Genesis 13:1

LOT'S CHOICE. -- Genesis 13:1-13.

GOLDEN TEXT. -- Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. -- Matthew 6:33. TIME. --About B.&nbp;C. 1917. PLACE. --Southeastern Palestine. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Genesis 12:10-20; Genesis 14:1-12; Genesis 19:12-28; Luke 17:28-32; 2 Peter 2:4-11. LESSON ANALYSIS. --1. Strife between Brethren; 2. A Patriarch's Greatness of Soul; 3. A Selfish Choice.

INTRODUCTION.

How many years passed between the entrance into Palestine and the separation from Lot, narrated in this lesson, cannot be told. During the interval Abraham, accompanied by Lot and all his flocks and tribe, had been compelled to take refuge in Egypt from. famine that prevailed in Palestine. The failure of rain would soon convert. country that depended on pasturage into. parched waste, incapable of supporting flocks, and they would have to be driven elsewhere, or die. Egypt, watered by the Nile, and irrigated, was renowned even at this early period, nearly 4,000 years ago, for its fertility,. reputation it has maintained to this day. It was also distinguished, already, for its civilization. The pyramids, according to the best authorities, were built 800 years before the visit of Abraham, and it is possible that he looked upon these renowned structures. At this period some chronologists have placed the domination in Egypt of. foreign race--the Hyksos--probably Arabians, called by Egyptians, "The Shepherd Kings," who conquered and occupied the country. These would recognize in Abraham. man more nearly allied to them by his pursuits than the native Egyptians.

Abraham was. man of wonderful nobility when we contrast him with the age in which he lived, in most respects saintly in his life, yet there are. few faults that show that he was. real man, rather than an ideal character of fiction. One of these is revealed in the deception to which he is led by his fears, in. lawless age, during his Egyptian visit. He should have gone squarely forward, without regard to consequences, and trusted to the protection of God. If. grain of weakness is revealed here, it is more than counterbalanced by the magnanimity displayed in his treatment of Lot.

I. STRIFE BETWEEN. RETHREN.

1. Abram went up out of Egypt.

It cannot be told how long he remained in Egypt, in the time of his grandson to become the home, and finally the house of bondage of his race. Pharaoh, as the king was always entitled, just as we call the Russian ruler the Czar, acted with integrity and justice toward Abraham, and sent him away with all he had. The distinguished treatment, the immediate prominence, the desire to secure Sarah for the wife of the king, all serve to show that Abraham was no obscure or insignificant character. He was himself. prince, the name of his wife means "princess," and he moved, wherever he went, as. great pastoral chieftain, with numerous retainers.

Lot with him. It is not stated that Lot went into Egypt, but this passage shows that he did. After the death of his father, Haran, he seems to have become. member of the family of Abraham, who probably became his guardian. He had followed his uncle in the march to Canaan, continued to live with him, though having separate possessions, and went down with him into Egypt.

Into the South. Not the south of Egypt, but of Palestine. On the return from his sojourn abroad, he would enter Palestine from the southwest.