Men in the Bible: A Man of Peace
Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel… Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock… So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” – Genesis 13:1-9
Another sterling quality that we can learn from the man, Abraham, was his maturity and peace-loving nature. He was a man of peace, full of maturity and wisdom.
We had earlier considered how largehearted Abraham was in accommodating his young nephew through his own personal evolution and in all his journeys. We also saw how Abraham was the primary benefactor of Lot, through whom the latter also came into opulence and had vast means of his own. Meanwhile, there came a time that Lot’s and Abraham’s livestock got so big that the land they occupied could no longer sustain them both, as their livestock and herdsmen kept increasing to the point that the two parties started bickering over available resources to feed their livestock.
This bickering must have continued for a while. However, when it got to a boiling point, Abraham demonstrated an unusual sense of maturity and wisdom in the way he handled it all. Firstly, he was the one who seized the initiative to reach out to his younger relative about the friction boiling between their workers.
For context, it is good to state that Abraham and Lot were not close in age. Abraham was the firstborn of three children, and Lot’s father, Haran, who died at a young age, was the youngest of that family. So, there was another son, Nahor, between Abraham and Haran, Lot’s father. Although Nahor did not follow his father, Terah, on the journey to Canaan. He preferred to stay in Ur of the Chaldeans instead.
This background is to help us appreciate the distance in age and stature between Abraham and Lot. However, when quarrels broke out between their workers, it was Abraham who made the overture by initiating peace talks with Lot. He did not wait for Lot to make the first move. After all, everything that Lot had was either acquired directly or indirectly through him. Yet, Abraham did not use this to browbeat Lot or manipulate him. On the contrary, he made the first move and offered that Lot be the first to pick the side of the land he preferred so that he, Abraham, and his own people would head in the opposite direction and settle there.
Moreover, recall that Abraham was also the one God promised the land of Canaan as an inheritance, not Lot. But he did not cite this at any time during their discussions either. He also did not castigate Lot as to why he was not grateful for everything he had, as to be now jostling for ownership of the land that God exclusively promised him, Abraham. He was too mature for that.
All he wanted was for peace to reign between him and his nephew, and between his own workers and the workers of Lot. He was a man of peace indeed. Surely, we can all learn from that.
Selah!
Also read:
- Men in the Bible: A Large-Hearted and Accommodating Man
- The Benefits of Wisdom: Happiness
- The Northwestern Newspaper Story
- Father, Give Me My Share of the Estate
- Strayed from God, but Back in His Arms
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