“That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25)
Have you ever wondered why Abraham would presuppose it to be necessary, a given, that the God of all creation would be a good God, that He would be loving, fair and caring, that He would be merciful? Abraham pleaded for people he knew were living in great sin, that were so evil in their intent that he doubted it would be possible to find even five righteous people in that valley. There was one, and even if we may question that number, Peter called him a righteous man in 2nd Peter 2:7-8, and so we should leave it at that.
Lot was in a sense a type of the prodigal son, choosing first the fertile valley, then facing his tent towards Sodom, and finally becoming one of those who sat in the gate of the city, not only living and working in the midst of them, but sitting in one of the seats of judgment. But, unlike that young man who came to his senses, Lot needed to be drug out of the city by the Lord.
We live in that world today my friends, that much is quite easy to see, but the question is how much of it are you acquiescing to, how much of it do you stand by idly and allow to occur without warning those in it of the impending destruction that is approaching. Is your focus on the Rapture or your neighbor, are you warning or waning in the task that that has been set before you?
While you may not be as Lot’s wife and look back with longing and desire, are you hoping that the Lord tarries so that you can fulfill yet some of those earthly desires?
Lot was a rich man, a man of many possessions, treating that morning as any other, only to find himself sleeping in a cave that night with nothing but the clothes on his back, are you prepared for that? Will you long for that which you had yesterday when the sun rises the next day, do you believe you could wake up and say, “Thank you Lord, please lead me in your will today.”
How many will leave when the Lord Jesus Christ calls us from the clouds to take us home no man can say, but we do know only four came out of that valley, we know that only eight souls were in the ark when the Lord sealed the door shut.
Not many I fear.
What are you holding on to here, what desires of the flesh overpower your desire to be with Christ, what is it that may make you as Lot’s wife, turning back to grieve over what was lost? “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,” (Matt. 24:38) Is that you? Are you spending your life in and for the world or for the Lord and in the Word? Are you as righteous Lot, not turning back to see but not wanting to leave also, or as Abraham, praying for only five, concerned with the life and souls of unrepentant men and women?
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21)
Lot’s wife’s treasure was behind her, yours is yet to come on the path ahead. Consider these words, look around you, look at your life, is there honestly anything that you will miss here? “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)
