Just A Little One

“‘Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.’ ‘Very well,’ he replied, ‘I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.’ (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar.” –Genesis 19:20-23, NET

Yet where does Lot flee? Zoar, which means “insignificance,” and is in the opposite direction of obedience and the hills of protection. Let us consider this morning: What is your Zoar?

“God, I know you want me to give up this and go there. But I am unable to do all that. What if I…?” And though the LORD grieves our doubt and future ruin, He mournfully grants our request.

How short our trust. We are offered deliverance, but we abandon God’s offer because the road looks impossible in our own strength. We do not trust God at His promise. We forsake his mighty spiritual armory (Eph 6:10-18; 2Co 10:3-5). Instead, we contrive earthly strategies that are within our faithless reach. Though He grants us freedom from one vice, we take on a lesser one to medicate. We are not ready to dedicate our whole selves. We trade freedom for a less miserable prison—a smaller addiction, a strategic habit, a seemingly “insignificant” sin (Rom 14:23).

May God grant us eyes to see the seriousness of sin and flee with all our might to The Mountain for rescue (Jer 4:6; Heb 12:22-24).

God desires all of us, sweeping clean His temple with zeal (Mat 21:12-13; 1Co 6:19). How sad to ask of the kind Savior, “Do not clean this little room. Allow me to keep this space for myself.” For sin is an infestation and is not content to stay secluded. It will silently spread, the visible signs showing only after it has consumed hidden parts and undermined our foundation.

O, LORD, “see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psa 139:24). Show me what I need to sever or tear out (Mark 9:43-47), and give me the faith to surrender every weight of sin that slows my pace (Heb 12:1). “Create in me a clean heart” and “renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psa 51:10), so that I would be so zealous to clean out your temple (Mat 21:12-13; 1Co 6:19) and tear down any arrogant obstacle that hinders my obedience to You (2Co 10:4-6).

BUT…

“But Lot said to them, ‘No, please, Lord! Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die.’” –Genesis 19:18-19, NET

Read that again. “You have shown me great kindness, BUT….” O, what tragedy! See how quickly Lot shifts his trust. The subject of his dialogue moved from the heavenly help (“You”) to himself (“I”). Lot recognized the kindness of God, but thought the LORD indifferent to seeing that work to completion. Lot saw how he was rescued by the able hands of angels, but then believed himself without God’s strength once they came to city’s edge. Lot surely said to himself, "I can't possibly make it that far before judgment comes," and so he made concessional requests based on his own weakness.

Are we any different? How many have had the chains of sin broken by the blood of Christ, but then been unwilling to walk through the door of the prison cell and live in the light of freedom?

“Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” –Galatians 3:3, NET

If the LORD has graced a man with a divine encounter (v.3), snatched him from the clutches of the enemy (v.10) given him an ear to hear a higher call (vv.12-13), motivated feet to obey His command to “come out” from the so-called security of his earthly home (vv.15-16) and onto the uncertain landscape beyond (v.17), why would he lose heart and become frightened by the rumblings of a creation under God's control (2Sa 22:8-9). Why did Lot not reside in the LORD's loyal love and “have confidence in the day of judgment” (1Jo 4:16-18)? Are not God's promises reliable (Heb 10:23)?

To put another way, if the LORD has given us an ear to hear (Mat 13:16), and has motivated our feet to obey His command to “come” and step out from the security of a man-made boat of unbelief and onto turbulent waters of faith (Mat 14:29), then may we not lose heart and be frightened by the very waves our Savior has stirred up (Psa 107:23-29). If we are His “dearly loved children” (Eph 5:1), He will equip us with all we need (1Pe 1:3) and see us through till the end (Jos 1:7-9; Heb 13:5).

When we are tempted to say to the LORD, “But…” may we be silenced and hear “BUT GOD…” (Eph 2:4), and then drop to our knees in humble recognition to whom we speak (Isa 6:1-7). Then let our next words be only, “Yes, LORD. Your servant is listening.”

“Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now”
(Hillsong United, “Oceans”)

LOOK TO THE HILLS

“And as they brought them out, one said, ‘Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.’”  –Genesis 19:17, ESV

Lot was urged to get out of the valley completely, to flee to the “hills.” Why?

What is in this higher region to the west of the valley around the Dead Sea? Bethel (“house of God”), Jerusalem (“teaching of peace,” and the place God later chooses to place His name—a symbol for His people), Bethlehem (the city of David where Christ is born), and Hebron. This is where Abram settles following his split with Lot and builds an altar to the LORD (Gen 13:18). He still resides here when he rescues Lot and returns to hear God tell him, “I am your shield” (Gen 15:1). It is a powerful picture of the place where God dwells, offering His presence and protection to His people. See the call to Lot, and to us: “Look to the hills!”

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
–Psalm 121, ESV