Author: SFJ Bible

Psalm 110:1-7

Sit at My Right Hand

A Psalm of David.

110:1   The LORD says to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand,
  until I make your enemies your footstool.”


2   The LORD sends forth from Zion
    your mighty scepter.
    Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3   Your people will offer themselves freely
    on the day of your power,¹
    in holy garments;²
  from the womb of the morning,
    the dew of your youth will be yours.³
4   The LORD has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
  “You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”


5   The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6   He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
  he will shatter chiefs⁴
    over the wide earth.
7   He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

Footnotes

[1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces

[2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains

[3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

[4] 110:6 Or the head

(ESV)

Genesis 14:18-24

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said,

  “Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    Possessor¹ of heaven and earth;
20   and blessed be God Most High,
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand² to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”

Footnotes

[1] 14:19 Or Creator; also verse 22

[2] 14:22 Or I have taken a solemn oath

(ESV)

Going Deeper

Lot (10-24-15)

Grab your Bibles, and let’s go deeper into the testimony of Lot.

Genesis 13 discusses Abram and Lot’s return to Canaan after the famine had passed and the lands became fertile again. The conflicts between the herdsmen had become so troublesome that Abram recommended to Lot that they should part ways, so there wouldn’t be unneeded conflict amongst them.

Although Abram gave Lot the choice of which land he wanted to settle on and Lot picked the well-watered plains beyond the Jordan for it was like “the garden of the LORD”., Lot’s taking of the best land in Canaan for himself was one of the worst decisions he ever made. Instead of dividing the country equitably between himself and his uncle, Lot seized the lush area near Sodom and lived far away from the covenant family. The first result of this decision was his capture by Chedorlaomer’s forces, but even his rescue by Abraham did not convince him to abandon Sodom (13:12; 14:1–16). Loving Sodom more than the Lord’s people, he moved into the city God would later destroy (19:1–29).

In Genesis 19 we read that Lot is spared from the judgment of Sodom so surely God is not done with his plans for him.  Even though God gives him a longer life he doesn’t process things well.    Sometimes we are guilty of only focusing on what we have lost and not what God has ordained to continue.  IF this is you lately, confess your self-centeredness of this and thank God for what he has given you.   Ask him to keep you full of Faith and move you forward.

Abraham’s nephew, Lot, once had so many servants and livestock that it was difficult to live near his uncle. But now he who once selfishly sought to increase his wealth (13:8–13) now he can fit everything he owns into a cave (19:30).  What a change in life this has meant to him. Like many of us, life is full of big turns and tides.  The key is to keep our eyes on Jesus and recognize that all that we are and have is his and is to be used for his purposes.  This is help us not over grip or over trust in the things or people of the world but to fully trust in God.

Lot additionally struggles with fear and tries to keep himself full of faith.  When life doesn’t go your way, do you resort to fear or do you trust that God is on the throne and will see his mighty purposes through?  It is easy to look back and see mistakes we made or hard times we went through and begin to lose faith.  But we are a people built not on our circumstances or on our performance. We are a people who trust in God and lean on Jesus performance alone.

The reality is, in the end of Genesis 19 we read that Lot suffers an even worse disgrace from his daughters. The two women hastily, through fear, think there are no men that could be arranged to marry them. So they get their father drunk and lie with him so as to produce heirs (vv. 31–36).  Incest between father and daughter was condemned by God’s law but also by the pagan cultures surrounding Israel.  This shows how despicable these acts were. The Result of this was, one daughter had a son named, Moab (father of the Moabites)  and the other has a son named, Ben-Ammi (father of the Ammonites).

Ironically, Lot at one point was once willing to sacrifice his daughters’ virginity to avoid danger (Gen. 19:6–8), but now his children dishonor him at the first sign of struggle.  What we see in this is the reality of the impact of a culture on God’s people.  No one is outside of temptation to sin and selfishness.  We must be people of prayer and of the word not only to get out of hardship but to build up our maturity and strength in God to avoid it.  Sometimes it is easy to think that the temptations of our past are way behind us, but we must stay vigilant in avoiding sin and temptation and growing who we are in Christ.  Let us not forget that Lot and his daughters get out of Sodom, but the influence of the city’s corrupt morals showed itself in their lives later.

Finally, we read 2 Peter 2:4-10 this week. Here, Peter speaks of God’s saving Lot from Sodom and says why the wicked should fear God’s judgment on wickedness.

In

Genesis 14:9

9 with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five.

(ESV)

and 10 Peter says: ” the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, (like Noah and Lot),  and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.”

This is a great take away for us as well.  God will judge unrepentant sin and he will endure his people through great hardship so that he can accomplish his purposes.   We must walk in faith and not by sight. We must avoid sinful influences of the culture around us and aim to stay trusting in God despite how hard things get.   I pray that what we have seen in Lot this week motivates and moves us forward in honoring Christ in all things.

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC

National Chaplain

2 Peter 2:4-10

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell¹ and committed them to chains² of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;³ 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,⁴ and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge⁵ in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

Footnotes

[1] 2:4 Greek Tartarus

[2] 2:4 Some manuscripts pits

[3] 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly

[4] 2:9 Or temptations

[5] 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh

(ESV)

Genesis 19:23-38

God Destroys Sodom

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, 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 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab.¹ He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi.² He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Footnotes

[1] 19:37 Moab sounds like the Hebrew for from father

[2] 19:38 Ben-ammi means son of my people

(ESV)