Saturday, May 30, 2020

Genesis 18-19

What does it say?
Three men appeared and Abraham asked that he might treat the Lord hospitably. They Lord asked for Sarah and she was in the tent. The Lord told Abraham that in one year, He will return and she will have a son. Sarah laughed because of her age and the Lord said: “Is there anything to difficult for the Lord.” Abraham questions the justice of God. Will the Lord destroy the righteous with the wicked? Abraham gives the Lord scenarios beginning with 50 righteous persons, all the way down to 10 righteous person and in each case the Lord answers that He will not destroy Sodom if righteous persons are found in it. Suffice it to say that the Lord deals justly with His created beings. However, the under lying reason for Abraham’s questioning the justice of the Lord is that Abraham’s son Lot lived in Sodom with his family. The two angels who appeared as men to Abraham, with the Lord, came into the city and Lot asked that he might show them hospitality, they agreed after he urged them strongly. After eating the feast that Lot prepared, the men of the city came to Lot’s whom and demanded that he give them the two men, so that they might have sex with them. For this reason, homosexuals in the near past were often called sodomites, a term that has departed from us. The men became angry that Lot would judge them regarding the desire of their hearts. Lot even offered his virgin daughters to the attackers but they wanted the men instead. Lot showed the two angels dressed as men hospitality but the other men of the city desired to degrade them. The righteous treat others with dignity and the unrighteous treat others shamefully. The men who came to Lot’s door were struck with blindness which was also their spiritual condition. The two angels told Lot to take his family and escape, or they would be swept up with the destruction of the city. They commanded Lot to run and not look back. We should run away from sin and not look back. However, Lot’s wife looked back and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Looking back longly of sin will destroy us. When Lot arrived at Zoar, the Lord reigned down hell (fire and brimstone) from heaven on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham saw the destruction from a great distance away. The Lord saved Lot because of Abraham. Again, we have a prohibition against drunkenness in Scripture. Lot became drunk and did what he would not normally do, he had sex with his two daughters. The text says that he did not know when they laid down with him, or when they got up. Two nations: the Moabites and the Ammonites were born from incest.

What shall I do?
I shall trust the word of the Lord for He will always do what He has said that He will do. God can do whatever He wants to do, however, he wants to do it. It is a miracle that a 90 year old woman and a 100 year old man could conceive and have a child. It is a miracle that God could take out my heart of stone and give me a soft heart. It is a miracle that He is transforming me from with in by His word and His Spirit. And it is a miracle that He should do what He has promised in His word to do; raise me from the dead, in a glorified body to live in His kingdom eternally with Christ. I have not seen the resurrection and the resurrection is as incredible to me as the thought of conceiving and giving birth at the age of 90 must have been for Sarah. I shall treat all human beings with the dignity deserved as image bearers of almighty God and I shall treat others hospitably. Shall run from sin and not look back. I shall not drink alcohol because it can take away my ability to think.