Lot and his family have settled in the plush land of Sodom. (Please note that fruitful land is not always an indicator of God’s blessings!) The city has become so corrupt, so immoral, so degraded that God has decided to wipe it off the map as an example for the ages that sin against God bears grave consequences! (Please note God promised to not destroy the earth again because of man’s sin, but he does reserve to right to send local judgment from time to time!)
The city’s degeneracy is evident in that a crowd of men turn out to have their way with a couple of visiting men. While just strangers to Lot, he offers them shelter in his home, and they actually rescue him from the intended perversion of the townsmen. Lot knows they are not normal men because they strike the men with blindness. These men warn Lot that destruction is on the way and he and his family must flee now or be caught in the devastation.
What’s surprising is that neither Lot nor his family really want to go! Even though he is known as a righteous man in the New Testament, evidently he has grown comfortable and attached to his environment. An environment so perverted that it is destined to annihilation! His sons-in-law don’t believe him and so won’t go. When it comes down to leaving, the angels have to grab Lot and his family by the hand and force them out! (an act of sheer mercy by God!) Then Lot’s wife is unable to bear the separation and longingly looks back, which resulted in her last look at anything. Why was it so hard to leave such a place? Especially when destruction was sure to come? Because Lot, and ALL OF US, are far too easily enticed and settled with lesser things! Sinful things! Thank God for His mercy that drives us away from these lesser things time and time again!
Sarah baffles me.
ReplyDeleteYou might not want to touch this one??
I Peter 3:1-6 sets her on display as a model for me to imitate, Hebrews 11:11 commends her faith for bearing a son for Abraham, but she makes some pretty bad choices in her life, doesn't she? I'm relieved to not have a perfect (Prov. 31!) model in Sarah, but I'm baffled about when Sarah choses to "speak her mind" to her husband (and she certainly does!) and when she choses to keep silent and "just go along." Surely she would have been respecting God's plan for their family to correct Abraham's cowardly plan for their safety while traveling in foreign places! And even though she wasn't certain at the time of the Egypt trip that she was going to be the mother of the promised son, after the announcement to Abraham that Sarah would be the mother (Gen.17), they still use the same ruse for Abimelech in Gerar! Why doesn't she speak up when Abraham first proposes the "just my sister" nonsense? "I'm not going to be part of that lie. God will keep us safe somehow."
It is so easy to find fault with our teachers, and with the models given us, and it shows the old tendency toward rebellion. It shows MY temptation toward rejecting authority. I'm asking a serious question, and wanting to be willing to receive the answer--how am I to imitate Sarah? (And what did Peter mean about the "don't give in to fear" part??)
Don't feel that you have to give an answer to all this. I've lived with the questions for a long time already. . . and I'm trying to sort out the Christ-like answers one situation at a time.
All biblical heroes have their flaws, save Christ. We emulate their strengths and learn from their weaknesses! Great questions Candy! I love them!
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