In these chapters there is a lot to learn from 4 different women. Only 1 of those women we have already talked about. So, hang on! Today's entry is loaded!
We begin with Abraham sitting at the door of his tent when the Lord appears to him in the form of 3 men. He calls for Sarah to make cakes with 7 quarts of flour! That is a lot of cakes! Abraham really wants these visitors well taken care of! He even has their feet washed and a calf prepared! While they are sitting beneath the tree eating, they ask Abraham where his wife Sarah is. He replies that she is in the tent, to which they (the Lord) state they will return about the same time the next year and Sarah will have a son. Well, Sarah was listening to this conversation and she was thinking how was this even possible. She had obviously stopped having menstrual cycles (she is 90 years old and Abraham is 100 years old at this point). So, she laughed to herself and said, "After I am worn out, and my lord is old (speaking of Abraham), shall I have pleasure?"
Even though she laughed to herself, the Lord saw her response and said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Sarah denies that she laughed even to the Lord himself! To which the Lord firmly corrects her.
Sarah was caught by the Lord in a lie. She actually lied to God. Wow. When I was reading this I thought, how could she lie to God?! Did she not know who her visitors were? We need to be careful. We need to remember that lying is a sin. It goes against one of God's commandments. Even if it is something simple we need to be women of truth. Sarah was trying to cover up her unbelief that God could do the impossible. Let's not forget that we do serve the God of the impossible and let's live our lives as women of the truth. No matter how small a lie, lets remember that it is still a sin against our God.
The next woman we are about to meet doesn't have much spoken about her. But she is known for being more concerned with the things of this world than obeying the commands of God. She is Lot's wife.
Let me give you some back story. At the end of chapter 18, Abraham is interceding on behalf of Sodom because the Lord is going to judge Sodom and destroy them because of their wickedness. Abraham knows his nephew, Lot, lives here with his family. The Lord promises Abraham that if 10 righteous people are found, He will not destroy the city. So, in chapter 19, two angels come to Sodom in the evening in similar fashion as the 3 visitors came to Abraham. Lot invites them into his house and, like Abraham, provides a meal for them. But, there is no report of Lot's wife assisting in the meal. After the meal, right before they lay down for the night, the men of the city of Sodom come asking for the 2 visitors that they may commit acts of sexual immorality on them. Instead, Lot offers his 2 daughters in place of the 2 men. This makes me so sick. I cannot imagine how a father could do such a thing. But that goes to show just how much living in such an environment will alter someone's thinking. If you are surrounded by such wickedness day in and day out, you become used to it. It becomes normal for you. You cannot see how it is effecting you. I fear that is the state our country is in today. But more on that later. The 2 men ended up saving Lot from the gang of angry men outside his door and then they struck the gang blind.
The next morning the 2 men (now referred to as angels) literally had to seize Lot, his wife, and his daughters by the hand and set them outside the city. Because the entire valley is going to be destroyed, Lot is told to escape to the hills, but Lot pleads to take refuge in a small city. The Lord is merciful and allows this and told Lot and his family to escape for their lives and to not look back, but in verse 26, Lot's wife did look back. Instantly she was turned into a pillar of salt.
We are not told why she looked back. Maybe she liked her life in Sodom, maybe she had left behind some things of value, maybe she was fearful for the friends whose lives were being judged. We don't know, but she disobeyed the command of God and let those earthly things get in the way of following God. We must be careful that we do not allow the things of this world to get in the way of what God has commanded us to do.
So, there is Lot, without his wife, and left with his 2 daughters. He ended up leaving the small city he had requested to go to and ended up living in a cave in the hills. Ironically, this is where God had told him to flee in the first place. What happens next? Lot's 2 daughters decide to take matters into their own hands (kind of like Sarah did with Abraham and Hagar). They see that their father is old, and they thought there was no man who could give them offspring. So, they get their father drunk and lie with him and both become pregnant from their father. Reading this we can see how this is wrong on so many levels. But what could have possibly caused them to think this? How could they commit such an act?
Is it possible that because they were raised in an environment that focused on worldly gain and pleasure that they saw nothing wrong with pursuing these things on their own? It is probable that they had a mother who also put her focus on worldly gain and pleasure. Because she made that a priority in her life, she disobeyed God and was turned into a pillar of salt. Imagine if God carried out this punishment on people today. I think there would be a lot more pillars of salt in our world. We need to be mindful of what we are teaching our children. Let's strive to help our children see that the things of this world do not matter. Let's be women and mothers who help our children draw closer and closer to God and that having a close relationship to God is the only thing in this life that brings true satisfaction and everlasting joy! How can we do this? By being an example to our children. If we are finding true satisfaction and everlasting joy in God our Savior than they will want the same in their lives!
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