I've been studying the Patriarchs this summer in preparation for the Fall. Chad and I will be teaching the Patriarchs at Worship + Study during the Fall semester. It has been a really rich study so far, full of difficult little nuggets of goodness. However, Genesis 19 has in the past been a particularly hard passage for me. Read it here.
I guess it was in college that I really struggled with how women are treated in the Old Testament. God's silence feels like tolerance of what happens. Genesis 19 is a pretty appalling instance where women are seemingly worthless. I have always found Lot's behavior abhorrent and totally worthy of punishment, yet somehow he gets credited as righteous in the New Testament.
I looked at the passage this morning with fresh [hopefully wiser] eyes. I realized that I am no different from Lot. He was trying to live righteously, but he put himself too close to the home of sin. He tolerated a little sin, and it came it and infected his family. Some seriously bad habits were established in his family!!
My sin is abhorrent before the Lord. And although I am on a path of obedience, I do allow myself to set up camp in some areas of my life that are just a little too close to sin. And I see the negative impact it has on my life.
I need to quit being appalled by Lot's sin and start being appalled by my own. I want to take Paul's advice and flee from sin so that my camp is no where near sin's camp. I desperately want to live a life of righteousness, obedience, and whole-hearted pursuit of the Lord. That way, my daughter will reap not the fruit of my sinful habits, but the fruit of wholeness and righteousness!
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