think we see Abram’s incomplete obedience.  I used to rationalize Abram’s failing in three ways: 1) Abram can’t stop Lot from coming along if he wants to.  2) Lot is his responsibility…the son of his dead brother.  3) The text doesn’t say Abram was disobedient.  In my most recent study, I no longer think these reasons hold up.

In response: 1) Abram is able to keep Lot from coming.  Most likely, a single word would have taken care of this.  Their easy disollution in chapter 13 proves Lot’s lack of commitment to him.  Very few people will follow someone even when they are told to turn back, and those people tend to have much more elevated character than we see in Lot (think Ruth and Samwise Gamgee). 

In response: 2) I’m not sure where I got the notion that Lot was his responsibility…but I don’t think its from the text, or even the ancient customs (perhaps an ancient customologist can shed some light here?).  And note in 13:8, at their parting, that Abram calls them “brothers.”  Even if he did have some custom-based obligation to Lot, wouldn’t God’s demand that he leave his relatives revoke it? 

In response: 3) I think, perhaps, the text does say.  Notice in 12:4 and in 13:1 how we see the tag, “And Lot with him.”  This, especially in 12:4, right after the command to leave his relatives, seems to indicate that Abram obeyed only part of the command.  Further, Lot is going to be nothing but trouble.  The land is going to give out on them because of two such wealthy individuals living so close together.  Abram is going to have to risk life, limb, and neighborly relationships in order to go retrieve Lot from Chedorlaomer.  And Lot is going to be a sore point of suffering for Abraham when he finds out God plans to eradicate Sodom and Gomorrah.  If all of this is not quite enough for you, Lot is going to become the father of the accursed Moabites in an exceptionally disgusting series of events. 

So, what do you think?  Did Abram sin?  Did he bring a little piece of home with him?  It seems fairly clear to me that Abram should have left righteous Lot in Haran.

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