A Little One – 10.24.08

I believe I'd have to say Genesis 19 is probably one of the least enjoyable chapters in the Bible to read. I'm not saying it's not important or that it's not profitable. In fact, there are all kinds of lessons we need to learn from it. But it's just not pleasant.

The chapter gives the account of the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. Furthermore, it gives us a glimpse at just how vexed the righteous soul of this man Lot really was (2 Peter 2:6-8):

• In verse 7, he calls the Sodomites who had surrounded his house to defile his guests "brethren."
• In verse 8, he offers those depraved reprobates his 2 virgin daughters.
• In verse 14, Lot warned his sons-in-law of God's coming judgment, but his life was such that they just couldn't take him seriously.
• In verse 16, Lot wasn't nearly as eager to get out of Sodom as the angels were anxious to get him out so they could nuke the place. The Bible says that while the angels hastened Lot lingered.
• By the end of the chapter, Lot gets drunk in a cave and fathers a son by his 2 daughters.

It looks like the angels had to literally drag Lot and his family out of Sodom. As they did so, they left them with these 2 words of instruction:

1. Don't look back (Lot's wife did and was turned into a pillar of salt).
2. Don't stay in the plan. Escape to the mountain.

You'd think by this point that Lot would straighten up and listen up. But, oh the deceitfulness of sin. Lot complains in verse 19, I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die. Then in verse 20, he asks to be allowed to escape to Zoar. His reasoning: Is it not a little one? There, he says, his soul shall live.

Notice how Lot had been blinded by his sin. He just couldn't see the clear and simple truth. Why did the angels tell him not to stay in the plain? Because they knew God would destroy those cities, and he would die if he stayed there! According to verse 29, God did destroy and overthrow ALL the cities of the plain. The mountain place where Lot was told to fee was the only safe place there was, and it took the exceeding abundant mercy of God (in response to his uncle's prayers) to deliver Lot from the destruction of the little city of Zoar and get him to that mountain.

Now, I trust you can see the application to our lives today. God has commanded us to be separated from this world and its sin and to be absolutely surrendered to his will. Yet many Christians reason like Lot, I cannot escape to the mountain (of yielding completely to God's will), lest some evil take me, and I die. They get out of Sodom, but they stay in Zoar, thinking all the while that they're OK because their sin is just a little one. What they can't see because they refuse to open their eyes is the fact that the mountain is the only place of true safety – of true joy, true peace, true satisfaction, of true LIFE (John 10:10).

Christian, flee from Zoar and escape to the mountain. Let go of your little sins and live your life in the center of God's will. Make a break from the world and yield yourself completely to His service.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.