The Immediate or The Eternal

Over the last few years, I admit that I have become somewhat dependent on Amazon Prime. If you aren’t familiar with this service, Amazon is one of the largest companies in the US right now, but it started out with one man in his home office selling books through the Internet. Over the years they expanded to sell more than just books, then they added the ability to stream movies from their website, and finally they added a membership called “Prime”, which provides free two-day shipping on most orders along with access to a wide array of movies and TV shows. In many ways, it is a great service. But, to be honest, it has spoiled us, and it is systematically destroying local small business. The appeal of it is somewhat overwhelming. I can go online, search for exactly what I want (and they will have it, without a doubt), and then with one click I can order it and be assured that it will be at my doorstep on Ridge Road in Greenville, AL in two days. But now, in order to compete, Walmart has just recently started advertising next day shipping on their online orders, and no membership required. You might have also heard that, in this ultra-competitive market, Amazon has been researching the use of drones to literally drop off your package on the same day you order it.

            This all goes to show that our society is obsessed with the immediate. We love instant gratification. Just think about the way our movie watching experience has changed. In the 1940s, if you wanted to watch a movie, you had to go a theater on certain days and you only got to watch what was the most popular or most available. Now, you can access thousands of movies from the comfort of your own home through Netflix or Amazon. And, while all of this gives us more comfort and pleasure, it isn’t necessarily good for us. As some of you know, going to the movies was a social event for friends and family. Going to the local store to buy what you needed was also a social event. You knew the grocer and the butcher and the mechanic. Now, we don’t know anyone. We don’t talk to anyone. All we have are our own desires and preferences.

            Since the fall, humanity has always been given to the immediate over the eternal. In fact, the fall itself was the result of Adam and Eve seeking immediate knowledge over the wisdom that only God could give. Cain could not rest in the protection that God had promised, so he went out and built a city. The people of Noah’s day wanted power and eternal life through relationships with fallen angels, rather than by waiting on the promise of God. The Babelites wanted to build a great city and make a name for themselves rather than wait on the coming city of God. In the latter part of Genesis 12, we even find that Abram fell to the temptation of the immediate. Because of a famine in the land of Canaan, he went down to Egypt, lied to the Pharaoh about his wife, and ended up bringing a curse on the land because of God’s protection of him.

            This is a pattern that we will see with Abraham. In one chapter, we will find him to be faithful to God, and in the very next chapter, we will find him totally faithless. In Chapter 13, we learn that Abram (and by consequence, Lot) has been blessed with great wealth, even when he was faithless in the land of Egypt. He has been blessed with so much wealth, that the land they are on cannot hold all of the flocks that he and Lot have. So, a quarrel erupts between the two clans. There are three simple truths that I want you to notice from this text.

            First, Abram, as the man of faith, works to resolve conflict, not stir it up. Notice in verse 8 that Abram immediately seeks to resolve the conflict among kinsmen. In fact, Abram appeals to their relationship as “brothers” (or of the same family) as a reason to resolve the conflict. Also, notice how Abram seeks to resolve the conflict. He doesn’t claim his rights to any land. He doesn’t tell Lot, as his nephew, that he is the younger one and doesn’t have a promise from God, so he needs to be the one to leave. He seeks to resolve the conflict through grace and love. Brothers and sisters, we are to follow the example of Abram in our relationships, particularly with other believers. Jesus tells his disciples in John 13:35 that the world will know that we are his disciples by our love for one another. John echoes this idea in his epistle, saying in 1 John 3:14 that we cannot claim to know Christ if we do not love our brothers.

            Second, notice that Lot makes the choice that every unbeliever makes. It says in verse 10 that he “lifted his eyes” and noticed that the Jordan Valley was fertile and full of cities. There are two aspects of this choice that are notable. First of all, the language used here of Lot “lifting up his eyes” is the same as that used in Genesis 3, when Eve looked upon the fruit that the Serpent offered her. Like Eve, Lot looked at the land only with his base desire, with only his stomach. In Phil. 3:19, Paul says of unbelievers: “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” Lot did not care about the promise of God or his relationship to Abram. He only cared about his immediate need and how successful he could be in the fertile land of the Jordan Valley.

            Also, notice that Lot choses the land because there are cities. I imagine your experience was the same as mine when you were coming up through school. I had classmates who had the singular aspiration of “getting out of Greenville” as soon as they graduated. They wanted to move to the big city where there are more opportunities and entertainment. For many of them, this simply translated into being able to party or buy drugs. And, for all of the wonderful things that a big city has, everyone knows that one of the allurements of city life is the availability of any kind of pleasure one might seek. That is exactly what is going on with Lot, here. He wants the protection of the city. He wants the availability of opportunity in the city. He wants everything that the world could offer in the city. Yet, in Genesis, cities aren’t a good thing. Cities are built by sinful men like Cain and Lamech, men who desire to defend themselves against God and do life on their own terms. Cities have towers erected to human achievement. Cities have walls that reflect a lack of trust in God. Cities are a concentration of humanity that rejects the first commands of God to fill the earth. In choosing the valley of cities, Lot is looking at the immediate and failing to wait on the promise of God in Abram to be fulfilled.

            The last thing I want you to notice from the text is that Abram is faithful to trust God, and God is faithful to continue his promise. Notice that Abram makes no choice in this separation. He trusts God to work out the situation by waiting. In this, Abram is again a very practical example to us as believers. When conflict arises, so often our first reaction is to immediately develop a plan and start to manipulate the situation toward the end that we want. We don’t pray first. We don’t seek the Lord’s counsel through His Word or through godly brothers and sisters. But, often times, when conflict arises, the best action we can take is to wait on the Lord.

            Not only was Abram faithful, but God was faithful as well. In fact, in verses 14-17, God actually expands the promise that he made back in chapter 12, 1-3. In his initial promise, God had sworn that he would give Abram a land and make him a great nation, but that promise was not quantified. Now, God shows Abram the exact plot of land that he will give to him. See in this that God’s promises to Abram, and his promises to us, have an exact destination and dimension. God had already purposed, before the foundations of the world, that he would give a very specific land to one man from the land of Ur. And, God also purposed, before the world ever began, that he would give us all of the blessings of heaven through Jesus Christ. Eph. 1:3-5 says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will”. In Jesus, all of the promises of God are secured because he is the faithful servant who fulfills the covenant for us. 2 Cor. 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” And, Jesus is the one who joins every believer, whether Jew or Gentile, together in brotherly love. In fact, Paul tells us in Eph. 2:13-16 that God had always purposed to join together people from every race into one living temple.

            Friend, life is more than just instant gratification. If you are living for leisure, seeking to minimize pain and maximize comfort, hoping to gain just a little more pleasure, the end is destruction. Jesus Christ has died and risen again so that you might have more than just the immediate. He has purchased eternity for you. Won’t you trust him today.

            Brothers and sisters, like Abram, may we be found faithfully waiting on the promises of God. May we not be caught up in the culture of immediacy, expecting the blessings of eternity to be fully realized now. So much of American religion is devoted to “having our best life now”, but there is a better kingdom that is coming. May we patiently wait for it.