Genesis 19 is a very long chapter, but we can trust the Lord to help us unpack it. As you know, family is a very important thing in God’s heart. Even the Bible says He puts the solitary in family (Ps68:6). Let us see one or two lessons that we can learn from the household of Lot.
The days they lived in:
In the days of Lot and his family, there was great wickedness in the city where they lived (Sodom) and God sent messengers (Angels) to see if the cry against Sodom was true. As they got there, they found that the cry against the city was true, therefore, Sodom was due for utter destruction.
As they entered the city, Lot who might have learnt hospitality from Abraham (his uncle) invited these angels to his house. As they got into the house, the men of the city came and asked that the angels be brought out so that they could have immoral relationship with them. Does this paint a picture of our days?
Lot’s perception of his daughters:
As the men of the city bombarded Lot’s house and demanded him to bring out these angels, Lot made a crucial negotiation for these special guests in his house. He said, “Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.”
It is heart breaking to see the kind of heart that Lot carried towards his daughters. He was ready to bargain the life of his daughters for strangers in his home. He was happy and satisfied for his two daughters to be molested while strangers were kept safe under his roof. Look at his words-only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.”
He believed that he had responsibility for the welfare of strangers and was not concerned on how his two daughters would be treated.
Unfortunately, we still have fathers and even mothers like Lot in our days. Parents who are happy to sacrifice their children for the happiness of another person. Some sacrifice the time they should spend with their children in working, in order to build a house for their parents etc. While some spend that time in many religious activities. May the Lord grant us a sense of responsibility for the children He has put under our roofs.
A divine rescue
As the angels confirmed the state of the life of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, it became very clear to them that the city must be destroyed. The angels then turned towards Lot and asked him to get all his family and move out of Sodom. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
Even though Lot was still lingering between staying andleaving Sodom, God in His mercy took him, his wife and two daughters by their hands and led them out of Sodom. What a divine rescue! Lot and his household were led out of the city of destruction. They were rescued with an instruction, which was not to look back.
A mother’s tiny peep into the past
A saying says, “you can force a horse to the riverside, but you cannot force it to drink water” Though Lot and his household were mercifully taken out of Sodom, the heart of Lot’s wife was in Sodom. She seemed to be walking side by side her family members; yet, her heart was way back in Sodom. Her daughters and husband were not her treasures, her treasures were all she had and all she was in Sodom, so since where a man’s treasure is, there his heart will be, Lot’s wife took a peep back into Sodom and that was how she ended. Her motherhood ended on the way out of Sodom to Zoar. Her place was never with her daughters, but rather her place was in her earthly pleasures. Who knows maybe she may have been able to raise the small city of Zoar unto the Lord as people hear her testimony of divine rescue from a perversed city, but she could not make it into the future God was offering her and her entire household because she looked back.
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