Brought Out

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

BROUGHT OUT

Gen 19:27-29

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

NIV

Before we get to where Lot's two daughters conspire, doing something that will have long-lasting effects, we first should focus on what Abraham saw and on mercy. When God speaks, he always speaks the truth. He spoke the truth when he told Noah he was going to destroy everything that had the breath of life in it; all mankind would perish, and it happened just as God said it would. He told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and he rained down hail and fire, burning up those cities and the places of the plains. Abraham stood where he had stood before the LORD and looked down on the plains, and the smoke was like that of a great furnace. The people perished in flames just as the LORD said. The Lord has also said that on the last day, all the wicked who finished wicked will stand before the LORD and be judged for their wickedness, and be sent to another flame, the lake of burning sulfur. It has always been strange in light of John 3:16; the LORD uses the word perish as the opposite of everlasting life. He correlates perishing, the Greek word that means to be put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, destroyed. In the Revelation God gave to John, he called the lake of burning sulfur the second death. Theologians have argued the two positions: eternal torment and annihilation. However, if researched with the Spirit, we will know that God can destroy both the body and the soul. However, he showed mercy to Lot because he was a Godly man; at least, he was family to Abraham, had witnessed the power of God, and hosted the two angels to keep them safe from the city's wickedness. A day is coming when another great day of catastrophe will happen. Still, those who put their trust in the LORD, those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, those who have been born again, will be remembered by the LORD and brought out of the catastrophe; the dead will rise first, and those still alive will be caught up in the air to meet our Lord. We call that the rapture of the church. We know for certain that a catastrophe will happen, and we will be brought out.