ANGLICAN DAILY FOUNTAIN DEVOTIONAL FOR JANUARY 14, 2023(ESCAPE FOR YOUR LIFE)

TOPIC :  ” ESCAPE FOR YOUR LIFE”

TEXT: Genesis 19: 12-29(NKJV)
12. Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city — take [them] out of this place!
13. “For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
14. So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15. When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
16. And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
17. So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
18. Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!
19. “Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
20. “See now, this city [is] near [enough] to flee to, and it [is] a little one; please let me escape there ([is] it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
21. And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
22. “Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
24. Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.
25. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

 MESSAGE
There are sensitive lessons to learn from the life of Lot and his family in Sodom and Gomorrah. First, it is dangerous to neglect the influence of bad environment in one’s life as well as children’s upbringing. Second, there was no sign of respect to divine injunction by Lot’s sons-in-law as they saw God’s message as a mere joke (v.14).

Third, Lot seemed to have become so attached to the evil city that he found it hard to leave the city in the face of serious danger. Fourth, violation of clear divine order attracts serious consequences (compare v.16 and v.26). Fifth, evil deeds have expiring dates. Learn from the mistakes of others – there will always be a day of account.

Escape for your life; do not take the grace of God for granted. Listen to the warning bell in our society today. Life is under threat. Man has become enemy to his fellow man. What shall it profit you if after the stress of this life, you miss heaven? Leave what you cannot keep and keep what you cannot lose.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, keep watch over me and save my life from wrong. Amen.