Genesis 13:10 | DiscipleDeck

Bible Commentary

Genesis 13:10

Lot's choice is made by sight — 'he lifted up his eyes and beheld.' He sees the most visually appealing option and takes it. The comparison to the Garden of Eden and Egypt is ominous: Eden was lost, and Egypt was a place of spiritual danger for Abram. The narrator's aside — 'before the LORD destroyed Sodom' — is a devastating parenthesis. Lot is choosing well-watered land that will be ashes.

Memory phrase: What looks best to our eyes may not be best in God's sight.

Talk about it: Lot chose the best-looking land — but the narrator tells us it would later be destroyed. Why is it dangerous to only choose what looks best to our eyes?

Prayer: God, help me look beyond the surface of things. What is beautiful and attractive is not always what is good. Give me Your wisdom to see what truly matters.

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Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleIn this chapter we have a further account concerning Abram. I. In general, of his condition and behaviour in the land of promise, which was now the land of his pilgrimage. 1. His removes, ver. 1, 3, 4, 18. 2.…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeGenesis 13:1, Abram and Lot return with great riches out of Egypt; Genesis 13:6, Strife arises between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot; Genesis 13:8, Abram meekly refers it to Lot to choose his part of the country,…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · John Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThis chapter gives an account of the return of Abram from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and to the same place in it he had been before, Ge 13:1 and of a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, and the occasion of…Genesis 13 — OverviewGenesis 13 · Little Bible — for children and parentsAbram returns from Egypt very wealthy. He and Lot travel back to Canaan — back to Bethel, back to the altar Abram had built. But their households have grown so large that the land cannot support them both. Their…Genesis 13:1-13Genesis 13:1-13 · The Pulpit CommentaryThe separation between Abram and Lot. Return to Bethel—to the altar. The circumstances of the patriarch were very different. He was very rich. Lot is with him, and the sojourn in Egypt had far more depraving effect…Genesis 13:10-13Genesis 13:10-13 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleWe have here the choice that Lot made when he parted from Abram. Upon this occasion, one would have expected, 1. That he should have expressed an unwillingness to part from Abram, and that, at least, he should…