25. October 2011 by admin.

Gen. 19:30-38

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the death of his wife, Lot takes his two daughters and goes to live in the caves rather than the city of Zoar.  We are told that he was afraid to stay in Zoar, but not exactly why he was fearful.  Keil and Delitzsch surmise that he feared that city might be marked for destruction too, so it may be that the culture was not that different from what was found in the other cities.  What ever reason, he chose to seek refuge now in the vary mountains he was told to flee to by God’s messengers.

Lot’s daughters are now concerned that they will not find husbands in their present condition.  We are not told much over the decision to cause their father to become drunk enough that they are able to become impregnated by him, but their plot succeeds and they both bear children by their father.  And other than the children’s names, Moab and Ben-ammi, we do not hear any more about this line of Abraham’s relative until the children of Israel return to the promised land.  I am not going to go into this aspect right now, but rather I want to think on what drove these two women to commit such an act as sleeping with their father with the purpose of have a child by him.

I would say it had two aspects: 1.  they are showing the influence of the culture of the world in this act.  After all their excuse was “”there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.”  (v31b, emphasis mine).  So they took it into their own hands to preserve their family line through their father.  2.  though they were spared the judgement delivered to Sodom and Gomorrah, they did not trust God to preserve their family line, so they felt they needed to act for their own survival.  It is this lack of faith I want to address specifically, but also that they were strongly influenced by the world’s sinful culture that justified their actions in their own minds.

Once again lets try and put ourselves in their place, remember they were taken out of a city with nothing but their clothes on their backs.  They had been betrothed to men of the city, but those men did not accompany them when they fled (see vs 14).  So to the daughters the future did not appear good.  Then their father leaves the city of Zoar and goes to live in the mountains, further removing them from the comfort and security they must have left behind in living in a city.  Have you ever found yourself in a situation where it seemed there was not a way out?  That no matter how much you might pray God does not seem to be there?  How do you handle such times?  Do you see it as a time to grow in faith, trusting God despite the circumstances? Or do you try to solve the problem yourself as Lot’s daughters did?  I don’t want to say that doing something is always sinful, but what Lot’s daughters did was.  They did not even seek God in the matter.  Their Uncle Abraham was not so far away that they could have sought refuge with him and place themselves back under the protection of God’s covenant, but neither they nor their father appear to have considered this as an answer.  So rather than seeking the God of Abraham, they sought the solution the world and their circumstance afforded.  This was their mistake.

Before making any decision we need to be sure we have sought godly advice, from your husband and the elders of the church.  Be sure that your thinking is influenced by the word of God, and not the thinking of the world.  That means you need to be reading the Bible daily, and studying it, you also need to be hearing the solid preaching of the word and not just cute comforting messages in church.  Ladies, our culture around us will tell you that you have the right to make your own decisions and go your own way in many areas that God’s word clearly tells us we are to submit to our male heads (authority) in.  Be sure that you are choosing God’s way and not the world’s way.  Single ladies, you are to be under godly male authority until you are married.  Your Christian father is your primary head until that is exchanged in marriage to your Christian husband.  Just as a wife submits to her husband, the single daughter submits to the godly counsel of their father.  If your father is not a Christian, then seek the godly counsel of your church elders.  The point being, seek to be under godly male authority during all aspects of your life, whether married or single. I Corinthians 11: 3 says, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”

In conclusion, I want to always encourage you to be reading the Word, let that be your primary source of knowledge.  Yes, there are many good books out there today that we can also read and enjoy, but if you are not saturated with God’s Word, how will you know that what you are reading is Biblical?  II Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

As always, I welcome your comments and pray that God will enrich you with His word and the work of His spirit in your lives.

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27. September 2011 by admin.

Read Genesis 18 - 19 to get the full story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the complete back ground for the story I am going to be referencing.  I am not going to go into the entire reason God is sending the angels to destroy the city, or why Lot’s family is protected, because he was Abraham’s nephew, he did stood in a special relationship with God despite his failings. Since I started this blog with the purpose of meditating on women in the Bible and how they are examples for us to either follow or be warned, I will only address the references to Lot’s wife.

Like Noah’s wife, we don’t have a record of her name, nor for that matter do we know the names of their two daughters, but that will be reserved for a different post.  We can take her story and Jesus’ reference to her (See Luke 17:32-33) to see the warning left by her.

Think on this, if you were awakened this morning at the crack of dawn (Gen 19:15) and told to flee immediately to save yourself, would you be able to just go?  No suitcase to pack, not stopping to pick up that favorite piece of clothing, or pictures, nothing, just RUN!  Ladies, be realistic could you just go?  Imagine your smoke detector goes off and you smell smoke and can not see, could you flee then?  Once you are out of the house, what would be your first reaction?  After checking to be sure your family was out and safe?  You would look back to see your house, your possessions, everything going up in smoke, wouldn’t you?  I think we all would.  It would be instinctive to do.  As you do what is natural, nothing will happen to you, you probably will feel the heat of the flames on your face, and the realization that all your possessions are no more, but you will not be destroyed yourself.  If you are a Christian you would probably begin to thank God that everyone is safe, the questions will come later, but for now you rejoice that no lives are lost.  But not so for Lot’s wife.  When she did, what we all would probably be tempted to do, she was destroyed.

She looked back at a life that God had judged, rather than looking forward to the safety God promised. Lot’s wife is an example of one who could not leave the world behind.  She craved the things she was told to leave.  I Cor 10:6 tells us that ungodly examples are given as a warning.  “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (I Cor. 10:12).  Lot’s wife is an example of an unbelieving heart that fell way from God (Heb.3:12), instead of being thankful for being delivered from the judgement on a wicked culture, she desired what she was leaving more than she desired God.  Consequently, she was demonstrating her identity with the world and not with God. I John 2:15, 16 tells us to not love the world and its enticements, they are not from God. Lot’s wife in gazing back demonstrated that her heart was with Sodom and she perished with Sodom.

Jesus uses her as the example when He warns His followers to flee the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  Not to get too far off course here, that warning was meant to be for those hearing Him speak at that time, not some future pre-millenial event.   A warning to flee and not look back.  Is that just to mean don’t look during that event, or can we take it further to mean, obey God, keep your eye on God and trust that God will guide you in His will, unlike those who did not obey but died in the fall of Jerusalem. That may be reading more into Jesus’ admonition to His followers, but if we really follow Him and trust Him with our lives isn’t that the attitude we should have?

As I think on that attitude, I have to confess there are times when I wonder what “might have been” if I had made different choices.  I am really glad the God has given me this admonition to NOT LOOK BACK!  HE WAS IN CONTROL.   If I truly believe that, than why question what He has done?  I should not, I need to praise Him more and thank Him for leading me.  I am not to morn over what could have been with different decisions, but when those thoughts come, I need to “Remember Lot’s wife” and flee in a sense.  Trusting Christ as my Savior is more than a ticket to heaven, it must be a way of life.  He has my life in His perfect plan, and I need to be confident that He has caused “ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

My fellow sisters, look to Jesus, He is our security and our confidence.  Don’t look to the world and the enticements it has to offer, look to Jesus and obey Him fully.  Don’t worry about the past and what might have been.  Realize that you are right where He wants you today, right now.  Use the moments He has given you to be His lamp to show others the way to His salvation.  Don’t worry about conditions around you, or the circumstances you may find yourself in, look to Him and He will bring you peace.  I know this is hard, as I said in the beginning, it is instinctive to “look back”  but remember Lot’s wife, do you look back with regret at what you left behind, rethinking choices you made and despairing over “what ifs”? Or do you look back and thank Jesus for saving you out of sin and misery, and rejoice that God has shown His love to you and has led you in His perfect will?  I hope it is the latter, but if you still doubt I challenge you to go to Jesus in prayer and confess your sins and trust Him for your salvation.  Spend time in reading the Bible each day and pray that God will send His spirit to bring you understanding.  If you don’t currently have a church, seek a Bible preaching church and put yourself under the teaching of God’s Word through His faithful ministers.  Don’t look back, look to Jesus!

If you feel this was an encouragement to you, please I would love to know.  Remember we are to encourage one another in righteousness, so feel free to leave your comments to encourage others in their walk.  God bless you all.

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28. July 2011 by admin.

I would like to take a minute here in my discussion of women in the Bible to look at Noah’s wife, even though we do not have her name, nor is much about her given in Scripture, I believe we can learn something from her.

Noah was told by God to build an ark to preserve the animals and a remnant of man (his family) when God destroyed the world with a flood.  See the Flood account starting with Genesis 6:8ff.  It took many years for him to accomplish this task, and during that time he was also preaching and teaching, dispite the riducule of his neighbors.

Though God does not reveal much about Noah’s wife, I think she must have been a support and encouragement to her husband, because there is no reference that she questioned him or disputed his work for the Lord, as Job’s wife did (see Job 2:9).  Noah’s wife is only mentioned twice in Gen. 7:7, and 13, and then she was listed as having entered the ark with her husband, sons and their wives.

Matthew Henry points out from these passages the blessing and protection that comes from being a part of a covenant family “Not he only, but his house also, his wife and children, are called with him into the ark. Note, It is good to belong to the family of a godly man; it is safe and comfortable to dwell under such a shadow. “  Noah’s family was saved through the flood not because they were “good” but because they were his family.  Later one of his son’s reveals himself to be wicked and is even cursed by his father (see Gen. 9: 22-27).

Ladies, do you thank God for your husband?  Is he your spiritual leader and head?  I do pray that you are married to a Christian man, who takes his responsibility as your head seriously and seeks to lead you into a righteous obedience of God.  If that is the case, take a second to send a quick prayer thanking God for him and asking God to bless his work as he seeks to be your head.  If your husband is not being all “you” think he should be, then pray that God will work in his life to strengthen him.  We cannot be our husband’s Holy Spirit, but we can support him in prayer and encouragement.  Then those of you who may find yourself married to a non-believer, pray for your husband’s repentance and salvation, be an example to him of the love of Christ and may you win him with your gentle spirit (See I Peter 3:1-5).

Though Noah’s wife may seem insignificant, we can learn some things from her example:

1.  Support your husband in his work for the Lord, even when it takes many years to see the result of that work.

2.  Be there when the rest of the world hurls insults and ridicules your husband’s work.  Noah worked on the ark when there was no sign of rain or the coming judgement.  He was also preaching during this time of the coming judgement.  Are you standing with your husband even when others think him foolish?  Remember the preaching of the Word is seen as foolish by the world (I Cor. 1:21).

3.  Most importantly in my thinking is that the Word of God is faithful and true, even when we may not yet see it.  Are you struggling with a crisis in your life?  Have you committed it to God and put your trust in Him to bring you through this trial?  If not, then I encourage you right now, to bow before the Throne of Grace and turn your fears and concerns over to the Prince of Peace.  Jesus Christ is our saviour and redeemer, He has promised to give us His comforter, go to Him now and receive His peace.

4.  Finally, we may think our place in the Kingdom of Christ is small in comparison to others, but we do have a witness and we need to be faithful in that witness.  If you were to write your part in the work of Jesus here on earth, what would it say?

I close now and pray that God be with you all.  I look for any word that this has brought a comfort in your life.

In Christ’s Love to my sisters in Christ.

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