Minute Musings...Pitching Your Tent

I would like to look at an activity that looks average and is very common placed.  There
is an account of this normal activity in Genesis chapter 13.  Here we find that a problem
had arisen between the herdsmen of Abram and those of his nephew Lot.  Lot had left
with Abram when God had commanded him to "Get thee out of thy country and from
thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:"
Genesis 12:1.  We find no problem with them traveling together until Genesis 13:6 & 7,
"And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together:  for
their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.  And there was
a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle."

Abram told Lot to choose where he wanted to go, wherever Lot decided, Abram would
go the opposite way.  Verse 10a & 11  "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all
the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where,  Then Lot chose him all
the plain of Jordan:  and Lot journeyed east:  and they separated themselves the
one from the other. 

The first mistake that Lot made was that he based his decision on what his eyes beheld.
No where in the passage does it tell us that Lot asked the Lord God for direction.  We
are warned in the Scriptures about the dangers of what we behold with our eyes!  We
read in Job 31:7  "If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked
after mine eyes,"  Lot had turned out of the way of God, his eyes had seen a land of
prosperity and his heart walked after his eyes!

Now we find Lot's last fatal action in verse 12 of Genesis chapter 13  "Abram dwelled
in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his
tent toward Sodom."  Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom!  His eyes had started him
down the slippery slope of ruin and destruction.  We've looked before at this progression
in Psalms 1:1  "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."  Walking,
standing, sitting.  Giving place to sin is quick and easy!  Lot looked, he pitched his
tent, and then we find in Genesis 19:1, that Lot was sitting.  "And there came two
angels to Sodom at even:  and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom." 

Sodom was a evil, sinful city, it is a clear picture of sin.  To sit in the gate of any city,
one had to have a place of pre-eminence in that place.  Lot was sitting in the gate. 
One's sin always affects more than just the person sinning, the affects of sin can be
felt on the generations to follow.  We see that when the angels warned Lot to take
his family and flee the coming destruction of the city, that his family balked!  They
had become comfortable in that sinful place.  The angels had to take him and his
family by force in order to spare them.  Genesis 19:16  "And while he (Lot) lingered,
the men (angels) laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and
upon the hand of his two daughters:  the LORD being merciful unto him;  and
they set him without the city."

Even knowing that utter destruction was eminent, Lot, his wife and only two of his
daughters, had to be forced to leave.  Sin totally blinds one to the truth.  Sin will
cause ones decisions to be marred.  Lot lost his wife that day because she could not
help but look back at what she was losing.  He lost his sons and other daughters
and their families because they were so entrenched in their sinful lives that they
did not believe him and laughed at him.  Lot's decision years earlier to pitch his
tent toward Sodom (sin) cost him mightily.

Where have you pitched your tent today?  Are you being lured by the world and
the pleasures of sin for a season?  Or can you say with the Psalmist in Psalms
101:3  "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:"  Remember the decisions
you make today will not only affect your relationship with God, but your childrens'
and grandchildrens' as well!  Make sure you are pitching your tent in the right
direction!

Psalms 15:15a  "Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6QCK3ZVHtw

My Eyes Are Fixed On You

My eyes are fixed on You O Lord,
Your loving face I see;
I set my heart hard after You,
And I'll follow faithfully.
Each weight I lay aside,
By grace I will abide,
Your rod and staff they comfort me,
And open up my eyes...
And open up my eyes.
To see Your holiness,
To be Your righteousness,
O how I need You Lord...
To see Your majesty,
To be Your family,
O Lord, I praise Your name.

                                                     Bob Fitts