Genesis 19:12-22
My dad loved history, and often he would say, “man learns nothing from history, if he did he would not repeat it.” While reading the above Scripture many thoughts came to mind, most of all how a righteous man like Lot was made weak in all areas of his life by living in the midst of sinful people. There is an abundance of examples in these Scriptures of what happens to a man and his family when they let sin creep into their lives.
I was in my twenty’s and just beginning to understand the things of God, when a friend ask me to take a one day mission trip to Mexico and meet Pastor Joe. That trip is etched in my memory for many reasons but let me share one of them. As we were returning it was in the late afternoon and we were hungry so Pastor Joe suggested we stop at a place called Sam’s. Coming out of the sunlight an entering into Sam’s was like going from light to darkness. As we entered Sam’s it had no windows and you could see only a few feet in front of you, as we sat for a while the room came into view and people were all around us, people we had not seen until our eyes adjusted to the darkness.
I will never forget what Pastor Joe said that day, “As we came from the light into this dark place your eyes were blind to all that was around us. That is also true with sin, at first it looks dark and evil, but the longer you stay there the more your heart will regulate to the darkness of sin. Is that not what has happened to Lot in this story, but this question came to mind, has that not also happened to the Church of the living God?
Lot’s family no longer feared God, in fact when the angels told him to get his family and leave, he first went to his future sons-in-laws, but they thought he was jesting. Verses 15-17, gives this account; “As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered.” He did what, he lingered, the angels have just blinded the men of the town, the angels have just told him that God has sent them to destroy the place and they lingered. “So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
Lot’s out of Sodom, he left behind the history of being somebody at the gate of the city, he has left his bank account, his 401K, the baby grand harp, all his stuff, not just good stuff but all his stuff, and he is ready for whatever God wants to do with his life; wrong! This is what happened next; “And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. Behold your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there – is it a little one? – and my life will be saved!”
Lot, the man God calls a righteous man, has forgot whom his source is, it was God who rescued him, and that same God was able to provide all his needs in the hills. Lot’s family was polluted by sinful belief, conviction and principles of sinful Sodom, they no longer knew how to look after themselves; they needed a city, more than they needed God.
Is America that much different from Sodom? Has sin not removed our dependence in God, are you and I open to leave all our stuff and go to the hills, if that is what God speaks into our heart? These are questions I ask myself as I read these verses.
Form the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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