SCRIPTURE Genesis 19
RELEVANCE
For ideas about faith, Lot's story is worth re-reading.
We all like to think we are strong in the faith. Yet, our faith is only tested under the pressure of situations. Many of those happen suddenly, for which some are totally unprepared.
Until such times hit us, we believe our faith will get us through every situation. But faith, though a substance (Hebrews 11:1), can decline. The Lord encourages us in Romans 10:17 to read and absorb the Word often, as that is our faith flow. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Today's story encompasses three levels of faith. Is your level here?
Lot and his family were real people enduring real times. When God burned Sodom to the ground by raining fiery hail upon the territory, Lot, his wife, and two daughters fled for the protection of mountain caves. It was the only place they felt sufficiently safe; such was the extent of their fear brought on by God's annihilation.
Lot's faith was strong enough to return him to Abraham, from whence he came.
The faith of his two daughters was far weaker than Lot's, lasting only to the cave of safety for a few weeks before they grossly sinned.
Mrs Lot's faith didn't even make it to the cave.
As we know, Lot's wife looked back as she ran, lamenting what she was leaving behind. Her mind weighed the benefits of her only source of salvation versus her current lifestyle and maybe the other two daughters who refused to follow. The penalty God dispensed for that short glimpse of dissatisfied foolishness? She is the only person in recorded history to turn into a pillar of salt. Mrs Lot had no idea her death was imminent.
Why salt? There are several reasons for God using salt, but one may be that every taste of her old life was bitter to the Lord, but she couldn't see it or taste it herself. Many of us are similar when we don't examine our walk with God.
Lot's family were fleeing swiftly to the next stage in their lives. If you were a part of their family, would you have looked back with regret at what you would miss as you fled into the unknown new life?
We condemn Lot's wife for her lack of faith, but she is typical of some Christians who find it hard to contrast what they have lost with what they have discovered in Christ.
In many instances of change, loss automatically creates a sense of depression. How far do you get with this type of loss before lamenting sets in? Mrs Lot's case was Poor Me syndrome, and God viewed it as a lack of genuine faith.
How far did Mrs Lot's faith take her in that panic-filled run for the hills before she looked back? One kilometre? 500 metres? Less?
For which benefit in that filthy environment did she yearn the most? What could a believer think she would be missing in a town filled with depravity?
This is the point! Mrs Lot may not have been the believer she thought she was. She was married to a type of backslider whose belief nobody took seriously, who sat in honour in the judgment gate of the most debauched city in the region. Due to their selection of address and the assimilation, iniquity polluted her daughters' minds and hearts as well as her own. Yet this was the most righteous family the town had!
The realities of the Lot family's faith challenge our own faith and the decisions that shape it. God's Word measured Lot's family and its choices, as with our choices. You see, Lot should have left Sodom years before it perished. Had he made a Godly decision to evacuate long before God intervened, maybe Mrs Lot and the kids would have lived lives of believers.
He probably entertained the thought of leaving many times, as many believers do, but didn't act upon it, as many believers do. Once he saw the filthiness arising and the fact that his testimony couldn't prevent it, he should have wiped the dust of that city off his feet and departed, as did the disciples of Jesus with those who rejected their gospel and testimony. (Matthew 10:14).
Today's prayer: Dear Lord, again, a Bible story has challenged my faith and decisions. Please direct me to your perfect will. I see what poor decisions can do over time, and I don't want to disappoint you.
Photo by Alex Radelich