Lot made a very important decision based on what he saw in the physical realm. He saw lush green fields and a well-watered valley, much better than the dry mountains he shared with Abraham. Scripture compares the area to the very Garden of Eden planted by God! How attractive that must have been and impossible to resist, especially when he had been given the right to choose first without “any consequence” or so he thought.
What he did not see, however, was the spiritual DIRECTION in which he had decided to move his whole life and family.
- Jordan – he was attracted to the plains of the Jordan Valley. The word Jordan is derived from a root word that means to go down, descend, decline, march down or sink down.
- Zoar – the plains of the Jordan valley were in the DIRECTION of a little village called Zoar. The word Zoar means “insignificance”. It comes from a root word that means to grow small or to grow insignificant.
Now insert the above into the first part of Genesis 13 vs 10 and it would read as follows:
‘Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the declining/sinking valley in the direction of insignificance”
Would Lot still have chosen to settle there? In Genesis 10 vs 30, we see the end of Lot; a man who was so rich that his livestock rivalled that of Abraham, so much so that there was not enough food to feed them lost all he had and dwelt in a cave.
30Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.
Every decision we make is a choice about the direction of our lives from that moment onwards. Are we making our decisions based on what we see with our physical eyes or with our spiritual eyes?
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5 vs 25(NLT)