The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-02-20
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON CON.
MENTS FOR FEBRUARY II, BY
THE REV. I. W. HENDERSON.
Subject: Lots Choice, Gen. 1S:1-13
Golden Text: Luke 12:15-
Memory Verses: s, 9-Helpful

o1NN A~N N
Memory Verses: s, 9-Helpful
Notes.
Last weeks lesson completed with
the arrival of Abram and Lot with
their retainers,, slaves and posses
sions, in the land of Canaan. While
there a grievous famine arises. There
is not enough food for a subsistence
diet. Starvation stares them. Ca
naan is barren. Egypt is the gran
airy of the world. Here If anywhere
there will be food. And so into the
dominions Of Pharaoh, southwark
from Canaan, they journey. While
there Abram has trouble with the
Egyptians because of the relations of
Abimilech, King Of Gerar, with Sa-
raj. God brings a swift judgment
upon the house of the Pharaoh. He
dignifies Abram among and delivers
him from the hands of the Egyptians.
Released from their troublous en-
vironment Abram and Lot go up out
of Egypt into Southern Judah. The
years have brought wealth to both
cattle and focks, their silver and
gold and tents, they were rich men.
With these possessions they travel
as far as between Bethel and Hal,
unto the place Of the altar" which
aforetime Abram had erected.
Abram and Lot have such numer-
GUS herds and fiocks that the land Is
incompetent to support them. Their
herdmen fight. Grazing lands and
watering places are equally subjects
Of dispute and of strife. Open war
between their retainers is imminent.
An open breach between the chief.
tains is likely. The situation Is
strained. But Abram is a man of
peace and of no. contentious spirit.
His riches have made him neither
hard nor arrogant. He scans the
landscape as it stretches toward the
four winds Of heaven and he sees op-
portunity abundant for them both.
With a wise economy he ~perceives
that war is the last thing that must
come to pass between Lot and him
self; that with Canaanites and Periz-
zites still In the country life will be
perilous at best, without any family
feuds; that the n way to invite con-
certed attack by their common enemy
is for them to fight between them
selves. And so he proclaims an iren-
icon: LET there be no strife-for, we
are brethren" With beautiful spirit
he offers Lot the initial choice: IF
thou wilt take the left hand, then
will I go to the right; or if thou de-
part to the right hand, then will I
go to the left" There is no trace of
pugnacity, no evidence of ;self-ag-
grandizement in his dealings with,
Lot. The entire proposition is well
worthy Of a man who enjoyed the
divine favor to an unusual degree.
Abram had proited from his init
macy with God.
Lot accepts the proposal. With an
eye single to his own preferment and
advantage he chooses the fertile and
luxuriant Edenic country eastward
toward the Jordan. Fair as the pri-
mordial garden of the Lord, it, ap-
peals to his self-seeking soul as offer
ing an opportunity for profitable x
p~loitation. Therefore LOT pitched
his tent toward Sodom." e.
Lot is a sample of the man who is
spoiled by wealth and success. The
mor he has the more he wants. His
spiritual sensibilities are dulled and
his finer qualities are blunted.
Practically Abram teaches us the
virtue Of humility, fairness, magma
nimity. What he lost by granting Lot
the first choice he gained in just self.
satisfaction. Lot may have selected
the best land, but Abram gained q
richer spiritual blessing. Abrams
course vas Is generous as it was
diplomatic. He might have drawn
lots for position on the land and have
left the decision to fate. But he did
not. His open-handed dealing with
Lot is a lesson to us all.
Lot stands a warning against the
insidiously destructive influence of
prosperity. Greed hardens and dead
ems; it destroys the powers of spirit.
ual perception; it leads men to look
with favoring eyes on sin. And to
look with favor is to invite tempta.
ton. May God keep us from the ad.
versary Of material gain.
VS.. 1. South" See Gen. 1879.
VS.. 8. Bethel" They travel back
the way they had gone down to
Egypt.
VS.. 7. "Strife." Water and wells
are prolific sources of friction among
Eastern herdmen to-day.
VS.. 9. Land" The unsettled
country. y
VS.. 10. plain. Better, basin
of the Jordan" The Jordan, in the
region, near Jericho, which Lot
chose, is surrounded by a valley four
teen miles wide. 1t is to the north
of the Dead Sea. "Watered." Lot
was DESTROYS of the most favored
places. Garden" Eden. This land
was beautifully supplied with
streams. Near Jericho water was to
be found four ways, practically from
a common centre, as a glance at a
nap will show. And besides a null
titude of other streams ran Jordan
wards or to the Salt Sea. Egypt"
This land was remarkable for>its fer
tility.
VS.. ii "Close." Lot was so anx-
ious to secure the best in sight for
himself that he even forgot his man
ners.
VS.. 10. wicked" They were
prosperous and rich. 1t is not at all
strange that they were wicked. The
wonder is that prosperous men are
as good as they are No temptation
is so insidious and subtle as that Of
ease. Exceedingly" They were SO
wicked that, as we learn from Gen.
10. they were ready even to do harm
TO the very messengers of God.