Friday, January 11, 2008

A lesson from Lot

This week in my reading I read Genesis 19. I love when I'm reading and I catch something new. From this Bible story I usually think of Lot's wife turning to salt. Something struck me as I was reading through this story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here is the passage I'm referring to:
Genesis 19:15--30
15 At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”
16 When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. 17 When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” 18 “Oh no, my lord!” Lot begged. 19 “You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. 20 See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”
21 “All right,” the angel said, “I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village. 22 But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means “little place.”) 23 Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon. 24 Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. 25 He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham got up early that morning and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence. 28 He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace. 29 But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.
30 Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.


What really stuck out to me was in verse 17 when Lot was told to flee to the mountains. His response was No and he asks that he can go to the village in verse 20. Then in verse 30 after the destruction Lot went to live in the mountains. Were these the same mountains he was told to go to originally? This just really stood out to me as I was reading, and I hope I'm reading it correctly.

How many times do we want to do things our way? We think we know what is best, and we try to talk God into letting this thing be okay. It's easy to rationalize anything! If we would just obey God and do what he wants us to do in the first place, how much simpler would our lives be?

Just wanted to share this today. Let me know your thoughts and leave a comment!
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"But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain." Genesis 19:29

2 comments:

Sarah said...

There are lots of times when I really know what's best for myself and my family, and it just doesn't work out the way I think it should. Often, especially if I've given it up and let God take care of it, it turns out much better than I could ever plan it.

Kathy said...

You are right, that life would be so much easier if we just did things God's way from the beginning. I guess we don't sometimes, because we don't understand the mind of God, and sometimes His way doesn't look like it's fitting into our plans, so we think our way is the right way. It takes a lot of faith to completely trust that God knows what He's doing and to follow that.

One other thing, I've always wondered if I would have looked back the way Lot's wife did. It seems like something I would do, but this story really shows that when God tells us NOT to look back, we have to trust Him and obey.