HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-13.-Theseparation between Abram and Lot. [Return to Bethel-to the altar. The.circµmstances of the pa.triarch were very different.. He was very rich. Lot is with hi1D, and the sojourn in Egypt had far more depraving effect upon his weaker character than upon that of his uncle. We should remember when we take the young into temptation that what may be comparatively harmless to ui3 ma.y be ruinous_ to them. The subsequent misery of Lot's career may be all traced to the sojourn in Egypt.] •I. The root of it lay in WORLDLY WEALTH LEADING TO CONTENTION. "They could not dwell together.'' II. THE DIVERGENCE 01' CHARACTER IS BROUGHT OUT IN THE COMPLICATION OB' .EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES. Lot is simply selfish, wilful, regardless of consequences, utterly worldly, Abram: is II lover of peace, a hater of strife, still cherishes the family feeling and reverences the bond of brotherhood, is ready to subordinate his own interests to the preservation of the Divine order, has faith to see that Canaan with the blessing of God is much to be preferred to the plain of Jordan with Divine judgments hanging over those who were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceed- ingly. . . III. LESSONS OF PROVIDENCE ARE NOT LOST ON THOSE WHO WAIT UPON GOD, and can be learnt in spite of infirmities and errors. Abram could not forget what Egypt had taught him; rich as he was, he did not put riches first. He had seen that that which aeems like a garden of the Lord in external beauty may be a cursed land after all. There are people of God who pitch their tents towards Sodom slill, and they will reap evil fruits, as Lot did. It is a most terrible danger to separate ourselves from o2 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [rn. Xllt. 10-13.
nld rl'ligious associations. In doing so ·we cannot bo too careful where we pitch our tent.-R. Ver. 8.-Abralu11n: the peaceable man. "Let there be 110 strife, I prny thee, heh,·een me Rnd thee." Abraham had a nephew who attRched himself to his fortunes and shnred his fate. Food, fodder, and ,vater becnme scarce. The flocke nf Lot 1rnd of Abrnham are more than the land cnn sustain • the herdsmen of ouch ~trive together. Servants will often be more hitter towards' the sorvnnts of a rival nf their master, thnn those immediately concerned. Pathetic is the nppe11l of the Jllltriarch for the maintenance of peace. I. IT IS A 'MOST DESIRABLE THDIG TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH OTBEns. We are com- rnanded to do so: "As much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men." \Ve may not sacrifice any good principle for the sake of ease, but we are to strive to maintain peace. In matters of fnith a rnnn mny have to take up at times such 11 position that others \\;ll i;peak ill of him, but in regard to the neighbourly life he must by nil means cultivate amity and concord. Little is ever gained by stand- ing on "our righti:." Scandal is always the fruit of quarrelling. The worldly- minded nre sure to plume themselves on their superior goodness when the spiritually- minded contend. In many homes there is jnngling, sneering, nnd strife; scathiug rcmuks like hot cinders from Vesnvius fall carelessly around. Tyrannous tempers hecome like tornndos, and moodiness kills like the choke-damp of an ill-ventilated mine. Among nations there should be maintennnce of peace. The common sense of moRt should "hold the fretful realm in nwe." In the Church strife should cease. It "·ill when each sect seeks to make men Christlike nnd not uniform bigots. II. THERE ARE ALWAYS MEANS OF MAINTAINING PEACE WHEN. Il' IS DESIRED. Abraham acted most unselfishly with this view; he yielded his claim to n choice. Lot owed much to Abraham, yet be seized an advantage. Lot looks towards Sodom ; the strip of green beside the lake and reaching to Jordan reminds him of the land of Nile. The 1,pirit of Egypt, whence he h11d lately come, is in him; be chooses Sodom, but with its green pastures he bas to take its awful corruption. Abraham turns away in the direction alone left to him. He bas his tent, bis altar, the promises, and his God; lie will live in peace. His Father will not forsake him ; indeed God very "peedily renews his promises to Abraham, and thus the unselfish- ness of a peaceful man met with an appropriate reward.-H.
EXPOSITION. Ver. 10.-And Lot lifted up his eyes. 1316 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Circumspe:cit; with a look of eager, lustful (cf. Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine,' eh. vii. weed (cf. eh. iii. 6). The same expression p. 282). It is now called Esh-Sheri'ah, i. e. is afterwards used of Abram (ver. 14), where the ford, as he.ving been of old crossed by perhaps also the element of satisfaction, the Israelites (Gesenius). That it was well- though in a good sense, is designed to be in- watered everywhere. Not by canals end cl udeu. And beheld all the plain. Liter- trenches, as old interpreters imagined, but ally, all tl,e c£rcle, or lillITOUDding region by copious streams along its course, de- (i~ '.;), from ""IJ~, to move in a circle ; cf. scending chiefly from the mountains of Moab. arron.dd.&sement, Fr. ; kreu or bezirk, Ger.) ; Before the Lord destroyed-the 8alJle word .,.,pixwpoc (LXX., Matt. iii 5); now called is used for the destrnction of all flesh in FJ Glior, the low country (Geseniua). Of what is styled the Elohistic account of tl;ie Jordan. Compounded of Jor-Dan, the names Deluge (eh. vi. 13, 17; ix. 11, 15; cf. 'Quarry of the two river sources (Josephus, Jerome); on Genesis,' p. 423)-Sodom and Gomon·ha. l,ut. accordng to modern etymologists, derived (vule eh. xiv. 2). Even as the garden of the from "TJ :, to go down, and signifying the Lord. Paradise in Eden, with its four streams (eh. ii. 10; Calvin, Lange, Keil); though Descender, like the German Rhine, from rin- bysome this is deemed unsatisfactory (Qparry), nen, to run. The largest river of Palestine, rising et the foot of Antilibanua, a.nd passing, and the phrase taken e.s = hurtu.s amm- nisaimua (Rosenmiiller), and in particular in its course of 200 miles, over twenty-seven Mesopotamia, which we.a a land of rare fe. rapids., it pours its waters first info the lake of cund1ty (Grotius, Junius). Liko the land of :Herom, and then into the sea of Galilee, 653 Egypt-which wa~ inigatcd J,y the Nile a.11~ foet, end fi.naliy iuto the La~-us Aephaltites, t'II. XllI. 10-1/l.] THE BOOK OF GENER!Fl. 107