I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
As the Lord and the men who had come with Him got up to leave after telling Abraham that he would have a son by Sarah by that time the following year, the Lord decided to tell Abraham that He was going to Sodom to see if it was as bad as He had heard. Abraham asks Him if He will still destroy Sodom if He finds 50 righteous people there. The Lord tells Abraham that He will not destroy Sodom if He finds 50 righteous people there. Abraham then asks Him, “what if there are only 45 righteous people?” and the Lord tells him that He won’t destroy Sodom if there are 45. This continues until the Lord tells Abraham that He will not destroy Sodom if He finds 10 righteous people there. We don’t know how many people lived in Sodom at the time, but 10 was almost certainly less than 1% of the population. This passage fits in with yesterday’s passage where Jesus compared us to salt or a light set on a high point. It does not take very much salt relative to the rest of the dish to make the whole dish taste salty. It does not take very much light to penetrate the darkness and make it possible for someone to find their way. In the same way, a few righteous people in Sodom would have lit the way for the rest of the population to find their way to God’s path. Are we providing the salt or light in our culture today that is necessary to keep it from going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah?
When the two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening, Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city and invited them to his home. The two angels said that they would be happy to spend the night in the city square, but Lot insisted that they come home with him. Lot fed them a good meal, including fresh-baked unleavened bread. However, before Lot’s guests went to bed for the night, the men of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that Lot bring them out so that they could have sex with them. Lot attempts to reason with the men of Sodom, asking them to leave the men alone, since they are his guests and under his protection. The men of Sodom condemned Lot for being intolerant of their behavior (“he’s acting like our judge.”) and attempted to force their way past him. The visitors pulled Lot into the house and shut the door. They then struck the men of Sodom blind so that they could not find the door to Lot’s house. The two men then told Lot to gather all of those who were dear to him in the city (sons-in-law, daughters, etc) and leave the city because God had sent them to destroy the city. Lot told the men betrothed to his daughters that God was going to destroy the city, but they did not take him seriously. At dawn the angels urged Lot to hurry out of the city before he got caught in the destruction along with everyone else. When he still hesitated, they grabbed his hands and those of his wife and daughters and led them out of the city.
There has been debate about what the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Was it sexual sin? Was it a lack of hospitality? I think we can see it more clearly in two things. The first is that Lot insisted that the men not spend the night in the city square, rather he wished for them to come under his protection. So, the first thing we have is that strangers were not safe in the city. The second thing happened when Lot tried to convince the men of Sodom to leave the strangers, who had come under his protection, alone. The men of Sodom accused Lot of being judgmental for not joining in their sin and attempting to protect others from them. Who was he to interfere with their pursuit of pleasure, even when it involved mistreating others? Who was he to judge them for their actions?
Don’t worry. Jesus points out that God provides food for birds and asks are not people more important to God than birds? Not only that, but can we actually change anything important by worrying about it? Can we extend our lives by worrying? The answers to these questions (for anyone who is not sure) are “Yes”, “No” and “No”. Jesus goes on to point out that we should not worry about our clothes. After all, wild flowers are beautiful, yet they do not put forth any effort in order to dress that way. We should not spend out time worrying about we are going to eat, or drink, or wear. Non-believers spend their time worrying about that sort of thing and God knows that we need them. If we focus on seeking to do God’s will and being part of His kingdom, He will provide for all of our other needs as well.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
We are judged by the same standard that we judge others. Can we live up to the standard we hold others to? We often use this passage to condemn hypocrisy, but even there we are not paying attention to what Jesus is saying. He is saying that we should put our own lives under a greater scrutiny for wrongdoing than we put others, even when it comes to hypocrisy. I am not responsible for what you do, I am responsible for what I do.
If we ask for what is good for us, it will be given to us. If we seek that which will make us happy, we will find it. If we knock, the door will open for us. Jesus gives us a good example to understand the “limits” on these things. If a child asks his father for food, his father will not give the child rocks. However, if a child asks for food that will harm him, a good father will not give the child that. In the same way, if we ask God for things that are good for us, He will give those things to us, but He will not give us things that will bring us harm (there may be special case exceptions to this, but I don’t want to go into that here).
Today’s passage ends with Jesus telling us not to follow the crowd and not to take the easy way. There is another path that we should be looking for. Its entrance is narrow and it is hard to find, but the reward of following it is life eternal.
When I read this psalm it brings to mind the song “How Great Thou Art”.
consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed:
This psalm makes me think of when I go out at night and look up at the night sky and the chorus of this song just saturates my soul:
How great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God; to thee,
How great thou art, how great thou art!
Or when I go somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of urban life (sort of like where I live right now…away from urban life).
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;
All of this humbles me and makes me wonder how God could care for me, a mere man, and not just a man, but a sinful man. I will praise God for how wonderful He is. I do not deserve all that He has done for me and so often I respond to the call to serve Him with, “But I’m tired.”
God will grant us wisdom, if we but ask Him for it. When we understand what is right, just and fair, and we do those things, then wisdom will enter our hearts and fill us with joy. As we make wise choices they will keep us safe. All too often we mistake the cunning way for the wise way. Our society admires the cunning more than it admires the wise. People mistake wisdom for dullness, what they do not understand that wisdom only looks dull because it does not give the adrenalin rush that comes with the risk of things going wrong. When you do what is wise, things do not go wrong (or at least, not disastrously so).