Inconvenient Truths
One-Year Bible: 01/08/2023
Genesis 18:16-19:38
Inconvenient Truths
“You do you, and I’ll do me.”
This is a popular slogan in our day. We live in an age where we want everything to be okay, yet most people don’t feel okay.
It is okay to “do as they feel” except when “the way they feel” physically, emotionally, and mentally hurt another person. That is the “rub” of this popular slogan. Isn’t it?
I can remember driving through the San Deigo, CA, area after protests that went wrong. It started in the morning with protestors holding signs, “Know Justice know Peace.” They formed a line across all four northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway. We had a friend on this freeway in that exact location on that exact morning; he feared for his life!
By evening, the " Peaceful protestors destroyed banks and other buildings.” They wanted Justice… just not for themselves! They were not JUST!
Sadly, that is the story of fallen humanity.
It is an inconvenient truth to many that “all roads don’t lead to Heaven” and “everything isn’t okay.” We long for mercy, but justice is another matter.
Who gets to decide what is “JUST”?
Today’s passage presents inconvenient truths as we learn what went wrong for Lot and his family in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham and Sarah were at their tent when “three men” were noticed standing nearby. We are then told that “The Lord appeared” to Abraham again near an oak grove. Abraham immediately welcomes them and asks Sarah to “put on a spread of the best bread”...
Here comes the big reveal, “I will return to you about this time next year! And your wife Sarah will have a son.” (18:10)
Sarah is “eavesdropping” from inside the tent, and she laughs. “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master--my husband--is so old?” she comments. (18:12)
“Is Anything too hard for the LORD?” (18:14) Sarah almost missed the glory because she did not understand this principle.
Inconvenient Truth #1: God Decides What is Just and Right!
God and the two angels are visiting Abraham because they have “heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.” (18:20-21)
Abraham bargains with God because of his love for his nephew, Lot.
50-40-30-20-10! It’s like the New Year’s Eve countdown, only to preserve Lot, his family, and town. God agrees to spare the city if ten righteous people can be found!
Inconvenient Truth #2: Love and Judgment walk hand-in-hand.
God heard Abraham’s prayer and acknowledged his request. Yet, judgment came. God judges the world out of His love to spare the world's complete destruction. Although God loved Abraham and personally spent time talking with him, He chose the “greater good” and saw the “complete picture" of Lot’s life choices.
Inconvenient Truth #3: You can’t turn a blind eye to sin without sin causing you blindness to sin.
Lot offered his own virgin daughters to be raped by the evil men of his city in place of the angels. His wife turned back and gazed again upon her evil homeland after being warned not to do this by the angels. The daughters both went in and slept with their father to get pregnant without his knowledge or consent. They had dwelled in the midst of evil for so long that they became part of that mindset. God rescued “barely one righteous person,” and Lot was spared for Abraham’s sake.
It may seem that God’s justice and mercy are incompatible, but scripture assures us they are not. Just ask Abraham.
“But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)
