3.055 The Lord is Merciful

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

We're going to have a part 1 and part 2 here inside of Genesis chapter 19. As we read through Genesis 18 through 23, it's tough because I typically want to try and get a section from each chapter if I can or try to get an idea from that side of things. And so the Lord promises with Abraham that if there's any righteous there, then they're going to be saved.

And so that then fast-forwards us into 19, where we see Lot in Sodom. And Lot's going to have this own experience with these angels. He's going to kind of protect the angels from being accosted.

And then the angels are going to wake him up in the morning and say, you have to get out. The time has come for the destruction of Sodom. And that's what takes us to the end of the book.

Our verse for today in Genesis chapter 19, verse 16. It says: "And while he lingered—this is Lot—and while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." So we have kind of this transportation moment. We have this grab my hand, boop, off we go, and we're transported outside of the city of Sodom right before it is destroyed.

You know, when we think about Sodom and Gomorrah, we think about the Lord's destruction. We think about this chaos and raining fire down on the wicked. And isn't it interesting that part one thought that I have here out of our two-part message is this: The Lord, first and foremost, was merciful to Lot and his family.

And that's an important message for each one of us. The Lord wants us to choose to turn to Him. He wants us to choose to be repentant.

It's that inward feeling that He's hoping that we turn to Him. And as Lot and his family did so, the Lord saved them from the destruction that was imminent inside of Sodom and Gomorrah. My friends, I love the message here: In the middle of this destructive moment, the Lord did keep His promise to Abraham, sought out those that were trying to be righteous, pulled them out of the line of danger, and then came the Lord's judgment.

So for you and for me, what does that mean? Well, the Lord is a merciful God. He wants us to turn to Him, and as we do so, He is forgiving.

We will be here tomorrow. And we hope you are too.