Thursday, January 29, 2015

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 54 - SISTER FOR SALE

(Article written by Sheila Gail Landgraf - Poem written by Shel Silverstein)


Today’s story reminds me of an old favorite Shel Silverstein poem called “Sister For Sale.”  It goes like this:

“One sister for sale,
One sister for sale,
One crying and spying young sister for sale
I'm really not kidding so who'll start the bidding
Do I hear a dollar?
A nickle?
A penny?
Oh isnt there isnt there isnt there any
One person who will buy this sister for sale
This crying spying old young sister for sale.”

If you think it is a harsh thing for one to consider selling his sister, what about the case where one decides to give his wife away? 

Can you believe that once again, even after all they went through about 25 years earlier in Egypt,  Abraham decided to ask Sarah in another time to say she was his sister?  Unbelievable!

Oh boy!  The first time I read the next part of the story I got so mad at Abraham.  Here he was at the pinnacle of his life.  God had twice confirmed his covenant with him.  He had so many victories.  He was rich and blessed.  God had spoken directly to him!  He had received divine visitors who told him the promised son was about to be on the way.  He had faithfully left his old sinful ways behind and had learned to focus on the things that God was telling him to do instead of making his own plans.  He was enjoying peace inside the tent of Sarah again.  His relationship with Sarah had drastically improved.  God had saved his nephew as he had requested.  All was about as good as it gets until suddenly we hear of Abraham committing that same old sin again!  We have to shake our heads in disbelief that he could be that thickheaded and thoughtless.   Abraham couldn’t even be original and commit a new sin; it was that same old sin that he had repented of before.   You would think a mature Christian could get out of old sin patterns like that, especially if they had a name like Abraham.


I suppose after Sodom and Gomorrah the pasture lands were looking pretty sparse.  The cattle had pretty much used up the fields around Mamre and Abraham decided to move on to the city of Gerar and let his cattle graze in better pastures.  This foreign land was ruled by King Abimelech.  This name was a title that was given to many kings in that land, similar to how the kings in Egypt were all called Pharaoh, and all the rulers of America are all called President.  All of the kings of Gerar were called  Abimelech. 

Abimelech was a Philistine king; probably a polytheistic one that believed in many gods instead of only The One True God that Abraham and Sarah believed in.    Perhaps this is why Abraham had a fear of entering the land. This was a land where beautiful women were often abducted and sold into marriage and/or slavery.  It was a dangerous place for a woman to be traveling.  Abductions were common in that day.  Bandits would swope down from the hills and kill the men and take the women for profit.  Even in her old age Sarah was still radiantly beautiful.  She did not follow the custom of the women of the land of wearing a veil.  Her face was open and her beauty was obvious to anyone passing by.   It seemed that Abraham sinned more in times like this when he was alone with Sarah and fearful of what could happen to her.  At home, in the land where Sarah kept her tent near Mamre,  Abraham had a household of trained fighters for servants.  He had no reason to fear there.  Sarah lived naive and protected there.  She was always safe, but not so here in the land of Philistine. 




You have to wonder after all that God had done and promised why Abraham would have been afraid, but he was.  Had God not protected them in Egypt?  Why would he not protect them in this land full of Philistines?  Both lands were full of pagan and uncivilized ways, but God would go with them wherever they traveled.  Still we notice Abraham’s fear.   

In Gerar, Abraham committed a sin he had done much earlier in his life.   He passed Sarah off as his sister instead of his wife again.  Of course, just like the last time, this resulted in her being taken into the harem of the king, only this time the king was Abimelech and the land was Gerar.

 Some people like to look at both of these similar incidences and say they are just two accounts of the same event.  I beg to differ.  The main reason I think they both were true at different times is the differences in the stories, not the similarities.  They took place in two different lands with two different kings for one thing.  One incident was in Egypt; one incident was in Gerar.  One had Pharaoh as king; one had Abimelech as king.  In the first incident Abraham was young in his walk with God.  In the second incident Abraham was mature in his walk with God.  We can say the same about Sarah also.  It should be noted that in the first incident they were known as Abram and Sarai; in the second incident they were known as Abraham and Sarah.  God had changed their names as well as their hearts by the second time this happened.  We will point out some other differences too, as we go along with this story.   

This repetition of  “say you are my sister” gets even more frustrating when we read further down the historical line of time and see that Isaac later did the very same thing to his wife Rebecca.  How strange! 

Considering that this same scene happened three times that we know of to the Hebrew ancestors, someone finally came up with one theory that in a Hurrian society there was a status known as “wife-sistership.”  It is very possible that Abraham and Sarah could have participated in one of these Hurrian societies.  In this state it is said a Hurrian could adopt his wife as his sister and give her special status in which she would be treated as a blood relative of the husband’s family.  This was a higher status than just sister or just wife.  This is also a fact that seems odd when you read The Song of Solomon and you hear him say “my sister, my spouse.”  That is a whole new lesson for another day that is full of wonderful details about how the Church should relate to Jesus Christ as a bride awaiting a groom.  We will save that for now and continue with Abraham, but it is a another little understood example of this Hurrian way of relating to your spouse as a sister.


Abraham had asked Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she was a relative of this special class and the Egyptians understood the status and did not harm her.   Maybe he was thinking that the Philistines might respect this too.   However, this theory does not hold strong when you consider that both kings, both times, realized that they had been deceived and confronted Abraham with their anger at the situation. 

When the Egyptian Pharaoh confronted Abraham he said very little in his own defense.  He simply let the king talk.  However, when King Abimelech heard from God in a dream that Sarah was Abraham’s wife and Abraham was a prophet and that Abimelech was as good as dead if he took Sarah as his own; Abimelech confronted  Abraham with these horrible facts and Abraham actually spoke up and defended himself.  He made excuses for his actions.  He had no excuses to offer 25 years earlier when he faced Pharaoh, but with Abimelech the conversation was extensive.  Abraham explained to Abimelech that he thought he might be entering an ungodly place where other men would kill him for the beauty of his wife.  Then he explained further that she was really his sister too, being the daughter of his father but not the daughter of his mother and finally he mentioned the fact that he had married her.  He stated that he had instructed her to say she was his sister whenever they went through a foreign country in order to spare his life. 

Do you think Abimelech was impressed with Abraham’s testimony?  No, I don’t either!  He must have thought Abraham a fool, yet in his dream where God had spoken to King Abimelech,  even though he was a pagan king;  God had said that Abraham was a prophet and that Abimelech should ask him to pray for him.

This was a perplexing situation for both Abimelech and Abraham.  Neither of them really wanted to become prayer buddies!  Abraham had caused the problems that Abimelech now faced; a problem that had left him and his whole household sick and sterile because of Sarah’s presence among them.  Yet, Abraham would be the one who was qualified by God to pray for healing from this.  The sinner was asked to pray for healing from the sin that he had committed.  Abimelech had to be very humble in his anger toward Abraham, and Abraham had to pray very humbly for a man he had deliberately deceived and had not even actually asked forgiveness from; one who had abducted his wife, however innocent he may have been at the time of who she was.  Abraham had just made his excuses and stated his technical reasons for not being a liar.  No repentance was uttered at all. 

It is amazing that God would even hear his prayer and heal Abimelech and his kingdom; but that is exactly what God did.  The ways of God are so much higher than we can ever figure out.  His perspective on things is so different from ours.  His wisdom and knowledge is so far above our finding out.  His Deity surely emphasizes our own humanity and puts an exclamation point at the end of the sentence. 

You would think that God would have been so mad with Abraham.  You would think that He would turn a deaf ear to his prayers until he repented and apologized to God first, then Abimelech AND Sarah. 

This must have surely been embarrassing to God for the pagan king to stand in public head and shoulder’s taller in righteousness than the great Prophet – Abraham.  Abimelech’s actions had been pure and based on noble motives.  God had acknowledged this earlier when Abimelech pleaded with Him in his dreams.  Abimelech was innocent; Abraham was guilty.  Still it was Abraham’s prayer to God that brought the healing of Abimelech and his people.  Why?  Because God had chosen to make an everlasting covenant with Abraham.  His mercies would never end toward Abraham.  The pagan world looking on hoping that Abimelech had the answers would see a weak foolish man named Abraham call on the name of God and a miracle would happen.  It would be obvious to everyone that this miracle had nothing to do with Abraham and everything to do with God.  God uses even our weak and foolish ways to bring about His purposes.

This often happens in the Christian world, though it usually goes unnoticed.  Christians often fail and have times of disobedience and unbelief.  At such times unbelievers may look to be the most righteous, and rightfully so; but it isn’t our righteousness that answers prayers and brings healing – it is only the power of God. 

We have to shift our thinking from the fact that Abraham had regressed in his understanding to the fact that the faithfulness of God to Abraham at this time is amazing!  Even now, in the midst of the same old sin patterns of the old man called Abraham, God is not ashamed to call him His friend and answer his prayers.  God is not ashamed to tell Abimelech that Abraham is one of His prophets. 

Let’s stop here and weigh the further shocking significance of the situation that Abraham had brought upon Sarah and Abimelech.  A divine message had been delivered to Abraham that Sarah would bear a child who would fulfill the promises of God to Abraham and his descendants.  This was a child that they had waited for their whole lifetime.  Could Abraham have actually stood willingly by and allowed Sarah to be forced to be with this King when she had been promised the birth of such a child by Abraham?

 Abraham’s unfaithful and unfounded fears could have not only sidetracked his own marriage, it could have sidetracked a whole nation.  God had not promised this child to King Abimelech.  God had made the covenant with Abraham. 

Have you ever done anything foolish that would have seemed to destroy your covenant with God?  Did God show you that He always keeps His covenants?  Abraham was very, very foolish, taking many precious things for granted here; but God was faithful and His hesed love prevailed. 

Let’s stop for a moment and think back to Lot’s sins and compare them with what Abraham did here.  We begin to see that Lot’s sins are not so surprising after all.  Abraham had trained Lot to do the proper things in society and what Abraham did here with Sarah was very comparable to the sin that Lot committed by offering his virgin daughters to the men of Sodom to save the angels.  Forget the angels; we know that Lot was really saving himself; just as we see Abraham doing too.  Lot had been willing to sacrifice purity for depravity out of fear, and Abraham had basically done the same thing with Sarah, only now he had done it TWICE! 

Abraham’s excuse of Sarah being his sister is so thin.  Never mind that it was a true fact.  Facts are often used both in the pulpits and the streets to convey a falsehood.  This is how the devil usually gets us; and it is directly opposed to the operation of God.   The truth always has a way of coming up though, even with all the technicalities. 

The old tradition that Sarah had kept with Abraham in saying that she was his sister had been proven wrong before.  They should have learned from this mistake and not kept that tradition any more.  You should never just keep doing things for the sake of tradition especially after you find out they are not accurate traditions and you are just repeating them because you have had a habit of doing these things in the past.  Repeated sin is still sin; only now it is sin with knowledge, which is the most dangerous of all sins.  We Christians have a pattern, just as Abraham did of repeating traditional sins and thinking they are somehow different than new and original sins.  How foolish!  How long does it take for men to learn this?

All of this happened; a repeated sin, an admission of the fact, God’s direct intervention, and still – Abraham never admits he is wrong and keeps making excuses.  Abraham seems to be sorrier that he was caught than sorry for his sins!  Have you ever seen your child look up when you have addressed the fact that his hand is in the forbidden cookie jar?  It seems the same.    

And what was Abraham’s immediate punishment?  He got to show off the fact that he was a real Prophet from God.  This would have been sort of like you catching your child with their hands in the forbidden cookie jar and just winking back at them and saying:  "That's okay honey, it doesn't matter, go ahead and eat all the cookies you want!"

God answered Abraham's prayers for Abimelech and his household and healed each of them.   Also, Abraham was given back his wife as well as some sheep, oxen and servants.  He was also given another gift and this was one of the things that stood out as different from the other similar situation with Pharaoh.  Abraham was given the opportunity to live and settle in the land, wherever he chose for as long as he chose.   They stayed and settled in the land of this Philistine King instead of leaving.  It was a gift of the rights to live in the land from the king of the land and no one was to bother them there by decree of the King.

Abraham was also given a thousand pieces of silver as a symbol of Sarah’s vindication.  This was an amazingly generous gift.  Abimelech specified that this gift was granted for Sarah’s sake.  It honored the fact that Sarah had been innocent and unharmed while in Abimelech’s harem.  It indicated to anyone who would question the fact of her innocence that she had maintained her purity.  This was money Abimelech indicated should be spent for a magnificent veil for Sarah’s eyes, so that they would from this time forth be covered.  They were not to be covered to keep her from seeing; but to keep others from looking at her and judging her when she was innocent. 

It is legend that this veil obtained by Sarah from Abimelech carried a curse that caused Abraham’s son, Isaac, and his grandson, Jacob, to be blind in their old age.  Though the curse of that blindness might have been intended as harmful toward Abraham, once again in another story we will see that God used even this blindness for good.  God kept covenant with Abraham even when Abraham was unfaithful and wrong.  God was constant and true to His promises. 

The greatest miracle that took place in all of these strange situations where all of God’s grace was granted to Abraham is the fact that while Abraham was humbly interceding in a prayer of healing for Abimelech’s household, Sarah’s infertility was also healed.  Just by standing in the place of prayer, she also received the blessing of the prayer.  

Undoubtably; our great Prophet Abraham had never thought to pray directly for the healing of his own wife’s infertility.  Husbands of today beware.  Your wives need your prayers.  If you are praying something for others and not praying for and with your wife it is wrong.   If you do not pray for them, you sin against God.  God will protect them; but just the same, you will not be the cause of their blessing.   Again, it is unbelievable that Abraham would have overlooked this!  As Abraham prayed for Abimelech’s house to be healed, Sarah’s womb was opened also and she was made ready for the process of bearing the child promised by God.   

The thing that really strikes me in this story is the sureness of our covenants with God. 

There is no excuse for intentional and fearful sins such as Abraham committed here; but you can be sure if you have given your life to Christ and made covenant to be his follower that God will forgive your sins past, present and future and keep you under his precious wings of protection forever.  

If you have committed to being His child and you have been covered in The Blood of Jesus, you will ALWAYS be His child; no matter what you do in all your humanness to mess it up, even if you should die right in the middle of a very human sin.   If you belong to Him, you are part of His forever plan, just like Abraham when he made covenants with God. 

Just in case it hasn't sunk in with you yet, I will repeat this fact:  You can always count on the covenant you made with God, no matter how human you are or how terrible your sins may be.  Some people like to refer to this theory by saying “once saved always saved.”  I just like to say “God always keeps His covenants with His people.”  

There is only one thing that can separate you from God once you have made that covenant; if  YOU (not God) decide to quit believing and deliberately walk away and not have anything to do with God by your own deliberated choice you can decide of your own accord to end the covenant.   God will allow this if you chose it.  He does let us chose to be His.  He is a perfect gentleman who wants to be loved because we chose to love Him, not because He forced His love on us.  He does not force Himself on people.   He is always standing there waiting for you to return, even if you do walk away and He will always be there if you change your mind and come back.  Your stupid and human sins cannot block you from this promise of God’s covenant with you; only your choice not to believe can block it.  Never think God will not hear your cry if you have made covenant with Him.  His Holy Spirit will always lead you back home and Jesus will be waiting at the door to greet you.

Of course, let us understand clearly that it is always better to go to God and repent and receive that fresh washing of forgiveness and to stay in his righteousness and walk toward sanctification as much as possible; but if you slip up and sin again and repeat some awful pattern of the nature of your old man, God will remember His covenant with you and keep you safe until you meet him face to face.  Your name has been written in The Book of Life.  He will be faithful to you; just as He was faithful to Abraham.   Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He does not wish to lose even one little lamb of the flock.  God’s grace is always sufficient for His people.  It never ends.  It is not our righteousness that saves us but the blood of Jesus that covers us when we become committed to Him and His Kingdom.  I have never seen the righteous forsaken. 

This does not mean that sins do not have consequences and that we would not be much better off without them.  Those kids who put their hands into the forbidden cookie jars, even when they go unpunished and eat till they are full, will eventually suffer a severe stomach ache.  God knows, like some wise parents do, that we sometimes have to learn lessons the hard way.  Sins, no matter how much grace is applied, will always have consequences.  We will see in other stories that Abraham’s unconfessed sins were visited on his descendants down the line at a later day and time.  We have heard the story of Sarah’s veil.  Yes, it is that old law of the universe that declares sin always has consequences.   God is also forever graceful and forgiving.  It is a paradox that is often hard to conceive and understand.    Who can understand this the most?  Those who have sinned the greatest and received the most grace.  Eventually, you get it!  I promise you Abraham came to understand it more and more as he realized the treasure he was about to have in Isaac.  Once you do get it and understand, your heart has grown to the point that you will no longer desire those old sins.    

God lets us learn at our own speed, even if we are great Prophets. Abraham will have his chance to show God his faithfulness again.  God is patient and kind and merciful and His love is unending for those He died to save.
 
So we have had another look at the heart of Abraham, but it is hard to leave this scene without also considering the heart of Sarah.  That is very rich and full too and perhaps something to talk about next time.

For today, go out and dance with joy if you are blessed to be covered with the blood of Jesus and promised the Kingdom life by a God who always keeps His covenants!  This story should give you great reassurance of God's love for you.

Love Him back.  Honor His covenant with you today by your actions and deeds and give praise to His Holy Name!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 53 - THE DAUGHTERS OF LOT



(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The next part of our story gets to be very strange indeed.  It takes quite a bit of thought and meditation to let all of the rest of this story sink in completely so that we can even begin to make any sense of it.

 This story in the life of Lot is yet another reason to exclaim the worthiness of knowing the scriptures and looking at the whole picture whenever we consider a portion of the bible.  If you only look at one small section and base all of your thoughts and actions around just that one incident you will become off balance and out of order with your final conclusions about the story.    In the passage of Genesis 19 where we come to the life of Lot after Sodom it is especially important to keep this in mind. 

If we remember this concept as we study;  we will also arrive at the same conclusion most all true biblical scholars have formulated; that God has had a plan for mankind from the very beginning and that all things, both large and small, are a part of that great, wonderful plan.  No decision any human makes can alter God’s plan.  He will fulfill everything just as He has said from the beginning. 

In all of our life journeys as human beings there is the process of making choices.  God grants us the ability to make our own choices and decisions.  He has a plan that will come about no matter what we decide, but our decisions and choices allow us to either become a part of the grand plan or to reject the grand plan.  In other words what we decide will either keep us in the plan or remove us from it completely.

We have mentioned earlier that it was God’s original instruction to Lot to leave Sodom and head straight up the mountain.  We noted that Lot rejected this plan at first.  He asked to sojourn in Zoar, which he was allowed to do.  That moment in time, that mountaintop experience was totally wasted by Lot.  The whole rest of the story could have been different.  Lot took a detour in time.  It was allowed but not without consequences.  Detours from God’s exact plan always have consequences.

As the sun was going down that evening they had arrived in Zoar.  Lot, minus a wife who could not let go of her life in Sodom,  and his two daughters who had never married.  The scriptures do indicate that these two virgin daughters HAD BEEN engaged and their future husbands had chosen to stay in Sodom and not flee with Lot and his family.  Once again, choices matter. 
  
The records and the math from the known scriptures indicate that Lot would have been about 65 years old at this point and time in his life. 

Zoar was as bad as Sodom.  Evil lurked around every corner.  Lot quickly realized he had once again made a terrible mistake.  He noted his loss of a home and all of his wealth, his loss of two daughters and two sons-in-law, and the future husbands of his virgin daughters,  his loss of his wife, and now he had to learn to cope with life in another strange and evil place without the resources of his money or the ability to lean on the reputation of Abraham.  In Sodom those two things had made a huge difference.  Here in Zoar, circumstances were very different for Lot.  For Lot’s sake Abraham had rescued Sodom once.  Abraham’s name meant nothing to the immoral residents of Zoar.  Lot looked around him and soon became very, very afraid.  How long would it be before God finished His plan to rid the earth of this evil and destroyed Zoar?  He decided to keep his daughters out of this evil city.  He sat outside the gates and wondered what to do next.  He had already refused God’s plan to go to the mountains but he began to re-think that.

While Lot’s fears rose by the minute, the imagination of Lot’s daughters who were left also ran wild.  They had heard the stories of the earth being destroyed by a flood long ago when the men of the earth had turned from God.  They had heard the promise of the rainbow too; the beautiful sign that there would never be another flood.  They had also learned that the next time God destroyed the earth it would be by fire.  Everything that they had ever known had now been destroyed by fire.  They thought it was the end of the world and they alone had survived.  They thought the city of  Zoar would also soon be devoured in the same manner of Sodom.  It took only a few seconds of being there to realize that the cities were alike.   Had the angel not made an exception for it for their sake alone?  They reminded their father of the angel’s instructions.  They wanted to leave quickly and Lot thought about it and agreed.

Finally, much too late, they obeyed God and fled to the mountain.  There Lot found a cave for them to hide in and they lived a strange life there, surviving off the land and never leaving their cave unless they had to.  Apparently instead of turning to God, Lot let his fears take over.  He allowed this to drive him to drinking on a regular basis.   It appeared that Lot’s daughters considered the three of them to be the last people left from a burnt up planet.  

They thought they were the beginning of the rest of the history of mankind after the end of the world.  They were like Adam and Eve after they had been cast out of the garden, but there was no Adam, only Eves and their father.

They clearly did not want to be the last people on earth.  They had never given birth or had children of their own.  They pondered this.  Surely Zoar had been destroyed by now.   After they died there would be no more people left.  They devised a plan to get their father so drunk that he did not know what he was doing and have intercourse with him in order to conceive a child.  The oldest daughter did this first and the youngest daughter followed suit.    

There was nothing right about the reasoning of Lot’s daughters.  They were operating out of human desire once again, the way of Sodom, instead of waiting on God to show them a plan.   Their drunken fearful father was not helpful in leading them in the right direction.  They went the way of all the people they had seen growing up.  They made their own plan.  There was no mention of them praying or consulting God.  This was incest, it was not right.  There is no way to know if they even believed in God or if they simply knew He would not approve of their plan and they were determined to do it anyway.  They were living the way they had learned to live while growing up in Sodom.  Lot had given them nothing to hold on to.    He had not instilled the ways of God into their hearts while they were young.

All of this sounds very odd and you have to read between the lines to come up with this particular telling of the story that is widely known from the Hebraic sages.  The oddest part is the fact that Lot was so drunk both times that he had no memories of what happened.  Does that make Lot once again innocent by default?  Not of the sin of drunkenness.  The other question is debatable, but never the less, it happened.  There is a story in the Midrash that suggests why this happened the way it did.

Most men would die before they let harm come to their wives or daughters.  Lot did just the opposite – he offered his virgin daughters willingly to the men of Sodom to do with as they pleased in order to spare the lives of the angels (who could easily defend themselves) from the men of Sodom.  The Midrash (Tanhuma, Vayera 12) points out God’s displeasure with this.  It explains that Lot’s punishment from God would be according to his own actions. 

Instead of Lot’s daughters becoming the unwilling victims of abuse, he would eventually fall to this same abuse himself by his daughters.  Lot would have to bear the shame that his daughters were offered.  His daughters taking advantage of his drunkenness was simply a reversal of what he had tried to do to them.  Even the giving of the name of Moab to the oldest daughter’s son would always bring shame to Lot every time the name was mentioned.
 
Whatever the cause of what happened, we learn that Lot’s oldest daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab, which means “came from my father.”  The youngest daughter also gave birth and had a son which she named Benammi.

Moab became the founder of the Moabite people.  Benammi became the founder of the Ammonite people.  Both of these two nations that came from their descendants became continuous enemies of the nation of Israel that sprang from the descendants of Abraham.  In spite of all of Abraham’s efforts to keep peace, Lot created a situation that caused division and adversity. 

Yet, this was a part of the history of The People of God.  God takes our mistakes and misdeeds and weaves and works with them until they become a beautiful part of the tapestry of Heaven.  He uses what we intended for evil and changes it for good in the end.  That is because we serve an unbelievably merciful and gracious God.  He would not have His people living in shame forever.  God is so gracious!  He is constantly making all things new. 

The lineage of King David, from whom came the lineage of the family of Christ, The Messiah, was shameful and full of shadows.  David’s Father descended from Moab yet Moab was the product of incest between Lot and his eldest daughter.  The lineage also came to David through Ruth a Moabite convert who married Boaz. 

When things look the darkest and the most hopeless, God comes through for His people.  When his servants are humble and repent and turn from their wicked ways God changes and cleanses and makes whole again and again. 

Lot’s daughters were neglected and abused.  They never had a real chance at life.  Their father wasted their youth in an evil place where they learned evil ways.  They were not taught right from wrong.  God is merciful in that he took the blameless and shameful mess of their lives and eventually made something wonderful and awesome and perfect come from it. 

Many think this a quite unusual miracle, but those who have eyes to see notice it happens every day.  It happens every time a hopeless person turns to Christ and submits themselves to the ways of God.  Eventually God can take the most vile and evil parts of us and change them into something pure and good.  It is a very common miracle, simply because the evil of this earth has almost reached the heights of Sodom and the earth is full of Lot’s daughters.  Yet; there are still 10 good and godly men in some cities and God is busy using them to change the hearts of their own children as well as the hearts of the children who have become like Lot’s daughters.  Sometimes this is a process that takes generations, one heart at a time, but the process must begin today if we are to have hope for a future. 


This is the last time we hear of Lot. 

It is said that people can reach a point where they become completely wicked and cannot return to being righteous.  The heart becomes hardened and there is a point of no return.  The Apostle Peter referred to Lot living in Sodom and brings up the fact that at one point Lot was a righteous man who resisted the evil acts of Sodom.  One has to wonder if this righteousness lasted.  If you sit in sin day after day you become conditioned to it.  It is possible if you try very hard to resist and seek God's help that you can walk away.  Peter’s statement seems to indicate that it was possible.   He does not say that Lot never sinned; he only refers to the fact that he resisted the sins of Sodom for a time.  He does not say how long this went on, and one has to wonder if this last sin of drunkenness where Lot made yet another huge mistake was the point of no return for him.
 
Did Lot become so filled with shame and regret and bitterness at that time that he allowed himself to give over to total depravity and wickedness for the rest of his life?   Did he totally quit seeking forgiveness from God and give in completely to a life of sin?


We have no way to know.  The scriptures become very silent about Lot at this point and we never hear his name again.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 52 - LEARNING TO LET IT GO

    
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)


Genesis 19: 24-26:  Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire  from the LORD out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the  inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.  But his wife looked back from  behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

So what kind of woman would marry a man like Lot? 
Lot liked the finer things of life, the ease and comfort of city dwelling.  Lot liked to feel important, and he enjoyed being in the company of important people.  He had acquired many material possessions and wealth while living with Abraham, so much cattle and livestock that he had to move away from Abraham to take care of them.  Probably when he moved away he put others in charge of the livestock that brought him his wealth and he decided to dwell more often in the city, to wear clean clothes and live in a house with walls and all the creature comforts of servants and nearby conveniences.  He probably entertained the well known people and aspired to be a politician instead of a herdsman.  He had achieved this goal for a moment in time, and he had moved into the city and the high life that he loved living.  Lot was ambitious and materialistic, yet lazy and wasteful at the same time.  These four characteristics do not usually go together, but in Lot's case they existed.  
Most likely, his wife was just the same way.  She may have acquired wealth for a dowry from her family.  It is very possible that Lot might have been looking for someone who would add to his assets and not take away from them.  She probably did not like getting her hands dirty or her hair messed up, and had probably always enjoyed the luxury of servants so that she did not need to.  She probably enjoyed fine meals prepared by others.  She was probably a woman who knew and understood the personalities of those who were considered of importance by the residents in the area, and she probably was always scheming to put all the right people in all the right places together at all the right times in order to gain both financially and to become more prominent in the area where she lived.  This is all mere speculation though; we do not really know what Lot’s wife was like, but it is just the picture that comes to mind after studying the personality of Lot.
Whatever she was like, she did not want to give up her life in Sodom.  Despite the angel's stern warning not to look back she did so any way.

Why did she look back?  

Was it a love for her children that she would be leaving behind?  Was it the memories she had made in her home there?  Was it fear of leaving all the material things behind and starting out with nothing at all in a strange place?  Did she doubt her husband’s capabilities to take care of her in a new place?  Did she not know God enough to trust Him to bring her to a better life?  Did she know God at all? 
SOMETHING made Lot’s wife look back.  We all have a "something."  What is your “something?”  We all usually know something that if presented correctly in a timely manner by the enemy will cause us to stumble and fall and even turn into a pillar of salt. 
With Lot's wife it seems that what she chose to value in her heart led her into disobedience which is a sin that almost always eventually leads to death.  Be very careful what you value in your heart, for if you have decided to walk the pilgrim pathway of a Christian life, your heart belongs to God. 
The description of Lot's wife tells us that she turned into a PILLAR of salt.  The Hebrew word for “pillar” means a type of garrison, or something set to watch over something else.  The pillar of salt that used to be her body was now standing watch over what has become the area of  The Dead Sea.  This is an area where no life can exist.  Because Lot’s wife’s heart could not leave the ways of Sodom there was no hope for her to bring new life into another place. 
The sages have stories they tell of Lot’s wife.  They say her name was Adit and that she was native to Sodom.  Sodom actually had codes written in their laws that show they desired to use cruelty to strangers.  No citizen of Sodom had ever shown hospitality until Lot moved into the area.  It was said that when Lot showed hospitality to the angels, Lot’s wife disapproved of his actions based on the codes of the law of the area. 
The legends go that Lot asked his wife for salt to serve to his guest and she made a snide remark stating that he was introducing evil customs into their home.  She had no salt and went from house to house in the neighborhood borrowing salt and complaining about Lot entertaining strangers in their home.  This they say is why the mob gathered in front of Lot’s house, because his wife had been gossiping while she resented borrowing the salt for his guest.  When the mob showed up they mentioned the fact to Lot that the laws of the city demanded evil treatment of strangers.  They had come to implement this!
The sages reason that the angels asking Lot and his family not to look back as they escaped had to do with the fact that it is not appropriate to stare at the suffering of others, which was a common practice of the evil people of the area of Sodom and Gomorrah.   Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.  The Midrash explains:  She sinned with salt and she was punished with salt.  This gives a whole new twist to that old saying that your sins will find you out.
It is said by some that you only truly learn from the scriptures when you can see yourself in the scriptures.  This applies to both good and bad situations.  I doubt there is one wife living in the world today that has not run to a friend to complain of her husband’s actions she thought were wrong at one time or another; so be careful if you are pointing a finger at this woman of salt.  We all can see a bit of ourselves in Lot’s wife – both men and women, we just prefer not to have to look.
How can we all relate to a pillar of salt?
When Lot's wife's steps were stopped and she became a pillar of salt she was stuck there, hardened, never to move again.  We can all get stuck and hardened between where we are right now and where God is leading us to go with our lives.  It is often hard for us in our humanity to reason that the things God has said must be destroyed are not redeemable.  It is often hard to find the strength to let go of such things when they have become so familiar and we have held on to them so long.  We rationalize and try to find the good in them instead of following the popular children’s song of today – “Let It Go.”  A true soldier of God’s army is often called to “let go and move on.”  Sometimes the only redeemable thing is you, and that becomes possible only if you don’t look back.  Sometimes nothing else is possible if you are going to make the trip up to The Mountain of God. 
This all came very clear to me not so long ago as I drove through a winter wonderland of lights during Christmas with my grandson.  He is one who has been through a lot for a child of seven.  The song from "Frozen" came on over the speakers and  I discovered that he knew every word.  He sang them out with passion as we drove through the cold blinking lights.  I stopped and listened as he sang.



The words were profound when I thought about them in relation to what children of this world (a world much like Sodom and Gomorrah) today have to endure and rise above.  To be a child today takes a lot of courage.  Here are the words (after a little credit to the proper people) that he sang:
(These are words taken from the movie “FROZEN.”  All rights and credit are given to Walt Disney Productions. The movie was based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.”  Music was sung  in the movie both by Idina Menzel and Demi Lovato)

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation,
And it looks like I'm the queen.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried!

Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know!

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door!

I don't care
What they're going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway!

It's funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can't get to me at all!

It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me I'm free!

Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You'll never see me cry!

Here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let the storm rage on!

My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back,
The past is in the past!

Let it go, let it go
And I'll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone!

Here I stand
In the light of day
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway!



Suddenly, the message of the song and the message of Lot's wife were screaming out together in my brain.  We have to graciously accept the changes that God brings to us.  In the end they are for the best, but this is often hard to discern from where we are standing when they happen to us.  We all have to learn to let go of the ways of the world and walk on toward the ways of God.

I’ve never seen the movie "Frozen."  Up until this point I had never really listened to the words of the song even though it has been blasting out at us over our radios 24/7 lately.  But; as I looked at the innocent face of a child singing these forceful and passionate words it dawned on me that the song is almost prophetic for the children of this age.  They must learn to let go of all the evil and hate, lack of justice and misdirected love that generation after generation of mankind has forced upon the next generations.  They must leave Sodom and Gomorrah.  They must “let go” of the world and climb bravely up to The Mountain of God.  Their future, our future, the future of the whole world is in their hands.  They are our last hope.  Are we helping them?  Are we setting the example of what they need to walk away from and what they need to walk toward?  It matters now more than ever.  

If you have something in your life that prevents them from seeing God’s love, please, I beg you today – LET IT GO!

Do not become a pillar of salt.

Keep walking up the mountain of God and don’t ever look back.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

FOOD ART AND FAMILY TRADITION - EASY MEALS DINNER COLLECTION MEAL NO. SEVEN - SQUASH, PEPPER AND TOMATO SURPRISE









Salad:

RAINBOW CHOPPED SALAD
Ingredients:

for ORANGE-OREGANO DRESSING:
         1/2 teaspoon orange zest
         1/2 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed
         1/4 cup cider vinegar
         1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
         2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped, or 3/4 teaspoon dried
         1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
         1/2 teaspoon salt
         1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

for sALAD:
         1-1/2 cups bell peppers, chopped
         1-1/2 cups broccoli florets, chopped
         1 cup shredded carrots
         1/2 cup radishes, diced 
          2 cups chopped purple cabbage
p


Directions:


     To prepare dressing: Place orange zest and juice, vinegar, oil, oregano, mustard, salt and pepper in a jar. Cover and shake to combine. (Makes about 1 cup.)

      To prepare salad: Combine bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, radishes, cabbage and onion in a medium bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve. ( You can refrigerate extra dressing for up to 1 week.)
·   







Bread:
HEALTHY CINNAMON NUTMEG MUFFINS

Ingredients:


1-1/2 cups whole-wheat white flour
1 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup chia seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup soymilk

Directions:



Preheat oven to 425°F.  In large bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, chia seed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In medium bowl, beat egg  with brown sugar, oil, applesauce and soy milk.  Mix with dry ingredients just until evenly moistened.   Spoon into muffin tins.   Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.


Main Dish:


SQUASH PEPPER AND TOMATO SURPRISE

Ingredients:

         1-2 pounds lean ground beef (cooked and drained)
         2 large garden tomatoes
         1-2 yellow squash, sliced
         1-2 bell peppers, chopped
         1 onion, chopped and cooked
         1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
         1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
         1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Place tomatoes on foil lined baking sheet and put in oven under broiler for five to eight minutes while you cook and prepare the ground beef and onions.  Remove tomatoes from oven while ground beef is cooking and set aside to cool slightly. Once cooled, carefully peel skin off and slice into large wedges.  Add tomatoes to ground beef and onions in skillet and continue cooking over medium high heat.   Add salt, parsley, black pepper.  Stir well and cook for about ten minutes. Add squash and bell pepper and stir well. Cook until squash is lightly translucent and bell pepper is just tender, about ten more minutes.



 Side Dish:
BACON BOURBON BAKED BEANS

Ingredients:


1 pound dry navy beans
10 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into pieces
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups water
3/4 cup of BBQ sauce
1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup bourbon
1 1/2 tablespoons ground mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions:


The night before, add beans to a large pot and cover with water. Drain the next morning.  Bring beans to a boil in a large pot of water, let simmer for 30-40 minutes, then drain. While beans are cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add bacon. Cook until crispy and fat is rendered, and then remove bacon with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel. Reduce heat to medium-low and add onion, cooking for 8-10 minutes, until caramel-like and soft. Add in garlic, cook for 30 seconds, and then turn off heat.  Add water, bourbon, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, ketchup, ground mustard, vinegar, molasses and Worcestershire sauce to a crock pot and whisk well to combine. Add in beans, onions (and all of the bacon fat) and bacon to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours, stirring occasionally. After 10-12 hours, turn crock pot to “warm” setting or turn off completely and let sit anywhere from 30 minutes-2 hours, which will help the sauce for the beans thicken even more. These taste even better the next day!  Note: after 10-12 hours the liquid may still seem “to much liquid.” It is imperative to let the beans sit for a while on the lower setting (or on the off setting, still covered) so they become thick and syrupy like traditional baked beans.

Dessert:
BANANA PUDDING


Ingredients:


4 large eggs
¾ cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
40 vanilla wafers
4 medium bananas 


Directions:

In a sauce pan stir together ½ cup of sugar, salt and flour.  Separate yolks from whites of 3 eggs and set whites aside.  Add one whole egg to the remaining egg yolks.   Stir egg yolk mixture and milk together and add to the sauce pan.  Cook about 10 minutes, stirring until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Layer one third of the pudding, one half of the vanilla wafers and one half of the banana slices and then add the last 1/3 of the pudding on top of all.   Make the meringue by beating the reserved egg whites with just a pinch of salt until they are stiff.  Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar until the egg whites will not slide out of the bowl when it is tilted.  Spread the meringue mixture over the pudding with a spatula and bake until the meringue is slightly browned (approximately five minutes.)