Day 16

“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 men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.”  — GENESIS 13:11 -13

There are things in this life we say we’d never do, nor would ever want to do, but we like to pitch our tents close to them. We may not commit the particular sins ourselves, but we enjoy sinning vicariously; that is, we enjoy other peoples’ sin. If we’re not sure about that, just ask any editor of a tabloid newspaper. Corruption, greed, sexual perversion, and violence are what continue to sell newspapers, and are the substance of many box office hits and soap operas. Why? Because something in us enjoys it, even if we would never do these things ourselves.  

The problem is that none of us remains static. We either grow closer to God or away from God, and may find ourselves moving closer to what we pitch our tents near. Lot moves further towards Sodom, until he becomes one of the city leaders, sitting at the city gates where he could keep watch on the coming and goings, and where citizens could seek him out for counsel. He becomes an influential man in a city of sin; not as a counter to the moral corruption of Sodom, but as a participant. 

Yet if you asked him, “Lot, what do you believe about God?” he would give the same answer as Abram. And his answer might be correct, but with no personal experience of God, only second-hand knowledge from Abram. The slippery slide from being near Sodom, to pitching his tent there, to living in the city, to becoming one of its leaders is a slow slide that is inevitable when you are not tethered to the anchor of a personal relationship with God. 

If the substance of our Christian lives is going to church, listening to others talk about God and reading other peoples’ thoughts, but we do not develop a personal relationship of love, dependence and obedience with God, we will remain vulnerable and powerless when the seductive forces of temptation begin to pull us away.

Abram kept in touch with God.  Wherever he went, he set up an altar to God, and revisited those altars, realigning himself with God and re-establishing the covenant with Him. He progresses while Lot digresses. Taking an honest look, where do we find ourselves… pitching our tents near Sodom or aligning ourselves in a living relationship with God? 

PRAYER: Keep me close to You Lord Jesus, and dependent on You, with an ever developing relationship of love and obedience. Make me alert to the ‘Sodoms’ that will suck me in, and keep my security always in You.

TO REFLECT UPON: Was there a time when I have pitched my tent near Sodom, or was even settled in the midst of it? How would I best help those who I know are not anchored in Christ?