March 11 I Thursday

Deuteronomy 13-15

Mark 12:28-44

“With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’”   —Genesis 19:15

After making a poor choice, some of us learn from our mistakes and make sure we do not repeat it again in the future, but others never learn. Lot pitched his tent near Sodom and eventually moved his tent inside Sodom; we know this because he was taken captive when the king of Sodom lost the battle. Abram came to save Lot from captivity. In fact, Abram even rebuked and rejected the offer from the king of Sodom to keep the plunder. By now, Lot should have learned that living in Sodom has its devastating consequences and we would think that Lot would realize, “Life in Sodom is not a great option. I should get out of this city as fast as possible.” Yet, after everything he had been through, Lot still chose to live in Sodom. 

       In Genesis 19, two angels arrived in the city of Sodom to inspect and bring God’s judgement against it. Guess who they found sitting in the gateway of the city? Lot, and this is a big deal. In the Ancient Near East, to sit at the gate of the city meant one had become an elder of the city, almost like our present-day city councillor or mayor. Not only had Lot immersed himself in the life of Sodom, even his two daughters were pledged to marry men in Sodom.

       Lot invited those angels to stay with him and we see how the morality of Lot had deteriorated when the men of the city surrounded Lot’s home to take the angels and sleep with them. Lot’s response was, “Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them” (Genesis 19:8). After, the angels revealed to Lot the Lord’s plan to destroy Sodom and told him to leave with his family, but Lot hesitated with the decision. The angels took the hand of Lot, his wife and his two daughters and fled. They were told not to look back, but Lot’s wife did and God’s judgment fell upon her. 

       Barely surviving the ordeal of living in Sodom, Lot lost his wife, his possessions and his prosperity. Lot’s tragic story ends with him and his two daughters living in a cave, his daughters getting him drunk and both becoming pregnant by him, giving birth to the Moabites and the Ammonites.

       Sin may appear to us as fun and enticing, but once it has its grip on our lives, it takes us into captivity. May we learn from Lot’s poor choices and compromise, which led to his eventual consequence of loss, and flee from sin.

Prayer: Lord God, what a sobering lesson from Lot on the consequences of sin. Help me to choose Your way and flee from the clutches of sin. Thank You, Lord.