Mar 16 - Genesis 19:1-29

Today's reading in our plan is Genesis 19:1-29. 

1. Today’s reading has some quite disturbing stuff. First, all the men in the city of Sodom wanted to brutally rape what they believed to be two men who came into town to visit Lot (Abraham’s nephew). When Lot refused they threatened him and the two angels saved Lot by blinding the men of Sodom. This unbelievable scene shows how depraved the city of Sodom had become.
2. Then we read about God destroying the city by raining sulfur down on it from heaven. This may strike you as harsh but remember we just read how these were evil people. Remember the promise God gave Abraham in the previous chapter, if there had been a handful of good people God would have spared the city but there wasn’t. And the conversation Lot had with the men of Sodom was only a glimpse of how depraved these people were. So, God destroying it may sound harsh but clearly it was justified.
3. Unfortunately Lot’s wife didn’t follow the angel’s direction and was turned into a pillar of salt. Again this sounds like some crazy Disney movie gone bad but it really happened. We’re not sure why the angels told them not to turn around but Lot’s wife didn’t obey and reaped the consequences. We can assume it had to do with her loyalty.

This is a crazy chapter and the obvious take away for us may appear to be for us to have lives that please God. But it’s more than that. The only reason Lot was saved was partially because he wasn’t completely wicked but mainly because God favored Abraham so much that he saved his nephew. God desires us to want to follow him. God isn’t into us blindly following him like some big mass of robots; if he had wanted that then he wouldn’t have given us free will. So we can assume that Lot’s wife’s punishment had to do with her secretly wanting to still be in the city and not following the angels and therefore she received the same judgement as the city did. Obviously God isn’t turing people into pillars of salt like this anymore for the secret desires of our hearts or we’d all be salt pillars already. In fact, this was the only time it happened. But how about you? Do you “follow” God because you want to or because you feel like you have to? What areas of your life do you need to ask God to help you want to follow him in?