Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and NumbersMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Pentateuch -- Commentaries; Bible. Pentateuch -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Note how we are taught here the great truth for the Old Testament, that
outward prosperity follows most surely those who do not seek for it.
Abram's wealth has increased, and his companion, Lot, has shared in the
prosperity. It is because he 'went with Abram' that he 'had flocks, and
herds, and tents.' Of course, the connection between despising the
world and possessing it is not thus close in New Testament times. But
even now, one often sees that the men who _will_ be rich fall into a
pit of poverty, and that a heart set on higher things, which counts
earthly advantages second and not first, wins a sufficiency of these
most surely. Foxlike cunning, and wolf-like rapacity, and Devil-like
selfishness, which make up a large portion of what the world calls
'great business capacity,' do not always secure the prize. But the real
possession of earth and all its wealth depends to-day, as much as ever
it did in Abram's times, on seeking 'first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness.' Only when we are Christ's are all things ours. They are
ours, not by the vulgar way of what the world calls ownership, but in
proportion as we use them to the highest ends of helping us to grow in
wisdom and Christ-likeness, in the measure in which we subordinate them
to heavenly good, in the degree in which we employ them as means of
serving Christ. We can see the Pleiades best by not looking directly
at, but somewhat away from, them; and just as pleasure, if made the
direct object of life, ceases to be pleasure, so the world's goods, if
taken for our chief aim, cease to yield even the imperfect good which
they can bestow.
But now we have to look at the two dim figures which the remainder of
this story presents to us, and which shine there, in that far-off past,
types and instances of the two great classes into which men are
divided,--Abram, the man of faith; Lot, the man of sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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