Genesis 19

24 And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwell

In the last meditation, three men visited Abraham; three men, whom he entertained. In verse 13 of the 18th chapter of Genesis, one of them was said to have spoken to Abraham, And the Lord said unto Abraham….  In the present meditation, this third personage is no more there; the angels are said to be two here (Genesis 19:1), and not three as before. Students of the scriptures are wont to believe that the this other man was God himself Who later incarnated as Jesus Christ.

God, declared a persona na grata on earth by man, has found in Abraham a man, a member of the human race who could assert God’s rights on the same earth, and therefore, processing salvation of man that involves defeat of the serpent by himself, the God-in-man.

Lot was Abraham’s nephew and lived in Sodom, the land known so well for its pleasure in immorality, including “…the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lost one towards another, men with men, working that which is unseemly” (Romans 1:17). It’s marked for destruction by heaven.

Two of the three men  in the previous chapter eighteen, are now here in Sodom (and called angels) in the evening hours harboured by Lot who knows what will happen if men of Sodom discover them in the streets at night. He knows that the men of the city will come out to molest them. And this is what later happens. At night the men invade Lot’s dwelling and order the two men to be brought out to be known by them. The angels turn round to the pleading Lot, tell their mission, and insructs him and his family to flee out of the city. While the family lingers, the angels whose mission is to destroy, take hold of Lot and, fetching him out of the blinded men of Sodom, instruct him to escape.

Although Lot looses his wife who has turned into a pillar of salt, he finds a place, Zoar, which the angels, at his request, promise to spare for his sake. Thus, Lot and his two daughters escape the heavenly judgement upon the land. …. – and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless (2 Peter 2:6). Lot, who in his appeal to the enraged men of Sodom, offering his two daughters instead of the two men-angels, is here described and praised as righteous. The righteousness here refers is an imputed righteousness. It’s the righteousness that comes by the deliberate transferring of the misdeeds and sins of an individual to an innocent one as in the righteous Christ taking upon himself the sins of the individuals. This is what is ongoing, even now. As many as  are willing can be saved through the acknowledgement of the vicarious living and sufferings of Christ. …..the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgement, while continuing their punishment (2 Peter 2: 9).

The undoing of Lot was in allowing wealth and pursuit of it to severe the fellowship between him and his uncle Abraham. There seems to be no effective communication between the two since they separated. It would have been wisdom for him to constantly meet and fellowship with Abraham, especially as he discovered that the knowledge of the true God and His nature was completely absent in his land of dwelling. In separating himself, he failed to update the constant stream of ever eternal revelations being downloaded upon the earth. There’s no end of knowing the Lord and this a truth that echoes through eternity. A little bite of it in not enough to be the be all end! Let us no give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another as you see the Day approaching (Hebrew 10:25).

I’m not unaware that there’s also this teaching in the Church that Abraham’s success fully blossomed immediately after Lot separated from him and that, it’s the deliberate outworking of God. Really? In any case, by the scripture of the prophets, we know today that we should not willingly and joyfully be yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness (the type witnessed in Sodom) have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

No one, in the primitive and most glorious period of the disciples of Christ could have survived outside of the gatherings of the saints. It’s not doctrine but togetherness that sustained the men of old as they were persecuted and harassed all over, as they ran from this point to that, as they focused on the Lord of their lives. They drew courage and strength from one another in their common plights, as they were thrown to lions and wild animals in the amphitheater. Increasing knowledge of God and His Christ mugged the earth at the ecclesia meetings. Paul writes, What then shall we say, brethren? When you come together, everyone has a hymn or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church (1 Corinthians 14:26). The church hasn’t been the best for keeping separate identity from one another. The wolves have been having busy time on earth.

If Lot and Abraham had contact with each other and had compared revelation-notes, the former wouldn’t have lost his wife, lifetime accumulated wealth… He wouldn’t have dwelt in the land of Sodom, to start with. Okay , he lost all he had in Sodom. Okay, he was now reduced to living in Zoar. I’m still wondering why he didn’t return to his uncle. But he left Zoar for a cave where his daughters drugged him and made him impregnate them. Perhaps that was the first recorded practice of incest in an advanced age of man. Then , I believe that there wouldn’t have been Moabites and Ammonites in the later days to give Israel unpleasant existence. Well, they existed. In spite of this, God was able to integrate these races races into the part of the families that brought the Lord Jesus Christ to the world.

No Satan can beat the eternal plan of the Father, even when I’m most wrong!

We pray for wisdom, God, especially the wisdom for brethren to dwell together in unity aa we see the Day approaching (Psalm 133:1).

Thank You Lord