In This Issue

 

• REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE

• HISTORY REMEMBERED POORLY

• MORE INFORMATION...

REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE

Reading: Gen. 29:17-26, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Lk. 17:28-32). Recall Gen. 18 where God sends angels to Abraham warning of the upcoming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We know that in answer to Abraham’s prayers, God agreed to spare the cities for the sake of only ten righteous souls, but there were not even ten righteous people living there. Then God sent two angels to warn Lot, his wife, his two daughters and their husbands of the coming judgment of God, but the sons-in-law mocked at the warning and finally perished. Finally, the angels led Lot, his wife, and two daughters from the doomed city. The warning was “And it came about when they had brought them outside that one said, ‘Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away’” (Gen. 19:17). Gen 19:26, “But his wife, from behind him, looked back; and she became a pillar of salt.” That is the fact which our Lord has told us to remember.

Remembering Lot’s wife, we first remember who said it: Jesus Christ. The “letters in red” are no more inspired than those written by inspired men. But still, it is our Lord who would have us to remember that Lot’s wife rebelled against the word of God, looked back, was immediately turned into a pillar of salt. When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, we should pay very strict attention to what He says. Matt. 17:5, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; Hear ye Him.”  Surely we ought to do what He says: “Remember Lot’s wife.”

Secondly, remembering Lot’s wife involves remembering Lot’s choice made much earlier. We recall that Lot, like Abraham his uncle, had become very wealthy with flocks and herds, Gen. 13:2, 5, so that “the land could not sustain them while dwelling together” (vs. 6). When Abraham gave Lot the choice, Lot chose the “well-watered” valley of Jordan near Sodom, Gen. 13:10-11. But while Lot’s choice made perfectly good business sense, it was not at all a wise decision!

Consider what Lot ultimately suffered because of this choice. Think about the consequences of this one singular choice which later came about in Lot’s life because of it.

(1)   He was a victim of war, Gen. 14:11.

(2)    During that war he was personally kidnapped, Gen.. 14:12.

(3)    He was constantly oppressed and tormented by the wickedness of the citizens of Sodom, 2 Pet. 2:7-8; Gen. 19:1-11.

(4)    Lot suffered the loss of all his material wealth when they escaped Sodom, Gen. 19:15416, 24-25.

(5)   He suffered the death of his wife, Gen. 19:17, 26.

(6)   He endured the humiliation and shame of incest with his own daughters, Gen. 19:30-36. All these things happened despite the fact that Lot is still called a righteous person, 2 Pet. 2:7-8.

We go through this in remembering Lot’s wife, because Lot’s wife did not live in a vacuum. Up to her death,, Lot’s wife endured the same problems that he did.  Lot’s decision, made a long time before, ultimately created the situation in which she became salt!

The lesson here is simple: Watch your choices—they affect others! Consider just for a moment some of the most important choices we make in life. The most important, of course is:

(1)   The choice to follow Jesus. It will determine your place in eternity and it will have a bearing on every other choice you make

(2)   The choice of jobs or careers. This has lasting effects upon your marriage, family, and your service to God.

(3)   Choosing a mate. That decision will to a great extent determine your degree of happiness in this life and it will have a permanent bearing on your children and their well-being.

(4)   Choosing friends. Close friends can be a wonderful blessing, Prov. 17:17, but the wrong friends can be a curse for the righteous, Prov. 12:26; 1 Cor. 15:33.

(5)   Even choosing where you will live is no small decision. It certainly was not for Lot.

We remember Lot’s wife because we live in a wicked world. Remember: Lot’s wife was living in a sinful world, and it wasn’t a real problem except as the sinful world began to live in her. Why did she look back? Was it because some of the family was there? Was it because there were things she liked there? Was it because she was distressed by the wrath of God? Or had Sodom become “home” to her? We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly evil every day. The moral fiber upon which the USA was founded has now reached the breaking point. The grossest of sins, once reserved for the vilest of sinners, have now been elevated to the realm of respectability. Homosexuality, same sex marriages, trading of spouses, pre-marital sex, all manner of sexual perversions have been accepted by more and more people as merely “alternate life styles.” Millions of people worldwide have died of AIDS. Billions are being spent to find a cure for the disease, but few dare to talk about the cause: Sin! Get rid of the cause, and you won’t need a cure! Also, millions of innocents—babies—have been and continue to be legally murdered in their mother’s womb. The vast majority of our society today admit that they lie, cheat, steal, drink alcoholic beverages, use harmful drugs, and fornicate.

In the churches, hymns of worship are replaced by rock & roll. The local spiritual family is a country club for dining with friends or where you can “work out.” Sermons are no longer spiritual or scriptural, but are filled with the political, economical or social problems of the day or just plain entertainment.

In the home, the two year old is running things… and sassing the parent is a way of life. The gross lack of respect for authority now comes full force into the school, or to civil government. This world is which we live is ripe for the judgment of God; just as Sodom and Gomorrah were boldly exposed to the fiery wrath of a sin-hating Creator in the days of Lot’s wife. That is why you should “Remember Lot’s wife.” Other reasons included in the lesson involve the fact that Mr. And Mrs. Lot were the objects of prayer; the fact that they were completely warned; and that in spite of the fact that she was the wife of a righteous man, Lot’s wife was still condemned.   

–Larry Dickens, Expositor, Mexia, Texas

HISTORY REMEMBERED POORLY

Nearly all of my life I have heard/read that Clarence Darrow won the debate in the Scopes “Monkey” trial in 1925. Apparently some people are unaware of the facts or choose to misrepresent them. Bryan won the debate, in that he won the trial and Scopes was found guilty. Now, some might argue that Bryan won the legal battle but that Darrow won the theological/scientific one. Not so.

Secularism did not fare well after the debate. True, it marched ahead triumphantly in the educational community but not in society as a whole. Recent surveys have shown that between 90-94 % of all Americans believe in God and that increasing numbers are seeing through the sham known as “evolution.”

The current battle over “intelligent design” would not exist today if secularism had prevailed. It exists because in spite of the secularistic prevailing view in our educational system, reason and revelation still have a place.

I would love to be a part of the trial recently conducted in Pennsylvania. I would have asked the plaintiffs if their existence provided any evidence of “intelligent design” in the universe. They would have to say “no,” in spite of the fact that they are there debating issues which could not be debated if there were not intelligent design. Their arguments show no evidence of intelligent design, but their existence does.

Man, alone of all the creatures, can debate philosophical matters. The rest of creation can only react to what is around them but they cannot contemplate such things beyond the material world.

How many dogs, for instance, worry about whether they will spend eternity in heaven or hell? How many of them have tried to figure out the meaning of life, the meaning of good and evil, or many of the other inscrutable issues facing humans daily?

Alan Wolfe, writing on “The State of the Church-State Debate” (Aug. 1, 2005 in Slate) said, “Except that Darrow did not win the case at hand, Bryan did. Not only was Scopes found guilty, but Darrow’s secularism never recovered, and conservative Christianity began its long march into the American presidency. This is not what we usually think about these matters, the world is supposed to have become more oriented to science as it has become more modern, yet the United States has seemed to take the opposite path.

This may be because “religion” in Europe is more secular and less reasoned. In America the “evangelical” views seem to hold sway. So long as people are encouraged to reason for themselves, as the Bible teaches, then faith in God will always have a place in our society.

Let us not fear secularism, but lets fear modernism in religion. It is what stifles faith and reason and gives rise to secularism.

–Floyd Chappelear, Stand, Vol. 42, Number 1

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