Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma Daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we're reading Genesis 13, and I'm just going to walk us through the story.

Let's set the scene. The chapter begins, and right off the bat, we learn that Abram is quite rich.

One commentator says in verse 13.5, we see Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become

very wealthy.

Crucial to the introductory paragraph is the stress on the wealth of Abram.

That's verse 2.

He was rich, or heavy, in livestock and silver and gold. But Lot was also wealthy. He had

flocks and herds and tents. It's not that Abram had no tense, but tents are mentioned for Lot because

they would figure prominently in the story about him. So this is interesting in light of the promises

God made to Abram back in chapter 12 as we talked about on

Friday. God said he would bless Abram and his family. And now this didn't necessarily mean

material blessing, but here we see in chapter 13, Abram's family is doing just fine when it comes

to their material possessions or their livestock, whatever. But Abram didn't want this

wealth or this abundance of possessions to cause any conflict, a wise man. The commentator says,

soon though, Abram's company found that they had too many possessions to stay together. The land

could not disdain their dwelling together. The text then implies

the ominous note that the Canaanites and the Parasites were at that time dwelling in the land.

So remember Canaanites, bad guys, people who had different cultural beliefs that didn't honor the

Lord. And these tribes held the good land with the water, and they were observing the men of

Abram and Lot quarreling. So in spite of this vulnerable position, the two sides continue to quarrel

over the water and the land. And the commentator continues, the situation was getting so tense

...