There was strife

“And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left”

The Lord blessed Abraham greatly because He promised to bless him and he did what the Lord had told him to do. However, there was strife because both Abraham and Lot were very rich. This is the first time that we read about strife in the Bible. The strife occurred because both men were very rich and there wasn’t enough room for them both in the Land. There is an interesting lesson that we can learn from this. We live in the day of mega-churches where there is great wealth but this can lead to strife because there isn’t enough room for all the egos. When the first large group of people decided to get together and show that they were greater than God, at the tower of Babel, God confused their languages and forced them to spread out into smaller groups. God said that He would not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42: 8; 48: 11). When we get too big then we think that we can take God’s glory for ourselves and we can only expect strife. The last time the word strife occurs in the bible is in James 3: 16 where we read that strife leads to confusion and every evil work. However, Abraham, with God’s spiritual wisdom, decided to deal with the strife and he parted company with Lot. As a result of this Abraham met with God and, in the end, God gave Abraham everything that he was willing to forgo in order to deal with the strife.

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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)