What’s the going price for a charter trip to Egypt in about 2000 BC? Expensive! Very Expensive!
Biographies—the honest ones—give us the opportunity to see both life choices and, as time goes by, their consequences. A graphic example is in Genesis 13. The wealth acquired by Abram and his nephew Lot in Egypt has not made life easier. We read, “There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock” (Gen 13:7). Too much stuff! Abram had learned that the mess in Egypt had been of their own making, and he wanted it fixed. First, he knew his relationship with the Lord took priority. He also knew that, when you’ve lost your way, the path forward involves going back to where you got off track. So, we read, “He went on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord” (vv 3-4). An excellent first step, but now what to do about the situation with Lot? Abram, the elder, by rights should have had first choice. He was also the one God had called there, promising him the land for a possession. But the patriarch had learned, through the Egyptian detour, that God knew best. So he let Lot pick first. Poor Lot. He had a taste now for sophisticated, worldly Egypt. We read, “Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt” (v 10). Don’t be fooled: Eden and Egypt are nothing alike! Lot saw this as a good career move, but, as the story unfolds, we’ll see it cost him just about everything! Remember 1 John 2:17 – “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”