The Problem With Worship at the Altar of Wealth

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Thursday, March 14, 2019

So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned.  (Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)  From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.  This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord again.  Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents.  But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.  So disputes broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot.  (At that time Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land.)  After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west.  I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.  And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!  Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”  So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre.  There he built another altar to the Lord.  Genesis 13:1-7, 14-18(NLT)

Scripture tells us both Abram and Lot became very wealthy.  However, the difference between the two that made all the difference in the world as to how their stories turned out, was this:

No matter how wealthy Abram became, it never prevented him from building an altar to worship the real God, while no matter how wealthy Lot became, it never was enough to keep him from wanting more.

Frankly, not everyone is hard-wired to handle wealth alongside faith; in those cases, one of them must take a back seat.  Abram was on a mission to serve God, while Lot was always moving towards what he saw as the next level in climbing the ladder of personal success.  The difference in the two families was contentment and focus.  Abram focused on pleasing God; Lot was always moving in the direction of Sodom.  In the end, when Lot was fully-entrenched in Sodom and God sent his angels to destroy the place, those angels just about had to pry Lot and his wife away from the city.

Corrie ten Boom wrote about that kind of attitude; she said:

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For You Today

The choices with wealth are always two:

1.     Worship the wealth and have your attention always drawn to it.

2.     See the wealth as a blessing, and have your attention focused on how God wants you to use it as a channel of blessing for others.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   via Wikimedia.com

[ii] Source not remembered, image via Wikimedia Commons