Chapter 19 is so full of great stuff!! What do you make of the 3 men with the Lord? Are they angels of the Lord? Do they represent the trinity? But they leave and the Lord remains in conversation with Abraham.......just great stuff to ponder.
Hospitality was such an important thing in the nomadic culture of Abraham and Sarah, but did you catch the extravagance as Abraham tells Sarah to prepare 3 seahs of fine flour into bread. Three seahs would be about 20 quarts of flour.......now that is a lot of bread! And the finest calf in the herd.....and extravagantly generous piece of hospitality. How important it is for us to receive strangers with the same warm welcome, the same kindness and appreciation for the gift of their presence.
Is anything to great for the Lord? Our resounding answer should always be no, No. NO; our God can do anything that he choses; he can part the waters of a great sea, cause a fish to swallow and then spit a man up onto the seashore, he can use broken people to heal a nation and he can work great signs and wonders through a heart that is yielded to him.
Abraham argues with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The result should give you great courage in your prayers as God gives evidence of his great desire to save those who were created in his image. As evil as the culture had become, he would withhold his hand of justice for the sake of 10 good folk. We can still save our culture if we continue to be obedient to God's desire to bless the nations through us. It is an awesome task, but I do not laugh as Sarah did. I know that God can do this through us because nothing is too hard for our God.
I came to a screeching halt at 18:15, “Sarah was afraid, so she lied...” Adam & Eve lied to God. Abram lied to Pharaoh. Why is it that we are afraid to have God (and others) see who we really are? We know we aren’t perfect, others know we aren’t perfect, & we don’t expect others to be perfect(do we?). So then, why do we pretend to be? Isn’t that what we’re really doing when we lie?
ReplyDeleteAh, evil chapter 19. Here’s where I learned the hard way to read ahead of my kids.
Shawna, maybe people lie because they are embarrased or ashamed of the truth, are afraid of the consequences, or think people simply won't find out the truth. We all want (need) to be loved and accepted. Maybe we pretend to be something we are not in hopes others will like us. What we fail to realize is when people like who we pretend to be, they don't like us for who we really are.
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