Fire and Brimstone or Kindness--Day 10 Through the Bible

January 10

When reading Genesis 19, Sodom and Lot may seem to be the focus of the chapter. As events unfold, however, the mercy of God begins to take precedence (as always). Then, in the 29^th verse, Lot's circumstances are put into perspective and God clarifies the reason He saw fit to remove Lot from the city marked for destruction. It was because of Abraham. Verse 29 serves to transfer the focus of this chapter from Lot and a culture without hope to God's kindness.

God was sparing Lot because of Abraham. Lot had chosen to live in the city to begin with and was evidently negatively affected by its culture (evidenced by the offer of his daughters to the mob).  He refused to leave the city quickly in order to save his own life and then proceeded to complain about being directed to the mountains for safety. Lot comes across as uncooperative (to say the least) with God's efforts to save him and revealed a pattern of acting on circumstances rather than principles (a tremendous lesson here).

After the destruction of Sodom, we move on to another lesson. How many times do we take matters into our own hands, thinking we have it all figured out, only to discover we are working from a false premise. 

When Abraham traveled to Gerar, he assumed “the fear of God was not in this place”. He acted accordingly and concocted a half truth that resulted in God’s judgment on the king and his household. (Failing to pray first often results in the need not only to pray, but to repent after the fact.) There’s no mention that Abraham sought God regarding this situation before taking matters into his own hands. When the dust had settled in verse 17, Abraham prayed to God and God repaired the damage Abraham's plan had wrought, and healed the king and his household.

The incident here is also a reminder not to answer a matter before knowing the facts. Maybe Abraham should have done a little more research on the beliefs of the king. Nevertheless, "assuming" is something we probably do best and there is much to learn from this example. We set ourselves up to look foolish when we act or offer solutions without having all the facts. Proceeding without asking for God's involvement is also a recipe for disaster. Yet we unfortunately tend to do both. There is usually something in most situations that we are unaware of. If only we could be as quick to show kindness in situations as we are to be judgmental.

Kindness may indeed be one of the most important lessons we can take away from today’s study. In spite of the corrupt scene in Sodom and God’s impending judgment, God—in His mercy and kindness sent angels to remove Abraham’s nephew and family from the path of destruction (the angel literally had to bodily remove them). Neither should we forget that God does not allow wickedness to go on forever. At some point, He will decide it’s enough. 

Making kindness our rule of life serves to shine the light of Christ in a powerful and effective way and may prevent us from unknowingly adding to someone’s despair.  By nature, we tend to be too involved with ourselves to show kindness to others. However, if Christ lives in us, we will be producing the fruit of kindness in our lives. May we prayerfully consider our responses to others and ask God to fill our lives as well as our mouths with His law of kindness (Proverbs 31).