Abraham/Joseph Week 4 Day 3

Read Genesis 19: 30 - 38 and let's close this chapter ...

This is the last we will hear of Lot.  From a splendid beginning ... walking alongside Abram, his uncle and a man of faith ... Lot has spiraled down to this cave, this loss, this tragedy.  As Abraham is moving upward from faith to faith ... Lot is moving downward from desire to sin to death.  James 1:15 reminds us that "after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."  Lot is the poster boy for Hosea 8:7  "they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind."  Is there anything for us to learn from this sadness? 

Of course the obvious lesson for us is the spiraling downward path of sin.  We have spoken of it before as we have considered Lot and his story.  But it is so important for us not to read over it lightly!  It is so important for us to deal with the sin in our lives immediately ... no delay ... not harboring it and nursing it along.  If you have some nagging, perpetual sin in your life ... stop right now and go to your knees!  Heed the warning of Lot.  You really cannot play with it and expect to remain un-burned. 

Another thought that intrigues me ... James Boice, in his commentary on Genesis, wonders if the angels in verse 17 ... when they told Lot to flee to the mountains ... not to stop anywhere in the plains ... that perhaps they were sending him back to Abraham.  If that were so, it would place Lot in the same category with the prodigal son of Jesus' story in Luke 15.  He could have gone home.  He could have confessed to Abraham and realigned himself with the path of faith.  Unlike that prodigal son, Lot evidently did not "come to his senses".  Was it pride?  Was it an unwillingness to admit to any wrongdoing?  And his story reaches it tragic end.   Our last view of Lot is in a drunken stupor, fathering 2 sons through his daughters, Moab and Ben-Ammi.  And the peoples who come from these boys ... the Moabites and the Ammonites ... will be thorns in the side of Israel.  Yes, sin has far-reaching tentacles.

Powerful lessons from Genesis 19 ...
1.  Purity matters. 
2.  Sexual sin is wrong in the eyes of God - always. 
3.  Judgement from the holy God will come - always. 
4.  As believers, we are to be separate from sin, not engaged with it.  Notice, we are not to be isolated ... but separate.  We are to live differently.  We are to honor God in our decisions, our bodies, our behaviors.   

God, help us take seriously the warnings from Genesis 19.