The Land Could Not Support Both of Them

When Blessings Become a Curse

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, and the land could not support both of them living together because their possessions were so great that they could not live together. Thus strife arose between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. Genesis 13:5–7

There is a lot of talk about land in the book of Genesis. Adam was cursed with briar-yielding fields. Cain was a tiller of the ground and received the same curse as Adam after killing Abel. The land became corrupt with violence. God promised Abram land.

And so he went, and he took Lot.

And Abram and Lot both took a lot.

So much so that the land could not support them both.

Two men, two families, two estates. And the land, which flowed with milk and honey and was promised to all of Abraham’s descendants, could not support them both.

And this led to strife.

This strife between the servants of Abram and Lot would have potentially led to strife between Abraham and Lot, but Abraham had a plan. Genesis 13:9 says that Abraham’s plan was to separate from Lot.

Lot saw the land towards the plain of Jordan, and, behold it was good. It looked like the garden of the Lord, which presupposes a “fall” does it not? And if that part didn’t convince you then maybe the next line will: “it was like the land of Egypt.” And if you needed any more help: “this was before the Lord destroyed both Sodom and Gomorrah.”

And just to make sure you got it: “and Lot journeyed eastward.”

Eastward is a step backwards. Back towards Haram. Back towards Ur of the Chaldeans. Back towards Babylon. The same direction Adam and Eve travelled when they left the garden of the Lord. The same direction Cain travelled after killing Abel. Away from the Most Holy Place.

And why?

Because Abraham and Lot had too many possessions and the possessions threatened their relationship, and so they had to separate—the text tells us this at least three times.

And what did this separation bring?

Lot became a prisoner of war. Genesis 14:12 says that all of his goods were captured as well (that must have taken a lot of camels!!!). Lot’s new home was destroyed. Lot’s daughters got him drunk and took advantage of him to produce two sons: the ancestors of the Moabites and the Ammonites.

All of this because they separated. And this separation came from strife caused by having too many possessions. So many possessions, in fact, that the promised land could not support them both.

How many wars? How many assassinations? How many auctions? Foreclosures? Breakups? Divorces? Betrayals? Tears? Fights over property line disputes, disagreements over who gets what after someone dies, and loss of ancestral land has come because of strife caused by too many possessions—or the hunger for said possessions?

This good world that God created—a good world that didn’t cease being good in Genesis 3—is able to support all of us. We only have to “earn" a living in an economy of competition, every man for himself, and strife caused by the hunger for too many possessions.

The false teaching of scarcity—that there is only so much to go around—has ruined too many relationships and killed too many souls to be allowed to continue its reign over our lives.

Who needs so many possessions that they can’t even inhabit the same sacred land as their kin? Separating didn’t lead Abram and Lot to more joy with all of that extra room to enjoy their possessions. No. It led to sexual assault, war, captivity, and betrayal.

But in this falling there is a resurrection.

Lot would have a granddaughter who would have a granddaughter who would have a granddaughter named Ruth—a descendant of Moab.

And this daughter of transgression, to borrow from Hosea, would receive the blessing of Abraham.

Boaz told her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the LORD reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” (Ruth 2:11–12)

Leaving father and mother to go to a land which she did not know…

That’s the story of Abram and Lot. That’s how their journey began in Genesis 12:1-4.

The two families are now reunited in the land. Lot, through Ruth, lives in the house of bread with Naomi and eventually Boaz. This latter companion would become her husband, and through them would come David—the father of the Messiah.

And this Messiah warned about the danger of riches, the evil that the love of money can bring, and how riches make it hard to enter the kingdom of heaven. Who better to bring this message than the descendant of multiple ancestors (kings, pilgrims, and poets) who fell prey to the deceitfulness of this world’s wealth?

The land could not support them both?

Not when they were holding on to their possessions. But if they were to give them up—or at least some of them—how would the story have changed?