Eternity Daily Bible Study

The Life Of Abraham


Number:568

Verses: Genesis 19:27-38

Topic: Grace Resisted

Date: 13th February 2006

 

Genesis 19:27-38 MKJV And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before Jehovah.  (28)  And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the lands of the plain, and saw, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.  (29)  And when God destroyed the cities of the plain, it happened that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.  (30)  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him. For he feared to live in Zoar, and he and his two daughters lived in a cave.  (31)  And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.  (32)  Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve seed of our father.  (33)  And they made their father drink wine that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father. And he did not notice when she lay down nor when she arose.  (34)  And it happened on the next day, the first-born said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine this night also, and you go in and lie down with him so that we may preserve seed of our father.  (35)  And they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him. And he did not notice when she lay down nor when she arose.  (36)  So both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.  (37)  And the first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.  (38)  And the younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

 

Why didn't Lot head over to uncle Abraham's farm?  Why a cave? Why the utter degradation? It is evident that Abraham was concerned for Lot, but Lot was too ashamed to go to his uncle Abraham.

 

We see this so often with children afraid to ask for help from their praying and caring parents or those who have stumbled into sin, to ask for help from their pastor. The Devil tells them they will be chided and cast out, when in fact they would be received with grace and love.

 

Abraham must have been devastated to wake up and see the smoke rising like a furnace from the land, and knowing that Lot was down their somewhere, and was possibly dead.

Just a word from Lot would have lifted his heart and perhaps it took months for him to find out the truth that Lot was alive. Even so Lot never came back to the fold to stay with Abraham on his estate. Lot resisted grace.

 

Lot resisted grace in another way – he did not stay at Zoar, the city which God spared for him. He was afraid, and did not trust the Lord's assurance and followed his fears into the mountains to live as a 'wild man' in a cave, with his two daughters. When Lot was with Abraham he had vast herds, and many servants, now he lived alone, like a homeless man, and ends up committing drunken incest.

 

Whenever Lot had a choice of trusting in grace and blessing, he turned aside and went his own stubborn way. If like Lot did, we leave the place of divine blessing for the “greener grass” - the place of commercial profitability, then when the “market” crashes and Sodom burns, we can be left with nothing. Grace endures while gold vanishes.

 

Some people have a churlish resistance to the goodness of God. God provides Zoar, but Lot chooses a cave. Abraham's hospitality lies a day's walk away, but Lot chooses isolation and misery instead. There are people who sit at home on Sunday mornings being miserable when they know a church just down the street would welcome them. There are others that complain about loneliness when they know they can phone friends and family for a chat, but who never do so. It is almost as if human kindness is an unbearable assault on their pride and independence.

 

There is both right and wrong independence. Right independence is grounded on a solid work ethic and is the godly ability to provide for one's self and for others. Wrong independence is based on a desire to separate from others out of imagined pride or injury. This wrong independence characterised Lot when the first separates from Abraham in Genesis 13, and was perhaps reinforced by his being rescued by Abraham in Genesis 14. We see no word of gratitude in Lot's response to the rescue. Lot was going to “be his own man” and “go his own way”. Throughout Genesis Abraham is always being kind to Lot, and it seems that Lot is always resenting it.

 

Lot's inability to handle grace or to wait on the Lord in the place of blessing, seems to have been transmitted to his daughters who take affairs into their own hands, get Lot drunk, and then father children by him. Despite this inauspicious start the children become founders of the nations of Moab and Ammon (traditional enemies of Israel). Interestingly these nations inherited the same independent, proud and grace-resisting characteristics and were some of the worst idol-worshipers in the OT especially of the god Chemosh that was associated with Moab and Molech that was associated with Ammon. However, possibly because they were of Abrahamic lineage, they were spared when Joshua invaded Canaan.

 

Lot did not have to end up in degradation. He could have stayed in the place of blessing with Abraham, and he could have left Sodom after the battle of the five kings, when the writing was on the wall. He could have, at any time, gone over to Abraham's estate. He could even have stayed at Zoar. Somehow he always made the worst of grace! God is constantly showering His grace upon those of us who believe in Him, and it is up to us to “make the best of grace” by believing in Him and being soft and sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

 

We need to swallow our pride and independence and head to the place of grace where our soul will be refreshed. We need to stay with the program, to abide with God, and accept His gifts and His kindness to us and to walk in His commandments. We need to see blessing as of far greater value than silver or gold or the greener grass of Sodom. We need to stay with our spouses and our families and our churches and all the other sources of blessing and let God cause us to “bloom where we are planted”. Let us not resist grace, instead let us cherish it and let it do its good work in us. For the stubborn independent spirit just leads to inevitable isolation and to decline.

 

 

 

Blessings,

 

John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph)

 

 

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