Results of Lot's Faith79 [Gen 19:27-38] / Anne's Faith Column

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Results of Lot's Faith79

[Gen 19:27-38]

 / Anne's Faith Column 

 

 

/ By Priscilla 

 

When God decided

to destroy Sodom

and Gomorrah,

 

 

he thought of 'Abraham'

and dramatically saved

his nephew 'Lot' from

the judgment.

 

 

However, what was

the faith of Lot like,

 

 

who did not thoroughly

cut off his worldly life

despite receiving

shameful salvation?

 

 

What about his

two daughters?

 

 

They had been raised

under him and barely

escaped God's

punishment,

 

 

but while they were living 

in a cave for a while,

 

 

they offered alcohol to

their father with immoral

motives and methods, tricked 

him into getting drunk.

 

 

And even worse,

it was a nonsense for his

two daughters to have had

 sex with their drunken father

in order to obtain offspring

from him. 

 

 

The splendid city that

their father Lot chose

long ago!

 

 

They were born in the

very secular city of

"Sodom and Gomorrah,"

 

 

and growing up from

a very young age,

what they saw, heard,

 

 

and learned had been

far from morality, based

on a culture of decay

that was latent in their

consciousness.

 

 

That' why they tried what

they shouldn't have

done eventually. 

 

 

At that time, even though

they miraculously kept

themselves with the notion

of chastity under Lot's

protection,

 

 

when they came to despair,

without hesitation, they

made a decision and 

took the bold action

 

 

as they had already been

influenced under their

environment.

 

 

They must have been aware

 that incest was generally 

taboo among humans. 

 

 

This deadly event shows us

how religious education

is essential to us.

 

 

Also, this tells us once again

that our lives should not

be tainted by the world,

have a properly established

view of faith,

 

 

and live as children of light 

that God wants us to do 

even in darkness.

 

 

In fact, the world where we

live today is quite dangerous.

 

 

The age in which we live

is rapidly changing,

 

 

and we have become 

a generation living with 

chaotic values, distorted 

self-image, and broken

morality.

 

 

Wickedness sweetly

and cunningly deceives us

 

 

and rules the world so strongly

that it destroys the entire family

and eventually leads to our ruin.

 

 

In particular, Lot's final episode 

resulted in a heartbreaking

and tragic ending.

 

 

When Lot was under

the care of Abraham,

the father of faith,

 

 

he must have had faith

by imitating him.

 

 

However, as he left

Abraham to live

in Sodom, 

 

 

a secular city where

wickedness was great,

he was permeated with 

a deeply corrupt culture

 

 

and as the years passed,

he could not keep his faith.

 

 

He couldn't even tell

the difference between

good and evil and he

had a faith that was

terribly broken.

 

 

And he also pursued

his own interests, enjoying

pleasures and accepting evil. 

 

 

Instead of teaching his

children to believe in God, 

he even lived with evil.

 

 

Lot compromised with

the realities, and eventually,

in the later years of his life,

he received a tragic and

shameful salvation.

 

 

Likewise, if our faith

started with the Holy Spirit,

and ends with the lust

of the flesh, 

 

 

our good God must be 

so heartbreaking!

 

 

He will grieve with groans

beyond description.

 

 

He will grieve with groans

beyond description.

 

 

Then, cheking once again,

what were the results of

 Lot's choice, following 

 

 

and accepting the

inclination to pursue

vanity and worldliness?

 

 

1. He trusted and believed

in God, but he lived a life

that was not edifying.

 

 

1) He lost all of his possessions

and property that God had

poured out to him.

 

 

2) He followed the fallen

path with his weak faith.

 

 

His wife, son-in-law, and 

daughters abandoned

godliness and lived a

worldly life, failing

to discern evil,

 

 

and in the end, they

became the people

of the earth.

  

 

He lived with a weak faith

despite his responsibilities

as a child of God and as  the

 head of the household.

 

 

Lot failed to lead them

to God completely,

 

 

and let all of his family

members go their own ways

from the sanctified life and

have a corrupted life.

 

 

As a result, his whole family 

members, who were 

children of light,

 

 

became children

of darkness. 

 

 

The result of his choice was ruin. 

Her wife could not cast away

her lust for her worldly

temptations,

 

 

and she hesitanted to

leave the place where

she had lived and 

had enjoyed.

 

 

She looked back wondering

what would happen to the place,

and finally became a pillar of salt.

 

 

As already mentioned, the 

two daughters, who were 

tainted by the broken 

morality, ended up

committing sins

 

 

to have sex with their

drunken father in order

to obtain offspring.

 

 

This is because he, as the 

head of the household,

failed to bring his family

members up as God's

children

 

 

and did not guide them

into the right believers.

 

 

While he was serving God,

the things he considered

to be the power of the world 

disappeared from him

without any trace,

 

 

and eventually only two

daughters remained with him.

 

 

However, seeing that

even his two daughters

lived in a city where evil

was great

 

 

and took shameful actions

on the basis of the immorality

they had learned, it makes us

realize how important

religious education is.

 

 

If we do not have faith

standards or spiritual

discernment, our usual

wrong lifestyle

 

 

or habitual bad behavior

can take root in our lives,

 

 

and when there's a crisis

we face, they can bring out

a scary ripple effect.

 

 

Therefore, we will have

to go back to God

 

 

in order to restore the

relationship with God

through the life of

repentance and piety.

 

 

2. Lot was a hypocritical

religious person who lived

by passive faith.

 

 

Think of the Lot who hesitated

even in the moment when 

the angels of God prophesied

of the destruction of Sodom

and Gomorrah! 

 

 

Even today, there are many

double-minded Christians

who love the world too much.

 

 

They are believers who

do not set  examples before

God and people, but weigh

God and the world.

 

 

We, too, must once again

be alert and examine

our state of faith.

 

 

A person with a double

mind like Lot lives

a stereotyped religious life

apart from a godly

 

 

and sanctified life,

and has only a hypocritical

and religious consciousness.

 

 

In other words, he has

a form of godliness,

 

 

but eventually failed because

he had no religious roots.

 

 

This is a typical example

that a life without content is

worse than a person

without faith.

 

 

No matter how much

Abraham pleaded

 

 

and interceded for

his nephew, Lot, take

a look at the devastated

foundation of faith

 

 

where there were no ten

righteous people,

including his family!

 

 

Moreover, God, who heard

Abraham's earnest petition,

tried to save his family

through angels,

 

 

but Lot did not listen to

their warning properly

 

 

and was not willing to

accept the message

of salvation,

 

 

but on the contrary,

he hesitated.

 

 

As a result, God's answer

to Abraham's plea was of

no avail to Lot. 

 

 

He had an extremely

passive faith with only a

spiritually dull form.

 

 

At this time, we should

look back on our own faith

so that each of us may

not become another Lot.

 

 

Of course, his two daughters,

who committed  sins,

were also at fault, 

 

 

but

Lot never, for a moment, 

had any repentance

before God!

 

 

Also, he did not reflect

on himself about his

shameful salvation,

 

 

and his foolish life was a

shame itself in the end.

 

 

In the end, the descendants

'Ammon and Moab' that

were born

 

 

as a result of that

shame are mentioned

in the Bible

 

 

as outcast peoples who

practiced evil before God 

and worshiped idols.

 

 

Through the actions of Lot

and his two daughters, we 

grievously feel that evil 

deeds must be punished.

 

 

Therefore, we should

take this as a new lesson that

we must not commit such sins.

 

 

So, what kind of resolution

should we live with

from now on?

 

 

1) We must always be awake

in faith and live a life of

walking with the Lord.

 

 

2) We should pray for

spiritual discernment.

 

 

3) We must not lose our

motivation of faith so as not 

to become a believer tainted 

by the world like Lot.

 

 

To do that, above all else,

we must be the ones who

guard our hearts above

anything else.

 

 

Prayer

 

Lord!  May we always

turn our hearts and

minds toward You,

 

 

so that we may not

live by humanism!

 

 

Please help us to have

faith to bear the fruit

of joy, and peace!

 

 

Please lead us to bear

beautiful fruit and have 

the hope to please the Lord,

 

 

so that we may become

children who always

long for the Lord!

 

Amen

 

- To Be Continue - 

 

 

2010/ 05/31

 

 

/ By Priscilla