Flee For Your Lives!
Opening Prayer
My Lord, I want to know Your Word for me today, even if it makes me uncomfortable.
Read Genesis 19:15-29
[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, isn’t 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. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
Reflect
How did God show both mercy and judgment?All over the world there are refugees who would read this story with a lot more understanding than I can. Those who, having experienced a flight to safety on the spur of the moment, would resonate with Lot’s hesitation, with his seeming indecision in the face of the angels’ urgency (15). It had been a crazy night; now he must run for his life before sunrise. Most commentaries I have read on this passage say things like, “Lot did not want to abandon the wealth, position and comfort he enjoyed in Sodom” (Life Application Bible). Well, would any of us pull up stakes and go with no inner turmoil? Following God wholeheartedly and turning away from the things that will eventually destroy us is not a straightforward business. Many of us have cause to be grateful for God’s graciousness in dragging us from our addictions, even as we kick against him. We all face the temptation to look back over our shoulder as Lot’s wife did (26). But as we press forward, we can be sure that our Maker and Savior is willing us on, protecting us, carrying us and loving us into a place of safety.
Apply
What, like Sodom, is the dangerous place or thing you’re reluctant to leave behind? Ask God to help you leave it.
Closing prayer
Gracious Lord, I want to go forward with You each day. Lead me on by Your Word and Your Spirit.
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