Note: I am especially indebted to Man of Faith, a commentary by the late Dr. Ray Stedman, for a portion of the flow of this sermon.

       In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe: “The first things to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head.  A few minutes later the plucky newborn calf is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back.  Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body.  From this position he considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from his eyes and ears.

       “The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look.  Then she positions herself directly over her calf.  She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing.  She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.

       “When it doesn’t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again.  The struggle to rise is momentous.  As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts.  Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.  Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing.  She kicks it off its feet again.  Why?  She wants it to remember how it got up.  In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible in order to stay with the adults, where there is safety.  Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they’d get it, too, if the mother didn’t teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it…”

       Richmond writes, “I’ve thought about the birth of the giraffe many times.  I can see its parallel in my own life.  There have been many times when it seemed that I had just stood up after a trial, only to be knocked down again by the next.  It was God helping me to remember how it was that I got up, urging me always to walk with him, in His shadow, under his care.”

       This morning we come another time of crisis for God’s servant Abram.  The choices two men make are very significant – and revealing.

       After his temporary failure of faith in Egypt, we find Abram back in Canaan, with his tent and his altar and his intact family.  As we saw earlier, however, life in the land – even when you are there in obedience to God – is a life filled with choice.  Even when we are in the Spirit, we need to decide if we are willing to be led by the Spirit. 

       Now we have been hearing a bit about Abraham’s nephew Lot all through the story.  He’s been hanging back there in the shadows.  His whole story is told in one brief phrase in Verse 5: “Lot, who went with Abram.”  That sums up Lot’s whole life until this point.  He went with Abram!  Wherever Abram was, Lot was.  When Abram stopped, Lot stopped.  “With Abram” – that is about all that can be said of him.

       Lot pictures those people who depend upon other people for faith and inspiration to act.  There are many Lots around.  They never seem to learn to walk alone with God, but lean on other people’s faith for strength.  As long as they have a strong church to lean on, or a close friend who is a faithful Christian, then everything is great.  But where the prop is weak, they are weak too.  When Abram’s faith fails, Lot’s faith fails.  Lot leans on Abram all the way.  He is a second-hand Christian.  Although Lot’s own faith is genuine (and the New Testament makes it clear that Lot was, in some sense, a righteous man), Lot depends entirely on Abram to make his service effective.

       Now this actually works pretty well as long as the pressure is on.  As long as things are a bit rough, Lot will stay close to Abram.  He senses his need for strength.  But there is one kind of test this type of disciple cannot stand.  That is the test of prosperity.  So we read here that when their possessions became great they could not longer dwell together.”  Their herdsmen are fighting over the grazing.

       Now Lot would have let this thing fester until it broke out into some serious conflict but Abram says, “There is only one thing to do.  We must separate now before there is any further difficulty.”

       Then Abram says to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsman and my herdsmen; for we are kinsmen.  Is not the whole land before you?  Separate yourself from me.  If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

        Note the reasons Abram gives for this separation.  Every word here is important. 

       In the last part of verse 7, we are told, “At the time the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt in the land.” 

       Why is this mentioned here?  It is a warning that whenever strife looms between Christians, the enemies of the Lord are ready to take full advantage of it?  This is why Paul tells the Corinthians that there shouldn’t be lawsuits between believers.  Even when you win you lose.  Abram acts before the Lord’s enemies awaken, for he knows they are in the land.

        Abram’s second reason is found in His words, “Let be no strife, for we are kinsmen,” that is, “brethren.”  We are brethren!  That means we are tied together in the same bundle of life, and if I hurt you I am hurting myself.  If you hurt me, you are hurting yourself.  Brethren cannot have strife without injuring one another.  Whenever strife develops between members of the body of Christ, it always has this result.

       As some of you know, I am currently serving as the chair of the Committee on Ministry for our Presbytery.  This is the committee that is responsible for helping heal churches that are in conflict.  I have been cured of any naivety about the church since coming on COM.  I am also incredibly grateful for the way people in the church act toward one-another. 

       Of course we are in a time of special vulnerability.  We are in a building program where many key decisions need to be made.  Every decision has the potential for disagreement.  We need to be on our guard.  Church fights, like family fights, tend to be the hardest fought – much more than disputes in business.   People are highly invested and believe the outcome has eternal consequences.  

       Abram, in his newly developing God-given wisdom, says, “Let us not have any of this.  We are brethren; so do not let this become an issue between us.  Let us calmly settle the matter now before it breaks out in open conflict.”

       Then Abram does a magnificent, Spirit-led, God-honoring thing.  He gives up his rights without a murmur.  He is the older man of the two and the acknowledged leader.  He is Lot’s superior in every way.  Yet he says to him, “Lot, you take the first choice, I give up my right to it.  If you want to go this way, I’ll go that way.”  It is plain that God has begun a work of grace in Abram’s heart!

        Dr. H. A. Ironside, once told of an experience in his early life when his mother took him to a meeting where two Christian men almost came to blows over a disagreement.  One man finally stood and pounded the desk and shouted, “I don’t care whet you do, but I will have my rights!”  At that, an old, partially deaf brother, who had been sitting nearby, leaned forward, cupped his ear in his hand and said, “Eh? What’s that?”  What did you say, brother?  Your right is it?  Is that what you want?  Ah, brother, if you had your rights you’d be in hell!  The Lord Jesus didn’t come to get his rights, He came to get his wrongs, and He got them.”  And with that the belligerent man flushed and sat down saying, “You’re right, you’re right, settle it any way you like.”  Soon there was perfect agreement.  It was this same spirit that moves Abram to give Lot the first choice.

       Now we learn what happens when Lot chooses.

       “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the Land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.  This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east; in this way they separated from each other.  Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.  Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.”

       Abram and Lot go out on a promontory overlooking the valley and Lot lifts up his eyes.  What does he see?  It is obvious he only looks in one direction.  He’s been out scouting.  Without a moment’s hesitation, he looks east and sees the well-watered plain below like the garden of the Lord in the midst of the desert.  He sees the Jordan River cutting through its gorge, the deepest point on the face of the earth.  On either side of the Jordan the lush green grass is growing, and the variety of palm trees make the whole place a veritable garden.  There is a reason the Old Testament refers to “the jungle of the Jordan.”  This is the place for Lot.  It is a modern real estate developer’s dream!  

       Then Lot sees the cities of the plain on the south side of the Dead Sea.  Nowadays the whole Dead Sea area is a wasteland.  But in the time of Abram and Lot, the Dead Sea was only slightly sick for there were freshwater streams that entered the Sea from the south which keep it from becoming the super-saturated brew of minerals that it is today. 

       The places where these streams flow are green and lush.  They are like Egypt! 

        Mmmh!  Egypt!  Lot remembers Egypt.  That was a place where a man could get rich quick.  This is what Lot sees as he looks across the valley.  He should have seen a few other things.

       The text specifically points out that the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners before the Lord.  Lot sees the profitability of these cities, but he does not see their moral corruption.  Though the life of the city was morally rotten it was hidden beneath an attractive prosperity.  We have our Sodoms today.  Moral corruption permeates our social life and this is something we must consider as we face the choices of life.  We need to be careful about the systems and situations we mortgage our future to be part of.   Lot fails to do this.  

       We are told another thing that Lot misses:  “This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.”  Here is a mention of the judgment that was to come.  Lot sees the prosperity and the beauty, but he does not see this was a place marked out for judgment; it was all to be swept away forever. 

       Some would say that moving to Sodom would be like making a real estate investment this week up in La Conchita because the view of the ocean is great and the cost of housing is low.  But there’s a reason some places are affordable.   I don’t think that La Conchita is an especially sinful place – not more or less than Summerland or Ventura. But Sodom was.  So the problem for Sodom isn’t from natural forces but supernatural forces.  

       So we read, “Lot chose for himself.”  What a telling phrase that is!  He didn’t chose for the Lord but for himself.  As he looked out, “self” said, “this will move you up a few notches.  This will make you prosperous, this will give you status and position.”  So Lot chose for himself and pitched his tent toward Sodom.  And every time he moves his tent, he moves it closer and closer to Sodom until he eventually ends up living in town and elected to the city council.  We shall see more of what this results in in a few weeks.

       But now what happens to Abram?  What happens to the man who is finally willing to humble himself, who is willing to take the dryer ground, who is finally willing for God to set the priorities for him?

       “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him ‘lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are.  Don’t just look one direction.  Look northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.  I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.  Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.’  So Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.”

       Lot had chosen for himself.  Now God says to Abram, living in his tent on the hillside, “Abram, lift up your eyes.”  Where?  Everywhere, to the north, the south, the east (the portion Lot chose), and the west.  All the land is his!  This land is consistently a symbol of the fullness of life in the spirit of God.  This is all your, if you are willing to let God set the priorities of life for you.

       Lot will never know this!  We won’t either, if we make our choices only on the basis of what we see as we tie in to the materialistic, commercial standards of those about us.

       Jesus says exalt yourself and you will be humbled.  Humble yourself and you will be exalted.  If, like Abram, we are content to have what God gives in life, all the fullness of Christ will be ours.  That’s what Paul tells us in Philippians where he calls us to live with the mind of Christ.  I love the yoyo analogy in the children’s sermon -- try to go up and you’ll come crashing down.  Go down and God will bring you up.

       God says to Abraham, “Not only do I give this land to you, but I will fill the land with your descendants.”  That is, “I will make you fruitful beyond belief.  I will make your life one of such blessings that after you are gone there will be those who will stand up and say, “I received my spiritual life through that man; there came to me strength for my walk through him; he has been a great blessing to me.’  As a matter of fact, Abram, some people in Moorpark California will be talking about you four thousand years from now.

       So we read, “Abram moved his tent and came down to the oaks of Mamre.”  Mamre means “fatness” -- the place where the soul is made whole with fullness of supply.  And there at Hebron, which means “fellowship,” he built an altar to the Lord.  In the place of fatness and fellowship, Abram confessed again by the building of an altar that he was nothing but a fallible human being, without strength I himself, needing the constant cleansing of God.  It is a wonderful picture.

       Everyone dwells in a world exactly like that of Abram and Lot, a world in which material values constantly clamor for us to make a choice.  We have only so much time to invest, so much life to spend, and we are pressured to grab the best for ourselves while we can.  We can say with Lot, “I want what the world can offer me now; I want the cities of the plain.”  Or we may wait with Abram, content with our tent and altar, enjoying the blessings of the land by faith now, and waiting for God’s fulfillment of all His promises to us.