Message: Two angels came to stay with Lot on
the night before they were to destroy Sodom & Gomorrah. They urged him to get
all of his relatives and loved ones to come with him and escape the land before
they were to destroy it. Lot seemingly drug his feet, his relatives did not
take him seriously and they were all left behind. Lot, his wife and daughters
were saved at the last second.
Command: Warn the people that we love that destruction
is ahead.
Promise: If we take seriously the warnings of God
we will find safety in the middle of destruction, and our influence will help
others too.
Warning: When God warns us that destruction is
ahead, we can’t drag our feet and continue to linger in it.
Application: I saw so many things in this story.
Normally the focus is on Lot’s wife, who was turned to salt for looking back,
but what I really noticed is that this warning came to Lot only because Abraham
asked God to save him. Lot didn’t really seem to want to leave and when he gave
the warning to his loved ones they didn’t take him seriously. And why should
they if he was lingering around and showing no urgency of his own to get out? Not
only was he not motivated to get out, this passage talks about how gracious God
was with his lingering. He waited to destroy the city after Lot finally got
out, but the passage says that the angels had to grab the hands of Lot, his
wife and their daughters and seemingly drag them out of there just in time. At
the last minute Lot even disputed their directions of going into the mountains and
instead negotiated that they spare a nearby small town on his behalf just to
get him out of the city. I wonder how different this story might have been for
the rest of his loved ones if Lot hadn’t been so conflicted about leaving this
place. My personal application for this story is to identify the areas of my
life that God is trying to call me out of, but I keep lingering. Most of us are
saved because somebody prayed for us. We may know who, or we may not but somebody
was Abraham in our lives. Because of this God has been gracious, but he’s
calling us out of some areas of destruction that are headed right for us. Sodom
and Gomorrah represents a perverse, sexually immoral place, but maybe the
things in our lives aren’t literally of a sensual nature. Maybe it’s something
else that we’re holding onto or lingering with just a little longer. The people
around us may not know about the danger headed for them either and even though
we tell them destruction is coming, they can’t take us seriously because we’re
still lingering in some things, unmotivated to get out. Today I’m asking God to
show me those areas in my life that I’m hanging onto. Not just for my own sake,
but also for the sake of people that are in my circle of influence.
