Genesis 19 part 2 notes/thoughts - Looking back- Yesterday we read about Gods judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and the wickedness that was found there and that God sent some angels to save Lot and his family. Today we look at the rest of the story. Genesis 19 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. 15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” 18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isnt it? Then my life will be spared.” 21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.) 23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. This last part of the Sodom and Gomorrah story has always troubled me. I can see myself as Lot/Lots wife. Consider the following parts: 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Why is Lot and his family looking back? The memories? The comfortable lifestyle? The Wealth? I was thinking about this the other day. Jesus said this about being too comfortable here on earth: Luke 14 25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. I think the one of the big reasons America is losing its Christian Heritage so quickly is that we have been so blessed , so comfortable, that the idea of sacrifice and giving anything up is super alien to us now. The first disciples to follow Jesus straight up told Jesus that they had to give up everything to follow him and Jesus told them they will get 100x more of what they left. Yet that message today is alien to us. Joel Osteen would tell us that if we arent rich and successful than we are not living the life God has for us. As I was thinking about these things I thought about the house church in China. I got to see one once in action. Several people had been arrested many times and left in jail only to get out through some friends praying for them. To follow Jesus in some countries is a suicide mission. Yet Christianity is growing in China and shrinking in America. The problem with wealth and possessions is that it can become a golden cage. You start to like the gold too much even though it makes you a prisoner. Think back to the story of Lot and his family, they love the gold cage too much, Lots wife wants to see it one last time and she becomes a pillar of salt. Jesus tells us we are Salt to this world, Salt preserves/flavors food. Salt keeps meat from going bad. But there are 2 kinds of Salt, the Salt that saves and the Salt that is worthless. Jesus tells us to remember Lots Wife (Luke 17:32-33). She was Salt but she was worthless salt. She is the salt that would ruin manure. That is what Jesus is telling the crowd Luke 14. Your Salt can be so worthless that you would ruin crap. Jesus would be like, dont stand on the crap, you are ruining it, I can put that manure on the field to grow something, get off it, you can grow anything and you infect it. That is my struggle, do I love my American dream so much that if God were to take it away, I would complain? I fear some days the answer is yes. Tim Maurer can be more concerned about age 60 than age 60 million. If I believe what the Bible says, than I am thinking more about age 60 million than age 60. Question of the day Why do you think Lot and his family were hesitant in leaving Sodom? What did they have there that they would lose? Was it a blessing or a curse to lose their worldly wealth? Would you have looked back one more time too?
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:06:15 +0000
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