But My Sister is My Wife

 Read Genesis 20

Be faithful.  Walk blamelessly before the Lord.  This was the counsel of God to Abraham.

We know that it is not possible for us to truly be blameless on our own.  We need the atonement of Christ Jesus to put us in right standing—blameless—in our relationship with God.

We really couldn’t expect Abraham to live a life without transgression, but really, trying to pass your wife off as your sister again should have been a lesson that Abraham already learned.

But we see this behavior repeated.  Abraham moved to the southwest to an area called the Negev.  It was between Kadesh and Shur.  It was also north of Paran.  Paran was where Moses stopped and sent 12 spies into the Promised Land centuries later.

This was also the land of the Philistines, though the animosity between the Philistines and Israel was centuries down the road.

Essentially, Abraham had moved closer to Egypt. When Abraham settled into a place called Gerar, he informed people that Sarah was his sister. The king of that area—Abimelech—took Sarah for his own household.

This must attest to Sarah’s good looks.  The king took a 90-year-old woman into his own household.  Essentially, she would be another wife or a concubine. If we think about this and this account is chronological, it must have happened very soon after the destruction of Sodom.

Had Sarah been showing that she was with child, Abraham would have had to come up with a cover story as to why his sister was pregnant.  Really, what king rounds up pregnant women for his palace?

Abimelech did not have sexual relations with Sarah.  God prevented this, but there were consequences for bringing her into his household. All of the women in Abimelech’s household were prevented from conceiving children.

Abimelech might have been oblivious to what was going on and why except for the fact that God came to him in a dream.  God was very direct.

“You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”

Abimelech appealed to God.  I didn’t know. Abraham said she was his siter.  Sarah said he was her brother.  I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong.  In fact, I never touched her.

God replied in the dream.

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

Sometime after the king’s dream ended, he advised his officials of what had happened and summoned Abraham.  What were you thinking? What did I even do to deserve this sort of treatment? Why, just why?

Abraham had an answer, though upon examination it doesn’t really speak well of the Father of Many Nations.

Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

So what was Abraham thinking?

·       Let’s start with there is no fear of God in this place.  I think Abraham had bad intel as the king seemed to know who came to him in his dream and started explaining himself to the God who appeared in his dream.  The fear of the Lord was present at least in that moment.

·       Abraham next tried a technicality.  She really is my sister.  She is my father’s daughter by another mother.  I took her to be my wife.

·       And it’s sort of God’s fault.  He told me to leave my father’s household and go to a land that he would promise to my descendants, but that I would surely be a stranger in now, and then after I got there, there was a famine.  I concocted this plan with my wife because I figured that I was a dead man if anyone knew Sarah was my wife.  She is a looker, you know. I told her that she would need to tell people that I was her brother.

Here’s Tom’s thinking.  This was not the era to be a woman. Lot was ready to throw his daughters to an angry mob of men. Abraham has now twice passed his wife off as his sister thinking it would save his own skin and been caught in his deception.  Yes, she was a half-sister, but when you leave out the part that she also happened to be your wife, it taints the whole story.

So, God punished Abraham… Not exactly.

Once again, we see Abraham profiting from his deception.  Silver, flocks, slaves, and freedom to settle anywhere in the king’s land were given to atone for the perceived sin that Abimelech never committed.

Abraham made out like a bandit.  Where is the moral lesson in this? What can we apply in our lives?

·       If you are the king, be careful about bringing 90-year-old women into your household with hopes of adding them to your harem.  I guess that could be a lesson learned.

·       If you got rich once before playing your wife off as your sister, it might be worth another go.

·       If you are a woman and someone invents a time machine, don’t go back to this time.

Those can’t be our lessons from this chapter.  No!  That just can’t be it.  So what?

God had chosen Abraham for his purpose.  Abraham with all of his flaws was still chosen by God to be the Father of Many Nations.  Abraham did not qualify for this role.  God chose him.

It seems that sometimes God chooses a real screwball.  God told Abraham to keep the faith and walk blamelessly before him.  Abraham was not the model for either charge.

Now, Abraham did do what God told Abimelech that he would do.  He prayed for Abimelech and his household and they were healed.

As we look at this chapter, we might think that the editors could have just left this one out.  What does it add to the story?

Abraham and his wife are in this year of waiting for the promised son.  Apparently, Sarah has not shown any signs of being pregnant.  Abraham decided to move. We don’t see any signs of Abraham setting up the nursery.  It seems that Abraham and Sarah are just going about their lives as usual.

The promised son doesn’t seem to be the central theme in the story.  Didn’t God just visit them?

Abraham will be the Father of Many Nations because God chose him to be the Father of Many Nations.  It was not because Abraham made the best decisions ever.  It was not because Abraham was known for his integrity.  If we read ahead just a little, we see Abraham and King Abimelech making a treaty but Abimelech wants to know that Abraham isn’t going to pull a fast one on him.

Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.

King Abimelech knew that God was with Abraham in everything he did, but Abimelech was very cautious about having dealings with this man named Abraham. 

So God was with Abraham, but Abraham didn’t have much to his personal credit.  His wealth, his military victory, and the son promised to him are all from God.

God credited Abraham with righteousness because of his faith but we don’t see that faith manifested in Abraham’s life for a couple more chapters.

We have talked previously about God doing the impossible so we can know it could only be God.

Now, look at Abraham’s life.  On his own, Abraham was a total mess. Without God, he was just a screwball.  He passed his wife off as his sister twice, had a child with Hagar, and asked God to bless Ishmael thinking God couldn’t give Sarah a child, and yet he still has silver, servants, flocks, and is generally wealthy.

It seems that God chose an impossible candidate to be the Father of Many Nations.  Just as Sarah was beyond child-bearing years, so too was Abraham at the very bottom of the list as far as being qualified for such a selection as being the Father of Many Nations.

Perhaps that is so we can see it is God at work.  There were surely more qualified men somewhere on the planet, but God chose Abraham and God did the impossible through him.

There will come a people through whom God will work and reveal himself to the world.

There will come a Savior for a lost world and we know today that he came from the line of Abraham.

They will come through the line of Abraham, a man who is not much to talk about on his own.

So how do we apply this to our lives?

Consider Abraham and consider Paul’s words to the church in Corinth.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.  What a crazy statement, at least in the world’s model.

But the second part of it is what we see in Abraham—God’s power resting on him.  Paul described it as Christ’s power, but it was the power of God being manifest in his weakness.

Let’s not throw in the towel just because we find ourselves numbered among the screwballs of the world.  Let’s be glad that in our weakness, our shortcomings, and even our transgressions, we can know God’s strength.

Don’t go having kids on the side or try to pass your wife off as your sister to save your own hide, but consider all the things in which we just miss the mark and know that is where God’s strength carries us through.

As we have made our way through this story of Abraham, I have reminded you before of some of Paul’s words from his letter to the Romans.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

God chose Abraham for his purpose.  Abraham received the mercy of God time and time again.  Abraham lived in the favor of God.

Despite his shortcomings, Abraham knew and lived in the favor of God.

Let us never lose sight that we too live in the favor of God. We see the mercy, forgiveness, grace, and favor of God even in this first book of the Bible.

Thank God for his favor, for without it we would be lost and alone.

Amen.

Abraham Catch Up

 Abram Catch Up

Read Genesis 11-19

Note:  Genesis chapters and verses are noted not linked.

The 11 am service will have the main story from chapter 20, so for now, I want to do a quick flyover of the 9 chapters about Abraham that we have covered so far.  Don’t miss the 11 am service as it will address what happened in chapter 20.  I will put a few questions in here for those who remember the story. Here we go…

Abram comes from the line of Shem one of Noah’s sons. 11:10-26

Abram’s family lived in the land of the Chaldeans.  This was pagan country. 11:27-28

Abram’s father was named Terah . 11:27

Here’s a question for you. Abram’s father, Terah, had three sons.  Two of them were Nahor and Haran.  What was the name of the third son? Abram.  11:27-32

Lot was Abram’s Nephew.  Haran was his father. Haran died while everyone was still living in Ur in the land of the Chaldeans.

Abram’s father took his family from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans and moved north to a place called Harran. 11:27-32.  Terah, Abram and his wife Sarai, and Terah’s grandson, Lot, made the journey. We don’t hear anything about Nahor.

While in Harran, God called Abram to leave Harran and his father’s household and go to a land that God would show him. This is what will come to be known as the Promised Land, but that’s yet to come at this point. 12:1-3

How old was Abram when he left his father’s household? He was 75 years old.  Imagine living at home until you were 75.  If mom keeps doing your laundry that might be a sweet deal. 12:4

What other male relative came with Abram? Lot.  We don’t see that God called Lot to go with Abram, but he went anyway and will be part of several stories in the chapters ahead. 12:4

Abram next went to Egypt.  Why? There was a great deal on an AirB&B—No, that’s not it.  There was a famine in the land.  Turn your biblical clocks ahead to the story of Joseph and think on that one for a while. 12:10

In Egypt, Abram tried to pass his wife off as his sister for his own safety. 12:10-20

Pharoah discovered the deception as a result of serious diseases inflicted on him.  He sent Abram and crew packing but with great wealth. That’s quite the trick.  You deceive the Pharoah and surely are not much of an ambassador for the one true God, but you make out like a bandit. 12:10-20

Now we come to a point where Lot and Abram went separate ways.  Both seemed to be successful and had many flocks and their servants were always fighting over who got what pastures.  So Abram said to Lot:  You go where you want and I will go somewhere else. Who settled in the land around Sodom and Gomorrah?  Lot did.  It was that greener pastures sort of thing. 13

Here’s a cool fact for you. Abram had an army.  How many men composed his army? There were 318 men in Abram’s army and they defeated 4 undefeated armies.  Why did Abram go to war?  Because Lot was captured and taken away by these armies as part of the spoils of war. 14:1-16

To whom did Abram make a tithe following his victory? The tithe was made to God but Melchizedek was the priest, and also the king of Salem, which you know better today as Jerusalem. 14:17-20

Following this meeting and blessing, to whom did Abram say he would take nothing from him? The king of Sodom. Abram somehow knew that this whole Sodom business was ugly and he wanted no ties with it.  He probably couldn’t figure out why his nephew still wanted to live there. 14:21-24

Abram had been in the land for a while and still didn’t have any kids. He was worried that his estate would go to Eliezer of Damascus because Abram was childless. 15:1-3

God told Abram that his heir would be of his own body.  Abram believed God and God counted his belief (faith) as righteousness. 15:6

How was the Promised Land defined in this covenant? God promised Abram many descendants and told Abram that they would reside in a land promised to them. What land?

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” 15:17-20

I think he left out the gigabytes and terabytes and the smaller tribes of the megabytes and kilobytes.

What creative solution to this childlessness business did Sarai and Abram concoct? Sarai told her husband that he should do the deed with her maidservant and make a child.  He did and Hagar, Sarai’s servant, got pregnant.  Hagar started pressing her luck and there was animosity between her and Sarai.  Sarai came to Abram and told him it was all his fault. Abram told Sarai to do what she wanted with her servant.  She mistreated Hagar and she ran away. 16

What name was to be given to this child? Ishmael.16

Was this the child of the promise? No.  God will fulfill his promise.

Did God tell Hagar that she was on her own? No.  The angel sent her back to Sarai but promised to provide for her and her son. 16

How did the angel describe this child that was to come? A wild donkey of a man. 16:12

Was Abram circumcised? Not until chapter 17.  This was not a medical procedure.  It was a sign in the flesh between God and Abram and all his Abram’s household and all of Abram’s descendants.  The covenant was that God would make Abram the Father of Many Nations.

God did one more thing that was a sign of things to come in short order.  He gave Abram and Sarai new names, names appropriate for the Father of Many Nations and his wife.  They were Abraham and Sarah. 17

Three visitors came to see Abraham.  They were the Lord and 2 angels.  They said that Abraham and Sarah will have the promised child in about one year.  Sarah laughed.  God heard her.  She said that she didn’t laugh. God said, “Yes you did.”  Imagine getting into a back-and-forth about what you did or didn’t say with God. 18

The two angels headed towards Sodom and the Lord told Abraham that he would destroy the city and surrounding area because of its wickedness.  Abraham bargains with the Lord for the city, asking will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked.  Abraham asked the Lord if he would spare the city if there were 50 righteous men in it.  The Lord said for the sake of the 50, he would spare the city.  A negotiation of sorts ensues.  What about 45. OK.  What about 40. OK.  At the end of this dialogue, the Lord said if there were 10 righteous men in the city, he would spare it, and he left. 18

We might wonder why Abraham cared about Sodom.  When he met with the king, he didn’t want to have anything to do with him.  Why did he care?

We don’t know for sure, but it might be because Lot lived there, and he had a family now.

Little did Abraham know that God had already set in motion a rescue for Lot and his family, at least those who were willing to be rescued.

The short version of this story is that Sodom and Gomorrah and much of the surrounding area were toast.  Burning sulfur started raining down at sunrise.  On that day, the best part of waking up might have been Folgers in your cup because the rest of the day was nothing but destruction.

The two angels had rescued Lot and his wife, plus the two daughters that were unmarried and lived at home.  There may or may not have been other daughters that were married.  Genesis only tells us of the two.

During the night, the angels grabbed these 4 people and got them out of the city, then set them loose with instructions.  Run for the hills (actually the mountains) and don’t look back.  Both parts of this instruction were important.

Lot convinced the angels that he couldn’t survive in the mountains and they let him take shelter in a small town near the mountains which would be named Zoar, which means small town.

Lot’s wife ran away for a while but at some point, after dawn, she looked back and became a pillar of salt.  There is plenty of speculation on why she looked back and why she turned into salt, but from this chapter we just get the account.  She looked back and turned to salt. 19

Most people remember the story up to this point, but there is a little more.  Lot and his daughters moved to the mountains.  That was where the angels originally wanted to send them, but Lot thought Zoar would be better.  As it turned out, he was afraid to live there.

So, they moved to the mountains and lived in a cave.  Apparently, they had no neighbors.  The solitude might have been good for Lot, but the 2 young women felt it was the end of the world.  They had no prospects for husbands or for children.

They could do something about the second part, so on consecutive nights, they got dad drunk and had sex with him and conceived.  Apparently, Lot was oblivious to the process.  That must have been some wine!

The older daughter had a son and named him Moab and the younger had son and named him Ben-Ammi. 19:30-38

And that little soap opera brings us up to chapter 20 and a story that sounds a lot like one we heard before.

So, that is the 10,000-foot overview—a quick flyover of 9 chapters with the son of the promise and the testing of Abraham’s faith yet to come.

Keep on reading.

Amen.

God's Judgment and God's Favor

 Read Genesis 19

Abraham bargained with God to the point where God said if there were 10 righteous men in all of Sodom, he would not destroy the city. I’m not sure that there were any righteous men in the entire city.  Lot would be saved because God found favor with Abraham, but the men that were to marry Lot’s daughters didn’t believe that God would destroy their city.

The story unfolds with these men that had visited Abraham entering Sodom.  These men were most likely angels.  They met Lot at the entrance to the city.

Lot invited them to stay with him.  They said they would sleep in the city square.  Lot insisted that they stay with him.

We see this insistence on hospitality for the visitor with Abraham and now with Lot.  While we don’t know much about Lot, we can see that he valued caring for the stranger.

These men entered Lot’s house and in very short order that house became the center of attention for the entire city.  Men gathered around it demanding that the visitors be sent out to them so they could have sex with them.  These were young and old men alike.

Lot knew to show hospitality.  Now he demonstrated that he must protect those who were under his roof.

The townspeople demanded that the strangers be sent out.  Lot tried his hand at bargaining.  How about I give you my two virgin daughters instead?

That’s putting a premium on taking care of the visitor, the stranger who enters your household.  That’s going the extra mile to protect them.

That’s not the guy most young ladies would want for a father.  Here, take my two daughters and do what you want with them.

There seemed to be a tussle around Lot’s door and the angels blinded the men who came with bad intentions.  They were blinded and could no longer find Lot’s door.  One less problem to worry about…

That was not the end of the story.  The angels came to get Lot and his family out of the area before God destroyed Sodom and the surrounding plains.

Lot’s sons-in-law didn’t believe that God was going to destroy Sodom.  Perhaps they didn’t believe there was a God.  In any case, they were not going.  They were not yet married to Lot’s daughters, but it seems that they would rather stay in Sodom than go with their brides-to-be.

Lot and the women were somewhat hesitant too, so the angels grabbed them by the arm and said let’s go.

Abraham bargained for Sodom, probably because his nephew lived there.  Abraham did not know that God already had plans underway to rescue him and his family—at least those willing to be saved.

These angels were on a mission from God and there was some urgency to the mission.  The angels didn’t say, pack a few things and then we will leave first thing in the morning.  They grabbed Lot and the women and said, we’re leaving.

Visualize the angels dragging these few people at first then giving them the boot once they were out of the city.  Run for the hills and don’t look back.

Lot didn’t think that the mountains would work for him so he got a concession out of the angels and they let him stop at a small town which would be called Zoar because it was a small town.  Sometimes you wonder how a town got its name.  I wonder that every time I drive I-40 in Arkansas and the sign for Toad Suck.  Who were the people on the naming committee?  In today’s account, we see why Zoar got its name.

  It is quite possible that this action by Lot saved this small town from the destruction that came upon Sodom and the surrounding area.

Lot reached Zoar.  The sun came up.  Burning Sulphur came down upon Sodom and the plains around them. And there was one more thing.  Lot’s wife looked back.

What’s with the women in the Bible?  Eve made a calculating decision to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree.  Sarai convinces her husband to have sex with her female servant and then blames what follows on him.

Lot’s wife—who is not named in the Bible but some Hebrew commentaries call her Idit—disregarded the instructions not to look back.

Fortunately, you have Ruth, Ester, and Mary the mother of Jesus to look forward to, but so far the wives and mistresses have not received the best roles.

The words don’t look back are generally used metaphorically, but in the case of Lot’s wife, they were more than a metaphor.

She became a pillar of salt.  When we say that someone is a pillar of the community, that a metaphor.  It’s a complement encased in a literary tool.

But Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt, that’s actual salt in a vertical display. Everyone remembers that part of this story.  Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.

There’s an image for you.  There’s something to think about the next time you want to push your luck with following instructions.  Here’s a question for the ages. There is much speculation as to the answer.

Why did she look back?

Was it just human instinct?  Perhaps she felt that she had outrun the judgment of God and now she could see what had happened.

Was there something there that she missed?

Was there someone there that she missed?

Did she hurt for those who she knew were now dead? Could some of them have been her family?  Some non-biblical accounts say that Lot and his wife had two daughters that were already married and living apart from them.

Was it disbelief?  Did she think that Sodom would still be standing?

Had she left the coffee pot on?  Was the roast still in the oven?

We just don’t know.  We see a brief reference to Lot and his wife as Jesus is explaining the end of the age.

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

Perhaps we see our own tendencies in Lot’s wife.  What tendencies?  Those that want to hang on to the things of this world when we should be seeking the things of God.

The world behind me.  The cross before me.  No turning back.

Here’s a paraphrase of the scripture found in Luke 17.

Whoever tries to hold on to their life that is vested in the things of this world will lose it, but those who can let go of the things the world desires so much and seek God will know life.

That was Tom’s paraphrase.

We just don’t know for sure why she looked back, but the only survivors of this judgment were the 3 who did as they were directed and didn’t look back.

The world behind me.  The cross before me.  No turning back.

Maybe Lot’s wife should have been singing:  No looking back.  No looking back.

Abraham had bargained with God for Sodom. I doubt he even knew anyone in the city other than the King who he didn’t want to have any association with and his nephew, Lot. Was Abraham negotiating for the life of Lot?

Perhaps, but when we read further, we see that such a negotiation was not necessary.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Abraham looked down from where he was and saw the city and the surrounding plains in ruin.  He did not know what God had done.  His angels had rescued his nephew because God found favor with Abraham.

Did Lot deserve God’s favor?  Probably not.

Lot seemed to be pretty much along for the ride for most of the story since Abraham left his father’s household and came to the land that was promised to his descendants.

Abraham was on a mission from God. Lot, perhaps not so much.

Lot chose the greener pastures when Abraham and Lot went separate ways.  Abraham let Lot choose where he would go. Lot chose Sodom.

Lot was lumped in with the rest of the residents of Sodom when the 4 armies came and overran Sodom.  Lot was just another body in the spoils of war.

Even after Abraham rescued Lot, Lot chose to live in Sodom.

And when it came time to find a wife, let’s just say it was slim pickens for finding a righteous one.  The struggle was probably equally difficult for finding husbands for Lot’s daughters.

We must understand this. Lot received God’s favor because of Abraham. So, as we digest this chapter in Genesis, let us consider the favor of the Lord.

We live in the Lord’s favor.  We have received his mercy.  We have received his blessings. We are saved from sin and from death and we have been given life now and for eternity.

We didn’t do anything to deserve it, but we surely are blessed to know it—to know God’s favor.

Remember this simple verse from Ephesians:  We are saved by grace through faith so that no one can boast.

Our salvation is not of our own doing.  We are forgiven of sins that would condemn us.  We receive blessings that we don’t deserve.

We live in the Lord’s favor.

I doubt that Lot knew the whole story.  He just knew to receive these men—maybe he knew they were angels—into his house, treat them well, and protect them.  As it turned out, they had come to protect and save Lot and his family.

They were the instruments of God’s favor.

We don’t always know the instruments of God’s favor but we must always know that we live in God’s favor.  If we are drawing a blank in our prayer time about what to thank God for today, we can always thank him for living in his favor.

What separated Lot from the lot of those in Sodom was God’s favor.  Lot received it because God found favor with Abraham, but God’s favor is God’s favor.

It’s not something that we do to deserve it.  God pours his favor out upon us.  There is a simple term for this.  It is blessed.  We are blessed.

So, we read about the destruction of sinful Sodom but Tom wants you to go home thinking about how blessed we are to live in God’s favor.

That’s the ticket.  That’s the message for today.

Have eyes to see how richly we are blessed to live in the favor of the Lord.

Thanks be to God that we live in his favor!

Amen.

Cave Living offers few choices for Young Ladies

 Read Genesis 19

So Lot and his 2 daughters were spared the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding area.  They were safe in the town of Zoar, but Lot decided that small-town living was not for him, so he headed to the mountains—the very place that he told the angels he could not go—he would not survive there.

We don’t know why Lot thought he couldn’t go to the mountains.  He just said that this disaster would overtake him.  In any case, Lot went to the mountains and found a cave to live in.  We can’t call it a man cave because his two daughters were with him.

These are two young women old enough to bear children who are now living with their father who was ready to turn them over to the townspeople to sexually abuse them, and they are living in a cave in the mountains.

Could life get any better?

Apparently, they don’t have any neighbors.  If you are a recluse, you might think this was the ideal home.  If you were 2 young ladies, you might think this was the end of the world.

What to do?

Venturing out on their own was probably dangerous.  The chances of finding anyone in right standing with God were slim to none, leaning heavily to the none side.  They would find someone to take them in for sure, but as servants or slaves or concubines at best.  Striking out on their own was not an option.

Apparently, dad was not interested in moving back to town.  They would have to come up with some other course of action.

What they came up with seemed to originate in Hollywood.  The two daughters would get dad drunk and then the older will have sex with him and conceive a child.  The younger daughter could take her turn the following night.

Both succeeded in becoming pregnant.  Can’t you hear them saying, “I love it when a plan comes together?” Apparently, dad was none the wiser as to how it happened. The girls would have their babies but that family tree wasn’t going to branch for a while.

So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

So the older daughter gave birth to a son who would be the father of the Moabites, a people and a land that would include Zoar, the small town where Lot would not live.

The Moabites were pagan.  In fact, they had many gods, but did not know the one true God.  Moab appears several times in the Old Testament.  They were generally hostile towards Israel but apparently permitted some people to come and go freely.  The first part of the book of Ruth is set in Moab.

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

There were only pagans in the land and the two sons took two local women as their wives.  Naomi’s husband died as did the husbands of her daughters.  Naomi decided to head back to Judah and Ruth went with her.  There was a discussion that ensued about this not being a practical course of action, but it brought us to this statement by Ruth.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

I have a little less about the Ammonites.  They were pagans and generally hostile toward Israel.  They lived mostly east of the Jordan.

We do have the story of their origins, as deplorable and repulsive as that story seems to us.  What can I say?

Girls, don’t try this a home.

Parents, maybe the guy with the nose ring and misspelled words on his tattoos isn’t that bad.  Consider the choices that Lot’s daughters had.

Those were a little tongue-in-cheek, but not entirely. What can I say?

God’s favor was poured out on a few people (we know this favor was because of Abraham being in right standing with God), only three of whom obeyed God and survived the destruction of Sodom. 

That salvation was from God. How they lived in the favor of the Lord was on them.

We have received the favor of the Lord in the blood of Jesus.  How we live in response to this incredible gift is on us.  We call that response discipleship.

Our job is not to look for people to condemn.  That’s not why we have this story. We don’t need to jump on the condemnation bandwagon. Everyone is already living in condemnation if they have not received Jesus as Lord.  We don’t need to add our pointing fingers to that situation.

We do need to live in grateful response to the mercy, grace, and favor of the Lord.

But what about these 2 girls?  Check the box that you have read that part of the story.  Know the origin of the Moabite and Ammonite peoples when you come across them in your readings.  Know that those raised in a pagan culture are not anchored to it. Contrast Lot’s daughters with the story of Ruth.,

Most of all for us, do this when our circumstances seem dire.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.  You are blessed to know there is so much more to the story of God’s relationship with humankind than these two girls in what seemed to be a hopeless situation.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Amen.

For the Sake of 10

 Read Genesis 18

Never offer to split the difference during a negotiation unless you are very good friends with the person on the other end of the negotiation. We are talking about someone who will not take advantage of you or use manipulative methods. Why?

Let’s say you want to sell your horse for $200 but your friend only wants to give you $100.  You say, “Let’s split the difference.”

Your friend says, “So you would be willing to go $150?”

You say, “Yes.”

He says, “If you can go $150, then I guess I could do $110.”

What happened?

Your negotiation went from between $100 and $200 to between $110 and $150.  Your hopes of getting something close to $200 are almost gone.

Negotiations can be difficult and sometimes confusing.  You have to know what’s important to you and try to figure out what’s important to the other guy and what’s just a bogey put there so you give up something of value for something the other person didn’t really value.

There are countless things to look out for in negotiations.

If you are negotiating the price of fuel, half a cent might not seem like much, but what if you are negotiating for millions of gallons of fuel?  That half-cent turns into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sometimes the Free on Board (FOB) part of the negotiation is worth as much as the unit price.  If the price for a big bale of hay is $100 but it is free on board—that is delivered at no extra charge to your location—that might be a big deal if someone has to drive 200 miles to deliver the hay.

There’s a lot to keep up with in a negotiation, with one possible exception. Abraham negotiated with God.

God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom.  The wickedness in that place and others was so bad that God would punish these wicked people now.  He said that he would give the place a once-over first, but God knew that judgment was coming.

Somehow, Abraham knew that Sodom was wicked.  He didn’t want anything to do with the King of Sodom after Abraham’s army of 318 men had defeated the 4 marauding armies that had invaded the land and taken his nephew captive.

Melchizedek had blessed Abraham but when it came to dealing with the king of Sodom, Abraham didn’t want anything to do with him.

Abraham must have been a little perplexed as to why Lot and his family would live there.  But now God was going to destroy it, so Abraham decided to negotiate with God. Perhaps he was emboldened by the fact that during the Lord’s visit to his household, Sarah decided to argue with God.  Maybe that didn’t have anything to do with it.

Abraham posed the following question.

“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

Abraham put something a bit more tangible forward.  “What if there are 50 righteous people in the city?  Would you still destroy it?”

Abraham puts a little rationale with his proffer.  “Surely you wouldn’t treat the wicked and the righteous the same, would you?”

God was not a tough negotiator.  “Ok, if there are 50 righteous people, I will spare the whole city.”

You might think that Abraham would be happy, but something prompted him to see if God would reduce that number.  Maybe, he thought God would say no and he might have to see if he would go for 75 or 100.  Maybe Abraham remembered why he didn’t want anything to do with the king of Sodom and thought that 50 righteous people might be hard to find.

In any case, Abraham asks, “Would you go for 45?” Now Abraham is not cocky.  He is very respectful. Essentially, he said, “I have no right to ask this of you, but…”

God replied.  Sure.  I would spare the whole city if there are 45 righteous people in it.

Abraham continued.  “What if it’s only 40?”

God said, “Sure.  I will spare the city if there are 40 righteous people in it.”

You might think that Abraham would count himself lucky, but he continued.  “What if there are only 30?”

“Sure, I can go with 30.”  God’s reply surely had to surprise Abraham, but something prompted Abraham to ask again.

“What about 20?”

God agreed.

Abraham had to be thinking that surely there were 20 righteous people somewhere in the whole city.  I wonder if Abraham might have remembered that God spared only 8 people from the judgment that was the flood.  I can’t say for sure, but something prompted Abraham to ask once more.

“How about 10?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Wow!  For the sake of 10 righteous people, God would spare the entire city.  Abraham had to be happy about that, right?

Why did Abraham care about this wicked city?  He probably didn’t care but his nephew and his family lived there.  Abraham had gone to extreme measures to rescue Lot once before.  He took his army of only 318 men and defeated 4 undefeated armies and got his nephew back, along with many other people and a lot of treasure.

Now Lot had a family and they were at risk.  Abraham surely did not know that God had already put a plan into effect to save Lot and those in his family willing to be saved.

Abraham had been made right with God by his faith and that right standing produced some benefits for Lot and his family.

Did God know that he would not find 10 righteous people in Sodom?  Of course, he did.

I love to return to the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are still speaking I will hear.

God would answer the wickedness of Sodom with judgment; yet, he would converse with Abraham in the moment. 

Abraham surely thought that negotiating with God was the only way to save his nephew but God had already taken care of that part.

Except for Lot’s wife—and you can start now studying or speculating on why she looked back—God saved Lot’s family.

Negotiating with God is easy.  He already knows what is best even though he will let us run the gauntlet of our own solutions and alternatives and our presentations of our own understanding.

Abraham had a full day.  He had visitors who put a time frame on this promised son.  He knew what to name his son—Isaac.  His wife was in a back-and-forth argument with God. 

Yes, you said it. 

No, I didn’t.

Yes, you did.

And now Abraham had negotiated with God.  He had tried negotiating with him before.  Do you remember?

What if you just blessed my son Ishmael?  Then we wouldn’t have to see if my 90-year-old wife can have a kid—something she has not done for her entire life.

God was not interested in negotiating or bargaining with Abraham over things already promised.

It’s easy to negotiate with God.  Just trust him that he figured out the best outcome long before we had our first thought.  Whether it’s judgment or a promise, God already knows the plans that he has for you.

We just need to trust that they are good plans.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?

 Read Genesis 18

The Marines have a saying.  We do difficult things all the time.  The impossible just takes a little longer.  It comes out of the long-standing thinking, the Marines have done so much with so little for so long, they believe they can do anything with nothing. I lived through some of those years when we did a whole bunch with nothing.

I won’t give you any more Marine Corps sayings or stories today, but that one was on my mind.

I did promise you some analogies from my stroke, my car wrecks, and now my medevac on the high seas.  All in good time. OK, let’s get to the story in Genesis.

When you are pushing 100 and it’s the heat of the day, what do you do?

If you are Abraham, you sit at the entrance to your tent which is surely well-placed to enjoy the shade of the great trees in the area.

And the Lord came to visit Abraham. Abraham saw 3 men and knew they were from the Lord.  If we take the whole chapter in context, this was probably God accompanied by 2 angels.

Who is where at exactly what time is hard to discern, but after a while, the men leave and Abraham is alone with the Lord.  So, it appears that there is the Lord and 2 men, likely angels who had come for a visit.

You might think that there was the Lord plus 3 additional men or angels, but if we read the first verse as an introductory statement to the pericope that follows, we are more disposed to think it’s the Lord and he is accompanied by 2 angels.

Abraham somehow knew that hospitality was an essential component of walking blamelessly before the Lord.  He pleaded with the men to stay with him.  He had water brought to wash their feet.  Sarah made bread and a servant prepared a calf.

This wasn’t checking to see if there was some Ramen on hand.  This was putting out a spread for these travelers.

While the men waited on the meal, they enjoyed an appetizer of milk and cheese. The visitors asked about his wife.  Abraham said she was in the tent making bread but she was nearby listening in on the conversation.

The men told Abraham that in about a year, Sarah would deliver a child. We don’t get a script for this part to know who said what, but Sarah heard what was said and laughed.

Now that I am way beyond my childbearing years, I get the news that I’m going to get pregnant.  How could she not laugh?

Now we are told that the Lord spoke to Abraham and asked, Why did your wife laugh?   Obviously, the Lord knew that Sarah was listening and how she responded.

Sarah apparently felt the need to enter the conversation and said, I didn’t laugh.

The Lord replied, Oh yes you did.

Can you imagine going back and forth with God?  You did that.

No, I didn’t.

Yes, you did.

How would you expect that to come out?  How would you ever expect to win that exchange. I would have loved to have seen the look on Abraham’s face when his wife was arguing with God.

You say you didn’t do something.  God says that you did.  Where do you go from there?

Sometimes we can convince ourselves that God would go along with something that we knew for sure that he wouldn’t, but that’s just fooling ourselves.  Do we really think that we can get one over on God?

I didn’t say that.  I didn’t do that.  That wasn’t me!

Imagine God coming to visit you in your home.  You offer him some Chex Mix and Dr. Pepper while you put the steaks out to thaw and then you get into a back-and-forth of who said what.  C’mon, this is God—almighty and all-knowing God.

The disbelief is essential to the story for a couple of reasons.  One is that when Sarah has a child—and she does—it could only be the work of God.

The Father of Many Nations and his wife would not just be a couple of young folks who could have all the kids they wanted to have for 2 or 3 decades.

God chose Abraham to be the Father of Many Nations and God demonstrated that Abraham and Sarah were his choices by doing what seemed to be impossible.

That’s the first thing and the second is much like it.  It brings us to words from the Lord that we should remember today.  What words?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

We should remember those words in these modern days.  If we are seeking things that the Lord wants to give us, we should expect that he will regardless of what the world’s analysis might be.

If God has told us that he will do something, what the world says can and cannot be done is not relevant.

Our assessment of what the Lord can and will do should be based solely upon the fact that he said he would do it and not what the world defines as possible or impossible. Let’s leave Genesis for a moment for some other biblical examples.

God did not let the Hebrew people get away from Pharoah’s army because they had a head start.  They camped where they had no escape route, until God stopped the pursuing army and opened the sea.

God would not let Gideon go to war with a large army.  God sent him with 300 men. God wanted Gideon and everyone who knew of or heard of the victory over the Midianites (perhaps as many as 135,00 of them) to know that God gave Gideon the victory.

A ruddy shepherd boy didn’t stand a chance against the giant Philistine; yet this is exactly what God wanted to put on display.  Size doesn’t matter.  Either you are with God are you are not. Either you serve the Lord or you perish against him.

A husband and wife pushing 100 were far beyond their childbearing years.  The promise of being the father of many nations could only come through Ishmael and that kid was on the wild side.

But sometimes God brings us to the impossible so we can see that it was clearly and only God who made the impossible a reality.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Is anything too hard for God?

We live in an age of seeing is believing.  God wants us to be people who believe and then see.  Believing is seeing.

Do you remember this one? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We are to believe the unbelievable. Our mindset must be:  Is anything too hard for God?

Does God always agree with our plan?  Ask Abraham.  He thought that if God just blessed Ishmael, then this Father of Many Nations thing might work out.

But God had something better in mind.  He would do the impossible.  He would give barren Sarah a child—a son—even in her old age.

Abraham doubted.  Sarah even laughed when God promised this son, but God would deliver the impossible.  There are times when God wants us to know it could only be him.

We have talked before about signs and reminders and affirmations from God in our age. We have them but sometimes our minds are still conformed to the thinking of the world.

We must work on our thinking, our perceptions, and our paradigms.  We can take a step that way by changing what is surely a rhetorical question for believers.

Is anything too hard for God?

To

Nothing is too hard for God.

With God, all things are possible.

Nothing is impossible with God.  Our challenge for this week is to solidify our thinking.  Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is too hard for God.

Nothing is impossible with God.

With God, all things are possible.

Amen.