March 10, 2023

Hello Advent Family,

Have you ever found yourself attached to a place or a group of people who you knew were bad for you?  Perhaps you knew their influence wasn’t a positive one but you still had an attraction to be around them.  This is what happens with Lot and Sodom.  He knows the wickedness of the people.  They even ask to abuse the Angels that visit Lot in his house.  The Angels want to take Lot and his family away but they hesitate and don’t want to leave.  Finally, by the grace of God the Angels actually take them away by force before they destroy the city.  Let’s look at the account from Genesis 19 together today. 

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. 15 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.” 16 But he 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. 17 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.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 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. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lot’s wife become a casualty of this rescue because she holds on to the past and looks back to the city she is sad to leave and she turns to a pillar of salt.  Isn’t it crazy that sometimes we try and resist the grace and protection of God?  That is what happens when we indulge the flesh in our lives.  Web begin to crave the flesh more than we crave the spirit or the grace of God.  Lot and his family loved the riches and the pleasures of Sodom.  They may not have been as wicked as others around them but they still embraced the life of wickedness there.  Over time they began to desire that over a life of being led and protected and guided by God.  Even in being rescued from death Lot demands the security of another city instead of simply trusting God.  It is easy to see Lot’s errors but often we do the same thing in life.  We desire, power, wealth, success and we seek after those things sometimes more than we seek after God.  Let us not fall into the trap of Lot but let us seek first the kingdom of God. 

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave


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