If you have been to college, you will have definitely experienced grading on a curve. Even in High School they do as well; the top scores and the bottom scores are thrown out and the rest of the students, who did poorly, receive an unearned passing grade. Usually; teachers do this more to make themselves look good than to administer grace. If you happened to be the one of two students who earned a perfect score; it is very disconcerting for others to receive an unearned A. It cheapens your earned A. In the same manner; relative righteousness is not God’s righteousness and the LORD does not grade on a curve. Jesus Christ came to earth, God in the flesh, and lived a perfect life. His perfection and life of purity in the flesh, qualified Him to be our Savior. His one perfect life was worth more than the summation of all human life that ever lived and ever will live. His perfect blood ransomed our imperfect lives of sin.
It is so easy to compare ourselves to the society around us and say to ourselves, “Wow compared to others, I am righteous!” We can become spiritually numb if we compare ourselves to the society around us. We see a perfect example of this illustrated in the story of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.
After visiting with Abraham, the LORD sent the two angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them and to rescue Lot. They met Lot at the gate of Sodom. They were intending to spend the night in the street, but Lot convinced them to come to his house, and they did and Lot made them a feast. The men of Sodom came and surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that Lot turn over the two men; so that they could defile them sexually. Lot’s next action just blows the imagination. He goes outside and closes the door behind him to negotiate with them and in response to these men wanting to rape the two messengers of God; Lot offers the sex crazed crowd his two virgin daughters instead! What was he thinking? The angels pulled Lot back into the house and struck the mob with blindness so that they could not even find the door to Lot’s house. The angels told Lot to bring his family out of the city and yet Lot lingered and the angels had to grab hold of Lot, his wife and their two daughters and basically drag them out of the city, by the hand, before the LORD destroyed it.
Genesis 19:16-17 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. (17) And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
So Lot and his family fled to the mountains with the instruction not to look back. Lot’s wife looked back and we can perceive that this was because she longed for her city life and lamented it’s destruction. God turned her into a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
With the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed at their heels, Lot still tries to negotiate with the angels to flee to a little city called Zoar. The angels told him to hurry to that city, because they could not complete their mission until Lot was safely away. Then, all of the cities of the plain and all of the soil were turned into scorched earth! Everything was destroyed.
Genesis 19:25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Seeing the destruction of all of the cities of the plain, Lot decided against Zoar and fled to the mountains and lived in a cave. His two daughters, then, got him drunk in order to have sex with their father to get pregnant.
Genesis 19:36-38 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. (37) And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. (38) And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
Living in the cities of the world gave Lot and his family a relative righteousness. They were righteous in their own eyes in comparison to the world around them. God would have destroyed them as well, but He remembered Abraham and rescued Lot because of Abraham’s petition.
Genesis 19:29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
Friends, don’t under estimate the power of your intercessory prayers for your loved ones in the world who are caught up in sin. As God saved Abraham’s unconverted family, He will save yours and mine as well.
Unfortunately, Lot’s second chance at life and fresh new start did not cause him to live righteously. His descendants became the peoples of Moab and Ammon; pagan idolatrous nations who later fought with Abrahams descendants, the children of Israel.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your written WORD that I can study and know. It is a true compass to give my life direction and to lead me in your righteousness. Save all of my family and friends who are just like family. Lead them out of the world and into the safety and security of your arms. I pray all in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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