The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
JEREMIAH 17:9
The Bible is full of examples that back up this claim. Adam and Eve, Saul, David, Uzziah, Samson, Judas, Demas. We probably don’t need the Bible to bear out this truth – our own lives have proven it to be so!
If ever there was a passage of Scripture to skip over, this would be the Sunday.
So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
Genesis 19:36
Pray for Erik Thoennes as he draws timely truth from this text that is needed in our day. God does not blush at the sin of mankind, and there are lessons to be learned that will keep us from falling.
But the question needs to be asked, how did Lot end up wifeless in a cave with his two daughters, no city to call home, and his uncle Abraham no longer able to come to his rescue?
Just a few chapters back in Genesis, Lot and Abraham had so many possessions that they were forced to part ways. Given his choice for land, we’re told that Lot…
….looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. GENESIS 13:10-13
“Uh oh,” Genesis seems to be saying. If there is one thing that Scripture is agreed on, it is the perspective of the very first lines in the book of Psalms.
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers…
PSALM 1:1
That said, this can’t end well for Lot, and it doesn’t. He goes from pitching his tent near Sodom to becoming one of the city leaders, and when it comes time to escape with just the clothes on his back, he lingers, he hesitates, and has to be literally dragged out of Sodom just minutes before it is destroyed by fire.
Finally alone with just his two daughters, we see the heart’s deceitfulness in horrifying display, as his daughters take their future into their own hands, with disastrous results. Two people groups result, tribes that end up being ongoing thorns in Israel’s side for centuries to come.
What is our hope? Simply this, the promise of God.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
JEREMIAH 36:26
May God again prove himself faithful to us this Sunday, as we gather to worship him in Spirit and in truth.