LOT: WRONG CHOICES
(Genesis Chapters 13&19)
I sit there, looking at my daughters. Both just gave birth to babies. Boys. Fathered by me. The babies are just a week old, born on the same day. I am their grandfather- their mothers are my daughters. I am also their father…

How did I get to this sorry state? How could I, a righteous man, become the father of my daughters’ children?
Wrong Choices.
I remember when I was living with uncle, Abraham.
The Lord had blessed my uncle tremendously. He was a wealthy man.
Actually, we were both wealthy men...

The entire world was ours for the taking.
We prospered and conquered territories.
Both of us were married, my wife and my uncle’s wife got along well, which was rare in an extended family like ours.
Rivalry is usually the main issue among women in such family settings...

Sarah, my uncle’s wife had taken my wife like a younger sister.
Sarah had no children, but it did not seem to be a problem for her.
When my wife got pregnant, Sarah was there to help her go through the challenges of pregnancy...

And the way she went about it, you would never know she had no pregnancy experience!
She was there in the labor ward when my wife put to bed both times.
Such a gracious woman!
I wonder what she would say if she heard my wife died as a result of disobedience to Godly instructions?

Would she feel she had failed to teach her God’s ways properly?
I wonder what my uncle Abraham would say if he hears I fathered my daughters’ sons? Would he feel he failed in teaching me the Right Way?
I was a farmer, just like my uncle...

I had thousands of cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and turkeys.
We cultivated vast acres of land, we grew and harvested produce that fed nations.
We exported our produce to the five continents.
I had gone on seminars all over the world to deliver papers on macro-agriculture...

I was an authority in that field.
I understood methods of farming that were divinely revealed to my uncle and me.
We dined with presidents, kings and emperors.
We gave countless countries blueprints on how to turn their economies around through agriculture...

I had been interviewed numerous times on all the major satellite stations- CNN, BBC and all. Our company, Abraham and Lot Unlimited had no rival in the entire world.
Well, no external rivals, that is.
But with time, rivalry reared its ugly head amongst our staff...

It started within the workmen in the field, and later spread to the management staff. Some of them were loyal to me, others to my uncle.
We tried putting a stop to the problem, but the more we tried, the bigger it got.
My uncle called me for a meeting...

“Lot, since my brother, your father Haran died and I took you in as a son, we have never had any problem. When I decided to start this company, I did not want to employ you as a staff because you are a son to me. I made you a partner and gave you 50% shares of the company...

But now, it seems the company has reached a point where it can no longer handle its own success.
I think we should split up.
Even P-Square split up at some point!
You divide the assets and take half.
You decide how you want to share it and where we would be based...

If you go east, I will go west. If you go north, I will go south. That way, these workers will not meet to quarrel over mundane issues.”
Honestly, I wonder why I thought that was as a good idea.
I wonder why I jumped at it...?

Was it because I once thought the company would have been better as “Lot and Abraham Unlimited”?
Was it because I imagined I deserved more than 50% share?
Incidentally, the staff who were loyal to me thought so.
Could I have unconsciously accepted their position...?

We shared the assets and I made a decision: a very wrong decision. I moved to Jordan. From my experience and scientific research, I knew Jordan had very arable land and good vegetation for cattle. My agriculture business would definitely grow there, so I thought...

I made a decision by sight, not by faith. I named my new company “Lot and Daughters Incorporated”. I was excited I would no longer be in my uncle’s shadow.
A few years down the line, I relocated into Sodom...

My Research and Development staff informed me Sodom would become the next big thing in agriculture.
How wrong they were!
We were in Sodom less than six months when it happened: a volcano erupted and I lost it all. Fire rained down and consumed all my assets...

My company, my farm, my cattle- everything! I also lost my wife in the process.
I barely escaped from there with my daughters.
I remember Uncle Abraham used to tell me, “We work by faith, not by sight”.
I never really internalized that statement, else I would not be in this mess!

“Dad? Are you okay?” I am jolted back to reality by my daughter.
It is the naming ceremony of my sons.
My grandsons.
It is so embarrassing, we did not invite anybody.
I carry the son of my first daughter.
I name him Moab.
I return him to his mother, my first daughter...

I carry the other and name him Benammi.
A naming ceremony should be a day of joy. Ours is a day of shame. Just because of a Wrong Decision…

The Bible says, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of DECISIONS"- Joel 3:14.
We are always taking decisions in our lives:

Should I study Law or Accounting?
Should I marry Amina or Funke?
Should I buy a Benz or a BMW?
Should I stay in Nigeria or relocate to Canada?
The question is, when taking decisions, what do you consider/consult?
Your knowledge?
Your wisdom?
Your senses?
What?

A client invested money into a hotel business late last year.
He had always wanted to go into the hotel business.
He did all the projections, all the figures added up.
All his consultants told him to go ahead.
And he did.
Nobody saw COVID-19 coming.
He's regretting it today...

Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "Every choice we make is an entry into limitation",
Many choices can't be undone.
The day you say "Yes" to David, you'll never know what being John's wife would be.
The day you decide to study Medicine, you will never experience the life of an lawyer...

Lot made his choice based on what he SAW, what he KNEW.
"What is seen is temporary", scripture says. "But what is unseen is eternal"- 2nd Corinthians 4:18.
There is always more to what we know.
My dad used to say, "What you don't know is always more than what you do know"...

May God give us wisdom to take the right decisions.
May we never take decisions based on sight, knowledge, feelings or our senses like Lot.

May our eyes of faith be open to take right decisions in our lives, decisions we would never regret in Jesus' Name.
Amen.

Shalom.