Deliverance, Destruction
Opening Prayer
Loving Father, I praise You today that Your love embraces me and gives me security.
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.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Two thieves were crucified with Jesus. “Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume one of the thieves was damned” (attributed to Augustine, 354–430).
That the sons-in- law are left behind is emphasized by the messengers grasping Lot and the women by the hands and taking them out. Lot’s response is perhaps not quite as keen as one might have liked. He hesitates and then, when he realizes that a bit of mountain running is on the agenda, he groans, though grateful to his deliverers, “Please, no, my lords!” (18). It may have been that his body was as physically incapable of climbing the mountain as Abraham’s was of producing a child. Yet, despite having witnessed the power of the messengers the night before, when they blinded his fellow city dwellers, Lot doesn’t think to ask for divine assistance to complete the task. Are we any different? God does sometimes ask us to do difficult things, even for our own benefit, but he is there to help us when, humanly, we can go no further.
We see God’s graciousness, for at Lot’s request, one town, the look-it-really- is-only- a-very- small-town, that was due for destruction gets a reprieve so that it can become Lot’s home (20,21). Again, Lot does not receive a rebuke from the messengers, which perhaps is of some comfort to those of us who are inclined to give up halfway or who have forgotten to ask for God’s help. God is often so much more gracious than we humans are.
We are reminded here that Lot was exempted from punishment because of Abraham (29). We also see, however, that the exemption did not mean that those saved would be spared future punishment of their own. Lot’s wife has no active part in the narrative until the point where she is categorically disobedient. God may be gracious, but one cannot presume upon that grace.
Apply
How does our society compare with Sodom? What do you do when you are tempted to “look back” at the life you were living before you became a Christian?
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray that I will be filled with Your uplifting joy, which gives me resiliency and strength. I know that this is the only way to keep me from looking back.
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