Make the offer

DEVOTION

GENESIS

MAKE THE OFFER

Gen 19:4-11

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom — both young and old — surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." 9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

NIV

What are we to do with this? It was not as if a few men in the city were deposed to this perverted form of sexual behavior, it was all the men, both young and old that surrounded the house demanding the two new men that came into the city be given to them for their purpose. It was not even for a consensual purpose but it appears they intended to rape these men, against their wills. Is there any wonder their behavior cried out to the Lord? Yet we cannot judge them, nor should we, as any one sin is as grievous as the next one. There are no levels of sin, sin is simply sin. If any of us are without sin, then we certainly have the right to cast the first stone, to judge the behavior of these men of Sodom, as well as judge the behavior of any person today. Yes, we do judge the behavior of others in as so far as their behavior toward the laws of our land. If they violate a law and are caught, they are judged based on the evidence. But we cannot and should not judge sin, which is strictly up to God and him alone.  But we can do that which Lot did in some sense. We can make every effort to protect the innocent from being victims of sin. Lot offered his own daughters in an effort to protect these guests in his home. He was right to insist they not stay in the square, yet he did not know it was he who would be protected by these strangers, these divine angels of the Lord. We have several lessons within the text. First, as we have already noted, Lot did not judge their sin, and we cannot judge the sin of others. We have enough of our own to judge. Second, we should make every effort to protect others from being the victim of sin. How do we do that? We know that the wages of sin is death.

Rom 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV

But we also know the free of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is how we do it. We offer them the protection of Jesus Christ. Just as Lot could not actually defend the strangers against the sin of the men in the city, we cannot actually protect others from sin, or the effects of sin. But we can offer them Jesus Christ. As Lot did, we can make every effort to persuade others to forgo their behavior. He offered his daughters, we can offer Jesus. He is the only refuge from the wages of sin, death. The other lesson is just that. When lot failed to convince the men of Sodom to turn away from what they were desiring to do, the angels of the Lord took charge of the situation. We can offer Jesus, but it is the Spirit of the Lord who will take charge of the situation and both convict people of their need to repeat and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But that does not relieve us from making every effort to protect them from being victims of sin. Yet it is the Lord who does the real protection from sin. The angels took charge both by bringing Lot back within his home, keeping him from becoming their victim, and they struck all the men with blindness so they could not even find the door. There too is another lesson. When people refuse to listen to reason, when they refuse our offer of Jesus Christ and push forward to make us their victim, God strikes them with spiritual blindness in a sense in order to protect us. When people are unwilling to accept Jesus Christ, they are spiritual blind, they cannot find the door to eternal life.

John 10:7-10

7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

NIV

Spiritual blindness causes men not to be able to see the gate, Jesus Christ. When people refuse to repent of their sin, or rather refuse to acknowledge their behavior is sin, they are blind to the truth. We must always be willing to acknowledge our sin, our behaviors, our attitudes, our responses before God, seeking forgiveness because of what Jesus Christ did for us. If we fail to see our own sin, we might well be spiritual blind too. It might be too easy for us to get caught up in self-righteousness, seeing and judging the sin of others while not seeing our own. But as we know ourselves, and have the free gift of God through Jesus Christ, let us offer that same protection to others. Let us make the offer.