Genesis 18:1 - 20:18
What will it take for you to believe...
Genesis 18:1-15
Abraham now encounters 3 travelers, I gather that it may have been the Lord and 2 angels, he washes their feet and has a meal prepared for them. As they ate Abraham stood near. The Lord told Abraham that he would return at the same time next year and Sarah would certainly have a son by then. Sarah overheard and laughed!
Can you believe it? After all that Abraham and Sarah have been through with God, with Hagar and Ishmael, after all of the promises and the covenant, Sarah still does not believe that God will give her a son... What will it take for her to believe?
But God, what if there are only 10...
As the travelers stand to leave, headed toward Sodom. (This is where Abraham's nephew Lot and his people live.) The Lord tells Abraham that He has heard that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are so grievous that He must go see for Himself. Abraham knows that God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. So, he begins to plead for God to sprae them... "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? what if there are 50 righteous people in the city?" God says that if there are 50 righteous, he will spare the city. Abraham continues to plead, 45...40... all the way down to 10. God has mercy and says, "For the sake of 10, I will not destroy it."
Stop! You CAN'T go inside...
As the 2 angels arrive at Sodom, they find Lot sitting in the gate of the city. Lot, knowing what the angels of the Lord would find, pleads with them to go to his house instead of going into the city. The angels tell him that they will spend the night in the city square. Again, Lot insists that they go to his house instead. Finally the angels agree and go to Lot's house. before they go to bed that night, all of the men of the city, both young and old, came to Lot's house demanding that Lot send the angels out to them so that they could have sex with the angels. Lot goes out to the crowd saying, "No... don't do this wicked thing". He tells them that he will not send the angels out to them. To appease the mob, Lot tells them that he has 2 virgin daughters that he will give to them and they can have their way with his daughters. (Living in the midst of sin does have it's PRICE! Doesn't it?) The crowd continues to cry out for the angels, even threatening to do worse to Lot himself. The angels reach out and pull Lot inside to safety. The angels then struck the crowd of men with blindness so they could not find the door of the house.
Quick review...
When Abram (Abraham) and Lot part ways, Lot is given the ability to choose which land he desired to inhabit. Lot chooses the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Even though it is KNOWN to be a place of sin. Lot not only chooses that direction, he settles just outside the city of Sodom. He not only settles just outside the city of Sodom, he is found by the angels of the Lord to be sitting in the gate of the city. Baby steps, baby steps... we don't just wake up and find ourselves in the middle of sin one day. We get there one step at a time... this one thing won't hurt... well, I could do this JUST ONCE... I could get away with this, it's not too bad... You know the drill!!! Look where Lot ended up doing that.
Back to the story...
The angels tell Lot to get out of Sodom and to take all of his family with him because they are going to destroy the place because of the sin. Lot left the city with his family, all but his sons-in-law, they thought that he was kidding about what God was going to do to the city. The angels said "Flee for your lives... don't look back... flee to the mountains or you will be swept away." Lot tells the angels that he can not make it to the mountains. He begs that he may go to Zoar instead. The angels give their permission for Lot to go to Zoar, saying that they will spare Zoar so that Lot may flee there. They tell Lot to hurry because they can not do anything until he is safely there. By sunrise the next morning Lot had reached Zoar and the Lord destroyed the land raining down burning sulfur on Soddom and Gomorrah.
Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt... God told her, "Don't look back". God means what he says... both in promises and in judgement.
May it be known, the righteousness of Abraham is what saved the lives of Lot and his family. God remembered Abraham!
Live a righteous life, walk in faith...
WHO WILL GOD REMEMBER BECAUSE OF YOU?
After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his daughters were afraid to live in Zoar. So they moved to a cave in the mountains with no one around.
There is no one else around...
One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."
Both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. The older having a son named Moab, father of the Moabites. The younger, having a son named Ben-Ammi, father of the Ammonites.
Abraham does it again... just tell the truth why don't you...
Abraham and Sarah have now moved to the land of Negev, which is under the rule of King Abimelech of Gerar. Abimelech send for Sarah to take her as his wife.
God had something to say about that! ...
Genesis 20:3-7
But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman."
Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, "Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, 'He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands." Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die."
The next morning Abimelech summoned for Abraham asking him why he (Abraham) had lied to Abimelech saying Sarah was his (Abraham's) sister and not his wife. Abraham replied "There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife." Basically, he said that he lied because he was afraid; well, he didn't REALLY lie... it was half true...
Abimelech then returned Sarah to Abraham with a repentrant heart and made restitution to Abraham and Sarah for having done wrong (even though he did not know it).
Sarah was a woman of promise! She had the mark of God upon her. God had promised a child to Abraham through Sarah. When Abimelech went to take Sarah as his wife God stopped him. He warned Abimelech in a dream that she was Abraham's wife, defending her and keeping her pure for the purposes of God's promise.
Even in the muck and the mire of the mess that we create God finds a way to bring about His promises.
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