As fathers, in the attempt to give our families the" best"  we sometimes make decisions that seriously damage them. This was Lot. We see a progression of error.

It starts with a look (Gen.13:10). He saw Sodom. It reminded him of Egypt where he got rich. Egypt stands for the world in Scripture. Then he chose for himself, verse 11, knowing the area was full of the worst kind of sinning, verses 12-13. At first he moves into the suburbs. By 14:12 he lives inside the city. In 19:1 he's sitting at the city gate. That means he is a city official in some capacity. He has been sucked in and now is a part of it.
Two angels are sent to warn him to take his family and flee. But 19:16 says he hesitated. His soul was so enmeshed and entangled in this wicked place he didn't want to leave with destruction hanging over his head! The angels had to drag them out. The angels warn them not to look back. Lot's wife did and became a pillar of salt.

Jesus said, "remember Lot's wife." Their story is instructive to us who live in a wealthy, materialistic country. Are we putting the material above the spiritual?

Genesis 18 is about a man who was a friend of God. Because God had a relationship with Abraham He wanted to let him in on what He was about to do, destroy Sodom and the cities of the plain. The text says that they walked and talked together and that God revealed His mind and heart to Abraham. Abraham was concerned about Sodom because his nephew Lot lived there. He began to engage God in what seems like bartering for souls. It really is intercession. God has a burden on His heart. He lays that burden on His friend the intercessor and the intercessor goes back and forth with God till he dispatches the burden. When he or she is convinced God has heard he stops praying. She then waits and watches. What burden has the Lord laid on you to intercede for?   

Thirteen years. That's a long time in any relationship, especially if it is silent. We have no record of contact between God and Abraham from when Ishmael was born and Gen. 17. Abraham is now 99. Perhaps he thinks the promise made to him will be fulfilled through Ishmael? God Almighty shows up and renews the covenant promise and gives Abraham new hope.

We have times like that in our lives. Silence between us and God. Usually it's on our end. We get ahead of God or lag behind. We do our own thing. Maybe God is finished with us? Then He shows up and renews our hope once again. If you are at this place today, take heart. God will complete His Plan A inyour life.

Genesis 16 is about a couple, Abraham and Sarah who get ahead of God. God told Abraham in Gen. 15:4 that his servant wouldn't be his heir but a son from his body. He was excited. At 85 he would soon be having a son. But with 75 year old Sarah? Impossible. Plus he had waited ten years and no kids. So the two of them take matters into their own hands. Sarah suggests that Abraham have a baby with her maidservant Hagar. If your spouse gives you permission to sin does that make it alright? Hagar got pregant.

Immediately that led to problems in their lives. Sex outside the plan of God always does. It doesn't make your life better, just more complicated. Hagar becomes proud, Sarah angry at Hagar and Abraham and Abe abdicates responsibility. The situation becomes intolerable for Hagar so she runs away.

She runs into the desert trying to get back home. Abraham and Sarah don't pursue her. They would have let her and the unborn child die in the desert. But God cares for the poor, the one on the run and the unborn. He has a conversation with Hagar to help her see if this is what she really wants. He tells her to go back. She calls Him "the God who sees me." If He sees her in the desert, He"ll see her in Abraham's home and see if she's being mistreated. That gave Sarah the courage to go back.

What Plan B are you contemplating putting into effect because God has delayed? What's your Hagar and Ishmael? 

God is speaking to me personally through my study on the life of Abraham in Genesis 12-25. This past Sunday we looked at chapter 15. It is a fascinating text as it describes God cutting a covenant with Abraham. We looked at ten steps to covenant making in that culture and time. God used something within Abraham's culture to teach him and us profound truths about his relationship with man.

Step five was the walk of death. This was particularly intriguing. Abraham was told to collect 3 large animals and 2 birds. Next was a ritual in which the animals would be cut in half with each half on the opposite side of a ditch. The animal's blood would drain to the bottom of the ditch. Both parties of the covenant would walk through the blood seeing it splash up on his robe a vivid reminder to the truth that if he broke the covenant he would be dead like that animal.

Abraham would have been terrified. Once he stuck his big toe in the blood he was obligated to keep it perfectly. But Abraham never took the walk of death. Only God did. Genesis 15:17 describes a mysterious torch that passes between the pieces. That is God. By that, God is taking the sole responsibility for the covenant upon Himself. Should God or man break it He dies. 

Jesus took the walk of death down the Via Delarosa to the cross where He died for our sins. The covenant doesn't depend upon us keeping it perfectly. We only believe and God credits it to us as righteousness, Genesis 15:6. By faith we climb into the wheelbarrow that God pushes across Niagra Falls. Have you gotten into the wheelbarrow?